GENEVA: Israel has intensified airstrikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria, inflicting civilian casualties on at least three occasions, an independent UN commission said Tuesday.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began nearly a year ago, Israel has conducted dozens of airstrikes in different parts of Syria. Iran blamed Israel for the April airstrike on Iranian consular offices in Damascus that killed seven people including two Iranian generals, and Tehran responded with an unprecedented attack against Israel almost two weeks later.
Regional tensions remain high after Iran vowed to retaliate for the July 31 killing of top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, believed to be carried out by Israel.
The commission is made up of independent experts mandated by the UN’s top human rights body. It said it continues to investigate airstrikes, including Sunday’s strike in Syria’s central province of Hamas that killed 18 people, making it one of the deadliest in years.
The report comes as the UN-backed Human Rights Council on Monday began its five-week autumn session.
Israel has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria where thousands of Iran-backed fighters are deployed. Syria is a key route for Iran to send weapons to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said that since the war in Gaza started Oct. 7 with a Hamas attack, Israel carried out 76 airstrikes in different parts of the country. It said 287 Iranian-linked fighters and Syrian troops and 27 civilians, including two children, died in the strikes.
The commission said groups affiliated with Iran have attacked bases housing US troops in east Syria more than 100 times, most recently last month. US forces responded with counterattacks.
The commission also warned that Syria is falling deeper into an alarming humanitarian crisis that threatens to spiral out of control.
“Only a quarter of this year’s humanitarian needs are funded,” the commission said in a statement, adding that the needs are at their highest since the start of the conflict 13 years ago.
It added that 13 million Syrians face acute food insecurity and over 650,000 children show signs of stunting from severe malnutrition.
UN agencies and international humanitarian organizations have for years struggled with shrinking budgets, further worsened by the coronavirus pandemic and conflicts elsewhere. The war in Gaza as well as those in Ukraine and Sudan are the focus of the world’s attention.
Syria’s civil conflict, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, has long remained largely frozen.
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Israel intensified airstrikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria
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Israel intensified airstrikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria
- It said it continues to investigate airstrikes, including Sunday’s strike in Syria’s central province of Hamas that killed 18 people, making it one of the deadliest in years
- The report comes as the UN-backed Human Rights Council on Monday began its five-week autumn session
Palestinians retrieve belongings from West Bank camp before home demolitions
- Israel plans to demolish 25 buildings housing up to 100 families
- Follows IDF operation earlier this year against camps in the northern occupied West Bank
NUR SHAMS, Palestinian Territories: Dozens of residents from the West Bank’s emptied Nur Shams refugee camp returned on Wednesday to retrieve belongings ahead of the Israeli military’s demolition of 25 residential buildings there.
Early this year, the military launched an ongoing operation it said was aimed at rooting out Palestinian armed groups from camps in the northern occupied West Bank — including Nur Shams, Tulkarem and Jenin.
Loading furniture, children’s toys and even a window frame onto small trucks, Palestinian residents hurried Wednesday to gather as much as they could under the watchful eye of Israeli soldiers, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
Troops performed ID checks and physical searches, allowing through only those whose houses were set to be demolished.
Some who were able to enter salvaged large empty water tanks, while others came out with family photos, mattresses and heaters.
More than 32,000 people remain displaced from the now-empty camps, where Israeli troops are stationed, according to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
Mahmud Abdallah, who was displaced from Nur Shams and was able to enter a part of the camp on Wednesday, said he witnessed for the first time the destruction that had taken place after he was forced to leave.
“I was surprised to find that there were no habitable houses; maybe two or three, but they were not suitable for living,” he said.
“The camp is destroyed.”
‘Determined to return’
The demolitions, affecting 25 buildings housing up to 100 families, were announced earlier this week and are scheduled for Thursday.
They are officially part of a broader Israeli strategy of home demolitions to ease its military vehicles’ access in the dense refugee camps of the northern West Bank.
Israel has occupied the Palestinian territory since 1967.
Ahmed Al-Masri, a camp resident whose house was to be demolished, told AFP that his request for access was denied.
“When I asked why, I was told: ‘Your name is not in the liaison office records’,” he said.
UNRWA’s director for the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Roland Friedrich, said an estimated 1,600 houses were fully or partially destroyed during the military operation, making it “the most severe displacement crisis that the West Bank has seen since 1967.”
Nur Shams, along with other refugee camps in the West Bank, was established after the creation of Israel in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their homes in what is now Israel.
“We ask God to compensate us with palaces in paradise,” said Ibtisam Al-Ajouz, a displaced camp resident whose house was also set to be destroyed.
“We are determined to return, and God willing, we will rebuild. Even if the houses are demolished, we will not be afraid — our morale is high.”
Early this year, the military launched an ongoing operation it said was aimed at rooting out Palestinian armed groups from camps in the northern occupied West Bank — including Nur Shams, Tulkarem and Jenin.
Loading furniture, children’s toys and even a window frame onto small trucks, Palestinian residents hurried Wednesday to gather as much as they could under the watchful eye of Israeli soldiers, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
Troops performed ID checks and physical searches, allowing through only those whose houses were set to be demolished.
Some who were able to enter salvaged large empty water tanks, while others came out with family photos, mattresses and heaters.
More than 32,000 people remain displaced from the now-empty camps, where Israeli troops are stationed, according to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
Mahmud Abdallah, who was displaced from Nur Shams and was able to enter a part of the camp on Wednesday, said he witnessed for the first time the destruction that had taken place after he was forced to leave.
“I was surprised to find that there were no habitable houses; maybe two or three, but they were not suitable for living,” he said.
“The camp is destroyed.”
‘Determined to return’
The demolitions, affecting 25 buildings housing up to 100 families, were announced earlier this week and are scheduled for Thursday.
They are officially part of a broader Israeli strategy of home demolitions to ease its military vehicles’ access in the dense refugee camps of the northern West Bank.
Israel has occupied the Palestinian territory since 1967.
Ahmed Al-Masri, a camp resident whose house was to be demolished, told AFP that his request for access was denied.
“When I asked why, I was told: ‘Your name is not in the liaison office records’,” he said.
UNRWA’s director for the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Roland Friedrich, said an estimated 1,600 houses were fully or partially destroyed during the military operation, making it “the most severe displacement crisis that the West Bank has seen since 1967.”
Nur Shams, along with other refugee camps in the West Bank, was established after the creation of Israel in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their homes in what is now Israel.
“We ask God to compensate us with palaces in paradise,” said Ibtisam Al-Ajouz, a displaced camp resident whose house was also set to be destroyed.
“We are determined to return, and God willing, we will rebuild. Even if the houses are demolished, we will not be afraid — our morale is high.”
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