As Daesh terror attacks continue, what explains the group’s resilience in Syria?

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Despite their territorial the militants continue to threaten communities across Syria. (AP)
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Updated 24 August 2023
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As Daesh terror attacks continue, what explains the group’s resilience in Syria?

  • Daesh has carried out thousands of attacks on military and civilian targets since its territorial defeat in 2019
  • Experts say the terror group has exploited geography and the wider conflict to maintain a continued presence

QAMISHLI, Syria: During the second week of August, the terror group Daesh carried out multiple attacks on Syrian regime soldiers in the governorates of Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, leaving dozens dead and more injured.

With attacks in Syria’s central and eastern regions only continuing to grow in frequency and severity, some may wonder whether the group was truly eliminated when its defeat was announced in 2019.

Saturday, March 23, 2019, was a joyous occasion for the men and women of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the multi-ethnic, US-backed force which led the ground war against Daesh in Syria, as well as the people living in the autonomous regions of northern and eastern Syria.

From Manbij to Kobani, from Raqqa to Hasakah and Qamishli, the streets of cities in Syria’s northeast were packed with people from all walks of life celebrating Daesh’s final defeat at the Battle of Baghouz.




File photo shows Daesh militants parading in the Syrian city of Raqa on June 30, 2014, at the height of their reign of terror in parts of Syria and Iraq. (Welayat Raqa handout photo via AFP)

Little did they know that despite the group’s loss of territory, it would go on to maintain bases both inside and outside of the country, which it still uses to carry out operations in Syria.

“(Daesh) uses different frameworks for the continuation of its extremist ideology,” Sardar Mullah Darwish, a Syrian Kurdish journalist and director of Aso News Network, told Arab News.

The group “relies on cells spread in different areas in the governorates of Raqqa, Deir Ezzor, and southern Hasakah, and particularly in the Badia, where they are in areas that are not fully controlled by the coalition, the SDF, or even the armed forces of the regime and other military forces,” he said.

Darwish added that Daesh sustains itself via financial extortion, threatening wealthy residents and those working with international or local NGOs. He added that the use of motorcycles and the black veil known as the niqab are both ways in which the group attempts to camouflage itself among civilians.




A child stands by a bullet riddled wall in the northern Syrian city of Raqa, the former Syrian capital of the Daesh group, on August 21, 2019. (AFP file)

Daesh carries out attacks on both regime-held areas and regions held by the SDF. According to Darwish, these attacks are attempts “to show continued presence and strength.”

The divided nature of Syria complicates the response.

“What remains of the terrorist group’s remnants in our regions is limited to sleeper cells, and they are dealt with firsthand by our security and military forces in coordination and cooperation with the Global Coalition,” Abu Omar Al-Idlibi, commander of the SDF-aligned Northern Democratic Brigade, told Arab News.

“As for the rest of Syria’s geography, Daesh is still strong because it represents one of the reasons for the survival of the Syrian regime as well as a justification for the presence of its supporters, Russia and Iran.”

Al-Idlibi believes the presence of Daesh is used as a justification for Iran’s increasing military presence in Syria. Iranian-backed pro-regime militias, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Basij Forces, Harakat Hezbollah Al-Nujaba, Kataib Hezbollah (also known as Iraqi Hezbollah), the Badr Organization, the Abu Al-Fadl Al-Abbas militia, the National Defense Forces, Liwa Al-Quds, Liwa Fatemiyoun and Liwa Zeynebiyoun, are all deployed across areas where Daesh remains strongest.




Abu Omar Al-Idlibi, commander of the SDF-aligned Northern Democratic Brigade. (AN Photo by Ali Ali)

Since its territorial defeat in Syria, Daesh has carried out more than 1,400 attacks on military and civilian targets across the country, resulting in the deaths of more than 3,000 people.

These statistics, sourced from publicly available datasets compiled by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, also show that more than 320 of these attacks were carried out even after the 2022 death of Daesh leader Abu Ibrahim Al-Hashimi Al-Qurayshi, the successor to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

According to the Monitoring and Documentation Department of the local North Press Agency, direct Daesh attacks claimed more than 262 lives across the country in the first half of 2023 alone, the majority of which were civilians.

In addition to this, the terror group kidnapped more than 160 people. A large number of the victims of Daesh attacks and kidnappings were truffle pickers, who resort to scouring vast, unsafe areas of the Syrian Badia in order to gather the lucrative fungi amid difficult economic conditions.

The Syrian Badia is a massive desert, covering more than half of the country’s territory and spanning eight of Syria’s 14 governorates. The region has a history of use by insurgent groups, having been used by the Iraqi resistance during the Iraq War from 2003 to 2011.

