Free Republic

Bronze Age potters working in the city of Hama in current-day Syria appear to have sold more than just cups, bowels, and dishes 4,500 years ago -- they apparently also sold children's toys. Past excavations at the site have uncovered 19 small clay artifacts that contained bits of clay or small pebbles that produce a sound when shaken. Originally, they were thought to have been musical instruments. However, according to a statement released by the National Museum of Denmark, these objects have now been reinterpreted as baby rattles. Researchers determined that the sound that the artifacts produced was much too...

The Syrian people are exuberant about the end of the Bashar al-Assad regime. But there is one atrocity by this notorious family that has been described as “one of the darkest moments in the modern history of the Arab world.” That is the 1982 encirclement, starvation and mass execution of the residents of the Syrian city of Hama. This atrocity was committed by Bashar’s father, Hafez al-Assad. Last Friday, residents of Hama tore down the statue of Hafez al-Assad while the city fell to rebels. While much of the world just saw it as another Syrian city falling, its significance...

Iran has reportedly started to withdraw troops from Syria as advancing rebel forces threaten to topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to The New York Times. Syrian insurgents took control of the central city of Hama following the retreat of government forces on Thursday, just days after rebels captured most of Aleppo, Syria's second largest city. Evacuations were initiated on Friday for commanders and personnel from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, according to Iranian officials and regional commanders cited in the Times report. Diplomatic staff serving at the Iranian Embassy in Damascus were also...

• Syrian rebels are speeding toward the major city of Homs, where residents are fleeing ahead of potential clashes between the rebels and regime forces. • The rebels seized Hama to the north on Thursday, the second major city taken from President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in just over a week of fighting. • A new uprising has also emerged in the southern Daraa province, with rebels there claiming to have taken a major military base and announcing that their “destination is Damascus.” • Russia’s embassy in Syria has urged its citizens to leave the country, citing “the difficult military and...

Syrian rebels captured the key city of Hama on Thursday, bringing the insurgents a major victory after a lightning advance across northern Syria and dealing a new blow to President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies. The Syrian army said it was redeploying outside the city "to preserve civilians lives and prevent urban combat" after what it called intense clashes. Rebels said they were preparing to keep marching south towards Homs, Syria's great crossroads city that links the capital Damascus to the north and coast. "Your time has come," said a rebel operations room in an online post,...

Syria claimed that its counteroffensive successfully pushed back insurgents attempting to advance toward the strategic city of Hama, while opposition forces reported capturing additional Syrian soldiers and Iran-backed militants in intense clashes. This latest flare-up in Syria's civil war follows recent gains by insurgents, including the capture of large areas in the northern city of Aleppo and towns in the southern part of Idlib province. The conflict between President Bashar Assad's government and armed opposition forces, which seek to overthrow him, has claimed an estimated half-a-million lives over the past 13 years. According to Syrian state media SANA, government forces,...

Syrian insurgents fighting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have launched attacks in the central province of Hama, threatening to cut off government troops from a key route linking the capital, Damascus, with rebel-held Aleppo. The army was engaging in “violent confrontations” with armed groups in Hama, the Syrian state news agency, Sana, reported. Separately, a longtime independent war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Tuesday morning that rebel factions in the province had managed to seize several “towns in the last few hours”. “Syrian and Russian air forces carried out dozens of strikes on the area,”...

The Syrian military rushed reinforcements to the country’s northwest and launched airstrikes on a major city Sunday in an attempt to push back insurgents who seized the country’s largest city of Aleppo in a surprise offensive in recent days. The insurgency, led by jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, launched their campaign on Wednesday with a two-pronged attack on Aleppo and the countryside around Idlib, before moving toward neighboring Hama province. On Sunday, government troops created a “strong defensive line” in northern Hama, according to Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as they attempted to stall the...

Islamist rebels have seized control of Aleppo and punched through into Hama city amid claims that Syria's dictator Bashar al-Assad has allegedly fled to Russia with his family. Thousands of Syrian insurgents fanned out inside Aleppo in vehicles with improvised armor and pickups, deploying to landmarks such as the old citadel on Saturday, a day after they entered Syria's largest city facing little resistance from government troops. Syria's armed forces said in a statement Saturday that to absorb the large attack on Aleppo and save lives, it has redeployed and is preparing for a counterattack. The jihadist-led rebels seized Aleppo...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Thursday that it had killed a Hamas commander who led the attack on dozens of civilians on October 7, 2023, who had fled the Nova music festival and hidden in roadside shelters. In addition to being a mass murderer, the IDF said, Mohammad Abu Itiwi had also worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The IDF and Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shabak, or Shin Bet) said in a statement: Yesterday (Wednesday), in a joint IDF and ISA operation, the IAF struck and eliminated the terrorist Mohammad Abu Itiwi, a Nukhba...

