Syrian Regime Forces Expel ISIS From Hajar Al-Aswad Region

Destruction in Syria. (AFP)
Destruction in Syria. (AFP)
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Syrian Regime Forces Expel ISIS From Hajar Al-Aswad Region

Destruction in Syria. (AFP)
Destruction in Syria. (AFP)

Syrian regime forces retook on Tuesday a neighborhood south of Damascus from ISIS, slicing off yet another part of the extremists’ holdout, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Since April 19, the Bashar Assad regime has waged a fierce air and ground assault against the final ISIS-held pocket of the capital.

“The Syrian regime has seized control of the entire district of Hajar al-Aswad,” Observatory Director Rami Abdul Rahman told AFP.

Fighting for Hajar al-Aswad had been particularly bloody, he added.

Regime forces were able to capture the Kadam neighborhood, but the fierce fighting aimed at controlling Hajar al-Aswad was very difficult.

ISIS has been controlling the Yarmouk refugee camp south of the Syrian capital, as well as parts of the al-Tadamon neighborhood, since 2015.

The expulsion of ISIS from those neighborhoods will allow the army to extend its control over the entire capital for the first time since 2012.

Since the assault began in April, 221 pro-regime fighters and 189 ISIS militants have been killed - nearly half of them in Hajar al-Aswad alone.

“If the regime continues to advance on the ground, ISIS will be surrounded and will be forced to negotiate an evacuation deal,” Abdul Rahman said. Such deals have allowed the regime to recapture swathes of territory across Syria.

Around 160,000 Palestinian refugees, as well as Syrians, once lived in Yarmouk. Just a few hundred people remain there now.

Due to the large losses in 2017, ISIS now controls only few pockets that do not exceed five percent of Syria’s area, including limited areas in the Syrian Badia and Deir Ezzor east and south of the country.



One in 10 Children Screened in UNRWA Clinics are Malnourished

Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 14, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 14, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
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One in 10 Children Screened in UNRWA Clinics are Malnourished

Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 14, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 14, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

One in 10 children screened in clinics run by the United Nations refugee agency in Gaza since 2024 has been malnourished, the agency said on Tuesday.

"Our health teams are confirming that malnutrition rates are increasing in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on the second of March," UNRWA's Director of Communications, Juliette Touma, told reporters in Geneva via a video link from Amman, Jordan.

Since January 2024, UNRWA said it had screened more than 240,000 boys and girls under the age of five in its clinics, adding that before the war, acute malnutrition was rarely seen in the Gaza Strip.

"One nurse that we spoke to told us that in the past, he only saw these cases of malnutrition in textbooks and documentaries," Reuters quoted Touma as saying.

"Medicine, nutrition supplies, hygiene material, fuel are all rapidly running out," Touma said.

On May 19, Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza, allowing limited UN deliveries to resume. However, UNRWA continues to be banned from bringing aid into the enclave.

Israel and the United States have accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of stealing from UN-led aid operations - which Hamas denies. They have instead set up the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, using private US security and logistics firms to transport aid to distribution hubs, which the UN has refused to work with.

On Monday, UNICEF said that last month more than 5,800 children were diagnosed with malnutrition in Gaza, including more than 1,000 children with severe, acute malnutrition. It said it was an increase for the fourth month in a row.