Middle East latest: Netanyahu testifies in his corruption trial as Israel bombs sites in Syria

Israeli warplanes pounded military sites in Syria after Israeli troops seized a border buffer zone following the collapse of President Bashar Assad’s rule. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile testified in his long-running corruption trial.

Israel denied its forces were advancing toward Damascus. Israeli troops on Sunday entered the buffer zone that had been established after the 1973 Mideast war and the military said it would deploy in “several other places necessary for (Israel’s’) defense.”

Netanyahu told the court in Tel Aviv that the charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust against him are “an ocean of absurd” and promised his version would cut through the prosecution’s case.

Critics have accused him of dragging out the war in Gaza and putting off a ceasefire deal that could release some 100 remaining hostages after 14 months of war triggered by the Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 44,700 Palestinians in the Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, according to local health authorities. They say most of the dead are women and children but do not distinguish between fighters and civilians. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250, including older adults and children.

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UN resumes humanitarian operations in two areas of northwest Syria

GENEVA — The United Nations says humanitarian operations in two major areas in northwestern Syria have resumed, deploying food, medical supplies, fuel and other needed services and supplies.

Spokesman Jens Laerke of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that some health facilities were “overwhelmed” – in part due to staff shortages – and many border crossings have been closed, disrupting supply chains.

OCHA said humanitarian operations in some parts of northwestern Syria were put on hold in the early days of the recent escalation, and resumed on Monday.

“As of yesterday, all humanitarian organizations in Idlib and northern Aleppo have resumed operations,” Laerke told reporters at a U.N. briefing in Geneva.

He said the three border crossings from Turkey used by the U.N. to deliver assistance into Syria remain open and “we are providing assistance in the northwest, including to those who have been newly displaced.”

Even before the latest escalation, which led President Bashar Assad to flee the country, nearly 17 million people in Syria needed humanitarian assistance. More than 1 million have been displaced across Idlib, Aleppo, Hama and Homs since the escalation.

Israel's defense minister says Syrian naval fleet destroyed and Israel plans a demilitarized zone “in southern Syria”

JERUSALEM — Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday that Israel's military destroyed Syria’s fleet overnight and intends to establish a demilitarized zone “in southern Syria” to prevent attacks on Israel.

He also issued a warning to Syria’s rebels, saying that “whoever follows Assad’s path will end up like Assad — we will not allow an extremist Islamic terrorist entity to act against Israel across its border while putting its citizens at risk.”

Speaking at a naval base in Haifa, Katz said the Israeli navy “operated last night to destroy the Syrian fleet and with great success.”

Video showing the smoking wreckage of what appeared to be small Syrian naval ships in the port at Latakia was broadcast by Saudi-owned television station Al-Hadath on Tuesday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has closely tracked the conflict since the civil war erupted in 2011, said Israel targeted Syrian warships, military warehouses and an air-defense facility on the coast.

Katz added that he had instructed the army to establish a “defense zone free of weapons and terrorist threats in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence, in order to prevent terrorism in Syria from taking root and organizing.” It was unclear if the demilitarized zone would reach beyond the buffer zone that Israel has taken over in the border area.

Israel has a long history of seizing territory during wars with its neighbors and occupying it indefinitely, citing security concerns. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally, except by the United States.

Syria’s government will gradually transfer power to interim cabinet

DAMASCUS, Syria — Members of the Syrian government under ousted President Bashar Assad will gradually transfer power to a new transitional cabinet headed by Mohammed al-Bashir.

The departing government met with al-Bashir for the first time since Assad fled Damascus over the weekend. Al-Bashir had previously led the “salvation government” running the rebel stronghold in northwest Syria.

Al-Bashir told reporters after the meeting that the ministers discussed transferring the portfolios to the interim government during the transitional period until the beginning of March.

He said that in the coming days the new government will decide on each ministry.

Banks and shops reopen in Damascus

DAMASCUS, Syria — Banks and shops are reopening in Damascus after the chaos and confusion of the first two days following the ouster of President Bashar Assad.

Sadi Ahmad, manager of Syria Gulf Bank, said life is returning to normal. A customer who came to withdraw money from an ATM was surprised to see it functioning.

At the historic Hamadiyeh market, fighters who seized power were still standing guard but shops had reopened — even an ice cream stand.

Resident Maysoun Al-Qurabi said she was initially “against what happened,” referring to the insurgency, but changed her mind after seeing footage of rebels releasing inmates from the notorious Saydnaya prison.

“People are at ease and secure now,” she said. “Before, people were hungry and scared.”

Syrian Christians are cautious after insurgents seize power

DAMASCUS, Syria — Minority Christians in Syria have been living in a state of uneasy anticipation since insurgents headed by the Islamic militant group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham took control after ousting President Bashar Assad.

Mazen Kalash, a resident of Bab Touma, a Christian neighborhood in Damascus, said he wants to know the plans of the new government that will be formed by the rebels.

“The important thing is to feel safe, bring order, law and respect to the citizens,” he said. “We need to be able to work whatever we want and do whatever we want without any interference from anyone.”

The insurgents have so far attempted to reassure minorities that they will be protected.

Large numbers of Syrian Christians, who made up 10% of the population, fled after the civil war erupted in 2011. Many of those who stayed supported Assad out of fear they might be targeted by Islamist insurgents.

Netanyahu lashes out at media in his corruption trial

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at media during testimony at his corruption trial, which involves media moguls.

“There has never been such a biased media in any democracy … as there is in Israel,” Netanyahu told the court, describing his testy relationship with the press.

He is accused of exchanging regulatory favors with media bosses for more positive coverage of himself and his family. He has denied wrongdoing.

