Middle East latest: Lebanon closes all its land border crossings with Syria except one

Lebanon is closing all its land border crossings with Syria except for a main one that links Beirut with the Syrian capital Damascus, the General Security Directorate said Friday. The decision came hours after an Israeli airstrike damaged a border crossing in northern Lebanon just days after it was reopened.

Separately, Jordan’s interior minister said the Naseeb border crossing with Syria had been closed because of the security situation on the Syrian side. He spoke after Syrian opposition activists said insurgents had captured the main border crossing with Jordan, forcing the Syrian authorities to leave.

Israel’s military said it planned to reinforce its positions in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and near the border with Syria. Israel said it was “monitoring developments and is prepared for all scenarios, offensive and defensive alike.”

Meanwhile, Syrian insurgents entered the central towns of Rastan and Talbiseh early Friday just north of the central city of Homs, bringing them closer Syria’s third largest city, an opposition war monitor and pro-government media both reported. The breakthrough came a day after jihiadi-led opposition fighters captured the central city of Hama, Syria’s fourth largest.

In other developments, a Hamas official said international mediators have resumed negotiations with the Palestinian militant group and Israel over a ceasefire in Gaza, and he was hopeful a deal to end the 14-month war is within reach.

Israel's war against Hamas has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced 90% of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.

Israel’s blistering retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,600 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

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Here's the Latest:

DEIR AL-Balah, Gaza Strip — An Israeli strike hit a residential building in central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp on Friday evening, killing at least 12 people, including six children and four women, according to officials at Awda Hospital.

The strike wounded at least 46 others, including 13 children and 12 women, and damaged several neighboring houses, the hospital said.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 44,600 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

CAIRO — Israel said Friday that “thousands of food packages and sacks of flour” were delivered to the isolated northernmost reaches of Gaza, where hunger experts warn famine could be underway.

The delivery would mark one of the first successful convoys to the area, which is besieged by Israeli troops that have mounted a fierce offensive in Gaza’s north since early October.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency that controls the border crossings into Gaza, said the aid was delivered to the town of Beit Hanoun. Israeli authorities did not publicly say who delivered the aid, and did not provide details on the exact amount of aid involved. COGAT released photos of flatbed trucks driving past rubble, some carrying what appeared to be 25-kilogram (55 pound) sacks of aid and others with cargo covered under tarps.

The U.N. has struggled to deliver aid to the area in recent weeks. Alia Zaki, a spokesperson for the World Food Program, told The Associated Press that nearly no food has entered the area for two months, and that the agency’s daily requests to enter the area have been denied by Israel. Of two missions that have been approved since Oct. 6, Zaki said, only two trucks of aid were delivered to a shelter that Israeli soldiers ordered to evacuate soon after and then burned.

The situation in northern Gaza has prompted hunger experts to warn that famine is either near or may already be underway.

BEIRUT — A Kurdish-led force in Syria that's backed by the United States says it has taken positions along the border with Iraq, replacing Syrian government forces.

The move by the Syrian Democratic Forces to capture areas on the west bank of the Euphrates River is likely to cut the land line that links Iran with the Mediterranean coast.

The SDF said in a statement that its fighters were deployed in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour and west of the Euphrates for the safety of civilians. “Our primary objective is to protect our security and the security of our people,” it said about the deployment.

SDF spokesman Farhad Shami told The Associated Press that their fighters are not in control of the Boukamal border crossing with Iraq.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said Iran-backed fighters have evacuated the border crossing point of Boukamal and the SDF is expected to control it later.

The Boukamal border crossing has been a main supply line for Iran-backed fighters, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, who had opened the corridor that links Iran with the Mediterranean in 2017.

The developments come as jihadi-led insurgents in northwestern Syria have made stunning advances over the past week that have so far met little resistance from government troops.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Crowds of displaced Palestinians, some carrying cooking pots and crying children, gathered at an aid kitchen in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Friday, but many left with nothing.

