BEIRUT: Unexploded land mines left by Daesh fighters cover every inch of their former Syrian capital of Raqqa, a UN official said on Tuesday, advising civilians against returning to their homes there.
About 60,000 Syrians have returned to the ruins of Raqqa since Daesh left, Panos Moumtzis, UN assistant secretary general and regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria Crisis, told reporters in Beirut.
“The number of unexploded ordnance in Raqqa is something that we have never seen before. Extreme. Every house, every room, every inch of the city,” he said.
Landmines are causing 50-70 casualties a week — about the number that usually hit all of Afghanistan in a year — he said.
Though the United Nations was not helping people to go back to Raqqa, it could not stop people returning spontaneously to homes which could harbor danger, he said.
An alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by a US-led coalition captured Raqqa in November after a long campaign to besiege the city followed by months of fighting inside it.
As well as land mines and improvised explosives planted by Daesh, there may also be undetonated bombs and missiles used by the coalition in its massive blitz of Raqqa.
The jihadist group still holds a few scattered pockets in Syria and Iraq, but has lost almost all its possessions in the two countries, where at its height it ruled over millions of people.
As when attacked in other parts of its self-declared “caliphate,” it used many booby traps as a tactic against its advancing foes. But in Raqqa many of the hidden bombs appear aimed at civilians.
“It is vicious to think they are deliberately planted to kill, to kill civilians, to kill people,” said Moumtzis.
Refugees in Syria’s Raqqa face ‘extreme’ Daesh land mine threat: UN
Refugees in Syria’s Raqqa face ‘extreme’ Daesh land mine threat: UN
Freezing rain floods Gaza camps
- Over the weekend, tents in Khan Younis were soaked, leaving families struggling to stay dry
- At least 12 people have died from hypothermia or building collapses since December 13
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza: Rain lashed the Gaza Strip over the weekend, flooding makeshift encampments with ankle-deep puddles as Palestinians displaced by the two-year war attempted to stay dry in tents frayed by months of use.
Muddy water soaked blankets and mattresses in tents in a camp in Khan Younis and fragile shelters were propped up with old pieces of wood. Children wearing flip-flops and light clothing ill-suited for winter waded through the freezing puddles, which turned dirt roads into rivers. Some people used shovels to try to push the water out of their tents.
Nowhere to escape the rain
“We drowned last night,” said Majdoleen Tarabein, a woman displaced from Rafah in southern Gaza. “Puddles formed, and there was a bad smell. The tent flew away. We don’t know what to do or where to go.”
She showed blankets and the remaining contents of the tent, completely soaked and covered in mud, as she and family members tried to wring them dry by hand.
“When we woke up in the morning, we found that the water had entered the tent,” said Eman Abu Riziq, also displaced in Khan Younis, as she pointed to a puddle just outside. “These are the mattresses — they are all completely soaked. My daughters’ belongings were soaked. The water is entering from here and there,” she said, gesturing toward the ceiling and the corners of the tent. Her family is still reeling from her husband’s recent death, and the constant struggle to stay dry in the winter rains.
At least 12 people, including a 2-week-old infant, have died since Dec. 13 from hypothermia or weather-related collapses of war-damaged homes, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government.
Emergency workers warned people not to stay in damaged buildings because they could collapse at any moment. But so much of the territory reduced to rubble, there are few places to escape the rain. In July, the United Nations Satellite Center estimated that almost 80 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged.
Since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect on Oct. 11, 414 people have been killed and 1,142 wounded in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. The overall Palestinian death toll from the war has risen to at least 71,266. The ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its count, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.
More shelter desperately needed
Aid deliveries into Gaza are falling far short of the amount called for under the US-brokered ceasefire, according to an Associated Press analysis of the Israeli military’s figures. The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid said in the past week that 4,200 trucks full of humanitarian aid entered Gaza, plus eight garbage trucks to assist with sanitation, as well as tents and winter clothing as part of the winterization efforts. But it refused to elaborate on the number of tents. Humanitarian aid groups have said the need far outstrips the number of tents that have entered.
Since the ceasefire began, approximately 72,000 tents and 403,000 tarps have entered, according to the Shelter Cluster, an international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“Harsh winter weather is compounding more than two years of suffering. People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents and among ruins. There is nothing inevitable about this. Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required,” Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the top UN group overseeing aid in Gaza, wrote on X.
Netanyahu travels to Washington for talks about second stage of ceasefire
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump in Florida about the second stage of the ceasefire. Netanyahu is expected to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
Though the ceasefire agreement has mostly held over the past 2 1/2 months, its progress has slowed. Israel has said it refuses to move on to the next stage of the ceasefire while the remains of the final hostage killed in the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war are still in Gaza. Challenges in the next phase of the ceasefire include the deployment of an international stabilization force, a technocratic governing body for Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and further Israeli troop withdrawals from the territory.
Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of truce violations.
