BAGHOUZ: On a rooftop near the front line with the Daesh group’s collapsing caliphate in eastern Syria, a US-backed fighter and his comrades sip tea as they await orders to restart the battle.
The Syrian Democratic Forces halted their ground assault on Daesh’s final shreds of territory last week, saying the militants are increasingly using civilians as human shields to block the advance.
In the desert hamlet of Baghouz, held mostly by the SDF, 22-year-old Mohammed Ibrahim Mohammed points toward a dirt mound separating areas under their control and the militants.
“Since we arrived to this point almost six days ago we haven’t moved forward,” explained the young fatigue-clad man from the nearby town of Hajjin, who joined the SDF just five months ago.
“The fighting has stopped as we wait for the remaining civilians to leave,” he said.
Just a few dozen meters away, on the other side of the dirt berm, trucks, motorcycles and cars driven by Daesh fighters zip along the front line and out toward white tents further away, surrounded by women wearing long black robes.
“These are all Daesh houses,” said Mohammed, using an Arabic acronym for Daesh.
“Sometimes we see women coming to take wood” from nearby palm trees, he said.
The streets of Baghouz, which the SDF entered two weeks ago, are lined with the burnt-out skeletons of cars and bullet-pocked buildings, some of them completely destroyed.
SDF fighters group in clusters around some of the structures, tending small fires and exchanging small talk and cigarettes.
Others perch on balconies and roofs with a view over the other side.
On one terrace, a fighter uses binoculars to a get a closer look at militants just a stone’s throw away.
As the SDF, with air support from the US-led coalition, ramped up its offensive in recent weeks, thousands of civilians have poured out of the beleaguered exremist-held pocket.
More than 36,000 people, mostly women and children from militant families, have fled since December via humanitarian corridors opened up by the SDF, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
That figure also includes some 3,100 extremists, the war monitor added.
But while hundreds of people a day reached SDF-held territory early last month, the flow has slowed to a trickle.
Recent arrivals say there are still many civilians and foreign fighters in the besieged pocket of territory.
With the final push paused, the eerie quiet is only broken by intermittent gunfire and the occasional roar of a coalition airstrike or artillery fire targeting extremist positions.
In the neighboring village of Al-Shaafa, the SDF’s spokesman for the Deir Ezzor region said the assault has been put on hold to protect civilians.
“The jihadists are using the civilians as human shields to block our advance,” Adnan Afrin told AFP.
That has forced women and children, including members of fighters’ families, to remain close to the battle.
“They are putting the civilians on the front lines,” he said, adding that airstrikes and artillery continued to target positions further back, “where the jihadists are concentrated.”
IS has shown a pattern of trapping civilians among its fighters in order to slow offensives as its cross-border “caliphate,” proclaimed in 2014, has withered under multiple offensives.
As the extremists withdraw, they leave minefields and booby traps to slow their attackers and prevent civilians from escaping.
To help protect those that remain cornered, the SDF is pushing to open new “safe corridors” to help civilians escape before the US-backed force delivers the final blow, said Afrin.
And while SDF leaders prefer not to speculate on when the battle against the militants will finish, they are clear it will end by military means.
“We do not negotiate with terrorists,” Afrin said.
Trapped in shrinking Syria holdout, Daesh turns to human shields
Trapped in shrinking Syria holdout, Daesh turns to human shields
- The Syrian Democratic Forces halted their ground assault on Daesh’s final shreds of territory last week
- The SDF is saying the militants are increasingly using civilians as human shields to block the advance
Macron, on Egypt visit, to go near Gaza to show support for ceasefire
- A draft accord on treating Palestinian wounded brought out of Gaza is to be signed during the visit
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron will go to an Egyptian port near the Gaza Strip next week to highlight concerns over the conflict in the Palestinian territory, his office said Thursday.
Macron will go to Arish, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Gaza, next Tuesday during a visit to Egypt, officials said.
Macron will meet humanitarian and security workers next Tuesday to stress his “constant mobilization in favor of a ceasefire,” his office said in a statement.
Arish is a transit point for international aid intended for Gaza.
But food and other supplies have not been able to use the nearby Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was suspended last month.
