Trump Urges Ankara to ‘Curtail’ Afrin Operation

Turkish army howitzers fire from a military post on the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay province, Turkey on January 20, 2018. (Reuters)
Turkish army howitzers fire from a military post on the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay province, Turkey on January 20, 2018. (Reuters)
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Trump Urges Ankara to ‘Curtail’ Afrin Operation

Turkish army howitzers fire from a military post on the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay province, Turkey on January 20, 2018. (Reuters)
Turkish army howitzers fire from a military post on the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay province, Turkey on January 20, 2018. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump urged on Wednesday his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to “curtail” his country’s military operation in Afrin in Syria, announced the White House.

During a telephone call with Erdogan, Trump called on Ankara to curtail its operations and avoid risking a clash with American forces deployed in the region.

“He urged Turkey to deescalate, limit its military actions, and avoid civilian casualties,” a White House statement said. “He urged Turkey to exercise caution and to avoid any actions that might risk conflict between Turkish and American forces.”

Earlier, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Paris on Tuesday night in order to discuss the developments in Afrin.

Diplomatic sources said that Tillerson proposed to the Turkish official setting up a 30-kilometer deep buffer zone in order to ease Ankara’s security fears over Kurdish threats from the Syrian border. Washington had previously proposed a 10-kilometer safe zone.

Turkey’s air and ground operation in Syria’s Afrin region, now in its sixth day, targets US-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara sees as allies of Kurdish insurgents who have fought in southeastern Turkey for decades.



28 Palestinians Including Children Killed in Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza

Palestinians inspect the destruction at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip on July 11, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Palestinians inspect the destruction at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip on July 11, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
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28 Palestinians Including Children Killed in Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza

Palestinians inspect the destruction at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip on July 11, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Palestinians inspect the destruction at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip on July 11, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including four children, hospital officials said Saturday.

The children and two women were among at least 13 people who were killed in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, after Israeli airstrikes pounded the area starting late Friday, officials in Al-Aqsa Martyr's Hospital said. Another four people were killed in strikes near a fuel station, and 15 others died in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital.

The Israeli military said in a statement that over the past 48 hours, troops struck approximately 250 targets in the Gaza Strip, including militants, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, anti-tank missile launch posts, sniper posts, tunnels and additional Hamas infrastructure sites. The military did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment on the civilian deaths.

The Hamas-led group killed some 1,200 people in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and abducted 251. They still hold 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

US President Donald Trump has said that he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war. But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there were no signs of a breakthrough.