Read the daily news to learn English

Hamas’s tougher stance in talks puts fragile Gaza truce under greater threat

The current fragile pause in hostilities in Gaza has come under further threat with Hamas hardening its negotiating positions amid new Israeli airstrikes in the devastated territory. The first phase of the ceasefire agreement ended two weeks ago but Israel is refusing to implement the scheduled second phase, which is supposed to end with its withdrawal from Gaza, the freedom of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, and a definitive end to the conflict. Currently, both sides have refrained from returning to war, though Israel has conducted an intensifying series of airstrikes in Gaza that have killed dozens of Palestinians. Israeli military officials say the victims are legitimate targets who had entered unauthorised areas, engaged in militant activities or otherwise violated the truce. On Saturday, two airstrikes targeted northern Gaza killing nine people. Initial reports said a first strike took place as a Palestinian journalist Mahmoud Aslim was using a drone in the ruined town of Beit Lahiya to survey potential sites for tented camps on behalf of a local charitable organisation. A second strike targeted a car as it evacuated those injured by the first attack. The Palestinian Journalists’ Protection Center, a local watchdog, said the dead included three Palestinian journalists in all. The Israeli military said it initially struck two people operating a drone that posed a threat to soldiers in the area, then launched another strike at a group of people who came to collect the drone equipment. The army identified all of those targeted as suspected militants, without providing evidence. Hamas accused Israel of “deliberate killings” that aimed “to undermine the ceasefire agreement and deliberately destroy any chance of completing the agreement and exchanging prisoners, in a blatant challenge to the mediators and the international community”. The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that Israeli fire had killed 19 people in the past 48 hours. The death toll in the 15-month Israeli offensive in Gaza now totals more than 48,500, mostly civilians. Hamas still has 59 hostages, of whom 35 are believed to be dead. In a statement, Hamas clarified an offer to release a living American-Israeli hostage, saying it would only hand over 21-year-old Edan Alexander if Israel implements the ceasefire agreement which came into effect in January. The US has already rebuffed the offer, made on Friday, and accused the Islamist militant organisation of “stalling” by making “impractical” demands. Alexander, who grew up in the US and was fighting as a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, was abducted from his military base during Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack that killed 1,200, mostly civilians, and triggered the war. He is the last living US citizen held in Gaza. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the new statement from Hamas. On Friday, the office of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accused the group of “psychological warfare”. The US said it presented on Wednesday a proposal to extend the ceasefire for several weeks to allow the negotiation of a permanent truce. It said Hamas was claiming flexibility in public while privately making “entirely impractical” demands. The indirect talks, which are being held in Egypt and Qatar, are expected to continue during the coming week. For two weeks, Israel has barred the delivery of food, fuel and other supplies to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians, and cut electricity to the territory a week ago, to pressure Hamas to accept the new proposal. Hamas however said on Saturday that it would only release hostages if Israel lifted its blockade, withdrew from a strategic corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt and freed more Palestinian prisoners. The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced most of the population. The ceasefire’s first phase included the release of 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight others in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces pulled back to a buffer zone along Gaza’s border and allowed a surge of humanitarian aid.

