Exclusive - YPG Ready to Take Part in Operations to Expel ISIS from Syria’s Sweida

Smoke is seen following an explosion at the Syrian side of the Israeli-Syrian border as it is seen from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel July 23, 2018. (Reuters)
Smoke is seen following an explosion at the Syrian side of the Israeli-Syrian border as it is seen from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel July 23, 2018. (Reuters)
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Exclusive - YPG Ready to Take Part in Operations to Expel ISIS from Syria’s Sweida

Smoke is seen following an explosion at the Syrian side of the Israeli-Syrian border as it is seen from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel July 23, 2018. (Reuters)
Smoke is seen following an explosion at the Syrian side of the Israeli-Syrian border as it is seen from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel July 23, 2018. (Reuters)

Head of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) Siban Hamo voiced his forces’ readiness to “protect” Syria’s Sweida region and its Druze residents from ISIS in wake of last month’s attack against the region by the terrorist group.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “ISIS launched barbaric attacks against our people in Sweida. The pain of the Druze is the same pain we felt in Kobane (Ain al-Arab) and Afrin (where Turkish forces and opposition factions waged an operation earlier in the year).”

“We do not distinguish between these attacks and those against Sweida. The YPG is ready to dispatch forces to liberate it from terrorism,” he declared.

In late July, some 250 people were killed in ISIS attacks and suicide bombings, the fiercest in years on the predominantly Druze Sweida region.

Since then, the locals have been on high alert to confront ISIS and expel it from the region’s administrative border. Attacks have been anticipated by the group from eastern and western fronts.

The Syrian regime is, meanwhile, preparing to launch an offensive on the eastern and western Sweida countryside.

Hamo added that the YPG has proven its success in combating ISIS and terrorists, citing its liberation, as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of a third of Syria from the group’s clutches.

On the Idlib front, Hamo revealed that the regime does not so far have a “clear plan” to launch an operation in the northwestern region.

Members of the SDF and its political wing, the Democratic Union Party, have voiced their readiness to take part in such an operation and another in Afrin, should the regime decide to launch one

Hamo added: “We have no proposals to make as long as the regime does not have a clear plan.”

He revealed that the YPG is continuing its military operations in Afrin and they will grow in intensity with time.

He made his remarks soon after the SDF announced that it had seized complete control of the Syrian-Iraqi borders as part of Operation Jazeera Storm that was backed by the US-led international coalition to defeat ISIS.

A senior Kurdish official told Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday that American officials have confirmed to the SDF on several occasions that they were remaining in northeastern Syria,

“We were informed by the American military that they were remaining there to prevent the return of ISIS and the emergence of a vacuum that could either be filled by extremism or Iran,” he added.

He revealed that the SDF had also reached an agreement with the military on a plan for 2018-19 to hold military trainings and combat sleeper ISIS cells.



Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Saturday of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands are seeking refuge.

The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. It's the second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel's punishing air and ground campaign.

On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.

The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. About 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, according to Israel's estimates. That's more than half Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.

The war began with an assault by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.