The Badia’s geography, a mostly vast and empty expanse of rocky desert with inhabited settlements few and far between, made it ideal for Daesh as a base of operations after its flight from Baghouz.




An image grab taken from a video made available by Jihadist media outlet Welayat Homs on July 4, 2015 shows 25 Syrian government soldiers kneeling in front of what appears to be children or teenagers wearing desert camouflage, in the ancient amphitheater in the city of Palmyra, ahead of being executed. (AFP/Welayat Homs handout photo/File)

The region’s proximity to the Iraqi border further added to its allure.

“This region was well known as an area controlled by smugglers, even before the Syrian war,” said Darwish. “The border crossing between the two countries has large gaps … and there is no control of military forces such as the regime, the SDF, or the Iraqi army, and so Daesh relies on this region for its activities.”

Darwish said Daesh had in recent years dug an extensive network of tunnels in the Iraqi-Syrian border region to aid in its smuggling operations between the two countries.

For the armed forces tasked with responding to the Daesh threat, these tunnels have proved a strategic headache.

“The geographical features of the region between Syria and Iraq have a great impact on the ease of movement by Daesh, especially in the areas under the control of Iran and its militias in Al-Bukamal and Al-Mayadeen, as these border areas are transit points for terrorist organizations and militias between Iraq and Syria,” said Al-Idlibi, the Northern Democratic Brigade commander.

Despite the large network of Iranian-backed, pro-regime militias deployed across central Syria, Al-Idlibi is doubtful that Damascus is serious about confronting Daesh remnants in the Badia.

“Daesh moves freely in the areas of the Syrian Badia … it has not been truly confronted in these areas due to the fact that they are under the control of the Syrian regime and its allies.”

At the end of 2019, Syrian regime forces were withdrawn from the Badia region to focus on Damascus’ new offensive aimed at retaking Idlib from the coalition of Syrian opposition and Islamist groups that held it. Although a ceasefire was declared in Idlib in 2020, the Badia had meanwhile become one of Daesh’s new havens in Syria.




A screen grab taken from a video released on July 1, 2014, shows Daesh militants parading on top of a truck on a street in the northern rebel-held Syrian city of Raqa. (AFP / Welayat Raqa handout/File)

“There are many vast and intertwined regions between the Syrian regime areas and Autonomous Administration (of North and East Syria) areas, with many natural crossings and land, and river routes,” said Al-Idlibi.

“This allows Daesh to move easily in order to infiltrate our areas in northern and eastern Syria … (Daesh) also finds support through sleeper cells present in our regions, and thus we see the terrorist group carrying out operations (here) from time to time.”

Both military personnel on the ground and civilian observers warn that the loosely held regime areas of the Syrian Badia are not the only stronghold for Daesh. Areas in the country’s north and northwest held by a coalition of militias known as the Syrian National Army, or SNA, have also served as a relatively safe area for Daesh militants for years.

“It has become an obvious fact that instability on the social, economic and subsistence level, as well as the spread of armed organizations, extremist ideology, inhumane and criminal practices, and the suppression of freedoms in the occupied areas controlled by the factions of the so-called (Syrian) National Army and terror group Al-Nusra Front, are what provide an incubator and required quagmire for the survival and existence of the leaders and emirs of terrorist organizations, foremost of which is the terror group Daesh,” Al-Idlibi added.




Officials of the Turkiye-backed opposition "Syrian National Army" opposition group led by Brigadier Adnan Ahmad, deputy chief of staff, hold a briefing meeting attended outside the village of al-Ghandurah northwest of Manbij in the north of Syria's Aleppo province on October 16, 2019, near the frontlines with Syrian Kurdish forces. (Aaref Watad/AFP)

Since 2019, coalition forces have carried out more than 13 air and drone strikes targeting Daesh in SNA-controlled areas, the latest of which killed a Daesh commander in a village near Jinderis, in the Afrin region, in April this year.

Furthermore, a 2021 report by Aso News Network compiled a list of 95 Daesh leaders among the ranks of SNA groups.

Darwish said that further research by Aso News Network uncovered information suggesting that the 2022 Daesh prison uprising in Hasakah, which claimed the lives of 121 SDF fighters and civilians, was supported by Daesh elements hiding out in SNA-held Ras Al-Ain.

The research also showed that several Daesh families had managed to escape the infamous Al-Hol camp and settle in Ras Al-Ain and neighboring Tal Abyad.