‘They lock us in like sheep’: new Israeli checkpoints and barriers raise fears in the West Bank

The road to Atara from Ramallah winds through the hills and valleys of the occupied W est Bank. To drive the nine miles to the village from the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority should take about half an hour, despite the potholes and traffic. These days, the taxi drivers waiting for fares on Radio Street in the north of the city shrug when asked when they will arrive at their destination. “Thirty minutes, one hour, half a day, it all depends on the checkpoints. If I could tell you, I would … but no one knows,” said Ahmed Barghouti, 50, a driver for over 20 years. Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect in Gaza in January, life for the 2.9 million Palestinians in the West Bank has not become easier. Israel immediately launched a bloody major offensive in the north that has so far forced at least 40,000 people from their homes, the largest displacement since Israel’s occupation began in 1967, and killed dozens, including children. At the same time, Israeli authorities have been constructing new checkpoints and barriers. According to the Palestinian Authority, at least 119 “iron gates” have been set up since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, including many since January. These block access to villages and towns, cutting off entire communities from major transport routes. There are now close to 900 barriers in the West Bank, the PA said. The UN has recorded more than 800, a steep increase on the 645 in 2023. Palestinian officials say this “localised system” of roadblocks is a change from a strategy merely to cut the West Bank into north, south and central sections. “It no longer controls movement alone, but also … access to agricultural land, social and livelihood opportunities, health, education and the economy, among other things,” Amir Daoud, of the Authority’s Colonisation and Wall Resistance Committee, told the Observer. A survey last month of NGOs working in the West Bank found that 93% said roadblocks, permit denials and checkpoint delays hindered aid delivery. “Each village has a gate now and they lock us in like sheep in a pen,” said Barghouti, who lives in Atara. At 11am on Thursday, Barghouti’s taxi was filling up. These days, he is lucky if he makes a third of the 200 shekels (£42) he once took home daily. Barghouti’s eldest son, of six children, was forced to drop his university studies to help his father. Abu Usama, a 70-year-old construction worker unwilling to give his full name for fear of repercussions from talking to media, had taken a front seat. He too has suffered financially since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, when Hamas militants launched a surprise attack into Israel killing 1,200, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages. More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the subsequent Israeli offensive, and at least 840 have been killed in the West Bank, according to the UN, most of them victims of Israeli security forces. There have been 48 Israeli fatalities. “There is no work even for the young. So who is going to employ me at my age?” Abu Usama said. Like about 150,000 others, he used to travel into Israel to work but since the war no permits have been issued by Israeli authorities. Nor has he been able to reach Jerusalem to pray at the al-Aqsa mosque, as is tradition during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. “I went with my daughter at the beginning of Ramadan a week or so ago, but they turned us back at the checkpoint. I am old and sick but they sent me back anyway,” he said. Israeli authorities have said they had granted permits for entry into Jerusalem for prayer to only a “limited number of Muslim worshippers” from the West Bank due to fears of unrest, though no restrictions were placed on Israeli Palestinians. Islamic authorities estimate that some 80,000 people peacefully attended the midday prayer on Friday on the plaza of the Haram al-Sharif, the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest for Jews, who know it as the Temple Mount. Behind Abu Osama was sitting Umm Omar, a 36-year-old housewife, also afraid to give her full name. She had been visiting family in Ramallah. Like other passengers, Umm Omar had consulted the new apps that list which checkpoints are open, and sought information on social media. “I set out this morning, then heard that the [Israeli] army had shut the gates to the village so turned back, but then I heard that they were open after all. I hope we get through easily but you can never tell,” she said. When earlier this week the army shut the gates from 9pm to 5am, a dozen Atara residents who work in restaurants in Ramallah and return late were caught out and spent a cold night in their cars. Ramziya Dahabreh, 68, had come into Ramallah for a doctor’s appointment. “I have to come in and out for medical treatment,” she said. “But with the checkpoints it is very hard.” Squeezed on to a final vacant seat in the taxi was Adam Awad, an 18-year-old medical student. Now on his way home to Atara, Awad said he wakes an hour early – at 6am – to make sure he reaches lectures. “I’ve been lucky. I’ve missed one or two but some of my friends have missed exams,” he said. “It’s not just the wait. It is dangerous too. You forget your ID card, you can be detained and end up in prison for months. You can be humiliated, or beaten for nothing at all,” Awad said. With a blast of its horn, Barghouti’s yellow taxi headed off into Ramallah’s chaotic streets, heading for Atara. Following a complicated route on side roads to avoid checkpoints and barricades, the run was clear. Relieved, the passengers scattered quickly. Israeli officials says its offensive in the West Bank and the new obstacles to free movement there are necessary to counter imminent security threats from extremist armed groups. In a statement to the Observer, the Israel Defense Forces said that following guidance from “the political echelon and a security assessment, it was decided to modify procedures and intensify the inspection of Palestinian vehicles entering roads shared with Israeli traffic to ensure safe travel. “The checkpoints have proven effective, leading to arrests, the seizure of weapons and the prevention of attacks,” the IDF said. Outside a shop selling construction equipment beside the taxi stand in Atara, Shoail Shader, 76, said he could not remember a “situation so bad”. “Business is dead. People have no money. We thought it would get better when the ceasefire came to Gaza but it just got worse.”