UN envoy says groups controlling Syria have been ‘sending good messages’

GENEVA — The U.N. envoy for Syria says armed groups that drove out President Bashar Assad have “been sending good messages” about national unity and inclusiveness but acknowledges that a Security Council resolution still counts the leading one as a terrorist group.

With Syria’s future and stability still very much in flux since Assad’s departure over the weekend, Geir Pedersen suggested that the international community needs to help the country get through this turbulent moment.

“We are still in what I would call a very fluid period. Things are not settled,” Pedersen told reporters at U.N. offices in Geneva on Tuesday. “There are there is a real opportunity for change, but this opportunity needs to be grasped by the Syrians themselves and supported by the U.N. and the international community.”

Referring to Israeli military strikes in Syria, Pedersen said it was “extremely important that we now don’t see any action from any international country that destroys the possibility for this transformation in Syria to take place.”

The insurgents are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which grew out of an al-Qaida-affiliated called the Nusra Front that the Security Council listed as a terror group in a 2015 resolution.

“This is obviously a complicating factor for all of us,” Pedersen said. “But we also have to be honest, we have to look at the facts and to see what has happened during the last nine years.”

“The reality so far is that the HTS and also the other armed groups have been sending good messages to the Syrian people,” he said. “They have been sending messages of unity, of inclusiveness, and frankly speaking, also, we have seen in (the captured cities of) Aleppo and in Hama ... reassuring things on the ground."

Ahmad al-Sharaa, previously known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the leader of the insurgency and the founder of both groups Nusra and HTS, cut ties with al-Qaida in 2016 and says he is committed to pluralism and religious tolerance.

Turkey condemns Israeli seizure of a buffer zone on Syrian border

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey has “strongly” condemned Israel’s advance into Syrian territory, saying it was in violation of a 1974 agreement on a buffer zone inside Syria.

“We strongly condemn Israel’s violation of the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement, its entry into the separation zone between Israel and Syria, and its advance into Syrian territory,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry accused Israel of “displaying a mentality of an occupier” at a time when the possibility of peace and stability had emerged in Syria. The statement also reiterated Turkey’s support to Syria’s “sovereignty, political unity, and territorial integrity.”

Israeli troops on Sunday entered the buffer zone that had been established after the 1973 Mideast war and the military said it would deploy in “several other places necessary for (Israel’s’) defense.”

Netanyahu testifies he works 17-18 hours daily engulfed in meetings

TEL AVIV, Israel — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he works 17 to 18 hours a day and that he is engulfed in meetings, especially during the past year that Israel has been fighting wars.

Netanyahu was testifying in his long-running corruption trial. He has denied charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases.

“If only I could steal away five minutes to enjoy some time with my wife,” he told the court Tuesday.

Israeli military official says troops plan to seize a buffer zone inside Syria

TEL AVIV, Israel — An Israeli military official says troops plan to seize a buffer zone inside Syria as well as “a few more points that have strategic meaning.”

The official spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The official dismissed reports of a larger Israeli invasion as “rumors.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israeli forces were moving to control a roughly 400-square-kilometer (155-square-mile) demilitarized buffer zone in Syrian territory. The buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights was created by the U.N. after the 1973 Mideast war.

Following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad, Israel sent troops into the buffer zone. It said the move was temporary and was aimed at preventing attacks. It said the 1974 agreement establishing the zone had collapsed and that Syrian troops had withdrawn from their positions.

Israel has also carried out airstrikes across Syria in recent days targeting what it says are suspected chemical weapons and long-range rockets.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia have condemned Israel’s incursion, accusing it of exploiting the disarray in Syria and violating international law.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community, except for the United States. The rest of the world views the strategic plateau as occupied Syrian territory.

— By Joseph Krauss

Israeli air force has launched hundreds of airstrikes in Syria, war monitor says

DAMASCUS, Syria — Israel’s air force has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in different parts of Syria as its ground forces move north of the Golan Heights along the border with Lebanon, according to an opposition war monitor.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday that since the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government, Israel’s air force has carried out more than 300 airstrikes against research centers, arms depots and military infrastructure across Syria, as well as a naval base along the Mediterranean coast.

Associated Press journalists in Damascus witnessed intense airstrikes on the city and its suburbs overnight into Tuesday morning.

Photographs posted online by activists showed destroyed missile launchers, helicopters and warplanes.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops marched along the border with Lebanon and now control a long stretch on the Syrian side facing Lebanon’s Rashaya region, according to the war monitor's head, Rami Abdurrahman, and the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV, which has reporters in Syria.

Israeli troops are now about 25 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of Damascus, according to the monitor.

Saudi Arabia condemns Israeli incursion into a buffer zone in Syria

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia has condemned Israel’s incursion into a buffer zone in Syria and a wave of Israeli airstrikes launched after the overthrow of President Bashar Assad.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that “the assaults carried out by the Israeli occupation government, including the seizure of the buffer zone in the Golan Heights, and the targeting of Syrian territory confirm Israel’s continued violation of the principles of international law and its determination to sabotage Syria’s chances of restoring its security, stability and territorial integrity.”

Israel sent troops into a buffer zone inside Syria that had been established after the 1973 Mideast war. It said the move was temporary and was taken to prevent any cross-border attacks after Syrian troops withdrew.

Israel has also carried out heavy airstrikes that it says are aimed at preventing suspected chemical weapons and long-range rockets from falling into the hands of extremists.

Saudi Arabia has been in talks with the United States in recent years over normalizing relations with Israel in exchange for a U.S. defense pact, American assistance in establishing a civilian nuclear program and a pathway to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

But the kingdom has also repeatedly condemned Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip, where it is at war with the Hamas militant group.

Last month, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and day-to-day ruler Mohammed bin Salman accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, allegations Israel adamantly rejects.