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A UN commission investigating sectarian bloodshed in Syria’s Alawite heartland documented systematic violence at the hands of government forces and allied groups, warning Thursday that some of the acts could constitute war crimes.The violence in March unfolded along Syria’s predominantly Alawite Mediterranean coast, where security personnel and their allies were accused of carrying out summary executions, mostly targeting civilians from the religious minority, with a war monitor saying more than 1,700 people were killed.The Syrian foreign ministry said it was committed to “incorporating the (commission’s) recommendations into the ongoing process of institution-building” and of consolidating the rule of law.The UN commission said in its report on Thursday that the violence committed by “members of the interim government forces and private individuals operating alongside or in proximity to them… followed a systematic pattern across multiple, widespread locations”.”The violations included acts that likely amount to war crimes,” it said. The commission documented cases of “murder, torture and inhumane acts related to the treatment of the dead, widespread looting and burning of homes all of which displaced tens of thousands of civilians”.Syria’s new authorities have accused gunmen loyal to ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad of instigating the violence by launching deadly attacks that killed dozens of security personnel. The UN commission also found that pro-Assad forces were implicated in the violence.- ‘Deeply disturbing’ -Human rights groups and international organisations have said entire families were killed, including women, children and the elderly.Gunmen stormed homes and asked residents whether they were Alawite or Sunni before killing or sparing them, they said.The UN commission documented similar cases involving the killing of Alawite men.During his rule, Assad — himself an Alawite — cultivated an image as a defender of minorities, even as his authoritarian tendencies plunged the country into civil war.Since his December ouster at the hands of Islamist-led rebels, the violence on the coast and in south Syria’s Druze heartland have raised questions about the new authorities’ ability to provide security and manage sectarian tensions.The UN commission — which said it had been granted “unfettered access” to the area by the post-Assad government — based its findings on more than 200 interviews with victims and witnesses.It said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that members of the security forces and other private individuals engaged in “serious violations of international human rights law”.”The scale and brutality of the violence documented in our report is deeply disturbing,” said commission chair Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, urging accountability and expanded efforts to arrest perpetrators. – ‘Serious note’ -The commission said it “continues to receive information about ongoing violations in many of the affected areas, including abductions of women, arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances”.It said it had “found no evidence of a governmental policy or plan” to carry out the attacks, though their systematic nature “in certain locations may be indicative of an organisational policy within certain factions or groups”.In a letter to the commission, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said the government took “serious note of the alleged violations”, saying they “appear to be consistent with the findings” of the Syrian inquiry.US envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack called the report “a serious step towards definable and traceable metrics to the Syrian government’s responsibility, transparency and accountability”. The commission said it was also investigating recent violence in Syria’s Druze-majority Sweida province that it said highlighted the urgency of implementing the report’s recommendations.In its own inquiry, the committee formed by the Syrian authorities documented “serious violations against civilians” in March.The committee confirmed “the names of 1,426 dead, including 90 women”, and identified “298 individuals by name” who were suspected of involvement in the violations.

New Israeli legislation regulating foreign aid groups has been increasingly used to deny their requests to bring supplies into Gaza, a joint letter signed by more than 100 groups said Thursday.Ties between foreign-backed aid groups and the Israeli government have long been beset by tensions, with officials often complaining the organisations are biased. The rocky relations have become even more strained since Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war. “Israeli authorities have rejected requests from dozens of NGOs to bring in lifesaving goods, citing that these organisations are ‘not authorised to deliver aid’,” the aid groups said.According to the letter, whose signatories include Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), at least 60 requests to bring aid into Gaza were rejected in July alone.UK-based Oxfam said that $2.5 million worth of its supplies, including food, were barred from entering Gaza, while another charity, CARE, said it had not been authorised to bring in aid since March.Another signatory, Anera, said it had millions of dollars’ worth of supplies waiting just outside Gaza, in the Israeli port city of Ashdod.“Anera has over $7 million worth of lifesaving supplies ready to enter Gaza – including 744 tons of rice, enough for six million meals, blocked in Ashdod just kilometres away,” CEO Sean Carroll said in the joint letter.In March, the Israeli government approved a new set of rules for foreign non-governmental organisations working with Palestinians.The law updates the framework for how aid groups must register to maintain their status within Israel, along with provisions that outline how their applications can be denied or registration revoked.Registration can be refused if Israeli authorities deem that a group denies the democratic character of Israel or “promotes delegitimisation campaigns” against the country.”Unfortunately, many aid organisations serve as a cover for hostile and sometimes violent activity,” said Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, whose ministry has been put in charge of NGO registrations.”Organisations that have no connection to hostile or violent activity and no ties to the boycott movement will be granted permission to operate,” he added.- Deadly distributions -The aid groups complained the new rules were leaving Gazans without life-saving assistance.”Today, international NGOs’ fears have proven true: the registration system is now being used to further block aid and deny food and medicine in the midst of the worst-case scenario of famine”, their joint letter concluded.”Our mandate is to save lives but due to the registration restrictions, civilians are being left without the food, medicine and protection they urgently need,” said Jolien Veldwijk, Palestinian territories director for CARE.Israel has long accused Hamas of diverting aid entering the territory under the longstanding UN-led distribution system.Since May, it has distributed aid through the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an organisation that is boycotted by the United Nations and other aid groups for serving Israeli military objectives.According to Gaza’s civil defence agency, the GHF’s operations have been frequently marred by chaos as thousands of Gazans have scrambled daily to approach its hubs, where some have been shot, including by Israeli soldiers.In late July, the United Nations reported that at least 1,373 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza since May 27 while awaiting or searching for aid.International NGOs now fear they could be barred from operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories altogether if they do not submit sensitive information about their Palestinian staff to the Israeli government.The deadline for information submission is in September, at which point “many could be forced to halt operations in Gaza and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and remove all international staff within 60 days.”

