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Slovenia announced on Thursday that it would ban two far-right Israeli ministers from entering in what authorities said was a first in the European Union.National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich will be declared “persona non grata,” the Slovenian government said in a statement, accusing them of inciting “extreme violence and serious violations of the human rights of Palestinians” with “their genocidal statements”.In June, Australia, Canada, Britain, New Zealand and Norway imposed similar sanctions on  Smotrich and Ben Gvir, key coalition partners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.Ben Gvir and Smotrich have drawn international criticism for their hard-line stance on the Gaza war and comments about settlements in the occupied West Bank, the other Palestinian territory.Smotrich, who lives in a West Bank settlement, has supported the expansion of settlements and has called for the territory’s annexation.”This is the first measure of this nature in the EU,” Slovenia’s Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said of the ban.On May 21, President Natasa Pirc Musar in an address to the European parliament urged the EU to take stronger action, condemning “the genocide” in Gaza.Slovenia was in May among six European countries to say that they “firmly reject any demographic or territorial change in Gaza” after Israel announced plans to expand its military offensive in the Palestinian territory.Last year, Slovenia announced it was recognising a Palestinian state after Ireland, Norway and Spain, in moves partly fuelled by condemnation of Israel’s bombing of Gaza after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.Nearly 150 countries recognise a Palestinian state.

Dozens of Druze crowded the Israeli-controlled side of the armistice line in the occupied Golan Heights on Thursday, hoping to catch a glimpse of relatives on the Syrian-held side who might try to cross the barbed-wire frontier. Young men drove around the area near the de facto border, waving the Druze flag with its five colourful stripes representing the pillars of their Druze faith, an esoteric offshoot of Shiite Islam.The area has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, separating the Golan Druze from their relatives across the demilitarised buffer zone.In the crowds, everyone asked for news of their families across the frontier, where days of violence in Syria’s Druze-majority Sweida province have left hundreds dead since Sunday, according to a monitor.”Because of the dramatic situation in Syria, the murders, massacres and the violence, many people headed towards the border,” said Qamar Abu Saleh, a 36-year-old educator, who lives in Majdal Shams.”They opened the fence and entered, and people from Syria also started crossing here.”It was like a dream, and we still can’t believe it happened”, she said enthusiastically, adding she came that day in the hope that the border would permanently reopen.”It was completely crazy,” Amali Shufek, another resident, told AFP.Shufek, in her 50s, hoped to meet her uncle’s family living on the Syrian-controlled side just a few kilometres away.She left her parents on chairs facing the fence, again guarded by the Israeli army, hoping it would open again so that she might meet her cousins.”I’ve only seen photos of them,” she added.- Talking all night -Nearby, a group of men hugged one another while a small Druze child from across the frontier waved an Israeli flag.The boy’s father, who did not disclose his name for security reasons, said they had come from the village of Hader, and that he had just spent a few hours with his cousins in Majdal Shams.”We didn’t sleep all night, we only talked,” he said.”I have goose bumps just seeing him here”, said his cousin who lives on the Israeli-controlled side, adding that he wished for peace in the area so that these visits could become commonplace.In the afternoon, several Druze under Israeli army supervision were escorted through a hole in the ceasefire line fence back to Syrian-controlled territory.Israel, which is home to over 150,000 Druze, including those in the occupied Golan Heights, has presented itself as a defender of the minority group and bombed Syrian forces during the clashes in Sweida.Those living in Israel hold Israeli citizenship, but most of the roughly 23,000 from the occupied Golan do not and still identify as Syrians.Some analysts say that Israel is using the Druze as a pretext to pursue its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far from their shared frontier as possible.Following former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow in December, the Israeli military took control of the UN-monitored demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights and conducted hundreds of strikes on military targets in Syria.Israel and Syria signed an armistice in 1974 after the Arab-Israeli war of the previous year, but never a formal peace treaty.Though Israel has made contact with Syria’s new Islamist-led authorities, it has treaded with caution and is now showing clear antagonism towards them.- ‘Same family’ -A few local elders and Druze clerics wearing traditional clothing — a white veil covering the mouth for women and a red tarboush cap wrapped in a white cloth for men — had also come to watch the horizon.While the Druze are spread across Syria, Lebanon and Israel, they “all belong to the same family”, Salim Safadi, a resident of a nearby village, told AFP.”I think we have some sort of agreement with Israel; when they have a problem we help them, and when we have a problem they help us,” the 60-year-old lawyer said, pointing to the fact that many Druze serve in Israel’s armed forces and police.He said he felt grateful for Israel’s intervention in Syria’s clashes, and that it was its involvement that brought the ceasefire announced Wednesday.”We condemn what is happening in Syria, it’s a barbaric act”, said Intisar Mahmud, a woman in her sixties shocked by the recent days’ events.”Even animals don’t do this — they killed innocents”, she added.”We ask the entire world to stand by our relatives in Syria”, she said, adding that the current borders did not always exist and calling on people of the region to be like “the fingers of one hand”.

