Clashes Expected to Return to De-Escalation Zones in Idlib

FILE PHOTO: A man watches as smoke rises after what activists said was an airstrike on Atimah, Idlib province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A man watches as smoke rises after what activists said was an airstrike on Atimah, Idlib province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo
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Clashes Expected to Return to De-Escalation Zones in Idlib

FILE PHOTO: A man watches as smoke rises after what activists said was an airstrike on Atimah, Idlib province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A man watches as smoke rises after what activists said was an airstrike on Atimah, Idlib province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo

Recent military developments in southern Idlib suggest that clashes will renew between Syria’s regime forces backed by Iranian proxy militias and Syrian opposition factions.

This comes as the Syrian regime continues to send reinforcements to the area.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on regime forces dispatching new military reinforcements to their positions in Idlib’s rural areas. Buses carrying soldiers had arrived to Jabal al-Zawiya area in southern Idlib after they were relocated from the Hama countryside.

The spokesperson of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) military wing, Abu Khaled al-Shami, in an interview with the HTS-linked news agency, has expected that the Syrian regime forces, supported by Russia, would begin military action at Jabal al-Zawiya soon.

He added that the HTS is watching Jabal al-Zawiya, amid the mobilization of the regime forces and Russia on the outskirts of Jabal al-Arbaeen, Saraqib and the Kabana fronts in the northern countryside of Lattakia.

Activists in Idlib said they documented over 50 ceasefire violations last week committed by regime forces and Iranian militias. These violations, according to the activists, targeted inhabited neighborhoods and included rocket shelling of areas in southern Idlib.

The shelling, according to activists, has resulted in the displacement of over 1,000 families who were forced to flee to near-border camps and safer areas in northern Idlib.



Gaza Hunger Crisis Could Return If Israeli Aid Restrictions Continue, Head of UN Relief Agency Says

UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini adjusts his glasses during a press conference on the situation in the Palestinian Gaza strip, at the United Nations offices in Geneva on March 10, 2025. (AFP)
UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini adjusts his glasses during a press conference on the situation in the Palestinian Gaza strip, at the United Nations offices in Geneva on March 10, 2025. (AFP)
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Gaza Hunger Crisis Could Return If Israeli Aid Restrictions Continue, Head of UN Relief Agency Says

UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini adjusts his glasses during a press conference on the situation in the Palestinian Gaza strip, at the United Nations offices in Geneva on March 10, 2025. (AFP)
UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini adjusts his glasses during a press conference on the situation in the Palestinian Gaza strip, at the United Nations offices in Geneva on March 10, 2025. (AFP)

There is a risk that Gaza experiences another hunger crisis if Israel continues to block aid, the head of the UN Palestinian relief agency (UNRWA) in Gaza said on Monday, warning the situation is quickly deteriorating.

Israel cut aid flows of food, medicine and fuel imports earlier this month, a move it said was designed to pressure Hamas in ceasefire talks. On Sunday, it announced an electricity cut, which aid groups say would deprive Gazans of clean water.

"I think the more we go ahead (with aid blockages), the more we will see the impact increasing on the population. And obviously, the risk ... is that we go back to situation we experienced months ago about deepening hunger in the Gaza Strip," said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

"Whatever the intent is, it's clearly a weaponization of humanitarian aid into Gaza," he told reporters. "We have seen the situation is deteriorating very, very quickly."

In the same press briefing in Geneva, he described the agency's financial situation as "critical and precarious".

Israel, which has long alleged that UNRWA has ties to Hamas, barred the agency from its territory in January.

Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva said earlier on Monday that it is actively encouraging UN agencies and others to take over UNRWA's work in Gaza.

Lazzarini said the agency was subject to a disinformation campaign and that it has not seen any other groups replacing it in Gaza so far.