Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Wednesday that Israeli strikes killed at least 24 people across the Palestinian territory, with Israel’s military saying it had targeted Hamas militants overnight.The latest violence, following more than 15 months of war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, comes as truce mediator Qatar said negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal were in their “final stages”.The civil defence agency said in a statement that 11 bodies were brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip, after Israel struck a family home in Deir el-Balah city during the night.A seven-year-old boy and three teenagers were among the dead, the agency said.A separate strike targeted a school building used as shelter for war-displaced Palestinians in Gaza City, killing seven people and injuring several others, the civil defence agency said.A third strike at dawn hit a house in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six people and injuring seven, the agency added.The Israeli military confirmed that its forces had carried out multiple strikes overnight in Gaza, saying in a statement that they were “precise” and targeted “terrorist operatives”.Over the past 24 hours, the military said it had struck more than 50 targets across the Gaza Strip.The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched the deadliest attack in Israeli history, resulting in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 46,645 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory which the UN considers reliable.

Iraq and British oil giant BP are set to finalise a deal by early February to develop four oil fields in Kirkuk and curb gas flaring, Iraqi authorities announced Wednesday.The mega-project in northern Iraq will include plans to recover flared gas to boost the country’s electricity production, they said.Gas flaring refers to the polluting practice of burning off excess gas during oil drilling. It is cheaper than capturing the associated gas. The Iraqi government and BP signed a new memorandum of understanding in London late Tuesday, as Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and other senior ministers visit Britain to seal various trade and investment deals. “The objective is to enhance production and achieve optimal targeted rates of oil and gas output,” Sudani’s office said in a statement.Iraq’s Oil Minister Hayan Abdel Ghani told AFP after the new accord was signed that the project would increase the four oil fields’ production to up to 500,000 barrels per day from about 350,000 bpd. “The agreement commits both parties to sign a contract in the first week of February,” he said.Ghani noted the project will also target gas flaring. Iraq has the third highest global rate of gas flaring, after Russia and Iran, having flared about 18 billion cubic metres of gas in 2023, according to the World Bank.The Iraqi government has made eliminating the practice one of its priorities, with plans to curb 80 percent of flared gas by 2026 and to eliminate releases by 2028. “It’s not just a question of investing and increasing oil production… but also gas exploitation. We can no longer tolerate gas flaring, whatever the quantity,” Ghani added. “We need this gas, which Iraq currently imports from neighboring Iran. The government is making serious efforts to put an end to these imports.” Iraq is ultra-dependent on Iranian gas, which covers almost a third of Iraq’s energy needs. However, Teheran regularly cuts off its supply, exacerbating the power shortages that punctuate the daily lives of 45 million Iraqis. BP is one of the biggest foreign players in Iraq’s oil sector, with a history of producing oil in the country dating back to the 1920s when it was still under British mandate. According to the World Bank, Iraq has 145 billion barrels of proven oil reserves — among the largest in the world — amounting to 96 years’ worth of production at the current rate.

In a Damascus courtyard, Syrian activists brainstormed strategies to ensure their country does not return to authoritarianism, in a scene unimaginable under president Bashar al-Assad’s rule.Since Islamist-led rebels ousted the longtime ruler last month, the Syrian capital’s public spaces have been abuzz with previously banned civil society meetings.Exiled activists have returned to the country for the first time in years, often leading to moving reunions with friends who stayed behind throughout the civil war.The war began with a peaceful democracy uprising in 2011 that morphed into a brutal conflict after Assad cracked down on protesters, jailing and killing them en masse and forcing survivors to flee the country.Now, with Assad out, the activists who spearheaded the revolt want to ensure their voices count.In the arched courtyard of a traditional Damascus home, Syrian activist Sawsan Abou Zainedin recounted meeting the country’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa earlier this month.”We stressed the essential role that civil society needs to play in the political transition,” said the director of a coalition of dozens of non-governmental groups called Madaniya.And “we insisted on the need to not only name people from the same camp” to form the interim authorities, she added of the January 4 meeting.Sharaa, who leads a group once affiliated to Al-Qaeda called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has named people close to him to key ministerial posts.His armed group severed all ties with Al-Qaeda years ago, and his authorities have sought to reassure Syrians and the international community that they will respect the rights of minorities.But activists say he has named at least six foreign jihadists to key positions in the country’s future army.Abou Zainedin said she and Madaniya founder Ayman Asfari, a Syrian-British businessman, spoke to Sharaa about the “problem” of “the foreign jihadists” being nominated within the defence ministry.- ‘Checks and balances’ -The new Damascus authorities have suspended the Assad-era constitution and the parliament.Sharaa last month said it could take four years before elections could be held, and up to three years to rewrite the constitution.He said HTS would be disbanded at a so-called national dialogue conference to bring together Syrians of all political stripes.His foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, said last week a committee is to be set up to prepare the meeting, for which no date has been announced.Abou Zainedin said she and Asfari had requested “absolute transparency” in the preparation of that conference.The Damascus authorities have appointed new officials to head other bodies too.Lawyer Abdulhay Sayed said the conference would be “crucial” as long as representatives of civil society and unions were invited.Their inclusion would allow for “checks and balances” to prevent a return to authoritarianism, Sayed said.The lawyer is among more than 300 people to have called for free and fair elections at his profession’s bar association after the new authorities replaced an Assad loyalist with a man of their choice.- ‘Don’t want a new oppressor’ -“We’re in a constitutional void, in a transition period after 62 years of the Baath party’s rule,” Sayed said.The national dialogue “conference has to establish a roadmap for an electoral law towards electing a constituent assembly in a year,” he added.”This assembly will be tasked with drawing up a permanent constitution and later could become a parliament.”Syrian feminists also insisted on participating in all discussions towards building the country at a gathering earlier this month.They are concerned that HTS’s Islamist ideology will exclude women from politics and public life.Lawyer Joumana Seif told AFP women had “a great role to play” in the new Syria and wanted to “actively” take part in the national conference.”We dream of rule of law,” said the rights advocate, whose father parliamentarian Riad Seif was jailed under Assad’s rule.Wajdan Nassif, a writer and activist, spoke to fellow feminists after returning from exile.”We don’t want a new oppressor… We don’t want to see any more prisons,” she said.”Syrian women need to take part (in discussions) in their own right… We don’t want a repeat of the past.”