Members of an anti-terror unit of northeast Syria's Internal Security Forces, part of the SDF, are seen at a base in Qamishli. (AN Photo by Ali Ali)

General Michael Kurilla, commander of US Central Command, was in northeast Syria on Wednesday, where he visited the Al-Hol and Al-Roj Displaced Persons Camps and met with SDF officials to review the campaign to eliminate Daesh.

“The US, SDF, and the Global Coalition remain focused and committed on the enduring defeat of Daesh while addressing the humanitarian and security challenges at camps in northeast Syria,” Kurilla said in a statement. 

While the SDF and coalition continue to combat terrorism, the solution to the terrorism problem in Syria, says Al-Idlibi, is a political one.

“The real solution to rid Syria of terrorism once and for all lies in the need to implement a political solution in Syria, which was unanimously approved by the (UN) Security Council in 2015 via Resolution 2254,” said Al-Idlibi.

“The application of democracy is the ideal solution to eradicate the sources of extremism and terrorism … because tyranny and terrorism are inseparable and interdependent; they are the reasons for one another’s survival.”

 


Gaza death toll rises: 82 killed, 38 while waiting for aid

Updated 03 July 2025
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Gaza death toll rises: 82 killed, 38 while waiting for aid

  • Gaza’s Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has passed 57,000
  • More than 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has been displaced, often multiple times

TEL AVIV: Airstrikes and shootings killed 82 Palestinians in Gaza overnight, including 38 while attempting to get much-needed humanitarian aid, hospitals and the Health Ministry said Thursday.

Israel’s military did not have immediate comment on the strikes.

Five people were killed while outside sites associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the newly created, secretive American organization backed by Israel to feed the Gaza Strip’s population, while 33 others were killed waiting for aid trucks in other locations across the Gaza Strip.

Dozens of people were killed in airstrikes that pounded the Strip Wednesday night and Thursday morning, including 15 people killed in strikes that hit tents in the sprawling Muwasi zone, where many displaced Palestinians are sheltering, and a strike on a school in Gaza City sheltering displaced people.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has passed 57,000, including 223 missing people who have been declared dead. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its death count but says that more than half of the dead are women and children.

The deaths come as Israel and Hamas inch closer to a possible ceasefire that would end the 21-month war.

Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen. But Hamas’ response, which emphasized its demand that the war end, raised questions about whether the latest offer could materialize into an actual pause in fighting.

The Israeli military blames Hamas for the civilian casualties because it operates from populated areas. The military said it targeted Hamas militants and rocket launchers in northern Gaza that launched rockets towards Israel on Wednesday.

The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages.

The war has left the coastal Palestinian territory in ruins, with much of the urban landscape flattened in the fighting.

More than 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has been displaced, often multiple times. And the war has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, leaving hundreds of thousands of people hungry.


Scorching summer heat deepens Gaza’s daily struggles

Updated 03 July 2025
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Scorching summer heat deepens Gaza’s daily struggles

  • Temperatures are exceeding 30 degrees Celsius with displaced children sweltering inside cramped nylon tents

KHAN YOUNIS: For Rida Abu Hadayed, summer adds a new layer of misery to a daily struggle to survive in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

With temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), daybreak begins with the cries of Hadayed’s seven children sweltering inside the displaced family’s cramped nylon tent. Outside, the humidity is unbearable.

The only way the 32-year-old mother can offer her children relief is by fanning them with a tray or bits of paper — whatever she can find. If she has water, she pours it over them, but that is an increasingly scarce resource.

“There is no electricity. There is nothing,” she said, her face beaded with sweat. “They cannot sleep. They keep crying all day until the sun sets.”

The heat in Gaza has intensified hardships for its 2 million residents. Reduced water availability, crippled sanitation networks, and shrinking living spaces threaten to cause illnesses to cascade through communities, aid groups have long warned.

The scorching summer coincides with a lack of clean water for the majority of Gaza’s population, most of whom are displaced in tented communities. Many Palestinians in the enclave must walk long distances to fetch water and ration each drop, limiting their ability to wash and keep cool.

“We are only at the beginning of summer,” Hadayed’s husband, Yousef, said. “And our situation is dire.”

Israel had blocked food, fuel, medicine and all other supplies from entering Gaza for nearly three months. It began allowing limited aid in May, but fuel needed to pump water from wells or operate desalination plants is still not getting into the territory.

With fuel supplies short, only 40 percent of drinking water production facilities are functioning in the Gaza Strip, according to a recent report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. All face imminent collapse. Up to 93 percent of households face water shortages, the June report said.

The Hadayeds were displaced after evacuation orders forced them to leave eastern Khan Younis.

“Our lives in the tent are miserable. We spend our days pouring water over their heads and their skin,” Yousef Hadayed said. “Water itself is scarce. It is very difficult to get that water.”