Residents emerged from their homes to scenes of devastation on Thursday after government forces withdrew from the Syrian Druze-majority city of Sweida, leaving behind looted shops, burned homes and bodies littering the streets after days of violence.”What I saw of the city looked as if it had just emerged from a flood or a natural disaster,” Hanadi Obeid, a 39-year-old doctor, told AFP.What started as deadly clashes between local Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes on Sunday quickly escalated after government forces were deployed to the province the following day.After reaching an agreement with Sweida’s community leaders, Syrian troops withdrew from the city overnight on Wednesday following what witnesses described as a violent rampage.”Three bodies were lying in the street, one of them an elderly woman,” Obeid said, adding that she saw “burned cars everywhere, others upside down, and a charred tank”.Many residents had holed up in their homes as they waited for the fighting to end.On Thursday, Sweida’s typically-bustling streets and markets were still largely quiet, with Obeid saying a foul odour emanated from the area as stray dogs roamed around.As a doctor, she has seen “many corpses and dead bodies, but death has had a different taste in recent days, and I’ve felt it closer to me than ever before”.Obeid, who has a young daughter, said she feared what awaited her when she returned to work at the city’s main hospital.More than 500 people from all sides were killed in the violence, according to the Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.- ‘Humanitarian catastrophe’ -An AFP photographer reported chaos outside the central hospital, with dozens of bodies brought there since Thursday morning after being collected from homes and streets. The photographer counted 15 bodies in the city centre.Grief-stricken families were seen arriving at the hospital searching for their loved ones.Local media outlet Suwayda 24 reported that the central hospital was put out of service on Wednesday after government forces entered it and clashed with Druze fighters.A video that circulated on Wednesday showed bodies piled up in the morgue, with the refrigerated storage units for remains reaching capacity. Other videos showed wounded people in the corridors, some on beds and others lying on the floor, and medical staff unable to respond to emergency cases.Rayan Maarouf, editor-in-chief of Suwayda 24, told AFP that over 150 bodies had been counted at the hospital, which was no longer able to receive corpses.”The dialysis machines are out of service, and patients are not receiving treatment. There is a humanitarian catastrophe in Sweida,” he said.Water and electricity services remained cut off in the city, and most shops have closed their doors pending the completion of search operations by local fighters securing the area. The AFP photographer saw damaged storefronts, their glass shattered in the streets, and others looted. A woman was inspecting her shop, the only one around that had been burned.Government forces were accused by witnesses, Druze factions and the Observatory of siding with Bedouin tribes and committing abuses, including summary executions.As government forces withdrew on Thursday, an AFP correspondent in Sweida province saw Bedouin families dismantling their tents before leaving the area, fearing reprisals. “We have been at war for four days. We want to survive,” said Wadha al-Awad, 58, accompanied by her family. “We fled and are heading west with our children to Daraa,” she added. “This is our destiny. We are afraid, and all we want is peace.”