People are buying water by the truckload in Beirut as the state supply faces its worst shortages in years, with the leaky public sector struggling after record-low rainfall and local wells running dry.  “State water used to come every other day, now it’s every three days,” said Rima al-Sabaa, 50, rinsing dishes carefully in Burj al-Baranjeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs.Even when the state water is flowing, she noted, very little trickles into her family’s holding tank.Once that runs out, they have to buy trucked-in water — pumped from private springs and wells — but it costs more than $5 for 1,000 litres and lasts just a few days, and its brackishness makes everything rust.In some areas, the price can be twice as high.Like many Lebanese people, Sabaa, who works assisting the elderly, relies on bottled water for drinking. But in a country grappling with a yearslong economic crisis and still reeling from a recent war between Israel and Hezbollah, the costs add up.”Where am I supposed to get the money from?” she asked.Water shortages have long been the norm for much of Lebanon, which acknowledges only around half the population “has regular and sufficient access to public water services”.Surface storage options such as dams are inadequate, according to the country’s national water strategy, while half the state supply is considered “non-revenue water” — lost to leakage and illegal connections.This year, low rainfall has made matters even worse.Mohamad Kanj from the meteorological department told AFP that rainfall for 2024-2025 “is the worst in the 80 years” on record in Lebanon.Climate change is set to exacerbate the county’s water stress, according to the national strategy, while a World Bank statement this year said “climate change may halve (Lebanon’s) dry-season water by 2040”.- Rationing -Energy and Water Minister Joseph Saddi said last week that “the situation is very difficult”.The shortages are felt unevenly across greater Beirut, where tanks clutter rooftops, water trucks clog roads and most people on the ramshackle state grid lack meters.Last month, the government launched a campaign encouraging water conservation, showing dried or depleted springs and lakes around the country.North of the capital, levels were low in parts of the Dbayeh pumping station that should have been gushing with water. “I’ve been here for 33 years and this is the worst crisis we’ve had for the amount of water we’re receiving and can pump” to Beirut, said the station’s Zouhair Azzi.Antoine Zoghbi from the Beirut and Mount Lebanon Water Establishment said water rationing in Beirut usually started in October or November, after summer and before the winter rainy season.But this year it has started months early “because we lack 50 percent of the amount of water” required at some springs, he told AFP last month.Rationing began at some wells in June, he said, to reduce the risk of overuse and seawater intrusion.Zoghbi emphasised the need for additional storage, including dams.In January, the World Bank approved more than $250 million in funding to improve water services for greater Beirut and its surroundings.In 2020, it cancelled a loan for a dam south of the capital after environmentalists said it could destroy a biodiversity-rich valley.- Wells -In south Beirut, pensioner Abu Ali Nasreddine, 66, said he had not received state water for many months.”Where they’re sending it, nobody knows,” he said, lamenting that the cost of trucked-in water had also risen.His building used to get water from a local well but it dried up, he added, checking his rooftop tank.Bilal Salhab, 45, who delivers water on a small, rusted truck, said demand had soared, with families placing orders multiple times a week.”The water crisis is very bad,” he said, adding he was struggling to fill his truck because wells had dried up or become salty.In some areas of greater Beirut, wells have long supplemented or even supplanted the state network.But many have become depleted or degraded, wrecking pipes and leaving residents with salty, discoloured water.Nadim Farajalla, chief sustainability officer at the Lebanese American University, said Beirut had ballooned in size and population since the start of the 1975-1990 civil war but water infrastructure had failed to keep up.Many people drilled wells illegally, including at depths that tap into Lebanon’s strategic groundwater reserves, he said, adding that “nobody really knows how many wells there are”.”Coastal aquifers are suffering from seawater intrusion, because we are pumping much more than what’s being recharged,” Farajalla told AFP.As the current shortages bite, rationing and awareness campaigns should have begun earlier, he said, because “we all knew that the surface snow cover and rainfall” were far below average.