SARMAN, Syria: In northwestern Syria, 68-year-old Abu Khaled was among dozens to have set up camp in a field, hoping that Turkish soldiers nearby would shield him from bombardment by Bashar Assad’s regime.
In the country’s last major rebel bastion of Idlib province on Turkey’s border, civilians are scrambling to protect themselves from a possible Russia-backed government offensive.
Fears have mounted that any attack on the region of nearly three million people could spark one of the worst humanitarian disasters in Syria’s seven-year war.
Dressed in a long white robe and wearing a chequered red-and-white scarf of his head, Abu Khaled sat by his tent pitched in a field in the southeast of Idlib.
Around him, children played between poles covered in flowery bedsheets and pitched for shelter in the red earth.
One dangled back and forth on an improvised swing, while a woman prepared food in a large saucepan on an open fire.
“There was bombardment on our villages so we came here, near the Turkish outpost,” Abu Khaled said, crouched on the ground.
“It’s to protect us,” he said, referring to the monitors deployed by rebel backer Turkey just hundreds of meters (yards) away.
Last year, Ankara, as well as regime allies Moscow and Tehran, labelled Idlib a “de-escalation zone” under a deal that saw Turkish monitoring posts set up in the province.
The United Nations has warned that any regime attack on Idlib could displace up to 800,000 people, and urged key players to intervene to avoid a “bloodbath.”
On Friday, the presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran are set the meet in Tehran in a bid to determine Idlib’s fate.
Russia-backed regime troops have massed around the province in recent weeks, after ousting rebels and jihadists from other parts of the country.
Moscow says it is bent on fighting Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, a group led by Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate that controls more than half of the province.
Turkey-backed rebels hold much of the rest, while the regime controls a southeastern slither.
Around half of the residents in Idlib and adjacent areas have lost their homes in the conflict, the UN says, and many already depend on humanitarian aid.
The timing and scope of any attack remain unclear, but health care and aid workers are preparing to cope for the worst.
At a hospital in the provincial capital of Idlib this week, staff worked as usual.
Two doctors wearing grey scrubs operated on a patient, while a staff member tested a girl’s eyesight in another room.
But their hospital, like others in the province, is drawing up a contingency plan in case the surrounding area comes under attack.
“Every hospital needs to have a special emergency plan,” said Mustafa Al-Eido, the deputy head of health care in Idlib province.
With no means to defend the hospitals against regime or Russian air strikes, they would have to downsize staff or redeploy doctors and nurses to other locations, Eido said.
“You can’t fortify against Russian military equipment,” he added.
In the first six months of this year, 38 attacks hit medical infrastructure in Idlib province, most blamed on the government or its ally Russia, according to the UN.
To best respond to air strikes across the province, a joint operations committee has been set up to coordinate between the health service’s 50 ambulances and rescue groups such as the White Helmets, Eido said.
Hospitals are grappling with severe medicine shortages, he said, and also trying to stock up on supplies to deal with any chemical attack.
Assad’s regime has repeatedly been accused of using chemical weapons during the conflict, including in an attack that killed more than 80 people in Idlib’s town of Khan Sheikhun last year.
Since then, staff from 16 hospitals in Idlib and adjacent areas have trained with the World Health Organization in Turkey on how to best help the victims of any toxic attack, Eido said.
Aid workers too are getting ready to help.
Just outside Idlib province, at a camp for the displaced, its director Yussef Nur inspected a backup stash of thin foam mattresses, woolen blankets and large outdoor plastic rugs.
“We’ve planned for any sudden displacement of people,” he said.
Outside, rows of white tents stood bright in the summer sun. One man reclined on a thin mattress in the shade.
“We now have around 700 people at the camp” in Mizanaz in the neighboring province of Aleppo, he said.
But “we could take in 1,800 to 2,000 more.”
Syrian civilians brace for regime assault on Idlib
Syrian civilians brace for regime assault on Idlib
- The United Nations has warned that any regime attack on Idlib could displace up to 800,000 people
- Around half of the residents in Idlib and adjacent areas have lost their homes in the conflict
Large Gaza food convoy violently looted, UNRWA says
The convoy carrying food provided by UN agencies UNRWA and the World Food Programme was instructed by Israel to depart at short notice via an unfamiliar route from Kerem Shalom crossing, Louise Wateridge, UNRWA Senior Emergency Officer told Reuters.
“This incident highlights the severity of access challenges of bringing aid into southern and central Gaza,” she said.
