BEIRUT: The Syrian army shelled the Idlib region Thursday killing seven civilians, three of them children, in its third deadly bombardment of the rebel bastion in a week, a monitor said.
Several people were seriously wounded in the morning bombardment of the village of Iblin, south of Idlib, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The army has stepped up its bombing of the northwestern enclave since Saturday when President Bashar Assad took the oath of office for a new term vowing to make “liberating those parts of the homeland that still need to be” one of his top priorities.
The same day strikes on the Idlib villages of Sarja and Ehsin killed 14 civilians, seven of them children.
Two days earlier shelling of Idlib and the town of Fuaa further north killed nine civilians, three of them children, the Observatory said.
Controlled by an alliance dominated by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate, the Idlib region is home to nearly three million people, two-thirds of them displaced from other parts of the country.
A March 2020 deal brokered by the rival sides’ main foreign backers Russia and Turkey has eased fighting on the front line but the region remains in the government’s sights.
Elsewhere in the country, Kurdish-led forces control a large swathe of the east after expelling the Daesh group from the region.
And Turkey and its Syrian proxies hold a long strip of territory along the northern border.
Syria army shells rebel bastion, killing seven: monitor
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Syria army shells rebel bastion, killing seven: monitor
- The army has stepped up its bombing of the northwestern enclave since Saturday
EU urges Israel to halt NGO registration law, warns it puts aid for Gaza at risk
- Legislation could severely restrict ability of humanitarian groups to provide aid for civilians amid one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, officials say
- Without nongovernmental organizations ‘humanitarian aid cannot be delivered at the scale needed to prevent further loss of life in Gaza,’ European Council warns
NEW YORK CITY: The EU on Tuesday urged Israeli authorities not to implement in its current form a new law governing the registration of international nongovernmental organizations, warning it could jeopardize life-saving humanitarian operations in Gaza and the other occupied Palestinian territories.
In a joint statement, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Kaja Kallas, and Commissioners Hadja Lahbib and Dubravca Suica said the law could severely restrict the ability of international aid organizations to operate and deliver assistance to civilians amid one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
The European Council highlighted the need for “rapid, safe and unimpeded” delivery of aid and warned that without nongovernmental organizations, “humanitarian aid cannot be delivered at the scale needed to prevent further loss of life in Gaza.”
The new law, adopted by the Israeli government after the introduction of new registration requirements in March 2025, obliges foreign humanitarian organizations to provide detailed information about their operations, including full lists of local and foreign staff, as a condition for registering to operate in Palestinian areas.
Dozens of aid groups, including Doctors Without Borders, World Vision and Oxfam, face having their accreditation revoked or licenses suspended after failing to meet the new criteria by the Dec. 31 deadline that was set. Israeli authorities have said organizations that fail to meet the new requirements must cease all activities by March 1.
Critics say the rules risk undermining humanitarian principles and could endanger local staff. The Israeli measures drew international condemnation and warnings from UN agencies, which said international NGOs provide essential “humanitarian lifelines” in Gaza where they are delivering most of the healthcare, nutritional, water and sanitation services amid ongoing restrictions and closures of border crossings.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire, UN agencies have said, with winter conditions compounding the suffering of displaced populations living in makeshift shelters that expose them to heavy rain, flooding and cold.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the territory have received emergency food, shelter and winter supplies, and while famine conditions have eased since the ceasefire agreement in October, acute food insecurity, malnutrition and damage to infrastructure continues to take a toll.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said recent heavy rains have flooded tents, damaged homes and put a strain on already limited water, sanitation and health services, underscoring the need for sustained and unimpeded aid access.
The EU statement comes after the European Council on Dec. 18 welcomed a UN Security Council resolution for the establishment of a peace-building and stabilization force in Gaza, and urged all parties to implement it fully and in line with the principles of international law.
