Coronavirus Testing to Start within Days in Northwest Syria, Says WHO

The World Health Organization will begin testing for the coronavirus in Syria's northwest within days. (AFP)
The World Health Organization will begin testing for the coronavirus in Syria's northwest within days. (AFP)
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Coronavirus Testing to Start within Days in Northwest Syria, Says WHO

The World Health Organization will begin testing for the coronavirus in Syria's northwest within days. (AFP)
The World Health Organization will begin testing for the coronavirus in Syria's northwest within days. (AFP)

Testing for the novel coronavirus is to start within days in northwest Syria, the World Health Organization said Monday, amid fears of a disaster if the pandemic reached overcrowded displacement camps.

Home to some three million people, the opposition-held region of Idlib has yet to record a single coronavirus case, but conditions in the country's last major opposition bastion are especially "ripe" for an outbreak, aid groups have warned.

In the latest wave of displacement, nearly one million people in the northwest have been forced from their homes by a blistering regime offensive, which has slowed since a ceasefire went into effect this month.

But a large number of people continue to live in tented camps and makeshift housing along the Turkish border, where basic hygiene is lacking.

This has prompted deep concern after the regime in Damascus on Sunday announced the country's first official coronavirus case.

"Testing will be available in Idlib in two days," WHO spokesman Hedinn Halldorsson said on Monday.

Some 300 COVID-19 diagnostic kits are to be delivered to a laboratory in Idlib city on Wednesday and "testing should start shortly afterwards," he said.

An additional 2,000 tests would be delivered as soon as possible, he added.

Technicians in Idlib have been trained to use the kits and laboratories in neighboring Turkey would also be on standby to help if needed.

As part of a wider response plan for the region, three hospitals with intensive care units have been modified as isolation units equipped with ventilators, the WHO spokesman said.

Up to 1,000 healthcare workers have been mobilized and a new delivery of protective gear -- including 10,000 surgical masks and 500 respirator masks -- should arrive within the week.

‘Extremely concerned’

So far three suspected cases in northwest Syria have tested negative after hospitals sent samples to Turkey, Halldorsson said, but concern remains high.

"WHO is extremely concerned about the impact COVID-19 may have in the northwest," Halldorsson said.

"Displaced people (there) live under conditions that make them vulnerable to respiratory infections," he told AFP.

Those included overcrowded living conditions, physical and mental stress, as well as lack of housing, food and clean water.

Misty Buswell of the International Rescue Committee on Monday said deplorable living conditions in Idlib have "already left hundreds of thousands of people in poor health, making them even more vulnerable."

"It is possible that the disease is already making its way through the population" in Idlib, she said in a statement.

Eighty-five attacks on health facilities last year make the region all the more vulnerable, she warned.

"The majority of hospitals that remain open are unable to cope with needs that already exist," Buswell said.

Syria's war has killed more than 380,000 people, displaced millions and ravaged the country's infrastructure since starting in 2011 with anti-regime protests.

Late last year, less than two-thirds of the country's hospitals were functioning, while 70 percent of health workers had fled the country, WHO says.

Over the past week, the Damascus authorities have taken increased measures to stem the spread of the virus.

Schools, universities and restaurants have been closed and prayer gatherings suspended.

Travelers from affected countries are banned from entering the country and the land border was closed with Lebanon, where 256 people are infected and four have died from the virus.

The Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria have not recorded any deaths so far, but have imposed a curfew in a bid to stem any outbreak.



Israeli Forces Storm Major West Bank City of Nablus

Tear gas and smoke are pictured through a window during a large-scale Israeli military raid in the old town of Nablus city in the occupied West Bank, on June 10, 2025. (AFP)
Tear gas and smoke are pictured through a window during a large-scale Israeli military raid in the old town of Nablus city in the occupied West Bank, on June 10, 2025. (AFP)
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Israeli Forces Storm Major West Bank City of Nablus

Tear gas and smoke are pictured through a window during a large-scale Israeli military raid in the old town of Nablus city in the occupied West Bank, on June 10, 2025. (AFP)
Tear gas and smoke are pictured through a window during a large-scale Israeli military raid in the old town of Nablus city in the occupied West Bank, on June 10, 2025. (AFP)

Israel launched a large-scale military operation on Tuesday in the old city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, AFP journalists reported, with the army reporting injured troops and two Palestinians "eliminated".

Dozens of military vehicles entered the city shortly after midnight, an AFP journalist reported, after a curfew had been announced over loudspeakers the day before.

Military operations are focused on the old city, a densely populated area bordering a large downtown square where young men and boys gathered to burn tires and throw stones at armored vehicles.

The Israeli army said that one soldier was "moderately injured" and three others "lightly injured" when two Palestinians attempted to steal a soldier's weapon.

Troops opened fire and "eliminated" both Palestinians, the army said in a statement, using a term the military often uses when killing gunmen.

AFPTV footage showed Israeli soldiers standing in one of the old city's narrow streets, next to the bodies of two civilians.

Neither Palestinian medics nor the Israeli army confirmed the two deaths.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Tuesday that three people were injured from bullet shrapnel, four from "physical assaults", and dozens more from tear gas inhalation.

It added that many injuries had to be handled within the old city after its ambulances were blocked from entering.

Nablus is located in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

The territory's north has been the target of a major Israeli military operation dubbed "Iron Wall" since January 21.

On Tuesday, Israeli soldiers entered shops to search them and arrested several people for questioning, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.

The correspondent added that Israeli flags were raised over the roofs of buildings in the Old City that had been turned into temporary bases for Israeli troops.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, triggered by the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian movement Hamas on Israel.

At least 938 Palestinians, including fighters but also many civilians, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to data from the Palestinian Authority.

During the same period, least 35 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids, according to official Israeli figures.