“The food ran out,” said Adel Mohammad, who was hoping to get a meal of rice – the only food being served — for his children. “At night they wake up hungry.”

After the kitchen shut down, children used their hands to scoop bits of rice left in large empty cooking pots.

The World Food Program has warned that the humanitarian response in Gaza is “nearing collapse as famine looms.” The U.N. agency says Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries, along with the breakdown of law and order in Gaza, has made it difficult for aid convoys to reach displaced Palestinians.

Concerns are growing with the onset of another winter of war. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, many displaced repeatedly by Israeli attacks, are living in tent camps, reliant on international aid. Experts have already warned of famine in northern Gaza, which Israeli forces have almost completely isolated since early October.

BEIRUT -- Lebanon’s General Security Directorate said Friday the country is closing all land border crossing with Syria except for a main one that links Beirut with the Syrian capital Damascus.

The decision by the security agency in charge of border crossings came hours after an Israeli airstrike damaged the Arida border crossing with Syria in north Lebanon, days after it was reopened.

“Border crossings will be closed until further notice for the safety of travelers,” the agency said in a statement posted on X.

It said that the only border crossing that will be kept open is Masnaa in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.

Lebanon’s state news agency said Friday the airstrike on the Arida crossing caused heavy material damage and cut the road.

The Israeli military said fighter jets attacked the border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, adding that they were used to transfer munitions for Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.

BEIRUT - Syrian opposition activists say insurgents have captured a main border crossing with Jordan forcing Syrian authorities to leave it.

Shortly afterward, Jordan’s Interior Minister al-Frayeh said the Naseeb border crossing with Syria had been closed because of the security situation on the Syrian side.

Opposition activists posted videos online showing people storming the border crossing with Jordan, which was in rebel hands until government forces regained control of it in 2018.

Ahmad al-Masalmeh, an opposition activist based in France who covers events in southern Syria, told The Associated Press that local gunmen have captured the Naseeb crossing as well as several other areas in the southern province of Daraa where the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011. Syrian troops have evacuated checkpoints in several areas including the villages of Inkhil, Nawa and Jassem, he added.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said on Friday that it planned to reinforce its forces stationed in the Golan Heights and near the border with Syria, where civil war has reignited between the government and rebel groups.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it was “monitoring developments and is prepared for all scenarios, offensive and defensive alike.”

After 13 years of civil war, Syrian insurgents are gaining ground, first taking cities in the country’s north and on Friday entering cities in central Syria.

It comes as rebel groups mount new challenges to Russia- and Iran-backed Syrian forces, including in Aleppo, the country’s largest city. Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has intermittently struck areas in Syria seen as strongholds of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group it is at war with in Lebanon.

The advances of the Syrian insurgents adds new instability on Israel’s northern border, two months after it invaded neighboring Lebanon. Israel’s defense minister and military chief of staff met to discuss the situation Thursday.

Israeli media reported there is concern in the country’s security establishment that the rebels would advance until they reached the Golan Heights, territory occupied by Israel, gaining control of Syrian weapons stockpiles along the way.

Writing in the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahoronoth Friday, veteran military correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai wrote that Israel may “prefer” to destroy the weapons storehouses so they won’t fall into the hands of the rebels.

Israel seized control of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. Syria has constantly accused Israel of launching attacks against it from territory it occupies in the Golan Heights. Israel has frequently struck Syria over the years.

BEIRUT — Syrian insurgents entered two central towns early Friday just north of the central city of Homs, bringing them closer Syria’s third largest city, an opposition war monitor and pro-government media both reported.

The break into Rastan and Talbiseh came a day after opposition gunmen captured the central city of Hama, Syria’s fourth largest, after the Syrian army said it withdrew to avoid fighting inside the city and spare the lives of civilians.

The insurgents, led by the jihadi Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, have said that they will march to Homs and Damascus, President Bashar Assad’s seat of power.

