Regime Forces Attack ‘De-escalation Zones’ in East Damascus

File photo: Rebel fighters in Jobar, Syria. Amer Almohibany / AFP
File photo: Rebel fighters in Jobar, Syria. Amer Almohibany / AFP
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Regime Forces Attack ‘De-escalation Zones’ in East Damascus

File photo: Rebel fighters in Jobar, Syria. Amer Almohibany / AFP
File photo: Rebel fighters in Jobar, Syria. Amer Almohibany / AFP

Syrian regime forces have made reinforcements on the Jobar and Ein Tarma fronts, east of Damascus, while the opposition forces thwarted the attack.

The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces said targeting residential areas and medical centers serves the terrorist groups’ interest.

Failaq al-Rahman announced that it thwarted an attempt by the 4th Armored Division to storm Ein Tarma region, killing dozens of the regime forces and armed men supporting them. An officer in Failaq al-Rahman stated that after the regime forces’ failure to launch the attack, they shelled Jobar and Ein Tarma as well as Jesrin town.

Jobar and Ein Tarma fall under the de-escalation zones in tandem with an agreement signed between Failaq al-Rahman and the Russian party mid-August.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced on Wednesday that fierce clashes were ongoing in Damascus and its outskirts of eastern Ghouta between the regime forces and their militias from one side and Failaq al-Rahman fighters from the other.

Further, the negotiations’ committee of Eastern Qalamoun held a round of talks with the Russian side in the presence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Syrian regime figures. The meeting discussed the current situation and the strict measures on civilians in Eastern Qalamoun.

The escalation in Damascus and Ghouta witnessed similar tension in the north of Syria where airstrikes targeted Aleppo’s countryside, leading to the destruction of a school but without causing any injuries, revealed SOHR.

In a related matter, Russia said that airstrikes in Idlib have killed five prominent field commanders and 32 members of al-Nusra Front. Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said that the airstrikes also destroyed militant ammunition depots and military vehicles.



UNICEF: Gaza Faces Man-made Drought as Water Systems Collapse

FILE PHOTO: Palestinian children gather near containers used for water, in Gaza City, April 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Palestinian children gather near containers used for water, in Gaza City, April 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
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UNICEF: Gaza Faces Man-made Drought as Water Systems Collapse

FILE PHOTO: Palestinian children gather near containers used for water, in Gaza City, April 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Palestinian children gather near containers used for water, in Gaza City, April 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo

Gaza is facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapse, the United Nations' children agency said on Friday.

"Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40% of drinking water production facilities remain functional," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva.

"We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water for people in Gaza," he added, according to Reuters.

UNICEF also reported a 50% increase in children aged six months to 5 years admitted for treatment of malnutrition from April to May in Gaza, and half a million people going hungry.

It said the US-backed aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was "making a desperate situation worse."

On Friday at least 25 people awaiting aid trucks or seeking aid were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities. On Thursday at least 51 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the GHF in the central Gaza Strip.

Elder, who was recently in Gaza, said he had many testimonials of women and children injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries.

He said a lack of public clarity on when the sites, some of which are in combat zones, were open was causing mass casualty events.

"There have been instances where information (was) shared that a site is open, but then it's communicated on social media that they're closed, but that information was shared when Gaza's internet was down and people had no access to it," he said.

On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed three million meals across three of its aid sites without an incident.

On Friday at least 12 people were killed in an airstrike on a house belonging to the Ayyash family in Deir Al-Balah, taking the day's death toll to 37.