Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa called for national unity and peace on Sunday amid a growing international backlash following the killing of Alawite civilians in the worst violence since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said the killings “must cease immediately”, while the Arab League, the United Nations, the United States and other governments have condemned the violence.The presidency announced on Telegram that an “independent committee” had been formed to “investigate the violations against civilians and identify those responsible for them”, who would face the courts.Clashes between the new security forces and loyalists of the former government erupted on Thursday in the heartland of the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs and have since escalated into reported mass killings.Speaking from a mosque in Damascus, Sharaa said: “We must preserve national unity (and) civil peace as much as possible and, God willing, we will be able to live together in this country.”The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor has reported that 745 Alawite civilians were killed in the coastal Latakia and Tartus provinces.The Britain-based Observatory said they were killed in “executions” carried out by security personnel or pro-government fighters, and were followed by looting.The fighting has also killed 125 members of the security forces and 148 pro-Assad fighters, according to the Observatory, taking the overall death toll to 1,018.- ‘They gathered all the men’ -The interior ministry said on Sunday that government forces were conducting “sweeping operations in Qadmous and the surrounding villages” in Tartus province to “pursue the remnants of the toppled regime”.State news agency SANA quoted a defence ministry source as saying there were violent clashes ongoing in Tanita, another Tartus village.An AFP photographer in the city of Latakia reported a military convoy entering the Bisnada neighbourhood to search homes.In Baniyas, a city to the south, resident Samir Haidar, 67, told AFP two of his brothers and his nephew were killed by armed groups that entered people’s homes, adding that there were “foreigners among them”.”They gathered all the men on the roof and opened fire on them,” Haidar said.Defence ministry spokesman Hassan Abdul Ghani said on Saturday the security forces had “reimposed control” over areas that had seen attacks by Assad loyalists.The mass killings followed clashes sparked by the arrest of a wanted suspect in a predominantly Alawite village, the Observatory said, reporting a “relative return to calm” in the coastal region on Saturday.The head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said medical facilities had been damaged in the clashes and that the UN agency was “working to deliver medicines and trauma supplies”.Chief US diplomat Marco Rubio said Syria “must hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable”, while Germany’s foreign ministry said the Syrian authorities had “a responsibility to prevent further attacks”.A defence ministry source told SANA that troops had blocked roads leading to the coast to prevent “violations”, without specifying who was committing them.Latakia province security director Mustafa Kneifati told the news agency: “We will not allow for sedition or the targeting of any component of the Syrian people.”- Fear of reprisals -Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the toppling of Assad in December, has its roots in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda and remains proscribed as a terrorist organisation by many governments including the United States.Since the rebel victory, it has vowed to protect Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities.The UN’s Turk said in a statement there had been a “continuous spike in hate speech both online and offline” in Syria and insisted there was an “urgent need for a comprehensive transitional justice process”.Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, speaking to German newspaper Bild, said Europe “must wake up” and “stop granting legitimacy” to the new Syrian authorities who he insisted were still jihadists.The Alawite heartland has been gripped by fear of reprisals for the Assad family’s brutal five-decade rule which included widespread torture and disappearances.Social media users have shared posts documenting the killing of Alawite friends and relatives.The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, reported multiple “massacres” in recent days, with women and children among the dead.The Observatory and activists released footage showing dozens of bodies piled outside a house. Other videos appeared to show men in military garb shooting people at close range.AFP could not independently verify the images or accounts.During a sermon on Sunday in Damascus, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch John X said Christians were among those killed and called on Sharaa to “put a stop to these massacres… and give a sense of safety and security to all the people of Syria, regardless of their sect”.Aron Lund of the Century International think tank said the violence was “a bad omen”.He said the new government lacks the tools, incentives and local support base to engage with disgruntled Alawites.”All they have is repressive power, and a lot of that… is made up of jihadist zealots who think Alawites are enemies of God.”

