BEIRUT: A senior member of the Syrian “White Helmet” rescue workers called on Thursday for the United Nations to save his colleagues trapped in the southwest by advancing government forces.
Israel and Western powers helped evacuate 422 White Helmets and their families from Syria into Jordan last week but others were unable to make it out because of government checkpoints and the expansion of Daesh in the area.
Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, backed by the Russian military, have captured most of the southern province of Daraa in an offensive that began in June.
“We want the UN or any international agency to remove the White Helmet volunteers from Daraa to Idlib so we can continue to work in the north of Syria” said Majd Khalaf, one of the founders of the White Helmets. “It is so hard when White Helmets have to leave people behind — and they also have to start their lives over,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Istanbul, Turkey.
He declined to say how many White Helmets were still at risk in the area, but said that the group has more than 3,700 women and men in Syria and that more than 200 volunteers have been killed in the seven-year civil war.
The group, known officially as Syria Civil Defense, has been widely hailed in the West and credited with saving thousands of people in rebel-held areas during years of bombing attacks by Damascus and its allies.
Its volunteers, famed for their white helmets, say they are neutral. But Syrian President Bashar Assad and his backers, including Russia, have dismissed them as Western-sponsored propaganda tools and proxies of insurgents.
The Syrian government on Monday condemned last week’s evacuation as a “criminal operation” undertaken by “Israel and its tools.”
Government forces backed by Russian air power have swept through southwestern Syria in the last month, in one of the swiftest campaigns of a war estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced 11 million.
“After the control of the regime on all borders and the whole area, we are trapped and cannot move,” one White Helmet in Daraa, who declined to give his name, said via WhatsApp, adding that he fears being arrested.
Raed Al Saleh, director of the White Helmets, said his volunteers were “helpless” as they are a civilian organization.
“Unfortunately we wish we could stay in these areas, but it is not in our hands,” he said by phone from Turkey. “We are asking for their evacuation to protect them.”
‘We are trapped’: White Helmets plead for evacuation from Syria
‘We are trapped’: White Helmets plead for evacuation from Syria
- More than 200 volunteers have been killed in the seven-year civil war
- Syria war estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced 11 million
US senator urges military action if Hamas, Hezbollah remained armed
- Graham’s remarks came a day after mediators urged Hamas and Israel to uphold Gaza ceasefire
- The 2nd phase of the Gaza truce envisages the demilitarization of the territory, including the disarmament of Hamas
JERUSALEM: US Senator Lindsey Graham called on Sunday for renewed military action against Hamas and Hezbollah if they fail to disarm and accused the Palestinian Islamist group of consolidating its power in Gaza.
The Republican politician, on a visit to Israel, is a staunch ally of US President Donald Trump.
Beginning in October, a fragile ceasefire has so far halted two years of war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip despite both sides trading accusations of truce violations.
A separate ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah also came into effect in November 2024 after more than a year of hostilities, though Israel continues to carry out strikes on Lebanese territory.
Israel has made dismantling the arsenals of both groups, allies of its arch-foe Iran, a key condition for any lasting peace.
“It’s imperative we come up with a plan quickly, put Hamas on a time clock, give them a period of time to achieve the goal of disarmament,” Graham said at a press conference during his visit.
“And if you don’t, I would encourage President Trump to unleash Israel to go finish off Hamas.”
“It’s a long, brutal war, but you cannot be successful anywhere in the region until you deliver in dealing Hamas out of the future of Gaza and disarming them,” Graham added, insisting that the second stage of the truce would fail if Hamas remains armed.
“Ninety days after the ceasefire, they are consolidating power in Gaza,” Graham said.
He also called for military engagement against Hezbollah if it too does not surrender its weapons.
“If Hezbollah refuses to give up their heavy weapons, down the road we should engage in military operations working with Lebanon, Israel and the United States, where we fly with Israel... to take Hezbollah out,” Graham said.
-- Opposition to Turkiye --
The Lebanese government has begun to disarm Hezbollah, starting in the country’s south, and insists it will complete the plan.
Israel, however, has questioned the effectiveness of the Lebanese military, and Hezbollah itself has repeatedly refused to lay down its weapons.
Graham’s remarks came a day after mediators the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye urged both sides in the Gaza war to uphold the ceasefire.
The mediators are pressing for the implementation of the second phase of the truce, which would involve an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the deployment of an international stabilization force and the establishment of an interim authority to govern the territory in place of Hamas.
The second phase of the Gaza truce also envisages the demilitarization of the territory, including the disarmament of Hamas.
Graham backed Israel’s opposition to Turkiye being included in the stabilization force, saying it would “rock Israel to its core.”
“There is no political support anywhere in Israel for having Turkiye being involved in the stabilising force,” he said.
Hamas, meanwhile, has called on the mediators and Washington to stop Israeli “violations” of the ceasefire in Gaza.
On Sunday, Israeli artillery shelling was reported in several parts of Gaza’s southern area of Khan Yunis, according to the civil defense agency, which operates under the authority of Hamas.
On Friday, six people, including two children, were killed in an Israeli bombing of a school serving as a shelter for displaced people, according to the agency.