Macron is to go to Egypt on Sunday and on Monday will meet the country’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Egypt has been a mediator in the Israel-Hamas conflict since the Ocxtober 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and Macron will stress “the urgency” of securing a new ceasefire so that Gaza’s population is no longer has to bear a “humanitarian catastrophe,” Israeli strikes are ended and Israeli hostages in Gaza are freed, the French leader’s office said.
A draft accord on treating Palestinian wounded brought out of Gaza is to be signed during the visit.
UN human rights chief warns of ‘high and increasing risk’ of Israeli atrocities in Gaza
- It comes as Volker Turk calls for an ‘independent, prompt and thorough’ investigation into the killing of 15 humanitarian workers in Gaza on March 23
- Slovenian envoy Samuel Zbogar laments ‘erosion of humanity, the erosion of protection of civilians, of respect for international law (and) of peace and security’
NEW YORK CITY: The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights on Thursday expressed deep outrage over the killing of 15 medical and aid workers in Gaza on March 23, as he warned that “there is a high and increasing risk that atrocity crimes are being committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Volker Turk called for an “independent, prompt and thorough” investigation into the deaths which, he said, raise “further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military.” The perpetrators “must be held to account,” he added.
He was speaking during an emergency meeting of the Security Council requested by council member Algeria, supported by China, Pakistan, Russia and Somalia, to discuss the escalating violence in the territory.
Renewed Israeli military attacks on Gaza have killed more than 1,200 Palestinians since March 1, including at least 320 children, Turk said, adding that the situation has deteriorated after the brief respite provided by the ceasefire earlier in the year
“The temporary relief of the ceasefire has been shattered,” he continued, noting that ongoing Israeli airstrikes have targeted residential buildings, hospitals and schools, many of them sheltering displaced civilians.
“There was no let-up, even as Palestinian families celebrated Eid,” Turk told council members. The Israeli military has intensified its strikes on “camps for people who have been displaced numerous times.” This has displacing thousands of additional Palestinians “who have nowhere safe to go,” he said, as half of Gaza has been designated a no-go zone or placed under evacuation orders.
These actions, he added, violate international humanitarian law, particularly with regard to the protection of civilians during conflicts.
Turk also highlighted the worsening humanitarian situation as a result of the blockade imposed on Gaza by Israeli authorities since March 1, which has cut off vital supplies of food, medicine and fuel. The World Food Program has been forced to close 25 bakeries, he said, exacerbating the food crisis.
“Community tensions over food shortages are palpable, alongside reports of excessive use of force by local police,” he continued. “We are witnessing a return to the breakdown of social order that preceded the ceasefire.”
The blockade amounts to collective punishment of Palestinians and might amount to the international crime of using starvation as a weapon of war, Turk said.
The situation is equally catastrophic in the West Bank, he warned, where Israeli military operations have resulted in hundreds of deaths and the destruction of refugee camps. Since Oct. 7, 2023, more 900 Palestinians have been killed there, including 191 children and five people with disabilities, and 40,000 have been displaced amid an alarming increase in state and settler violence. Some of these deaths, Turk said, might amount to extrajudicial “and other unlawful killings.”
In addition, he warned that “the announcement that residents must not return to their homes for a year raises serious concerns about long-term mass displacement.”
Turk expressed alarm at what he described as inflammatory rhetoric from senior Israeli officials, including calls for the annexation of Gaza and the forcible transfer of Palestinians from the territory. He said this raises grave concerns about the risk of international crimes and runs counter to the fundamental principle of international law that prevents the acquisition of territory by force.
“Dozens of Palestinian herding and farming communities have been forced to leave their homes and their ancestral lands, while restrictions on movement have paralyzed the economy and are shredding the social fabric,” Turk said.
Events during the past 18 months have made it “abundantly clear” that there is no military solution to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, he added. He called for a political resolution and reiterated that the only path forward is a negotiated two-state solution in line with UN resolutions and international law.
Turk urged the Security Council to prioritize the protection of civilians and ensure accountability for all violations of human rights law. He also demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and detainees, as well as unrestricted humanitarian access to Gaza.
