The extradition of a former Syrian officer, Israeli-Turkish tensions, and widespread operations in the West Bank

The Syrian Ministry of Interior said that the Lebanese authorities handed over to Damascus, on Wednesday, a former senior officer in the Syrian army to face charges including murder and torture, in the first handover of a military officer from the Bashar al-Assad era conducted by Lebanon since the overthrow of the former Syrian president in 2024.

Major General Adel Issa, the former commander of the 17th Division in the Syrian army, who later became the commander of the ground forces in Deir ez-Zor, was handed over to the Syrian authorities after he was detained by the Lebanese authorities earlier this month, according to what Reuters reported.

The Syrian Ministry of Interior said that Issa is wanted under an “arrest warrant... for committing crimes of premeditated murder, facilitating the commission of a felony, intentional killing of more than two people, the crime of torture leading to death, and crimes of assault aimed at provoking civil war and sectarian fighting.”

The Ministry added that his case is now being presented before a referral judge in Damascus in preparation for a decision on his referral to the Damascus Criminal Court.

Two sources familiar with the process of Issa’s arrest and extradition said that he denied these accusations while in detention in Lebanon.

This handover may set a precedent for dozens of former Syrian security and military officials who are believed to have fled across the border, after the opposition led by current President Ahmed al-Sharaa ousted Assad in December 2024.

Issa (67 years old) was detained on August 8 after heading to the Syrian embassy in Beirut to complete some paperwork. The two informed sources stated that embassy officials informed the Lebanese Public Prosecutor’s Office that he was wanted in Syria, and Lebanese investigators detained him.

His extradition comes in the wake of months of pressure exerted by Damascus on Beirut to take action against former officers from the Assad era who took refuge in Lebanon after the overthrow of his government.

Reuters reported in January that the Syrian authorities handed over to Lebanese security officials a list of more than 200 former senior officers wanted by Damascus.

A senior Syrian security official traveled to Beirut in December to discuss their whereabouts, legal status, and the possibility of trying or extraditing them.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the Hebrew state had sent a letter to Türkiye warning it against establishing a base in Syria, implicitly acknowledging the launch of a strike the previous day.

In an interview on an Army Radio podcast, Netanyahu said that Israel had warned Turkey against establishing a base, adding: “Apparently they did not hear that, so we made sure they understood it more clearly,” according to what was reported by Agence France-Presse.

In turn, Israeli Army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said on Wednesday, while inspecting his forces in a security zone occupied by Israel in southern Syria, that the army would not allow threats on the border to “consolidate.”

Zamir addressed his soldiers, saying: “We are monitoring the changes on the Syrian front, and we will not allow hostile forces to establish their presence on our borders, and we will know how to use our operational capabilities accurately at the appropriate time and place.”

Three informed sources told Reuters that the head of the Israeli Mossad, Roman Goffman, made a phone call with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani last week, during which they discussed the Turkish military presence in Syria.

The call, which the sources said took place on August 14, came days before Israel launched air strikes on a Syrian military air base in the north of the country, yesterday, Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Israel bombed the Abu al-Duhur air base in Idlib Governorate in northwestern Syria, accusing Damascus of violating an agreement by allowing the deployment of Turkish forces there, in a move that sparked condemnation from both the United States and Turkey.

Despite the tensions between them, Syria and Israel held negotiating rounds at the ministerial level, which did not result in an end to the Israeli attacks, which were condemned by several countries, including the United States.

For the fourth week in a row, the Israeli army continued its operations in the West Bank, raiding several areas on Wednesday, and arresting more than 30 Palestinians, including the Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, while the authorities moved forward with a controversial project to build more than 1,200 new settlement units in a highly sensitive area.

On the other hand, the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, renewed his condemnation of a siege imposed by extremist settlers on Palestinian homes in the village of Qusra in the West Bank, describing what is happening as “the typical definition of terrorism.” But this did not move anything, and the siege of homes continued.

Huckabee refused to hold the Israeli government responsible for these events, saying that it carries out arrests and takes measures when the United States asks it to do so, ignoring that the army is also besieging the Palestinians, and is not ending the settlers’ siege.

