ISIS Militants Evacuated from Southern Damascus to Desert

Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are seen in Deir Ezzor, Syria May 1, 2018. (Reuters)
Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are seen in Deir Ezzor, Syria May 1, 2018. (Reuters)
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ISIS Militants Evacuated from Southern Damascus to Desert

Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are seen in Deir Ezzor, Syria May 1, 2018. (Reuters)
Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are seen in Deir Ezzor, Syria May 1, 2018. (Reuters)

Several buses on Sunday evacuated ISIS militants from their last pockets in southern Damascus to the Syrian Desert in the east under a deal that was reached following weeks of fierce battles.

The deal stipulates the halt of fighting in the Yarmouk camp and the adjacent al-Tadamun neighborhood.

“Six buses, carrying ISIS militants and their families, left the Yarmouk camp and the adjacent al-Tadamun neighborhood at dawn today (Sunday) heading east towards the Syrian Desert,” where the extremists still control some areas, said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Later, the Observatory explained that the convoy of buses headed towards the city of Tadmur on its way to the so-called Badiya area between eastern Homs and west of Deir Ezzor Province.

The Syrian regime has denied reaching an agreement to evacuate a number of ISIS militants from their stronghold in southern Damascus, state media SANA reported on Sunday.

For his part, the secretary of the Alliance of Palestinian Resistance factions in Syria, Khaled Abdul Majid told the German news agency that the Yarmouk withdrawal deal is probably closer to surrender, adding that the extremists had demanded the Russian Army to act as a mediator, securing their evacuation to eastern Syria.

Abdul Majid estimated that about 1,500 people, including the militants and their families, were evacuated on Sunday.

“The extremists burned their residences and belongings in the Yamouk camp and Hajar al-Aswad where all military operations had stopped since Saturday noon,” he added.

In the east of Syria, fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by US-French artillery shelling, advanced on ISIS militants in the last pocket controlled by extremists in Deir Ezzor province.

The SDF forces said they now control the strategic village of Baghuz on the border with Iraq, from where they would resume expelling extremist fighters from the remaining ISIS-held areas on the Euphrates.

Early this month, SDF forces kicked off the final stage of a battle to expel ISIS from eastern Syria.

Backed by the US-led coalition, the Kurdish SDF has driven the extremist group out of large parts of the country.

On Sunday, three towns in Deir Ezzor - Hajeen, Susa and Sha’afah - remained under ISIS control.



UN Says 875 Palestinians Have Been Killed Near Gaza Aid Sites

Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip are pictured at sunset from a position across the border in southern Israel on July 15, 2025. (AFP)
Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip are pictured at sunset from a position across the border in southern Israel on July 15, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Says 875 Palestinians Have Been Killed Near Gaza Aid Sites

Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip are pictured at sunset from a position across the border in southern Israel on July 15, 2025. (AFP)
Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip are pictured at sunset from a position across the border in southern Israel on July 15, 2025. (AFP)

The UN rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and convoys run by other relief groups, including the United Nations.

The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.

The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led fighters loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.

The GHF, which began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May after Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade, previously told Reuters that such incidents have not occurred on its sites and accused the UN of misinformation, which it denies.

The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest UN figures.

"The data we have is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical human rights and humanitarian organizations," Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.

The United Nations has called the GHF aid model "inherently unsafe" and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.

The GHF said on Tuesday it had delivered more than 75 million meals to Gaza Palestinians since the end of May, and that other humanitarian groups had "nearly all of their aid looted" by Hamas or criminal gangs.

The Israeli army previously told Reuters in a statement that it was reviewing recent mass casualties and that it had sought to minimize friction between Palestinians and the Israeli army by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has previously cited instances of violent pillaging of aid, and the UN World Food Program said last week that most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza had been intercepted by "hungry civilian communities".