Strikes on Northwest Syria Kill 1 Person, Cause Wide Damage

Blood is seen on a hospital floor in Atareb, a town in rural western Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, March 22, 2021. Artillery shells fired from government areas killed at least five civilians and wounded medical staff when they landad in front of the hospital. (Ghaith Alsayed/Associated Press)
Blood is seen on a hospital floor in Atareb, a town in rural western Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, March 22, 2021. Artillery shells fired from government areas killed at least five civilians and wounded medical staff when they landad in front of the hospital. (Ghaith Alsayed/Associated Press)
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Strikes on Northwest Syria Kill 1 Person, Cause Wide Damage

Blood is seen on a hospital floor in Atareb, a town in rural western Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, March 22, 2021. Artillery shells fired from government areas killed at least five civilians and wounded medical staff when they landad in front of the hospital. (Ghaith Alsayed/Associated Press)
Blood is seen on a hospital floor in Atareb, a town in rural western Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, March 22, 2021. Artillery shells fired from government areas killed at least five civilians and wounded medical staff when they landad in front of the hospital. (Ghaith Alsayed/Associated Press)

Airstrikes on several locations in northwest Syria near the border with Turkey have killed at least one person and set afire several trucks used to distribute aid, opposition activists and a paramedic group said Monday.

The late Sunday attacks angered Turkey, which had asked Russia to secure an immediate end to the strikes, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said, adding that Turkish troops had been placed on alert.

Turkey and Russia support rival parties in Syria’s 10-year conflict. The countries reached a deal last March that stopped a Russian-backed government offensive on the northwestern Idlib province, the last major opposition stronghold in war-torn Syria.

Opposition activists claimed that Russian warplanes carried out the attacks near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey late Sunday, hours after regime artillery shelling hit a major hospital in a opposition-controlled town in northwestern Syria.

Six patients, including a child, were killed. Medical staff were wounded, forcing the facility to shut its doors, The Associated Press reported.

The Bab al-Hawa border crossing is a main point from which aid is brought to opposition-held parts of northwest Syria.

Idlib-based journalist Salwa Abdul-Rahman said one of the strikes hit an area near the town of Sarmada, setting afire trucks used by aid workers to distribute assistance.

“The targeted locations were civilian with no military presence,” she said.

One person was killed in the strikes, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, and the opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets.

The civil defense said that in addition to the trucks, the strikes targeted a cement factory. The truck fires were put under control hours later.

An AP video from the area showed about a dozen trucks on fire as civil defense members sprayed them with water.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry blamed Syrian regime forces for the attack, saying it left several people wounded.



At Least 34 People Killed in Israeli Strikes in Gaza

Palestinians carry the bodies of people killed during overnight Israeli strikes, at Al-Shifa hospital in the central Gaza Strip on June 28, 2025. (by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Palestinians carry the bodies of people killed during overnight Israeli strikes, at Al-Shifa hospital in the central Gaza Strip on June 28, 2025. (by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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At Least 34 People Killed in Israeli Strikes in Gaza

Palestinians carry the bodies of people killed during overnight Israeli strikes, at Al-Shifa hospital in the central Gaza Strip on June 28, 2025. (by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Palestinians carry the bodies of people killed during overnight Israeli strikes, at Al-Shifa hospital in the central Gaza Strip on June 28, 2025. (by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

At least 34 people were killed across Gaza by Israeli strikes, health staff say, as Palestinians face a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and ceasefire prospects inch closer.

The strikes began late Friday and continued into Saturday morning, among others killing 12 people at the Palestine Stadium in Gaza City, which was sheltering displaced people, and eight more living in apartments, according to staff at Shifa hospital where the bodies were brought. Six others were killed in southern Gaza when a strike hit their tent in Muwasi, according to the hospital, The Associated Press reported.

The strikes come as US President Donald Trump says there could be a ceasefire agreement within the next week. Taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office Friday, the president said, “we’re working on Gaza and trying to get it taken care of.”

An official with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that Israel's Minister for Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, will arrive in Washington next week for talks on Gaza's ceasefire, Iran and other subjects. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Talks have been on again off again since Israel broke the latest ceasefire in March, continuing its military campaign in Gaza and furthering the Strip's dire humanitarian crisis. Some 50 hostages remain in Gaza, fewer than half of them believed to still be alive. They were part of some 250 hostages taken when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparking the 21-month-long war.

The war has killed over 56,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. It says more than half of the dead were women and children.

There is hope among hostage families that Trump’s involvement in securing the recent ceasefire between Israel and Iran might exert more pressure for a deal in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is riding a wave of public support for the Iran war and its achievements, and he could feel he has more space to move toward ending the war in Gaza, something his far-right governing partners oppose.

Hamas has repeatedly said it is prepared to free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war in Gaza. Netanyahu says he will only end the war once Hamas is disarmed and exiled, something the group has rejected.

Meanwhile hungry Palestinians are enduring a catastrophic situation in Gaza. After blocking all food for 2 1/2 months, Israel has allowed only a trickle of supplies into the territory since mid-May.

Efforts by the United Nations to distribute the food have been plagued by armed gangs looting trucks and by crowds of desperate people offloading supplies from convoys.

Palestinians have also been shot and wounded while on their way to get food at newly formed aid sites, run by the American and Israeli backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to Gaza's health officials and witnesses.

Palestinian witnesses say Israeli troops have opened fire at crowds on the roads heading toward the sites. Israel’s military said it was investigating incidents in which civilians had been harmed while approaching the sites.