Suspicious Iranian Movements Near Syrian-Iraqi Borders after Israeli Bombing

 Smoke is seen following an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, July 15, 2017. (AFP/Bulent Kilic)
Smoke is seen following an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, July 15, 2017. (AFP/Bulent Kilic)
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Suspicious Iranian Movements Near Syrian-Iraqi Borders after Israeli Bombing

 Smoke is seen following an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, July 15, 2017. (AFP/Bulent Kilic)
Smoke is seen following an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, July 15, 2017. (AFP/Bulent Kilic)

Iranian militias have replaced their flags in their military sites and bases located in large areas of eastern Syria, with the flags of the Syrian regime, amid fears of a new Israeli attacks, according to local sources and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Sources in the cities of Al-Mayadin and Al-Bukamal, in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, said that the IRGC transported ammunition and heavy weapons, including missiles, through refrigerators and trucks carrying Syrian plate numbers, as part of a camouflaged repositioning, days after the heaviest Israeli raids targeted eastern Syria.

Well-informed sources revealed that the Iranian forces and pro-Iranian militias continue to change their positions in this geographical area along the Iraqi borders, pointing to “suspicious” movements of the Iranians and their allies in that region.

According to the Jusoor Center for Studies and Development, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is deployed in 125 locations throughout Syria, distributed over 10 governorates, mainly Daraa in the South, which includes 37 military posts, followed by Damascus and its countryside with 22 sites and Aleppo in the north, with 15 military points and headquarters.

The Deir Ezzor Governorate has 13 Iranian posts, the largest of which are located in the cities of Al-Mayadeen and Al-Bukamal.

Iran has been one of the largest military forces supporting the ruling regime in Syria, after Russia, since the outbreak of the anti-regime protests in the spring of 2011.

Local activists, SOHR and the Jusoor Center reported that most Iranian fighters in Syria operate within the ranks of the IRGC and are deployed in southern Damascus, the southern countryside of Aleppo, the eastern countryside of Homs, and the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor.



With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
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With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)

After weeks of Israeli bombardment left them with nowhere else to go, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves.

Yasmeen al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they were unable to help as they evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Younis towards its Central Correction and Rehabilitation Facility.

They spent a day under a tree before moving on to the former prison, where they now live in a prayer room. It offers protection from the blistering sun, but not much else.

Dardasi's husband has a damaged kidney and just one lung, but no mattress or blanket.

"We are not settled here either," said Dardasi, who like many Palestinians fears she will be uprooted once again.

Israel has said it goes out of its way to protect civilians in its war with the Palestinian group Hamas, which runs Gaza and led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the latest conflict.

Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced several times, say nowhere is free of Israeli bombardment, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

An Israeli air strike killed at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area on July 13, the territory's health ministry said, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas' elusive military chief Mohammed Deif.

On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said Israeli military strikes on areas in eastern Khan Younis had killed 14 people.

Entire neighborhoods have been flattened in one of the most densely populated places in the world, where poverty and unemployment have long been widespread.

According to the United Nations, nine in ten people across Gaza are now internally displaced.

Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family that they should flee for safety as tanks were on their way, she said. The family had no time to change so they left in their prayer clothes.

After sleeping outside on sandy ground, they too found refuge in the prison, among piles of rubble and gaping holes in buildings from the battles which were fought there. Inmates had been released long before Israel attacked.

"We didn't take anything with us. We came here on foot, with children walking with us," she said, adding that many of the women had five or six children with them and that water was hard to find.

She held her niece, who was born during the conflict, which has killed her father and brothers.

When Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 they killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the air and ground offensive Israel launched in response, Palestinian health officials say.

Hana Al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived at the prison after being displaced six times.

If Egyptian, US and Qatari mediators fail to secure a ceasefire they have long said is close, she and other Palestinians may be on the move once again. "Where should we go? All the places that we go to are dangerous," she said.