On Wednesday, Palestinians continued to be besieged in 3 homes in the village of Qasra, south of Nablus in the West Bank, for the 11th day in a row, without electricity, and with little water or food.

Abdel Azim Al-Wadi, mayor of Qusra, said that soldiers and settlers continue to impose siege on the three homes located in the Ras Al-Ayn area.

The army had arrived in the area a few days ago to expel the settlers, but it “failed” in doing so, and declared the area a “closed military zone,” thus besieging the area with the settlers, despite American criticism, as the Palestinians cannot leave their homes or return to them with the presence of the army and settlers.

Massive arrests

What is happening in Qusra is part of a broader context in the West Bank.

Israel continued a massive arrest campaign that targeted the Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Ashraf Al-Awar, on Wednesday, following the storming of his house in the town of Silwan in occupied Jerusalem.

The Government Communications Center reported that the arrest of Al-A'war comes despite the issuance of a previous Israeli decision to deport him from the West Bank, as part of the procedures and restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities against Palestinian officials in Jerusalem.

Later, the Israeli police confirmed the arrest of Al-A'war, after violating an administrative order.

The arrest campaign included areas in Ramallah, Hebron, Nablus, Qalqilya, Tulkarm, and Bethlehem.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club said that at least 30 citizens of the West Bank were arrested. He added that this campaign comes in light of the continued escalation of arrest operations, which in many cases are accompanied by storming, searching and vandalizing homes, and detaining citizens and interrogating them on the ground.

This coincided with settler attacks in various areas of the West Bank, including Ramallah, Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron, Tubas, and the Jordan Valley border area.

The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem said that 47 Palestinian families face the imminent risk of displacement in the Jordan Valley region as a result of the army and settlers cutting off water to their homes.

It said in a statement: “47 Palestinian families, including more than 300 individuals, nearly half of whom are children, face the imminent risk of displacement from their homes in the northern Jordan Valley.”

She pointed out that last week, soldiers and settlers cut the last water pipes supplying families in Ras Al-Ahmar, Al-Thaala, and East Atuf, in an attempt to expel the few remaining Palestinian communities in the area, in conjunction with excavation work to establish the separation wall called “The Crimson Thread” in the northern Jordan Valley.

“E1” settlement project

In the midst of these attacks, the Israeli authorities issued a bid to build 1,234 settlement units in the southern part of the “E1” project, east of occupied Jerusalem, in a step that moves one of the most dangerous settlement plans from the approval and planning stage to the stage of land marketing and preparation for actual implementation.

This bid is one of two major residential plans in the “E1” project. The marketing process includes 7 settlement blocs, and the Israeli authorities set October 19 as the final date for submitting bids.

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said that this tender cannot be treated as a regular housing project or a local expansion of the Maale Adumim settlement, but rather as an executive step in a geopolitical project aimed at reshaping the area between Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley.

The “E1” plan extends over an area of ​​​​approximately 12 thousand dunams between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, and consists of an interconnected system of residential, industrial and tourism plans, road networks and infrastructure.

The danger of the step lies in the fact that the “E1” project is located in the middle of the West Bank, dividing it into two halves, serving the “Greater Jerusalem” project and separating the city from its Palestinian surroundings, which undermines the possibility of it becoming the capital of a Palestinian state.

According to the Commission, the effect of the plan “is not limited to seizing land, but extends to re-engineering the movement of Palestinians and their population distribution, confining them to separate enclaves surrounded by settlements, bypass roads, and areas under Israeli control.”

Peace Now, an organization that monitors settlements, and which along with other organizations challenged the expansion plan before the Supreme Court, said in a statement: “At the height of the election period, the government is trying to achieve the settlement right’s vision of annexation, and to tie the hands of the next government.”

She added that by publishing the tender, Israel “violates an explicit commitment on the part of the state.”

The organization said that the Attorney General's Office in July informed petitioners opposing the expansion that no construction tenders were expected to be issued on the project within the next two or three months, and that there would be early notice if any changes occurred.

She continued: “But after only one month, the door to submitting bids was opened without any prior notice.”

The project had been frozen for many years amid strong opposition from the international community, including previous US administrations, which feared that building a new settlement neighborhood on a mostly vacant plot of land would rule out the establishment of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state.