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Time Limit of Few Weeks to Dissolve HTS in Syria’s Idlib

Syrian fighters attend a mock battle in anticipation of an attack by the regime on Idlib province and the surrounding countryside, during a graduation of new Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) members at a camp. AFP
Syrian fighters attend a mock battle in anticipation of an attack by the regime on Idlib province and the surrounding countryside, during a graduation of new Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) members at a camp. AFP
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Time Limit of Few Weeks to Dissolve HTS in Syria’s Idlib

Syrian fighters attend a mock battle in anticipation of an attack by the regime on Idlib province and the surrounding countryside, during a graduation of new Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) members at a camp. AFP
Syrian fighters attend a mock battle in anticipation of an attack by the regime on Idlib province and the surrounding countryside, during a graduation of new Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) members at a camp. AFP

Pressure exerted by western countries and Turkey on Russia seems to have deferred a looming offensive by the Moscow-backed Syrian regime on the province of Idlib and allowed Ankara to dissolve Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham HTS within weeks.

Turkey fears that a wide-range regime attack on Idlib, which has a population of 3 million people, could cause a new wave of exodus towards its territories.

Media reports said Friday that Ankara has sent reinforcements, especially armored vehicles, to the border with Syria and to observations points it has lately established in the north of the country.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will meet next Monday in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi to review the situation in Idlib.

"I believe an offensive, if there will be one, will not come before several weeks," a senior Turkish official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Erdogan had met with Putin and Iran’s Hassan Rouhani in Tehran on September 7 to discuss Syria and prevent regime forces from attacking Idlib.

However, Erdogan and Putin failed to agree on the main strategy to solve the crisis in the province.

Ankara fiercely opposes a military option in the northwest of its neighboring country.

Meanwhile, UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura met Friday with the so-called "small group" of allied nations, including members from Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.

The meeting came two days following similar talks held between the UN envoy and representatives from the there guarantor countries - Russia, Turkey and Iran.

De Mistura is expected to inform the UN Security Council next Tuesday about the results of his latest talks with parties concerned with the Syrian crisis.

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Arab World

Oxfam: Only 12 Trucks Delivered Food, Water in North Gaza Governorate since October

Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
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Oxfam: Only 12 Trucks Delivered Food, Water in North Gaza Governorate since October

Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File

Just 12 trucks distributed food and water in northern Gaza in two-and-a-half months, aid group Oxfam said on Sunday, raising the alarm over the worsening humanitarian situation in the besieged territory.
"Of the meager 34 trucks of food and water given permission to enter the North Gaza Governorate over the last 2.5 months, deliberate delays and systematic obstructions by the Israeli military meant that just twelve managed to distribute aid to starving Palestinian civilians," Oxfam said in a statement, in a count that included deliveries through Saturday.
"For three of these, once the food and water had been delivered to the school where people were sheltering, it was then cleared and shelled within hours," Oxfam added.
Israel, which has tightly controlled aid entering the Hamas-ruled territory since the outbreak of the war, often blames what it says is the inability of relief organizations to handle and distribute large quantities of aid, AFP said.
In a report focused on water, New York-based Human Rights Watch on Thursday detailed what it called deliberate efforts by Israeli authorities "of a systematic nature" to deprive Gazans of water, which had "likely caused thousands of deaths... and will likely continue to cause deaths."
They were the latest in a series of accusations leveled against Israel -- and denied by the country -- during its 14-month war against Palestinian Hamas group.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that claimed the lives of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
'Access blocked'
Since then, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Oxfam said that it and other international aid groups have been "continually prevented from delivering life-saving aid" in northern Gaza since October 6 this year, when Israel intensified its bombardment of the territory.
"Thousands of people are estimated to still be cut off, but with humanitarian access blocked it's impossible to know exact numbers," Oxfam said.
"At the beginning of December, humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza were receiving calls from vulnerable people trapped in homes and shelters that had completely run out of food and water."
Oxfam highlighted one instance of an aid delivery in November being disrupted by Israeli authorities.
"A convoy of 11 trucks last month was initially held up at the holding point by the Israeli military at Jabalia, where some food was taken by starving civilians," it said.
"After the green light to proceed to the destination was received, the trucks were then stopped further on at a military checkpoint. Soldiers forced the drivers to offload the aid in a militarized zone, which desperate civilians had no access to."
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Thursday asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to assess Israel's obligations to assist Palestinians.