Majority of South Sudanese will be food insecure next year: UN
- Almost 7.7 million people will be classed as acutely food insecure, according to the IPC, an increase from 7.1 million people the previous lean season
- More than 85 percent of returnees fleeing the war in Sudan will be acutely food insecure from the next lean season in April
Juba: Almost 60 percent of South Sudan’s population will be acutely food insecure next year, with more than two million children at risk of malnutrition, data from a United Nations-backed review warned on Monday.
The world’s youngest country is among the globe’s poorest and is grappling with its worst flooding in decades as well as a massive influx of refugees fleeing the war in Sudan to the north.
The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) review estimated that 57 percent of the population would be suffering from acute food insecurity from April.
The United Nations defines acute food insecurity as when a “person’s inability to consume adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger.”
Almost 7.7 million people will be classed as acutely food insecure, according to the IPC, an increase from 7.1 million people the previous lean season.
“Year after year we see hunger reaching some of the highest levels we’ve seen in South Sudan,” said Mary-Ellen McGroarty of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) in South Sudan.
“When we look at the areas with the highest levels of food insecurity, it’s clear that a cocktail of despair — conflict and the climate crisis — are the main drivers,” she said.
More than 85 percent of returnees fleeing the war in Sudan will be acutely food insecure from the next lean season in April.
The data also found that 2.1 million children are at risk of malnutrition, compounded by a lack of safe drinking water and sanitation.
“Malnutrition is the end result of a series of crises,” said Hamida Lasseko, UNICEF’s representative in South Sudan, adding the agency was “deeply concerned” that the numbers would increase if aid was not stepped up.
In October, the World Bank warned widespread flooding was “worsening an already critical humanitarian situation.”
The UN’s humanitarian agency, OCHA, said earlier this month that 1.4 million people had been impacted by the flooding, which had displaced almost 380,000.
Since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, the world’s youngest nation has remained plagued by chronic instability, violence and economic stagnation as well as climate disasters such as drought and floods.
The country also faces another period of political paralysis after the presidency delayed elections by two years to December 2026, exasperating international partners.
South Sudan boasts plentiful oil resources but the vital source of revenue was decimated in February when an export pipeline was damaged in neighboring war-torn Sudan.
Israeli strikes kill 18 Palestinians in Gaza, some in attacks on tents, say medics
- Israeli military targets include tents housing displaced families, say medics
- Victims were ‘ripped apart into fragments’, says survivor
CAIRO: Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed 18 Palestinians on Monday, including six people who were killed in attacks on tents housing displaced families, medics said.
Four people, two of them children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi, designated as a humanitarian zone, while two were killed in temporary shelters in the southern city of Rafah and another in drone fire, health officials said.
In Beit Lahiya town in northern Gaza, medics said an Israeli missile struck a house, killing at least two people and wounding several others. On Sunday, medics and residents said dozens of people were killed or wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a multi-floor residential building in the town.
The Israeli military, which has been fighting Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza since October 2023, said it conducted strikes on “terrorist targets,” in Beit Lahiya.
An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City killed five people and wounded 10 others, medics said. Later on Monday, an Israeli air strike killed four people in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, they added.
There has been no Israeli comment on Monday’s incidents.
In Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives of Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike on tents housing displaced families sat beside bodies wrapped in blankets and white shrouds to pay farewell before walking them to graves.
“My brother wasn’t the only one; many others have been martyred in this brutal way — children torn to pieces, civilians shredded. They weren’t carrying weapons or even know ‘the resistance’, yet they were ripped apart into fragments,” said Mohammed Aboul Hassan, who lost his brother in the attack.
“We remain steadfast, patient, and resilient, and by the will of God, we will never falter. We will stay steadfast and patient,” he told Reuters.
The Israeli army sent tanks and soldiers into Beit Lahiya and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, early last month in what it said was a campaign to fight Hamas militants waging attacks and prevent them from regrouping.
Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, said the hospital was under siege by Israeli forces and the World Health Organization had been unable to deliver supplies of food, medicine and surgical equipment.
Cases of malnutrition among children were increasing, he said, and the hospital was operating at a minimal level.
“We receive daily distress calls, but we are unable to assist them due to the lack of ambulances, and the situation is catastrophic,” he said. “Yesterday, I received a distress call from women and children trapped under the rubble, and due to my inability to help them, they are now among the martyrs (dead).”
Israel said it had killed hundreds of militants in the three northern areas, which residents said was cut off from Gaza City, making it difficult and dangerous for them to flee. The armed wings of Hamas and militant group Islamic Jihad said they have killed many Israeli soldiers in anti-tank rocket and mortar fire attacks during the same period.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 43,800 people have been confirmed killed since the war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people in attacks on communities in southern Israel that day, and hold dozens of some 250 hostages they took back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Hamas political office has not moved to Turkiye from Qatar, Turkish source says
ANKARA: A Turkish diplomatic source dismissed on Monday reports that Hamas had moved its political office to Turkiye from Qatar, adding that members of the Palestinian militant group only occasionally visited the country.