UNICEF’s spokesperson recently said that if fuel supplies are not allowed to enter the enclave, children will die of thirst.

“Me and my children spend our days sweating,” said Reham Abu Hadayed, a 30-year-old relative of Rida Abu Hadayed who was also displaced from eastern Khan Younis. She worries about the health of her four children.

“I don’t have enough money to buy them medicine,” she said.

For Mohammed Al-Awini, 23, the heat is not the worst part. It’s the flies and mosquitoes that bombard his tent, especially at night.

Without adequate sewage networks, garbage piles up on streets, attracting insects and illness. The stench of decomposing trash wafts in the air.

“We are awake all night, dying from mosquito bites,” he said. “We are the most tired people in the world.”


Ailing S.Sudan president prepares volatile succession

Updated 03 July 2025
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Ailing S.Sudan president prepares volatile succession

  • For months, Kiir has been manoeuvring to sideline rivals
  • The world’s youngest country, South Sudan has been plagued by poverty and violence since gaining independence in 2011

JUBA: With South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir undergoing medical tests abroad after years of rumors about his health, analysts say a long-gestating plan has been set in motion to secure his succession.

Kiir returned from at least 10 days in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, with state media saying he had been “exploring new avenues for economic cooperation.”

But members of his entourage, speaking on condition of anonymity, previously told AFP he was there for medical tests — reinforcing long-held concerns about the 73-year-old’s health.

The world’s youngest country, South Sudan has been plagued by poverty and violence since gaining independence in 2011, including a civil war that killed some 400,000 people in 2013-2018.

After a few relatively calm years, the country has been thrown back into turmoil in recent months, prompted, say analysts, by Kiir’s declining health and his efforts to install his heir-apparent, businessman Benjamin Bol Mel, in power.

Bol Mel is a controversial figure, who gained prominence as a construction magnate and was said to handle the Kiir family’s finances.

He was placed on a sanctions list by the United States in 2017 for corruption.

For months, Kiir has been manoeuvring to sideline rivals.

His old foe, Riek Machar, against whom he fought the civil war, was placed under house arrest in March and many of his political allies disappeared into detention.

Kiir’s forces have attacked Machar’s military bases and other armed groups drawn from his ethnic group, the Nuer.

More than 700 people were killed in clashes between January and March alone, according to the United Nations.

Rumours about Kiir’s health have long circulated but the topic is absolutely off-limits for discussion in official circles.

“If you want to visit a grave quickly, talk about it,” said a local activist, requesting anonymity for safety reasons.

Nonetheless, the frailty was obvious in April when Kiir hosted Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who walked briskly despite his 80 years while Kiir moved in tiny steps.

In May, the foreign ministry had to issue a statement assuring that the head of state was still alive following rumors to the contrary on social media.

State media footage of Kiir’s return from the UAE on Wednesday cut away every time he was about to take a step.

During his absence, it was Bol Mel — who was named second vice president in February and deputy head of the ruling party in May — who chaired last week’s cabinet meeting.

“It seems to be a script written a long time ago and being implemented in phases,” said Wani Michael, a former activist now in exile.

“They had to take away Riek Machar to pave the way for Bol Mel because... Riek would give Bol Mel a hard time,” he added.

In October, Kiir also fired his intelligence chief, Akol Koor, another potential rival who held that post for 13 years.

Bol Mel “has taken control of the security forces by installing loyalists. He has taken over the security and financial apparatus since last November-December,” said a diplomat based in Juba, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

Despite an uptick in violence, the moves have not triggered renewed war as many feared.

“It’s devastating on a humanitarian level, but it’s nothing compared to the colossal massacres of a few years ago when thousands died each month,” said the diplomat, adding that the government “has been fairly successful in subduing the various rebellions.”

Machar’s forces have barely retaliated to attacks and his party is split on the way forward.

But success is not guaranteed for Bol Mel, either, warned local analyst James Boboya.

“The government has not gained legitimacy at home or internationally,” he told AFP.

There is particular disillusionment at the failure to hold the country’s first-ever elections, which were again postponed last year to 2026.

“Elections are the only viable way for a peaceful transfer of power,” said Edmund Yakani, president of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, a local NGO.

“We need the power of our vote in shaping the future. Not the bullet, and not leaders imposed on us.”