Gaza authorities controlled by the Hamas terror organization, and the Al Jazeera news website controlled by Qatar, miraculously lowered the reported death count from an Israeli airstrike from 40 to 19 in new reports on Tuesday. As Breitbart News reported, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted a targeted airstrike Monday on three Hamas commanders who had deliberately placed their operation center inside a humanitarian zone for Palestinian civilians. USA Today reported claims that 65 people had been killed or wounded, then cited the “Hamas-run Gaza government media office,” which “put the number of fatalities at more than 40.” Al Jazeera...

(CNN) - Alleged Israeli airstrikes in central Syria on Sunday night struck a facility claimed by the West to have produced chemical weapons, according to a local resident. The strikes killed at least 18 people and injured 37 others, state-run Syrian news agency SANA said Monday, citing the director of Masyaf National Hospital. SANA reported that there had been several explosions in the central Tartous and Hama governorates, including in the Masyaf countryside. A Masyaf resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons, described to CNN hearing several explosions late Sunday night. “About half an hour before midnight, multiple airstrikes targeted...

CHICAGO, Illinois — A group of Hamas supporters flew the banner of the terrorist group at a pro-Palestinian rally outside the Democratic National Convention — but they flew it upside-down, and not on purpose. Roughly 3,500 people gathered in Union Park to protest against Israel — and to urge Vice President Kamala Harris to end U.S. support for Israel. Many present said they would not vote for Harris unless she complied with their demand. There were a broad spectrum of views represented — from peace activists to hard-core Islamists — though the crowd chanted for the Palestinian “resistance,” and repeated...

Yayha Sinwar, the Gaza-based leader of Hamas, has reportedly rejected any ceasefire that would require the terror group to disarm, according to the Wall Street Journal — making a new hostage deal almost impossible. The Journal reported Thursday: Hamas’s leader in Gaza told Arab negotiators that he would accept a peace deal only if Israel commits to a permanent cease-fire, affirming the militant group’s position in his first response to a proposal introduced by President Biden to end the eight-month war. “Hamas will not surrender its guns or sign a proposal that asks for that,” Arab mediators said Hamas leader...

A senior member of Hamas has hailed the systematic slaughter of civilians in Israel on October 7, vowing in an interview that if given the chance, the Palestinian terror group will repeat similar assaults many times in the future until Israel is exterminated. “Israel is a country that has no place on our land,” Hamad said in an interview with Lebanese TV channel LBC on October 24, which was translated and published Wednesday by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “We must remove it because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation....

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Palestinian group Hamas early Saturday hailed Russia’s rejection of an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip. “We appreciate Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position on the ongoing aggression against our people and his rejection of the Gaza siege, cutting off relief supplies, and targeting safe civilians there,” Hamas said in a statement. The group also welcomed Russian efforts “to stop the barbaric and systematic aggression against our Palestinian people in Gaza.” Putin warned on Friday that civilian casualties will be "absolutely unacceptable" in case of an Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip.

A senior European source tells The Times of Israel that the decision announced earlier today by European Union Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi to immediately sever all EU aid to the Palestinians will not be implemented, due to opposition from member states. Varhelyi is a diplomat from Hungary, which takes a much more hawkish approach toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than many of the 27 other members of the EU. The senior European source speculates that Varhelyi’s decision will be walked back tomorrow when the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borell meets with European foreign ministers.

In the ongoing brutality of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the Israeli Occupation of Palestine, the loss of civilian lives is an undeniable tragedy. Yet, when we dissect the numbers and delve into the narratives surrounding these casualties, a troubling pattern emerges. The concern for civilian lives appears to waver, leaning disproportionately towards one side. It's a disconcerting revelation that prompts us to question the consistency of our empathy when it comes to human suffering. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), from 2008 to September 19, 2023, the conflict has claimed the lives of...

Israeli jets have reportedly targeted a suspected chemical weapons factory in western Syria. The Syrian National Army said four IAF warplanes hit a military site in Hama province, near Masyaf, in the early hours of Thursday morning, killing two soldiers and causing massive damage. It is believed the site was linked to the sarin gas attack in April, which UN investigators said was the work of the Syrian government. The UN confirmed the chemical attacks in Khan Sheikhoun, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians and prompted a US missile attack, were perpetrated by Assad regime forces. Israel...