16 dead as massive storm system sweeps across US south with multiple tornadoes

At least 16 people have been killed across the US as a storm system unleashed multiple tornadoes that struck across several states in the south and midwest, officials said. On Saturday, the Missouri state highway patrol reported two deaths in Ozark county, one death in Butler county, six deaths in Wayne county and one death in Jefferson county. “We urge residents to stay away from debris-filled areas, watch for downed power lines and follow regional emergency services for localized updates,” the state’s highway patrol warned. In Arkansas, three storm-related deaths have been confirmed in Independence county with an additional 29 people injured in eight counties, according to the Arkansas division of emergency management on Saturday morning. Three people were killed on Friday in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo county in the Texas panhandle, according to Sgt Cindy Barkley of the state’s department of public safety. One pileup involved an estimated 38 cars. “It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” Barkley said, calling the near-zero visibility a nightmare. “We couldn’t tell that they were all together until the dust kind of settled.” In Mississippi, Governor Tate Reeves announced on Saturday morning that at least three people have been injured and were hospitalized in Grenada county, adding that the number is expected to increase. Six counties have reported damage including Calhoun, Carroll, Grenada, Humphreys, Leflore and Montgomery. Grenada county has been hit the hardest, Reeves said. A shelter has opened up in the Grenada City auditorium for those in search of refuge. At least 26 tornadoes were reported but not confirmed to have touched down late on Friday night and early on Saturday as a low pressure system drove powerful thunderstorms across parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri, said David Roth, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center. “Today there is a high risk for more tornadoes across Alabama and Mississippi, the chance is 30%,” he said. “That’s pretty significant.” As the storms regain strength, the highest possible risk of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms was on Saturday night, forecasters said. The National Weather Service issued multiple tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings early on Saturday morning for areas in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana and Texas. The agency has warned residents not to seek refuge in vehicles outside or under overpasses, as well as not to seek shelter under trees. Instead, it urged residents to get off the road and drive to a designated shelter, basement or safe room. The next best option for shelter is a small, windowless room or hallway on the lowest floor of a sturdy building, according to the agency. Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state. The state patrol said winds were so strong that they toppled several tractor-trailers. “This is terrible out here,” said Charles Daniel, a truck driver hauling a 48-foot trailer along Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma. “There’s a lot of sand and dirt in the air. I’m not pushing it over 55mph. I’m scared it will blow over if I do.” On Saturday morning, the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, warned that drier air is expected to move into the area today, which, with winds at 15-20mph and gusts up to 30mph, will contribute “critical fire weather conditions expected across parts of the area this afternoon”. Forecasters said the severe storm threat would continue into the weekend with a high chance of tornadoes and damaging winds on Saturday in Mississippi and Alabama. Heavy rain could bring flash flooding to some parts of the east coast on Sunday. Experts say it’s not unusual to see such weather extremes in March. “What’s unique about this one is its large size and intensity,” said Bill Bunting of the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. “And so what that is doing is producing really substantial impacts over a very large area.” The weather service said at least five tornadoes were reported in Missouri on Friday, including one in the Saint Louis area. Several buildings were damaged. The Storm Prediction Center said fast-moving storms could spawn twisters and hail as large as baseballs, but the greatest threat would come from straight-line winds near or exceeding hurricane force, with gusts of 100mph (160km/h) possible. “Potentially violent” tornadoes were expected on Saturday in parts of the central Gulf coast and deep south into the Tennessee valley, according to the National Weather Service. The Storm Prediction Center said parts of Mississippi including Jackson and Hattiesburg and areas of Alabama including Birmingham and Tuscaloosa would be at a high risk. Severe storms and tornadoes were also possible across eastern Louisiana, western Georgia, central Tennessee and the western Florida panhandle. Wildfires in the southern plains threatened to spread rapidly amid warm, dry weather and strong winds, and evacuations were ordered on Friday for some communities in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and New Mexico. A blaze in Roberts county, Texas, north-east of Amarillo, quickly blew up from less than a square mile (about 2 sq km) to an estimated 32.8 sq miles (85 sq km), the Texas A&M University forest service said on X. Crews stopped its advance by Friday evening. About 60 miles (90km) to the south, another fire grew to about 4 sq miles (10 sq km) before its advance was halted in the afternoon. High winds also knocked out power to more than 300,000 homes and businesses in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, according the website poweroutage.us. The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of far western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota starting early on Saturday. Snow accumulations of 3-6in (7.6-15.2cm) were expected, with up to a foot (30cm) possible. Winds gusting to 60mph (97km/h) were expected to cause whiteout conditions.