Doha said last week it had told Hamas and Israel it will stall efforts to mediate a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal until they show willingness and seriousness. It also said that media reports that it had told Hamas to leave the country were no accurate.
NATO member Turkiye has fiercely criticized Israel over its offensives in Gaza and in Lebanon and does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Some Hamas political officials regularly visit Turkiye.
“Hamas Political Bureau members visit Turkiye from time to time. Claims that indicate the Hamas Political Bureau has moved to Turkiye do not reflect the truth,” the diplomatic source said.
Schools closed in Beirut after deadly Israeli strike
- Sunday’s strikes hit densely populated districts of central Beirut
- Six people were killed in the strikes
BEIRUT: Schools in Beirut were closed on Monday after Israeli strikes on the Lebanese capital killed six people including Hezbollah’s spokesman, the latest in a string of top militant targets slain in the war.
Israel escalated its bombardment of Hezbollah strongholds in late September, vowing to secure its northern border with Lebanon to allow Israelis displaced by cross-border fire to return home.
Sunday’s strikes hit densely populated districts of central Beirut that had so far been spared the violence engulfing other areas of Lebanon.
Six people were killed in the strikes, according to Lebanese health ministry figures, including Hezbollah media relations chief Mohammed Afif, the group and Israel’s military said.
The strikes prompted the education ministry to shut schools and higher education institutions in the Beirut area for two days.
Children and young people around Lebanon have been heavily impacted by the war, which has seen schools around the country turned into shelters for the displaced.
Israel widened the focus of its war from Gaza to Lebanon in late September, nearly a year into the conflict in Gaza that was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.
In support of its Palestinian ally, Hezbollah launched low-intensity strikes on Israel after the attack, forcing about 60,000 Israelis to flee their homes.
With Hamas weakened but not crushed, Israel escalated its battle against Hezbollah, vowing to fight until victory.
Lebanese authorities say more than 3,480 people have been killed since October last year, with most casualties recorded since September.
Israel says 48 soldiers have been killed fighting Hezbollah.
Israeli strikes have killed senior Hezbollah officials including its leader Hassan Nasrallah in late September.
The group’s spokesman Afif was part of Nasrallah’s inner circle, and one of the group’s few officials to engage with the press.
Another strike hit a busy shopping district of Beirut, sparking a huge blaze that engulfed part of a building and several shops nearby.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said the fire had largely been extinguished by Monday morning, noting it had caused diesel fuel tanks to explode.
It also reported new strikes early Monday on locations around south Lebanon, long a stronghold of Hezbollah.
Israel’s military told AFP it had hit more than 200 targets in Lebanon over 36 hours, including in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Hezbollah’s main bastion.
Lebanon’s military, which is not a party to the conflict, said Israel “directly targeted” an army center in south Lebanon on Sunday, killing two soldiers.
Israel’s military said about 20 projectiles crossed from Lebanon into Israel, and some were intercepted.
Lebanon last week said it was reviewing a US truce proposal in the Israel-Hezbollah war, as Hamas said it was ready for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Ongoing war on Gaza
So far, however, there has been no sign of the wars abating.
The Israeli military kept up its campaign in Gaza over the weekend, where civil defense rescuers said strikes on Sunday killed dozens of people.
Vowing to stop Hamas from regrouping in northern Gaza near the border, Israel on October 6 began an air and ground operation in Jabalia and then expanded it to Beit Lahia.
On Sunday, Gaza’s civil defense agency said 34 people were killed, including children, and dozens were missing after an Israeli air strike hit a five-story residential building in Beit Lahia.
“The chances of rescuing more wounded are decreasing because of the continuous shooting and artillery shelling,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
Weighed down with backpacks, many like Omar Abdel Aal were fleeing, often on foot, through dusty streets.
“They bombarded the houses and completely destroyed Beit Lahia,” he said.
Israel’s military said there were “ongoing terrorist activities in the area of Beit Lahia” and several strikes were directed at militant targets there.
“We emphasize that there have been continuous efforts to evacuate the civilian population from the active war zone in the area,” the military said.
The United Nations and others have condemned humanitarian conditions in northern Gaza, with the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees last week calling the situation “catastrophic.”
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Sunday said the overall death toll in more than 13 months of war had reached 43,846, a majority civilians, figures that the United Nations consider reliable.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
