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UN Studying Syria Aid Approval before Resumption of Delivery

Trucks loaded with United Nations humanitarian aid for Syria following a devastating earthquake are parked at Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Türkiye, in Syria's Idlib province, on Feb. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed, File)
Trucks loaded with United Nations humanitarian aid for Syria following a devastating earthquake are parked at Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Türkiye, in Syria's Idlib province, on Feb. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed, File)
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UN Studying Syria Aid Approval before Resumption of Delivery

Trucks loaded with United Nations humanitarian aid for Syria following a devastating earthquake are parked at Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Türkiye, in Syria's Idlib province, on Feb. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed, File)
Trucks loaded with United Nations humanitarian aid for Syria following a devastating earthquake are parked at Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Türkiye, in Syria's Idlib province, on Feb. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed, File)

The United Nations has not yet resumed using a shuttered border crossing to deliver aid to northwest Syria from Türkiye that Syria said it could use for another six months after UN Security Council approval of the route expired on Monday

The UN aid deliveries would have to be "in full cooperation and coordination with the Syrian Government", Syria's UN Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh wrote in a letter on Thursday to the Security Council.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Friday the UN was still looking at the letter and consulting with a number of partners.

"That being said, we are committed to delivering life-saving assistance to millions of people in need in northwest Syria, guided by humanitarian principles and using all available means and delivery modalities," he told reporters.

The Syrian government approved the Bab al-Hawa crossing use after the UN Security Council this week failed to renew its authorization for the Turkish-based operation, which has been delivering humanitarian help to millions of people in opposition-held northwest Syria since 2014.

The 15-member failed to reach an agreement on Tuesday after Russia vetoed a proposed nine-month extension. Council authorization was needed because the Syrian government did not previously agree to the UN operation.

"We had prepositioned a lot of material in the area before the deadline. So we do have humanitarian aid in place, but obviously we want to get things going as quickly as we can," Dujarric said.

Syrians who fled President Bashar al-Assad's rule fear he may soon be able to choke off badly needed aid as Damascus acts to establish sway over UN assistance into the opposition-held northwest, the last major bastion of the Syrian opposition.

"Our guiding principle in Syria and everywhere else is our commitment to delivering humanitarian assistance guided by humanitarian principles of non-interference, of impartiality," Dujarric said.

A violent crackdown by Assad on peaceful pro-democracy protesters in 2011 led to a civil war, with Moscow backing Assad and Washington supporting the opposition. Millions of people fled Syria with millions more internally displaced. Fighting has since abated with Assad back in control of most of Syria.

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Gaza Hospital Shut after Israeli Raid, Director Held

Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, shows the damage inside the hospital, during the ongoing Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, shows the damage inside the hospital, during the ongoing Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
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Gaza Hospital Shut after Israeli Raid, Director Held

Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, shows the damage inside the hospital, during the ongoing Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, shows the damage inside the hospital, during the ongoing Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer

An Israeli military raid targeting Hamas militants has forced a major hospital in northern Gaza out of service and led to the detention of its director, the WHO and health officials said Saturday.
The assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital has rendered the facility "useless", further worsening Gaza's severe health crisis, the Palestinian territory's health officials said.
"This morning's raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital has put this last major health facility in north Gaza out of service. Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid," the World Health Organization said overnight on X, referring to the Israeli operation that began in the early hours of Friday.
The WHO said 60 health workers and 25 patients in critical condition, including some on ventilators, reportedly remain in the hospital, AFP reported.
Patients in moderate to severe condition were forced to evacuate to the destroyed, non-functioning Indonesian Hospital, the UN health agency said, adding it was "deeply concerned for their safety".
Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry reported that Israeli forces detained Kamal Adwan Hospital's director, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, along with several medical staff members.
Gaza's civil defense agency said Abu Safiyeh was held alongside its north Gaza chief, Ahmed Hassan al-Kahlout.
The Israeli military did not comment on the detentions.
Ammar al-Barsh, a resident of Jabalia where the military has focused its assault in recent weeks, said the raid on Kamal Adwan and its environs had left dozens of homes in the area in ruins.
"The situation is catastrophic, there is no medical service, no ambulances and no civil defense in the north," Barsh, 50, told AFP.
The army "continues to raid the Kamal Adwan Hospital and the surrounding houses, and we hear gunfire from Israeli drones and artillery shelling", he added.
'Heinous crime'
In the days leading up to the raid, Abu Safiyeh had repeatedly warned about the hospital's precarious situation, accusing Israeli forces of targeting the facility.
On Monday, he issued a statement accusing Israel of targeting the hospital "with the intent to kill and forcibly displace the people inside".
On Thursday, Abu Safiyeh said five staff members of the hospital had been killed in an Israeli strike near the facility.
Since October 6, Israel has intensified its land and air offensive in northern Gaza, saying its goal is to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.
The military said Friday that it was acting on intelligence regarding "terrorist infrastructure and operatives" in the hospital's vicinity.
Before initiating the latest operation near the hospital, the military said its troops had "facilitated the secure evacuation of civilians, patients, and medical personnel".
Hamas has denied claims its operatives were present at the hospital, accusing Israeli forces of storming it on Friday.
"The enemy's lies about the hospital aim to justify the heinous crime committed by the occupation army today, involving the evacuation and burning of all hospital departments as part of a plan for extermination and forced displacement," Hamas said in a statement.
Gaza's health ministry had earlier quoted Abu Safiyeh reporting that the military had "set on fire all surgery departments of the hospital".
Abu Safiyeh said the military had also "evacuated the entire medical staff and displaced people".
"There are a large number of injuries among the medical team."
'Death sentence'
Iran, which backs Hamas, "strongly condemned the brutal attack", with a foreign ministry statement calling it "the latest example of war crimes, crimes against humanity, (and) gross violations of international law and norms".
The Israeli military has regularly accused Hamas of using hospitals as command and control centers for attacks against its forces throughout the war.
Hamas has denied the accusations.
The WHO reiterated its call for a ceasefire.
"This raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital comes after escalating restrictions on access for WHO and partners, and repeated attacks on or near the facility since early October," the WHO said.
"Such hostilities and the raids are undoing all our efforts and support to keep the facility minimal functional. The systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of health care."
Meanwhile, Hamas's media center reported "massive Israeli air and artillery strikes in Beit Hanoun", in northern Gaza .
The Israeli military says it has killed hundreds of militants since the stepped-up assault in northern Gaza began on October 6, while rescuers in the area say thousands of civilians have died in the sweeping offensive.
Gaza civil defense also reported that in a separate Israeli strike in central Gaza at least nine Palestinians were killed on Saturday.
The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel last year, which resulted in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,436 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.