‘Trump tariffs are reshaping our politics’: Canadians on their election

When the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, resigned in early January, after months of pressure to quit, the approval ratings of the progressive firebrand had dropped from their peak of 65% in September 2016 to 22%. At the end of last year, the Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, described by many as “Trump Lite”, was the clear favourite to win Canada’s next general election, and the top pick of 45% of Canadians for prime minister. At the time, the three biggest issues for voters were all economic: reducing the cost of everyday items, inflation and interest rates, and access to affordable housing. The first few weeks of Donald Trump’s second presidential term have changed some of that, at least for the time being. According to a new survey, “dealing with US president Trump” is now the most important issue influencing Canadian votes, ahead of the economy. Canadian polls point to a remarkable political shift: Poilievre’s predicted landslide victory appears to have vanished into thin air. His party is still predicted to win, and is still polling above its 2019 and 2021 levels of support, but Poilievre’s perceived proximity to Maga politics has boosted the centre-left Liberals to only a few points behind the Conservatives. “The tariffs imposed by Trump are reshaping our political landscape,” said Richard Nantel, a 65-year-old from Montreal, Quebec. “A pro-Trump Conservative party was predicted to win the upcoming federal election. This party is now scrambling to save what was a sure win. It’s now less likely that the Conservatives will win the election.” Scott Duncan, 54, a management consultant, said: “Since Trump began to threaten Canada with becoming the 51st state, the Canadians around me have become much more aligned politically.” Duncan is also from Quebec, the predominantly French-speaking province that has recently had a resurging separatist movement. “People like my mom’s partner, who were pro-Trump before, no longer are. I have been very surprised by the fierce Canadian nationalism displayed everywhere.” “Those that boasted to support Trump – colleagues at work – have quieted down for the meantime,” said Nicholas Mickelsen, a 35-year-old structural firefighter from Edmonton, the capital of Alberta – a province that has long been considered a Conservative fortress, and where the newly minted prime minister, Mark Carney, grew up. Nantel, Duncan and Mickelsen were among hundreds of Canadians who shared with the Guardian how they, those in their social circles and their communities had been grappling politically and privately with the US-Canadian trade war and political standoff. Markets have been reacting with gradually rising panic to retaliatory tariffs and rhetoric between the two North American neighbours, with many Canadians now bracing for a recession and worrying about their jobs and investments. Various people expressed growing concerns about China’s decision to impose harsh retaliatory tariffs on some Canadian farm and food imports last weekend, but despite these shock developments, the primary worry for many voters is now the US president. “Family and friends who are more to the right and left have come to the centre to fight Trump,” said Andrea, 59, a teacher from Toronto. Longtime Tories and leftwing New Democratic party (NDP) or Green voters in her social circle, Andrea said, had recently joined the Liberal party and were all planning to vote for Carney in the next general election. “Trudeau’s legacy is looking very different now,” she said, pointing to the outgoing prime minister’s remarkable popularity comeback over the past few weeks. Retired Fiona Mackey, 63, from Comox, British Columbia, had been planning to lend her support to the leftwing NDP, until Carney threw his hat in the ring. “I signed up to the Liberal party to vote for Carney to replace Trudeau, as I felt he would be the best person to steer us in the right direction with tariff threats, Trump, world stability, and so on,” she said. “A lot of Canadians haven’t yet heard of him, as he was ‘poached’ by the Bank of England. I like his views on the EU, and would be happy for Canada to join!” Mackey was among many Canadians who said they felt Poilievre and his Conservatives had merely “cashed in on Trudeau’s unpopularity” and “would not stand up to Trump”. “Anti-Trump sentiment”, she said, had united Canadians behind controversial politicians such as Doug Ford, the polarising, rightwing populist premier of Ontario who just won a third term after vowing to “fight against Donald Trump”. He was “universally very popular” now, Mackey felt, because he was “standing up to the US”. “I guess