Netanyahu vows to uproot Hamas as ceasefire proposals are discussed

Updated 03 July 2025
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Netanyahu vows to uproot Hamas as ceasefire proposals are discussed

  • Nearly 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday vowed to eradicate Hamas, even as the Palestinian militant group said it was discussing new proposals from mediators for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Israeli leader had yet to comment on US President Donald Trump’s claim that Israel had backed a plan for a 60-day truce in its offensive against Hamas in the war-ravaged territory.
But a week ahead of talks scheduled with Trump in Washington, he vowed to “destroy” Hamas “down to their very foundation.”
Hamas said it was “conducting national consultations to discuss” the proposals submitted in negotiations mediated by Qatar and Egypt.
Nearly 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations.
The civil defense agency said that Israeli forces had killed at least 47 people on Wednesday.
Among the dead was Marwan Al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital, a key clinic in the north of Gaza, Palestinian officials said.
Trump on Tuesday urged Hamas to accept a 60-day ceasefire, saying that Israel had agreed to finalize such a deal.
Hamas said in a statement that it was studying the latest proposals and aiming “to reach an agreement that guarantees ending the aggression, achieving the withdrawal (of Israeli forces from Gaza) and urgently aiding our people in the Gaza Strip.”
Netanyahu vowed however: “We will free all our hostages, and we will eliminate Hamas. It will be no more,” in filmed comments in the city of Ashkelon near Gaza’s northern border.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar earlier said that he saw “some positive signs,” amid high pressure to bring home the hostages.
“We are serious in our will to reach a hostage deal and a ceasefire,” he said. “Our goal is to begin proximity talks as soon as possible.”
Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in October 2023, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
A Palestinian source familiar with the mediated negotiations told AFP that “there are no fundamental changes in the new proposal” under discussion compared to previous terms presented by the United States.
The source said that the new proposal “includes a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release half of the living Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip, in exchange for Israel releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.”
In southern Gaza, civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five members of the same family were killed in an Israeli air strike on Wednesday that hit a tent housing displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area.
Despite being declared a safe zone by Israel in December 2023, Al-Mawasi has been hit by repeated Israeli strikes.
AFP footage from the area showed makeshift tents blown apart as Palestinians picked through the wreckage trying to salvage what was left of their belongings.
“They came here thinking it was a safe area and they were killed. What did they do?” said one resident, Maha Abu Rizq, against a backdrop of destruction.
AFP footage from nearby Khan Yunis city showed infants covered in blood being rushed into Nasser Hospital. One man carrying a child whose face was smeared with blood screamed: “Children, children!“
Among other fatalities, Bassal later reported five people killed by Israeli army fire near an aid distribution site close to the southern city of Rafah and a further death following Israeli fire near an aid site in the center of the territory.
They were the latest in a string of deadly incidents that have hit people trying to receive food.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it “is operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” in line with “international law, and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”
It said in a statement that a 19-year-old sergeant in its forces “fell during combat in the northern Gaza Strip.”
The military late on Wednesday issued a fresh evacuation warning to residents for three neighborhoods of Gaza City, urging them to flee south to the Mawasi area.
Israeli forces are “operating with extreme intensity in the area and will attack any location being used to launch missiles toward the State of Israel,” Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a message on Telegram.
“The destruction of terrorist organizations will continue and expand into the city center, encompassing all neighborhoods of the city,” Avichay wrote.
The military earlier said that its air force had intercepted two “projectiles” that crossed from northern Gaza into Israeli territory.
Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 57,012 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.


Israeli Likud party ministers urge Netanyahu to annex West Bank

Updated 03 July 2025
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Israeli Likud party ministers urge Netanyahu to annex West Bank

  • The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament

Cabinet ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party called on Wednesday for Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the Knesset recesses at the end of the month.
They issued a petition ahead of Netanyahu’s meeting next week with US President Donald Trump, where discussions are expected to center on a potential 60-day Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.
The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
There was no immediate response from the prime minister’s office. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, long a confidant of Netanyahu, did not sign the petition. He has been in Washington since Monday for talks on Iran and Gaza.
“We ministers and members of Knesset call for applying Israeli sovereignty and law immediately on Judea and Samaria,” they wrote, using the biblical names for the West Bank captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
Their petition cited Israel’s recent achievements against both Iran and Iran’s allies and the opportunity afforded by the strategic partnership with the US and support of Trump.
It said the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel demonstrated that the concept of Jewish settlement blocs alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state poses an existential threat to Israel.
“The task must be completed, the existential threat removed from within, and another massacre in the heart of the country must be prevented,” the petition stated.
Most countries regard Jewish settlements in the West Bank, many of which cut off Palestinian communities from one another, as a violation of international law.
With each advance of Israeli settlements and roads, the West Bank becomes more fractured, further undermining prospects for a contiguous land on which Palestinians could build a sovereign state long envisaged in Middle East peacemaking.
Israel’s pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Trump, who has proposed Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond.