BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch said Wednesday that frontline staff battling the novel coronavirus in government-held areas of Syria are dying in growing numbers for want of personal protective equipment.
It reported multiple deaths of doctors from Covid-19-related symptoms, many of which did not appear in government figures because no test was carried out.
“It is bewildering that as the obituaries for doctors and nurses responding to the Covid-19 pandemic pile up, official numbers tell a story at odds with the reality on the ground,” said HRW researcher Sara Kayyali.
Syria has recorded 2,830 cases, including 116 deaths, in government-held areas, but the health ministry has acknowledged it lacks the “capacity... to carry out widespread testing in the provinces.”
HRW said evidence suggested the official figures significantly understate the scale of the outbreak.
It said it had confirmed the deaths of 33 doctors from Covid-19-related symptoms from a list published in August, while official figures at the time recorded 64 confirmed deaths among the whole population.
“Doctors and nurses operating in government-held areas said that there are severe shortages of supplies, particularly in rural areas,” the New York-based watchdog said.
Personal protective equipment provided by the World Health Organization did not appear to be reaching medical staff in sufficient quantities.
Health workers told HRW that hospitals equipped to treat Covid-19 patients were now all full and smaller centers lacked the ventilators and oxygen to do so.
WHO and “other organizations with a health mandate should publicly insist on expanding testing capacities... and equitable distribution of sufficient personal protective equipment to health workers throughout the country,” HRW said.
Several sources told AFP last month that deaths among medical personnel in government-held areas had shot up in previous weeks.
A doctor, who asked to remain anonymous, said most of the dead had not been tested for the virus but had presented symptoms before dying.
Nine years of civil war have battered Syria’s health care system, with hospitals damaged by bombing, vital equipment lacking and doctors wounded or forced to flee fighting.
The government now controls most of the country but the northwest remains in rebel hands while the northeast is controlled by US-backed Kurdish forces.
HRW says Syria medics dying for want of virus protection
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HRW says Syria medics dying for want of virus protection
- HRW said evidence suggested the official figures significantly understate the scale of the outbreak
- Nine years of civil war have battered Syria’s health care system, with hospitals damaged by bombing
Gaza ceasefire enters phase two despite unresolved issues
- Under the second phase, Gaza is to be administered by a 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee operating under the supervision of a so-called “Board of Peace,” to be chaired by Trump
JERUSALEM: A US-backed plan to end the war in Gaza has entered its second phase despite unresolved disputes between Israel and Hamas over alleged ceasefire violations and issues unaddressed in the first stage.
The most contentious questions remain Hamas’s refusal to publicly commit to full disarmament, a non-negotiable demand from Israel, and Israel’s lack of clarity over whether it will fully withdraw its forces from Gaza.
The creation of a Palestinian technocratic committee, announced on Wednesday, is intended to manage day-to-day governance in post-war Gaza, but it leaves unresolved broader political and security questions.
Below is a breakdown of developments from phase one to the newly launched second stage.
Gains and gaps in phase one
The first phase of the plan, part of a 20-point proposal unveiled by US President Donald Trump, began on October 10 and aimed primarily to stop the fighting in the Gaza Strip, allow in aid and secure the return of all remaining living and deceased hostages held by Hamas and allied Palestinian militant groups.
All hostages have since been returned, except for the remains of one Israeli, Ran Gvili.
Israel has accused Hamas of delaying the handover of Gvili’s body, while Hamas has said widespread destruction in Gaza made locating the remains difficult.
Gvili’s family had urged mediators to delay the transition to phase two.
“Moving on breaks my heart. Have we given up? Ran did not give up on anyone,” his sister, Shira Gvili, said after mediators announced the move.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said efforts to recover Gvili’s remains would continue but has not publicly commented on the launch of phase two.
Hamas has accused Israel of repeated ceasefire violations, including air strikes, firing on civilians and advancing the so-called “Yellow Line,” an informal boundary separating areas under Israeli military control from those under Hamas authority.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Israeli forces had killed 451 people since the ceasefire took effect.
Israel’s military said it had targeted suspected militants who crossed into restricted zones near the Yellow Line, adding that three Israeli soldiers were also killed by militants during the same period.
Aid agencies say Israel has not allowed the volume of humanitarian assistance envisaged under phase one, a claim Israel rejects.
Gaza, whose borders and access points remain under Israeli control, continues to face severe shortages of food, clean water, medicine and fuel.
Israel and the United Nations have repeatedly disputed figures on the number of aid trucks permitted to enter the Palestinian territory.
Disarmament, governance in phase two
Under the second phase, Gaza is to be administered by a 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee operating under the supervision of a so-called “Board of Peace,” to be chaired by Trump.
“The ball is now in the court of the mediators, the American guarantor and the international community to empower the committee,” Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas leader, said in a statement on Thursday.
Trump on Thursday announced the board of peace had been formed and its members would be announced “shortly.”
Mediators Egypt, Turkiye and Qatar said Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, had been appointed to lead the committee.
Later on Thursday, Egyptian state television reported that all members of the committee had “arrived in Egypt and begun their meetings in preparation for entering the territory.”
Al-Qahera News, which is close to Egypt’s state intelligence services, said the members’ arrival followed US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s announcement on Wednesday “of the start of the second phase and what was agreed upon at the meeting of Palestinian factions in Cairo yesterday.”
Shaath, in a recent interview, said the committee would rely on “brains rather than weapons” and would not coordinate with armed groups.
On Wednesday, Witkoff said phase two aims for the “full demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza,” including the disarmament of all unauthorized armed factions.
Witkoff said Washington expected Hamas to fulfil its remaining obligations, including the return of Gvili’s body, warning that failure to do so would bring “serious consequences.”
The plan also calls for the deployment of an International Stabilization Force to help secure Gaza and train vetted Palestinian police units.
For Palestinians, the central issue remains Israel’s full military withdrawal from Gaza — a step included in the framework but for which no detailed timetable has been announced.
With fundamental disagreements persisting over disarmament, withdrawal and governance, diplomats say the success of phase two will depend on sustained pressure from mediators and whether both sides are willing — or able — to move beyond long-standing red lines.