it’s ‘in the moment’ politics, he’s stuck his neck out for Canada. My west coast friends who are NDP-leaning like him for what he’s doing for Canada at the moment.” Katie, a mother of three from Ontario in her 40s, said that although there were still people sympathetic to Trump and his politics in her community, other voters seemed to be “rapidly returning to [their] comfort zone, which is a Liberal majority”. A recording of Ford admitting to caucus and supporters that he had been a Trump supporter until the trade war began seemed to reflect a broader sentiment in Canadian society among rightwing voters, Katie added. While many left-leaning Canadians who got in touch reported feeling relief that Trump had knocked some wind out of the Conservatives’ sails, various people pointed out that strong anti-Trump sentiment had allowed politicians to ignore other pressing issues and had helped beleaguered politicians with poor track records – such as Ford and Trudeau – regain popularity. “[Doug Ford] is taking an aggressive stance against Trump, and captured the focus of voters,” said Christina, in her 40s, a web design consultant from Ottawa. People had forgotten his cuts to education and a major property development scandal, she added. Like scores of others, she felt Ford had ruthlessly pounced on the opportunity to call a regional election in a rare moment of collective shock and unity for personal gain, and many predict Carney may seek to similarly capitalise on the anti-Trump mood and call an early election. While many shared renewed optimism about the Liberals’ chances of winning the election, others warned that many Canadians were still politically aligned with Trump’s overall vision. Stephen McIntyre, a pensioner living on a low-population island in British Columbia, said he was dismayed about the “so-called Conservatives who share Maga values and find support”, while the “real Conservatives” had “lost their political voice long ago”. “The threat of a Trump-sympathetic Conservative national government looms in the next election,” said Colin Martin, a university instructor from Calgary, Alberta. “Alberta’s current government has more in common – functionally and ideologically – with Trump’s administration than with our own national government, which has created significant tension here.” Alberta, home to most of Canada’s oil and gas production, is the country’s largest exporter to the US. According to a survey, 29% of Albertans would have voted for Trump, compared with 21% of Canadians. The Alberta premier, Danielle Smith, who accepted an invitation by Trump to Mar-a-Lago in January, has repeatedly cautioned against tariff retaliation, in sharp contrast with other Canadian leaders. “Donald Trump’s comments about Canada becoming the 51st state have overnight created advocacy groups for merging with America,” said John Bourassa, 42, from Vancouver. “There are debates on where new electoral lines should be drawn, if Canada should be a territory or a state.” Trevor*, a farmer from Saskatchewan who will be affected by the new 100% Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola oil, said the election of Trump had restored his faith in the wisdom of the average voter. “Personally, I am in favour of joining the US but pretty sure that’s not a majority position. A common currency is much less controversial. “I await the arrival of Poilievre as our new PM and his adoption of Trumpian policies to reduce waste in our government and other administration spending,” he said, hoping this would “help reduce the national overdraft”. “Mr Poilievre and the Conservatives will have a substantial majority in my constituency, I know nobody who will have changed their mind.” Although tariffs could mean “a temporary financial hit”, he thought a long-term benefit was “entirely possible”. Trevor was critical of “the ongoing belligerence on the part of Trudeau, Doug Ford and, of course, Carney” and feared that the markets, political opposition and “an almost wholly hostile press, worldwide” could totally derail Trump’s plans for the US and the west. Poilievre, Trevor felt, should continue with his “already effective” criticism of Canadian housing costs and housing shortages, and “should not distance himself from Mr Trump” or “say anything to devalue his standing” with the US president. While many respondents stressed that being proudly Canadian had been a sort of antithesis to Trump and the US for a long time, scores of people reported having fallen out with American family, friends and colleagues since Trump’s second term began, and feeling an unprecedented sense of hostility towards the US. Kelly Ann Grimaldi, 39, from Welland, Ontario, said her family in Canada and Italy had stopped speaking