An Israeli strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church killed two people on Thursday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, as Israel said it “never targets” religious sites and regretted any harm to civilians.Pope Leo XIV said he was “deeply saddened” by the attack, which came as Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory killed at least 20 people.”With deep sorrow the Latin Patriarchate can now confirm that two persons were killed as a result of an apparent strike by the Israeli army that hit the Holy Family Compound this morning,” it said in a statement.”We pray for the rest of their souls and for the end of this barbaric war. Nothing can justify the targeting of innocent civilians.”Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said “two citizens from the Christian community” were killed in an Israeli strike on the church in Gaza City, with which the late Pope Francis kept regular contact through the war. AFP photographs showed the wounded being treated in a tented area at Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, with parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli with a bandage around his lower leg.Some of the wounded arrived on stretchers, with one man wearing an oxygen mask.The patriarchate, which has jurisdiction for Catholics in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Cyprus, condemned the strike and said it “destroyed large parts of the complex”.”Targeting a holy site currently sheltering approximately 600 displaced persons, the majority of whom are children and 54 with special needs, is a flagrant violation of human dignity and a blatant violation of the sanctity of life and the sanctity of religious sitses, which are supposed to provide a safe haven in times of war,” it said.Israel expressed “deep sorrow” over the damage and civilian casualties, adding that the military was investigating.”Israel never targets churches or religious sites and regrets any harm to a religious site or to uninvolved civilians,” the foreign ministry said on X.- ‘Serious act’ -Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said attacks on civilians in Gaza were “unacceptable” while her Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called the church attack “a serious act against a Christian place of worship”.Out of the Gaza Strip’s population of more than two million, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory.Since the early days of the war which erupted in October 2023, members of the Catholic community have been sheltering at the Holy Family Compound in Gaza City, where some Orthodox Christians have also found refuge.Pope Francis repeatedly called for an end to the war and in his final Easter message, a day before his death on April 21, he condemned the “deplorable humanitarian situation” in the Palestinian territory.- ‘Totally unacceptable’ -Monsignor Pascal Gollnisch, the head of Catholic charity l’Oeuvre d’Orient, told AFP the raid was “totally unacceptable”.”It is a place of worship. It is a Catholic church known for its peaceful attitude, for being a peacemaker. These are people who are at the service of the population,” he said.”There was no strategic objective, there were no jihadists in this church. There were families, there were civilians. This is totally unacceptable and we condemn in the strongest possible terms this attitude on the part of Israel.”More than 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s population, displacing most residents at least once and triggering severe shortages of food and other essentials.The war was triggered by a Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 58,573 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.burs-acc/phz/kir

Syrian troops pulled out of the Druze heartland province of Sweida Thursday on orders from the Islamist-led government, leaving bodies strewn on the street, AFP journalists reported from the provincial capital.The southern province has been gripped by deadly sectarian bloodshed since Sunday, with hundreds reportedly killed in clashes pitting Druze fighters against Sunni Bedouin tribes and the army and its allies.In a televised speech, Islamist interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said community leaders would resume control over security in Sweida after the deployment of government troops on Tuesday fuelled the sectarian bloodshed and prompted Israeli military intervention.Government troops told AFP that the order to withdraw came shortly before midnight (2100 GMT Wednesday) and they completed their pullout from the province at dawn.An AFP photographer counted 15 bodies on the street in the centre of Sweida on Thursday after government forces pulled out.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said more than 370 people have been killed in sectarian clashes in the city since Sunday.Israel had pounded government troops with air strikes during their brief deployment to the southern province and also struck army headquarters in Damascus, warning that its strikes would intensify until the Islamist-led government pulled back.Sharaa announced in a televised address that “responsibility” for security in Sweida would be returned to community leaders “based on the supreme national interest”.- Promise of ‘protection’ -Sharaa, whose Islamist-led interim government has had troubled relations with ethnic and religious minority groups since it toppled veteran leader Bashar al-Assad in December, also pledged to protect the Druze.”We are keen on holding accountable those who transgressed and abused our Druze people, as they are under the protection and responsibility of the state,” he said. March saw massacres of more than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians in their hub on the Mediterranean coast, with government-affiliated groups blamed for most of the killings. Government forces also battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead.Government troops had entered Sweida on Tuesday with the stated aim of overseeing a truce, following days of deadly sectarian clashes.But witnesses said government forces had instead joined the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians.Addressing the Druze, Sharaa attempted to reassure the minority community, vowing that “protecting your rights and freedom is one of our priorities”.