The city of Homs, parts of which were controlled by insurgents until 2014, is a major intersection point between the capital, Damascus, and Syria’s coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus where Assad enjoys wide support. Homs province is Syria’s largest in size and borders Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan.

Insurgents are now 5 kilometers (3 miles) away from Homs, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor.

“The battle of Homs is the mother of all battles and will decide who will rule Syria,” said Rami Abdurrahman, the Observatory’s chief.

MANAMA, Bahrain — Iran said Friday it conducted a successful space launch, the latest for its program the West alleges improves Tehran’s ballistic missile technology.

Iran conducted the launch using its Simorgh program, a satellite-carrying rocket that had had a series of failed launches, at Iran’s Imam Khomeini Spaceport in rural Semnan province. That’s the site of Iran’s civilian space program.

The Simorgh carried what Iran described as an “orbital propulsion system,” as well as two research systems to a 400-kilometer (250-mile) orbit above the Earth. A system that could change the orbit of a spacecraft would allow Iran to geo-synchronize the orbits of its satellites. Tehran has long sought that ability.

Iran also put the payload of the Simorgh at 300 kilograms (660 pounds), heavier than its previous successful launches.

There was no immediate independent confirmation the launch was successful. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The announcement comes as heightened tensions grip the wider Middle East over Israel’s continued war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and as an uneasy ceasefire holds in Lebanon.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Arsonists extensively damaged a Melbourne synagogue on Friday in what Australia’s prime minister condemned as an antisemitic attack on Australian values.

The blaze in the Adass Israel Synagogue is an escalation in targeted attacks in Australia since the war began between Israel and Hamas last year. Cars and buildings have been vandalized and torched around Australia in protests inspired by the war.

A witness who had come to the synagogue to pray saw two masked men spreading a liquid accelerant with brooms inside the building at 4:10 a.m., officials said.

About 60 firefighters with 17 fire trucks responded to the blaze, which police said caused extensive damage. Investigators have yet to identify a motive, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese blamed antisemitism.

“This was a shocking incident to be unequivocally condemned. There is no place in Australia for an outrage such as this,” Albanese told reporters. “To attack a place of worship is an attack on Australian values. To attack a synagogue is an act of antisemitism, is attacking the right that all Australians should have to practice their faith in peace and security,” he added.

ISTANBUL — A Hamas official says international mediators have resumed negotiating with the militant group and Israel over a ceasefire in Gaza, and that he was hopeful a deal to end the 14-month war was within reach.

Ceasefire negotiations were halted last month when Qatar suspended talks with mediators from Egypt and the United States because of frustration over a lack of progress between Israel and Hamas. But there has been a “reactivation” of efforts in recent days to end the fighting, release hostages from Gaza and free Palestinian prisoners in Israel, according to Bassem Naim, an official in Hamas’ political bureau who spoke with The Associated Press in Turkey on Thursday.

Another official familiar with the talks confirmed the return of Qatari mediators. The official spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations with the media.

Since the talks broke down, there have been significant shifts in the global and regional landscape. Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election, and a ceasefire was declared last week between Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. Trump is a staunch supporter of Israel, but Naim said he believes the incoming administration could “affect the situation positively” given that Trump had made halting wars in the region part of his campaign platform.

Trump this week called for the release of all hostages held in Gaza by the time he takes office on Jan. 20, saying there would be “hell to pay” if that doesn’t happen.

WASHINGTON -- Three U.S. service members were being evaluated for potential traumatic brain injuries following an attack near a base in eastern Syria this week, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Thursday.

Ryder said U.S. Central Command is still evaluating who was behind the attack near Mission Support Site Euphrates, which prompted the U.S. to conduct counter strikes on Tuesday. At the time, the Pentagon said rockets and mortars had landed in the vicinity of the base.

The U.S. has about 900 troops in Syria to conduct missions to counter the Islamic Stage group.

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By Lolita Baldor