with most of their US family members, because even those who did not support Trump could not understand why Canadians did not want to be American. “I look at America as our enemy,” she said. “I find myself feeling a lot of anger at Americans I interact with, even though I understand that many of them will suffer much more than I will under this administration,” said Sarah, 26, a retail worker from Montreal. Assurances from Americans that they opposed Trump, she felt, were “self-serving” in the absence of action to support their Canadian neighbours. Pamela, a middle-aged professional from Ontario, said she had not bothered to vote in the last general election, as she had felt things had been “working just fine in Canada”. “This time, I definitely want to vote, on the issue of who will best deal with Donald Trump. I anticipate unprecedented turnout, since so many Canadians know that our nation and way of life are at stake.” *Name has been changed

‘They killed him in cold blood’: the cycle of revenge in north-west Syria

Sipping tea on an unusually warm February afternoon on his veranda that overlooked the small Alawite village of Arza, north-west Syria, Mohammed Abdullah al-Ismaili said he trusted the new Syrian authorities to keep him safe. “We believe what [interim Syrian president Ahmed] al-Sharaa says, but the problem is these unknown groups,” the 62-year-old official in Arza’s municipality told the Guardian on 4 February, four days after a group of masked men raided the village at night and killed eight men on their knees. “The government says the killings are individual cases, it seems like they are unable to control the cases.” Ismaili was dead a little over a month later. He was killed last Friday alongside 24 of his neighbours by crowds of people from surrounding Sunni villages who chanted anti-Alawite slogans while they rounded up men in Arza’s village square and shot them dead in a rampage that lasted about three hours. The killings in Arza happened during four days of shocking violence in north-west Syria last week that left more than 1,000 people dead – including at least 745 civilians – in some of Syria’s deadliest days of fighting since the beginning of the country’s civil war in 2011. The wave of bloodshed three months on from the fall of Bashar al-Assad stunned Syria and brought to light the deep faultlines which threaten to tear the country apart after 14 years of civil war. Widespread revenge attacks against civilians have mostly targeted Alawites, a minority Islamic sect from which the ousted Syrian president hailed, though most Alawites had nothing to do with the previous regime. The killings ended the jubilant mood which had prevailed over the country after the toppling of Assad on 8 December by a rebel coalition led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which now leads the interim government. Fighting started after about 4,000 militants loyal to the Assad regime launched a wave of attacks against Syrian security forces on Thursday, attacking more than 30 checkpoints simultaneously across Syria’s coast. Blindsided by the attacks and unable to regain control over the situation, the Syrian government issued an urgent call over Telegram for fighters to head to Syria’s coast. The call to arms was repeated in mosques across the country and spread like wildfire over social media. Soon, thousands of militia members and armed civilians flooded north-west Syria. Civilians and factions affiliated with Syria’s government began to massacre mainly Alawite civilians and unarmed prisoners, as well as loot and pillage the villages on Syria’s coast. Horrific videos began to emerge: men in military uniforms forcing unarmed people to bark like dogs while they beat them and gloating over the corpses of a woman’s children while their mother watched; and women wailing on their knees in front of dozens of bodies piled on top of one another. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, 529 civilians and prisoners were killed by armed individuals and Syrian government forces. Two Turkish-backed factions, the Hamzat division and Abu Amsha’s Sultan Suleiman Shah division, which are officially a part of the new Syrian army but not yet under its full command, were responsible for the majority of civilians killed by Syrian government forces, according to SNHR. In addition, Assad loyalists killed 225 civilians and 207 members of Syrian government forces, the war monitor added. In Arza, local people say they know who their killers were. Three survivors accused the residents of Khattab, a nearby Sunni village, of being behind Friday’s massacre. Abu Jaber, a religious notable in Khattab and a former opposition fighter who had returned to the village, described