UN urges resettlement of quake-hit Syrians

Mohammad Hajj Bakr, 9, whose family is originally from Syria, plays with a ball at a camp populated mostly by Syrians in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake in Antakya, Turkey, March 2, 2023. (REUTERS)
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Updated 04 March 2023
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UN urges resettlement of quake-hit Syrians

  • For almost 12 years, Turkiye has hosted some 3.5 million Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war

GENEVA: The UN on Saturday urged countries to speed up taking Syrian refugees from earthquake-hit zones in Turkiye, saying they were facing the trauma of loss and displacement all over again.
The UN made the call as 89 Syrian refugees arrived in Madrid from Turkiye. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Feb. 6 killed over 45,000 people in Turkiye and thousands more in neighboring Syria and completely devastated hundreds of thousands of buildings.
For almost 12 years, Turkiye has hosted some 3.5 million Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war. Last month’s earthquake affected an estimated 9 million people, of which more than 1.7 million are refugees.
“Many refugees who fled to Turkiye in search of safety and protection have now faced the trauma of loss and displacement once again — losing their homes and livelihoods,” the UN’s International Organization for Migration and the UN refugee agency UNHCR said in a joint statement.
“To help protect those refugees most at-risk, and to help alleviate pressures on local communities who themselves are also impacted by this humanitarian disaster, UNHCR is appealing for states to expedite resettlement processes and departures,” said UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi.
With many refugees affected by the disaster in “dire need of assistance, we urge more states to step up and speed up processes, enabling quick departures from Turkiye,” he said.

 


Israel army kills West Bank attacker who tried to run over troops

Updated 31 December 2025
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Israel army kills West Bank attacker who tried to run over troops

  • The Palestinian civil affairs authority named the man as 20-year-old Qais Sami Jaser Allan, adding that he “was shot by the occupation forces between the towns of Einabus and Awarta”

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said its troops shot dead a man who tried to run over a group of soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.
The incident occurred in Einabus in the northern West Bank, the military said.
“A short while ago, a report was received regarding a terrorist who attempted to run over IDF (Israeli army) soldiers operating in the area of Einabus,” the military said.
“In response, the soldiers fired at the terrorist and eliminated him.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it rescued three people after the Israeli army opened fire near Einabus on a vehicle with Palestinian license plates.
“Two of the wounded were shot, and one of them is in critical condition. The third was injured as a result of being beaten,” the Red Crescent said.
The Palestinian civil affairs authority named the man as 20-year-old Qais Sami Jaser Allan, adding that he “was shot by the occupation forces between the towns of Einabus and Awarta.”
The incident came just days after a Palestinian from the West Bank ran over an Israeli in his sixties with his vehicle and later stabbed an 18-year-old girl to death in northern Israel.
The perpetrator was killed during the attack.
Following that incident on Friday, the military conducted a two-day operation in the West Bank town of Qabatiya from where the attacker came, detaining several residents including his father and brothers.
Since the start of the war in Gaza following Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023, violence has also surged in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Israeli troops and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the territory, including many militants as well as dozens of civilians, according to an AFP tally based on figures from the Palestinian health ministry.
According to official Israeli figures, at least 44 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, have also been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations in the same period in the West Bank.