The UK’s ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, said her country “strongly opposes Israel’s decision to resume and expand its military operations in Gaza. Further fighting and bloodshed is in nobody’s interest and takes us further away from a deal to get the hostages home.”
She urged Israeli authorities to immediately reinstate the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“Blocking supplies and electricity from entering Gaza risks violating international humanitarian law,” she said.
The UK also condemns remarks by Defense Minister Israel Katz about the annexation of land in Gaza, Woodward added, and recent Israeli decisions to accelerate the establishment of settlements and outposts in the West Bank.
“There must be no forced displacement of Palestinians or reduction in the territory of Gaza,” she said.
Dorothy Shea, the charge d’affaires at the US mission to the UN, said Hamas was “solely responsible for the resumption of hostilities since March 18, refusing time and again to accept proposals to extend the ceasefire.
“For too long, Hamas has abused civilian infrastructure and facilities, cynically using it to physically shield its personnel and weaponry. Hamas’ reckless and contemptuous behavior has put civilians and humanitarian personnel at risk, purposefully placing them in the crossfire.”
Addressing events in the West Bank, Shea said that Washington supports what she described as “the efforts of the Israel Defense Forces to root out violent extremists in Jenin and Tulkarm.”
She called on the Palestinian Authority to carry through on its pledge “to end the practice of offering cash payments to the families of those who have carried out terrorist attacks, which for far too long incentivized violence against Israeli civilians and set back the prospects of peace.”
Slovenian envoy Samuel Zbogar lamented “the erosion of humanity, the erosion of protection of civilians, of respect for international law (and) of peace and security.”
He added: “More war does not bring more peace; not to Israel, not to Palestine, not to the region nor the globe. With each passing day, the region is less secure and the future is more unstable.”
He called on Israeli authorities to halt their operations in Gaza and the West Bank, and for an end to attacks on Israel.
“We call on Israel and Hamas to return to the agreement made in line with Resolution 2735, with the support of Egypt, Qatar and the United States,” Zbogar said. “The ceasefire must be restored, hostages must be released, aid must flow and dialogue must prevail.
“The only path to lasting peace can be the one of diplomacy. The only solution for ensuring lasting peace is the two-state solution endorsed by this council.”
Hundreds of thousands flee as Israel seizes Rafah in new Gaza ‘security zone’
- Airstrike kills at least 27 Palestinians, including women and children, inside a school building
GAZA: Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazans sought shelter on Thursday in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war, as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of the city of Rafah, part of a newly announced “security zone” they intend to seize.
A day after declaring their intention to capture large swaths of the crowded enclave, Israeli forces pushed into the city on Gaza’s southern edge, which had served as a last refuge for people fleeing other areas for much of the war.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reported at least 97 people killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, including at least 20 killed in an airstrike around dawn in Shejaia, a suburb of Gaza City in the north.
FASTFACT
The assault to capture Rafah is a significant escalation in the war, which Israel restarted last month after effectively abandoning a ceasefire in place since January.
Later on Thursday, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 27 Palestinians, including women and children, inside a school building that served as a shelter for displaced families in Gaza City, local health authorities said.
The Israeli military claimed the attack hit key Palestinian “terrorists.”
Medics said three missiles slammed into the Dar Al-Arqam school building in Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City, and the Israeli military said it struck a command center that militants had used to plan and execute attacks against Israeli civilians and army troops.
Rafah “is gone, it is being wiped out,” a father of seven among the hundreds of thousands who had fled from Rafah to neighboring Khan Younis, said via a chat app.
“They are knocking down what is left standing of houses and property,” said the man.
The assault to capture Rafah is a significant escalation in the war, which Israel restarted last month after effectively abandoning a ceasefire in place since January.
In Shejaia in the north, one of the districts where Israel has ordered the population to leave, hundreds of residents streamed out on Thursday, some carrying their belongings as they walked, others on donkey carts and bikes or in vans.
“I want to die. Let them kill us and free us from this life. We’re not living, we’re dead,” said Umm Aaed Bardaa.
In Khan Younis, where a strike killed several people, Adel Abu Fakher was checking the damage to his tent: “There’s nothing left for us. We’re being killed while asleep,” he said.
