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Russia Asks UN Security Council to Vote Monday on Israel, Gaza

Smoke rises following Israeli strikes in Gaza, 15 October 2023. (EPA)
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes in Gaza, 15 October 2023. (EPA)
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Russia Asks UN Security Council to Vote Monday on Israel, Gaza

Smoke rises following Israeli strikes in Gaza, 15 October 2023. (EPA)
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes in Gaza, 15 October 2023. (EPA)

Russia has asked the United Nations Security Council to vote Monday on a draft resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict that calls for a humanitarian ceasefire and condemns violence against civilians and all acts of terrorism.

Russia's Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said on Saturday no changes had been made to the text since it was given to the 15-member body on Friday and that he expected the vote to be scheduled for 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) on Monday.

The one-page draft resolution also calls for the release of hostages, humanitarian aid access and the safe evacuation of civilians in need. It refers to Israel and the Palestinians, but does not directly name Hamas.

A UN Security Council resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, Britain, France, China or Russia. The United States has traditionally shielded its ally Israel from any Security Council action.

Israel was preparing on Saturday to launch a ground assault against Iran-backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip, after telling Palestinians living in the densely populated territory to move south towards a closed border with Egypt.

Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas in retaliation for an attack by the Palestinian group a week ago. Hamas stormed Israeli towns, killing 1,300 people and seizing scores of hostages - the worst attack on civilians in Israel's history.

Israeli jets and artillery have already subjected Gaza to the most intense bombardment it has ever seen, putting the enclave, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, under total siege. Gaza authorities say more than 2,200 people have been killed.

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Syria War Monitor Says More than 130 Dead in Army-Extremist Clashes

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
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Syria War Monitor Says More than 130 Dead in Army-Extremist Clashes

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)

A Syria war monitor on Thursday said clashes between the army and extremists killed more than 130 combatants in the worst fighting in the country's northwest in years, as the government also reported fierce battles.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said extremist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions launched a surprise attack on the Syrian army in the northern province of Aleppo on Wednesday.
The toll "in battles ongoing for the past 24 hours has risen to 132, including 65 fighters from HTS", 18 from allied factions "and 49 members of regime forces", said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
Some of the clashes, in an area straddling Idlib and Aleppo provinces, are less than 10 kilometers (six miles) southwest of the outskirts of Aleppo city.
HTS, led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria branch, controls swathes of much of the northwest Idlib area and slivers of neighboring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.
An AFP correspondent reported heavy, uninterrupted clashes east of the city of Idlib since Wednesday morning, including air strikes.
A military statement carried by state news agency SANA said that "armed terrorist organizations grouped under so-called 'Nusra terrorist front' present in Aleppo and Idlib provinces launched a large, broad-fronted attack" on Wednesday morning.
It said the attack with "medium and heavy weapons targeted safe villages and towns and our military sites in those areas".
The army "in cooperation with friendly forces" confronted the attack "which is still continuing", inflicting "heavy losses" on the armed groups, the military statement said, without reporting army losses.
Key highway
The Observatory said HTS was able to advance in Idlib province, taking control of Dadikh, Kafr Batikh and Sheikh Ali "after heavy clashes with the regime forces with Russian air cover".
"The villages have strategic importance due to their proximity to the M5 international highway", the monitor said, adding the factions, which already took control of two other locations, were "trying to cut the Aleppo-Damascus international highway".
The Observatory said that "Russian warplanes intensified air strikes", targeting the vicinity of Sarmin and other areas in Idlib province, alongside "heavy artillery shelling" and rocket fire.
Syria's conflict broke out after President Bashar al-Assad repressed anti-government protests in 2011, and spiraled into a complex conflict drawing in foreign armies and extremists.
It has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country's infrastructure and industry.
The Idlib region is subject to a ceasefire -- repeatedly violated but still largely holding -- brokered by Türkiye and Damascus ally Russia after a Syrian government offensive in March 2020.