Israel, Hamas ready for truce talks

Israel on Sunday prepared to send a delegation to Doha for further talks on the Gaza truce, as Hamas called for an immediate start to negotiations on the ceasefire's second phase, which it hopes will lead to a permanent end to the war.

- Agence France-Presse

DAMASCUS: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa called for national unity and peace on Sunday, after more than 1,000 people were reportedly killed in coastal Syria in the worst clashes since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

The violence erupted on Thursday between the new security forces and loyalists of the former government along the Mediterranean coast in the heartland of the Alawite minority to which Assad belonged.

It has since escalated into the largest challenge to the new government's forces since Sharaa's Islamist-led coalition toppled Assad in December.

"We must preserve national unity (and) civil peace as much as possible and, God willing, we will be able to live together in this country," Sharaa said from a mosque in Damascus.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor has reported that 745 Alawite civilians were killed in Latakia and Tartus provinces.

The Britain-based Observatory said they were killed in "executions" carried out by security personnel or pro-government fighters, accompanied by the "looting of homes and properties". The fighting has also killed 125 members of the security forces and 148 pro-Assad fighters, according to the Observatory, taking the overall death toll to 1,018.

The official SANA news agency reported on Saturday that security forces had deployed to Latakia, as well as Jableh and Baniyas further south, to restore order.