Israel has not spelled out its long-term aims for the security zone its troops are now seizing.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops were taking an area he called the “Morag Axis,” a reference to an abandoned former Israeli settlement between Rafah and Khan Younis.
Gazans who had returned to homes in the ruins during the ceasefire have now been ordered to flee communities on the northern and southern edges of the strip.
They fear Israel intends to depopulate those areas indefinitely, leaving many hundreds of thousands of people permanently homeless while Israel seizes some of Gaza’s last agricultural land and critical water infrastructure.
Since the first phase of the ceasefire expired at the start of March with no agreement to prolong it, Israel has imposed a total blockade on all goods for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, recreating what international organizations call a humanitarian catastrophe.
Israel’s military said on Thursday it was investigating the deaths of 15 Palestinian aid workers found buried in a shallow grave in March near Red Crescent vehicles, an incident that caused global alarm.
The military said troops fired on the cars, believing they carried fighters.
Israel’s stated goal since the start of the war has been the destruction of the Hamas militant group, which ran Gaza for nearly two decades.
But with no effort made to establish an alternative administration, Hamas returned to control during the ceasefire.
Fighters still hold 59 dead and living hostages Israel says must be handed over to extend the truce temporarily; Hamas says it will free them only under a deal that permanently ends the war.
Israeli leaders say they have been encouraged by signs of protest in Gaza against Hamas, with hundreds of people demonstrating in north Gaza’s Beit Lahiya on Wednesday. Hamas calls the protesters collaborators and says Israel is behind them.
The war began with an attack on Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023 with gunmen taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s campaign has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities say.
Rafah residents said most of the local population had followed Israel’s order to leave as Israeli strikes toppled buildings there.
However, a strike on the main road between Khan Younis and Rafah stopped most movement between the cities.
The movement of people and traffic along the western coastal road near Morag was also limited by bombardment.
“Others stayed because they don’t know where to go, or got fed up of being displaced several times. We are afraid they might be killed or at best detained,” said Basem, a resident of Rafah who declined to give a second name.
Lebanese leaders reach consensus on border demarcation to present to US envoy
- President Aoun tells top military officers: Lebanon’s interests are above everything else
- Joseph Aoun: It is the state that protects Lebanon, not its sects
BEIRUT: Lebanese leaders have reached a unified position on border demarcation to present to Morgan Ortagus, the US envoy, who is scheduled to arrive in Beirut before the end of the week.
President Joseph Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, agreed that there “will be no negotiations with the Israeli side regarding (a) prisoner swap or withdrawal from the Lebanese hills still occupied by the Israeli Army,” a source in the government told Arab News on Thursday.
“However, Lebanon is open to discussing disputed land border points,” the source added.
“Regardless of the US envoy’s proposals, the Lebanese stance remains unchanged,” said the source, who clarified that the Lebanese Army “is fulfilling its duties by being deployed south of the Litani River and confiscating weapons in the border area, as acknowledged by the US side overseeing the ceasefire monitoring committee and the UNIFIL forces.”
The source said that the military had made significant progress on the issue, destroying weapons and ammunition seized from Hezbollah sites.
Aoun told top security officials on Thursday that Lebanon’s interests comes above anything else.
He was speaking during a visit to the leadership of the Internal Security Forces and the General Security Directorate.
“We have a great opportunity to seize at all levels, and we must show the people that we are mature enough to build the state and that we will build it,” he said.
The president called on security bodies to “remain unaffiliated with anyone, serve only Lebanon’s interests, and enforce the law,” noting that “the world is ready to help us, but we must first help ourselves.”
Aoun stated: “Lebanon’s interest comes above anything else. It is the state that protects Lebanon, not its sects. Parties and sects prioritize their interests, whereas your duty is to serve Lebanon.
“You must reject any demands or interference that might harm the nation’s interests and prompt people to respect the law, keeping in mind that no request outside the law will be tolerated.”
Also on Thursday, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi, the highest Maronite religious authority in Lebanon, said the time “has come to unify weapons in Lebanon, as stipulated in the Taif Agreement.”
He also told the Lebanese Editors Syndicate that the military “needs strengthening and support from other nations, but the solution now is diplomatic, as we are incapable of engaging in war, and no one can confront Israel.