Israel carried out an air strike on militants in northern Gaza on Sunday, rattling an already fragile ceasefire as it prepared for fresh talks in Doha on the future of its truce with Hamas.Despite the end of the truce’s initial phase a week ago, both sides have refrained from returning to all-out war, though there have been sporadic episodes of violence. Sunday’s air strike was the latest of daily strikes reported by Israel since Thursday.The Palestinian militant group has repeatedly called for an immediate start to negotiations on the ceasefire’s second phase, which was negotiated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt aiming to bring a permanent end to the war.Israel says it prefers an extension of phase one until mid-April, and cut off aid to Gaza over the impasse.Hamas representatives met mediators in Cairo over the weekend, emphasising the urgent need to resume humanitarian aid deliveries to the territory “without restrictions or conditions”, a Hamas statement said.”We call on mediators in Egypt and Qatar, as well as the guarantors in the US administration, to ensure that the occupation complies with the agreement… and proceeds with the second phase according to the agreed-upon terms,” Hamas spokesman, Hazem Qassem, told AFP.Hamas’s key demands for the second phase include a hostage-prisoner exchange, a complete withdrawal of Israel from Gaza, a permanent ceasefire, reopening of border crossings and lifting of the Israeli blockade, he said.Former United States president Joe Biden had also outlined a second phase involving the release of remaining living hostages, the withdrawal of all Israeli forces left in Gaza, and establishment of a permanent ceasefire.Following talks with mediators, another Hamas spokesman, Abdel Latif al-Qanoua, said indicators were so far “positive”.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it would send delegates to Doha on Monday, and Israeli media reported the security cabinet would discuss the matter later on Sunday.- ‘Among dogs and rats’ -Israel’s military said its air strike Sunday targeted militants who “were identified operating in proximity to IDF troops and attempting to plant an explosive device in the ground in northern Gaza”.The truce largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza, where virtually the entire population was displaced by Israel’s relentless military campaign in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack.The six-week first phase led to the exchange of 25 living Israeli hostages and eight bodies for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.It also allowed much-needed food, shelter and medical assistance to re-enter Gaza. Since Israel subsequently cut off the aid flow, United Nations rights experts accused the government of “weaponising starvation”.”To date, only 10 percent of the required medical supplies have been allowed in, exacerbating the crisis,” Gaza health ministry spokesman Khalil al-Dakran said, adding that the “continued closure of the crossings threatens the lives of patients in Gaza”.Displaced Palestinian widow Haneen al-Dura told AFP she and her children spent weeks living on the street “among dogs and rats” before receiving a tent.- Fears for hostages -Last week, US President Donald Trump threatened further destruction of Gaza if all remaining hostages were not released, issuing what he called a “last warning” to Hamas leaders.He also alluded to repercussions for all Gazans, telling them: “A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD!”The threats came after his administration confirmed the start of unprecedented direct talks with Hamas, which Washington had previously refused contact with since designating it a terrorist organisation in 1997.Of the 251 hostages taken by the Palestinian militants during the October 7 attack, 58 remain in Gaza, including five Americans of which four have been confirmed dead.Trump had previously floated a widely condemned plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza, and on Sunday Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that proposal was “taking shape”.Trump’s idea has prompted Arab leaders to offer an alternative.Their proposal would see Gaza’s reconstruction financed through a trust fund, with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority returning to govern the territory.International support for the Arab plan grew on Saturday when the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which calls itself the “collective voice of the Muslim world”, adopted it.Britain, France, Germany and Italy separately gave their backing.At a weekend rally in Tel Aviv, family members of Israeli hostages demanded their government fully implement the ceasefire.”The war could resume in a week,” Einav Zangauker, the mother of Matan Zangauker, told the crowd. “The war won’t bring the hostages back home. It will kill them.”Hamas’s attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,458 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN considers these figures reliable.

A prominent French journalist on Sunday announced he was stepping down from his role as an expert analyst for broadcaster RTL after provoking an uproar by comparing French actions during colonial rule in Algeria to a World War II massacre committed by Nazi forces in France.Jean-Michel Aphatie, a veteran reporter and broadcaster, insisted that while he would not be returning to RTL he wholly stood by his comments made on the radio station in late February equating atrocities committed by France in Algeria with those of Nazi Germany in occupied France. “I will not return to RTL. It is my decision,” the journalist wrote on the X, after he was suspended from air for a week by the radio station.On February 25 he said on air: “Every year in France, we commemorate what happened in Oradour-sur-Glane — the massacre of an entire village. But we have committed hundreds of these, in Algeria. Are we aware of this?”He was referring to the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, where an SS unit returning to the front in Normandy massacred 642 residents on June 10, 1944. Leaving a chilling memorial for future generations, the village was never rebuilt. Challenged by the anchor over whether “we (the French) behaved like the Nazis”, Aphatie replied: “The Nazis behaved like us”.On X, he acknowledged his comments had created a “debate” but said it was of great importance to understand the full story over France’s 1830-1962 presence in Algeria, saying he was “horrified” by what he had read in history books. After being suspended for a week by the channel it means that “if I come back to RTL I validate this and admit to making a mistake. This is a line that cannot be crossed”.His comments had prompted a flurry of complaints to audio-visual regulator Arcom which has opened an investigation. France’s conduct in Algeria during the 1954-1962 war that led to independence and previous decades remain the subject of often painful debate in both countries.Historians from both sides have over the last years documented numerous violations including arbitrary killings and detention carried out by French forces and the history still burdens French-Algerian relations to this day.The far-right in France has long defended French policies in those years with Algeria War veteran Jean-Marie Le Pen, who co-founded the National Front (FN) party and died earlier this year, drawing much support from French settlers who had to return after independence.