- US mediation -He hit out at Israel’s military intervention which saw it strike army headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday after repeated strikes on Syrian government troops during their brief deployment in Sweida. But the Syrian leader, who met briefly with US President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia earlier this year, also thanked Washington for its role in brokering a diplomatic solution.”The Israeli entity resorted to a wide-scale targeting of civilian and government facilities,” that would have pushed “matters to a large-scale escalation, except for the effective intervention of American, Arab, and Turkish mediation, which saved the region from an unknown fate”, Sharaa said.The United States — a close ally of Israel that has been trying to reboot its relationship with Syria — said an agreement had been reached to restore calm in the area, urging “all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made”.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said all sides had “agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end”.”This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do,” he posted on X.Israel, which has its own Druze community, has presented itself as a defender of the Syrian minority, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far away as possible from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.Israel, which is home to around 150,000 Druze citizens, has repeatedly stated its intention to defend Syria’s Druze community.The Israeli military, which has taken control of the UN-monitored demilitarised zone on the Golan Heights and conducted hundreds of strikes on military targets in Syria, also says it will not allow any Syrian military presence in the south.Despite having initiated contact with a first face-to-face meeting in Azerbaijan earlier this month, Israel remains extremely wary of Syria’s new rulers, including Sharaa whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham movement was once linked to Al-Qaeda.burs-kir/ysm

A French appeals court Thursday ordered the release of pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who has been imprisoned for 40 years for the 1982 killings of two foreign diplomats.Abdallah, 74, is one of the longest serving prisoners in France, where most convicts serving life sentences are freed after less than 30 years.He has been up for release for 25 years, but the United States — a civil party to the case — has consistently opposed him leaving prison.Abdallah was detained in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his involvement in the murders of US military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris.The Lebanese of Maronite Christian heritage has always insisted he is a “fighter” who battled for the rights of Palestinians and not a “criminal”.The Paris Appeals Court ordered he be freed from a prison in the south of France next week, on Friday, July 25, on the condition that he leave French territory and never return.It said the length of his detention had been “disproportionate” and that he no longer represented a danger to the public.Several sources before the hearing said that it was planned for him to be flown to Paris and then to Beirut.Prosecutors can file an appeal with France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, but any such request is not expected to be processed fast enough to halt his release next week.- ‘Delighted’ -The detainee’s brother, Robert Abdallah, in Lebanon told AFP he was overjoyed.”We’re delighted. I didn’t expect the French judiciary to make such a decision nor for him to ever be freed, especially after so many failed requests for release,” he said.”For once, the French authorities have freed themselves from Israeli and US pressure,” he added.Lebanese authorities have repeatedly said Abdallah should be freed from jail, and had written to the appeals court to say they would organise his return home.Abdallah’s lawyer Jean-Louis Chalanset also welcomed the decision, calling it a “political scandal he was not released earlier”.In November last year, a French court ordered him to be let go conditional on Abdallah leaving France.But France’s anti-terror prosecutors, arguing that he had not changed his political views, appealed the decision, which was suspended.A verdict was supposed to have been delivered in February, but the Paris appeals court postponed, saying it was unclear whether Abdallah had proof that he had paid compensation to the plaintiffs, something he has consistently refused to do.- ‘Past symbol’ -The court re-examined the latest request for his release last month.During the closed-door hearing, Abdallah’s lawyer told the judges that 16,000 euros had been placed in the prisoner’s bank account and were at the disposal of civil parties in the case, including the United States, according to several sources who attended.Abdallah, who hails from the north of Lebanon, was wounded as a teenager when Israel invaded the south of the country in 1978 in the early years of the Lebanese Civil War.As an adult, he founded the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions — LARF, a Marxist pro-Syria and anti-Israel group that has now been dissolved.After his arrest in 1984, French police discovered submachine guns and transceiver stations in one of his Paris apartments.The appeals court in February however noted that the FARL “had not committed a violent action since 1984” and that Abdallah “today represented a past symbol of the Palestinian struggle”.Lebanon hosts tens of thousands of Palestinians, according to the United Nations, most descendants of those who fled or were expelled from their land during the creation of Israel in 1948.