“What has the resistance achieved with all its weapons against the Israeli war machine,” he asked, adding “now is not the time for normalization with Israel, as there are other issues that must be addressed first, such as border demarcation and disarmament.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would not withdraw from the five positions it controls in Lebanon.
He was speaking during a visit to an Israeli military site in southern Lebanon — one of the five hills still occupied since the ceasefire declaration in November.
At the site, which is near the Israeli settlement of Margaliot, Katz stated Israel’s presence at the five locations will be determined not by time but by the situation on the ground.
“Only if Hezbollah disarms and withdraws from the border can we discuss the withdrawal of the Israeli Army from these positions, and this matter is being coordinated with the Americans,” he said.
Katz anticipated “an increase in activity among Palestinian organizations, including Hamas, in Lebanon and Syria.”
He stated: “We are working to prevent the arming of Hezbollah and Palestinian organizations. The challenge will begin and intensify.”
Katz claimed that Hezbollah “is not a protector of Lebanon.”
He added: “The Iranians now realize that it is no longer capable of defending them.”
Elsewhere, an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle on the main road between Bint Jbeil and Yaroun in the border area.
The drone struck the vehicle from behind, resulting in two injuries, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said.
The Israeli military conducted airstrikes around Naqoura and one strike in the town’s center, targeting pre-fabricated homes as replacements for the destroyed houses and facilities.
These pre-fabricated facilities were being used to meet citizens’ needs, serving as a substitute for the municipal building, destroyed by Israel following the ceasefire, said Naqoura Mayor Abbas Awada.
He highlighted that recent aggression occurring in proximity to UNIFIL headquarters falls “under the jurisdiction of the five-member ceasefire monitoring committee and UNIFIL forces.”
Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Authority reported that Israeli strikes destroyed a “newly established civil defense center and damaged ambulances and firefighting vehicles.”
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Armed Forces have taken proactive measures, with military units removing “engineering obstacles placed by Israeli forces inside Lebanese territory” near Al-Labouna in the Tyre region.
The military also closed an unauthorized dirt road created by Israeli units in the same area.
In an official statement, the Lebanese Army Command affirmed its ongoing commitment to “addressing Israeli violations through close coordination with the ceasefire monitoring mechanism and UNIFIL.”
The Army Command condemned Israel’s “persistent violations of Lebanese sovereignty and targeting of civilians across multiple regions.”
In another development, UNIFIL Western Sector Commander Gen. Nicola Mandolisi conducted his first meeting with Khirbet Selem Mayor Mohammed Rahhal.
Their joint statement highlighted “UNIFIL’s commitment to facilitating the safe return of displaced residents and supporting Lebanese military operations through strategic partnerships with the Fifth Brigade and the Second and Fifth Rapid Intervention Regiments, key components in regional stabilization efforts.”
South Sudan clashes kill 30: local official
- The attack in northern Ruweng Administrative Area began earlier in the week
- Local media reported that some of those killed were members of the armed groups
JUBA: At least 30 people were killed when a northern South Sudanese town was briefly overrun by an armed youth group, a local official said Thursday, following a cattle raid.
Clashes involving pastoralists and settled farming communities are common in the world’s youngest country, but this incident comes as tensions rise over South Sudan’s fragile political situation.
The attack in northern Ruweng Administrative Area began earlier in the week when a group of armed youth stole lambs before they were scared off by security forces, said Simon Chol Mialith, the local Minister of Information.
The following day, he told AFP, the group returned in greater numbers and attacked Abiemnom, and although “the youth and the security forces tried to defend the town, they were overrun by the Mayom armed youth.”
On Wednesday the South Sudan People’s Defense Force (SSPDF) drove the group from the settlement, Mialith said, where calm has now been restored.
“The number has risen to 30 people confirmed dead and over 40 persons wounded,” he said, without giving further details.
Local media reported that some of those killed were members of the armed groups, but AFP was unable to confirm this.
The incident comes as forces allied to President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar clash across the country, sparking regional concern and threatening a fragile peace deal in 2018 that ended a five-year civil war.
South Sudan has been bedevilled by instability and insecurity since independence in 2011, and despite its natural oil resources remains deeply impoverished.
