UNITED NATIONS: Russia on Thursday opposed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an end to attacks on health facilities in Syria’s Idlib region, diplomats said after the latest meeting over violence in the country’s last major opposition bastion.
The outcome led to a rare statement following the meeting by the UN’s humanitarian chief, Mark Lowcock.
“The carnage must stop,” he said.
Russian and Assad egime aircraft have since late April ramped up deadly bombardment of the Idlib region of about three million people in northwest Syria, despite a deal to avert a massive government assault.
Kuwait, Germany and Belgium asked for the hastily called closed-door session, the latest of many they have sought since May in response to worsening fighting in Syria’s northwest.
The draft text, given to journalists, expressed “grave concern regarding the recent attacks on hospitals and other health facilities,” including a July 10 attack on Maarat National Hospital, one of the largest in the area and whose coordinates had been shared through the UN “deconfliction mechanism” that aims to spare civilian targets.
Russia again denied bombing such facilities.
“I provided information from my ministry of defense” and investigation demonstrated that there were “no attacks at nine out of eleven facilities” allegedly attacked, Moscow’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters.
“The two others were partially damaged but not by Russian” forces, he said.
His British counterpart, Karen Pierce, seemed skeptical.
“There’s some interest in an investigation into the Maarat Hospital hit. So I think that’s the thing to focus on,” she said at the end of the meeting.
“We’ve got our suspicions. But let’s get a proper look into that and get a proper answer.”
Lowcock said after the meeting that since July 1, “at least six health facilities, five schools, three water stations, two bakeries and one ambulance have been damaged or destroyed.
“Entire villages have been destroyed and emptied” because of air strikes, he said.
Regime air strikes on Tuesday killed 11 civilians in Idlib’s south, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The region on Turkey’s doorstep is administered by Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, but other jihadist and rebel groups are also present.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres last week strongly condemned air strikes in the region following reports from a Syrian doctors’ group that four health facilities including the Maarat Al-Numan facility were hit during a single day of bombing.
Syria’s war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
End Syria hospital attacks, Russia told at UN
End Syria hospital attacks, Russia told at UN
- Kuwait, Germany and Belgium asked for the hastily called closed-door session
- Russian and Assad egime aircraft have since late April ramped up deadly bombardment of the Idlib region
Activists plan new, bigger flotilla to try to bring aid to Gaza
- Activists previously detained by Israel plan new flotilla
- Israeli officials denounce such missions as stunts
JOHANNESBURG: Activists behind a flotilla intercepted at sea last year by Israel while trying to bring aid to Gaza will try again this year, expecting more than twice as many boats carrying up to 1,000 medics, they said on Thursday.
The Israeli military halted the roughly 40 boats in the Global Sumud Flotilla last October as they attempted to reach blockaded Gaza, arresting Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and more than 450 other participants.
Organizers, who gathered on Wednesday at the foundation of late South African leader Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, said they hope to bring 100 boats for their next attempt.
“It is a cause ... for those that want to rise and stand for justice and dignity for all,” Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela, who was among activists detained last time, told the gathering. “We want to mobilize the ... global community to join forces with us.”
Israeli officials repeatedly denounced last year’s mission, and previous smaller-scale attempts to reach Gaza by sea, as publicity stunts.
Israel, which controls all access to the Gaza Strip, denies withholding supplies for its more than 2 million residents. Palestinians and international aid bodies say supplies reaching the territory are still insufficient, despite a ceasefire reached in October which included guarantees of increased aid.
Following the ceasefire, Israeli forces now control more than 53 percent of the Gaza Strip where they have ordered residents out. Nearly the entire population is crowded into a narrow strip along the coast, mostly living in makeshift tents and damaged buildings.
If the flotilla is blocked again, the activists said it would still be worth it to highlight Gaza’s plight.
“We may not have reached Gaza physically (but) we have reached ... the people in Gaza,” said one of the activists, Susan Abdallah. “They know that we care, that we will not stop at anything until we actually break the siege.”
