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Turkey has conveyed its views on Syria strikes to Israel via intelligence agency

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey has conveyed its views regarding Israel's air strikes on Syria to Israeli authorities via its intelligence agency, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday, adding Ankara was also in close contact with regional powers and the U.S.

Turkey has condemned Israel's strikes against other regional countries, including Lebanon, Iran and Syria, while calling its military assault on Gaza a genocide. It has halted all trade and recalled its ambassador in Tel Aviv for consultations too.

An Israeli soldier stands on a vehicle as Israeli Druze cross the border to check on their family members in Syria, amid the ongoing conflict in the Druze areas in Syria, in Majdal Shams, near the ceasefire line between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Syrians terrified as violence grips Druze-majority city of Sweida

In Syria's Druze-majority city of Sweida, residents said they have been living in terror since the arrival of government forces who have been carrying out what witnesses and a war monitor have called summary executions.

"A lot of my friends were killed, including a doctor who was going to hospital," said Osama, 32, by telephone on Wednesday, adding he was in the centre of the southern city.

"There were summary executions in the streets," he told AFP crying, declining to provide his surname.

Syrian security forces deploy in the southern city of Sweida, where witnesses reported summary executions of Druze civilians

Gaza aid point crush kills 20 people

A crush at an aid centre in southern Gaza killed at least 20 people on Wednesday, with the site's operator blaming "Hamas operatives" within the crowd and the Palestinian territory's civil defence agency attributing the panic to Israeli gunfire.

It was the first time that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by the United States and Israel, acknowledged deaths at one of its distribution sites after weeks of chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Palestinians being killed nearby while waiting to collect rations.

Indirect negotiations for a ceasefire in war-ravaged Gaza are now in their second week