1/8/2025–|Last updated: 1/8/202502:27 PM (Mecca time)
In their coverage of developments in the Middle East, international newspapers and websites focused on the ongoing human suffering in the Gaza Strip, and on the persecution of Israeli soldiers abroad, due to their crimes in Gaza, in addition to the forms of torture that were practiced in Saydnaya prison in the Damascus countryside, Syria.
The Guardian newspaper’s editorial called for an immediate settlement in Gaza, stressed that the suffering in Gaza is not an inevitable fate, and regretted the decline in international interest in what is happening there.
The editorial believed that the tragedy had reached a degree of seriousness that would eliminate the chances of any ceasefire agreement remaining, highlighting that the needs are enormous and the capabilities to meet them are disjointed, but the release of prisoners, the achievement of a permanent truce, and the flow of aid remain the minimum required.
The French newspaper Le Monde wrote about “a secret international battle that Israel is waging after cases emerged in foreign courts against Israeli soldiers on charges related to war crimes in Gaza.”
The French newspaper’s report stated that social networking sites provide easy sources for associations defending Palestinian rights and human rights organizations to preserve evidence of the involvement of soldiers in Gaza, which raises serious concern in Israel.
An investigation in the British Financial Times newspaper shed light on what it described as a campaign of repression and persecution launched by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government against the Arab population inside Israel since October 7, 2023.
The newspaper notes that the Arab population fears the enactment of new legislation that will exacerbate discrimination against them. Perhaps the most controversial project is amending the Israeli Basic Law, which aims to facilitate the exclusion of Arab candidates and parties from participating in the elections.
On another topic, the American Wall Street Journal revealed that the US administration estimates that the Israeli army will withdraw from southern Lebanon by the 26th of this month. It quoted an informed source as saying that more than a third of the Israeli forces have already withdrawn from Lebanese territory.
The story of a liberator from Saydnaya prison
Regarding the Syrian issue, a correspondent for the French newspaper Liberation followed the suffering of one of the editors from Saydnaya prison in adapting to the new life outside the prison.
Muhammad was arrested 11 years ago because he refused to join compulsory military conscription, and in prison he tasted various forms and types of torture, and when he was liberated, he did not recognize anyone outside except his mother and father, as reported by the French newspaper’s correspondent.
According to the newspaper’s report, “Muhammad discovered smart phones and learned for the first time that Israel had annihilated Gaza, that an entity called ISIS had waged wars in the region, that Russia had occupied parts of Ukraine… and many other things that he had missed.”