how he and others entered homes, and forced men on to the town’s roundabout, with the purpose of displacing them from the village. “But then people who had their families killed [by the regime] came, and they opened fire,” he said. A survivor of the attack described how the killers left the bodies on the roundabout and began to loot houses, killing any men they saw while they pillaged. They said members of the Syrian general security tried to protect town residents, but were quickly overwhelmed. “They came in the town chanting that they wanted 500,000 Alawites for the people they lost. They came into my house and took my brother and killed him in cold blood,” said a woman who was retrieving her belongings from her looted home, breaking down in tears. A Guardian reporter saw spent bullet casings and an empty Kalashnikov magazine on the ground at the roundabout during a visit to Arza this week. An official from the Syrian ministry of information initially denied that anyone was killed in Arza, but then said three people were killed. They insisted that the killings were not motivated by sectarian reasons and said security forces had arrested looters once reinforcements arrived. While Abu Jaber denied personally killing anyone, he said the people of Arza deserved their fate. He claimed that during the civil war the town’s residents had extorted and abused the residents of Khattab, and so the killings last Friday were merely people “claiming their rights”. He recalled a time when a regime official from Arza had bludgeoned a Khattab resident to death with a stone – and claimed the whole of Arza had celebrated after the killing. “What would you imagine that the villages that live around Arza, which committed these acts, what should they do? You think we should give them flowers?” he said. Abu Jaber acknowledged that he did not know if any of the perpetrators of the crimes he listed were still in Arza, but insisted that he thought that most, if not all, of Syria’s Alawite sect were guilty. His rhetoric echoed that of the Assad regime, which was notorious for its indiscriminate attacks against civilians in opposition areas. He condemned anyone who rebelled against Syria’s new state, using an old Assad-era slogan to praise the country’s new president: “We sacrifice our soul and blood for you, O Sharaa.” Survivors of the Arza massacre admitted that select regime officials from the town did kill residents of Khattab, but said those officials had fled after the fall of Assad, and those left in the town had nothing at all to do with the previous abuses. “We also suffered from the regime, the whole world was being attacked by them. But I’m not related to them, how is it my fault?” said a resident of Arza. Experts have said that for Syria to survive under its new rulers, an urgent, earnest process of reconciliation and transitional justice was key. “Revenge must not be taken by your own hands, don’t take revenge against perpetrators. For both victims and perpetrators, this is a complex process,” said Fadel Abdulghany, the founder of SNHR. In his first speech as Syria’s president, Sharaa promised to establish “real transitional justice”, which includes accountability for Assad-era officials who committed human rights violations. He issued a blanket amnesty for all regime employees, with exception for those who were complicit in war crimes. After last week’s killings, Sharaa set up a committee to investigate the violence on the coast. “We will hold accountable, with full decisiveness, anyone who is involved in the bloodshed of civilians, mistreats civilians, exceeds the state’s authority or exploits power for personal gain. No one will be above the law,” he said. In Arza, people said they could not imagine returning to live, no matter what the government promised them. Most were thinking of going to Lebanon, joining at least 6,000 Alawites who fled to the neighbouring country last week. Arza was completely deserted on Wednesday when the Guardian visited, except for a few people coming to retrieve whatever belongings remained in their homes. A building’s roof had collapsed, others had their windows broken and appliances stolen. “We fled with only the clothes on our back, that’s it. There’s nothing left for me there,” said an Arza resident who planned to smuggle himself to Lebanon over the weekend. Referring to the displacement of the Alawite residents in the area, Abu Jaber said it was only fair that they should experience dispossession, just as he did during Syria’s civil war. “My advice to the people of Arza: if you are planning to return, think twice about it. We were displaced for 14 years in the north. So, be patient for a year or two years, maybe there will be justice then,” he said.