Russia Raids Camps on Syrian-Turkish Border

Displaced citizens during the Russian raids north of Syria, near the Turkish border (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Displaced citizens during the Russian raids north of Syria, near the Turkish border (Asharq Al-Awsat)
TT

Russia Raids Camps on Syrian-Turkish Border

Displaced citizens during the Russian raids north of Syria, near the Turkish border (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Displaced citizens during the Russian raids north of Syria, near the Turkish border (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Russian jets raided areas in northern Syria, near the Turkish border, including Syrian displacements camps and former military headquarters of the armed Syrian opposition.

Anas Kaddour, an official at the Idlib News Center, reported that the Russian warplanes carried out on Saturday eight airstrikes, with high-explosive missiles on Salwa and Qah, north of Idlib, which are about six kilometers from the Turkish border.

He indicated that the area contains more than 14 camps for displaced persons, noting that shrapnel from one of the missiles fell on a tent, injuring a child.

Kaddour also announced that the Russian fighters raided a mountain hill near the Salwa area, hosting the former headquarters of the Turkish-backed Syrian armed opposition factions without causing any casualties.

Russia has expanded its bombing targets to include camp areas, housing thousands of displaced people from different regions of Syria who left their homes due to military operations by Russia and the regime.

Opposition activist Samer al-Amin said that the Russian airstrikes over areas in northern Syria near the Turkish border aim to provoke Ankara, forcing it to make concessions.

He also noted that these attacks against the military headquarters of Turkey-backed factions, vital centers in cities within the de-escalation zone, and refugee camps on the border show that Ankara is incapable of preventing attacks against civilians within its areas of influence.

He pointed out that 45 air raids were executed over the de-escalation zone in northwestern Syria during October.

Amin also reported that the regime forces and Iranian-backed militias carried out over 190 ground attacks in various areas of the Idlib governorate, killing 21 civilians, including seven children, six during the Jericho massacre, and a child in the attack over the “widows’ camp,” north of Idlib.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the regime forces and Iranian militias exchanged shelling with the opposition factions at the axes of the al-Ruwaiha area, south of Idlib, accompanied by Russian reconnaissance.

SOHR reported an exchange of shelling in the Idlib countryside with heavy weaponry, where Turkish artillery units stationed in the east of Sermin city shot regime positions in Saraqib.

Regime forces responded by shelling the perimeter of a Turkish post in Saan village in western Saraqib city.

Furthermore, ISIS carried out three sudden attacks targeting members of the Iraqi Hezbollah, the Lebanese Hezbollah, and groups affiliated with the regime forces in the eastern countryside of Hama. The attack resulted in the death of nine members and the injury of several others.

A source told Asharq Al-Awsat that a sudden attack by groups affiliated with ISIS on Friday evening targeted a military site of the Iraqi Hezbollah militia near the Uqayribat and Hammadi el-Omr area, killing four of its members and wounding others.

He also indicated that two other separate ISIS attacks targeted military vehicles belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah and other vehicles belonging to the regime forces near Palmyra, east of Homs.

Violent clashes erupted between the two, during which five were killed, and two cars were destroyed.

He pointed out that Lebanese Hezbollah's military vehicles were targeted while transporting a number of its members, vehicles, and ammunition from the Sukhna area, east of Palmyra, towards Jabal al-Qalamoun on the Syrian-Lebanese border.



Israeli Officials Demand the Right to Strike Hezbollah under Any Ceasefire Deal for Lebanon

An Israeli fighter jet flies over the northern border with Lebanon on 20 November 2024. (EPA)
An Israeli fighter jet flies over the northern border with Lebanon on 20 November 2024. (EPA)
TT

Israeli Officials Demand the Right to Strike Hezbollah under Any Ceasefire Deal for Lebanon

An Israeli fighter jet flies over the northern border with Lebanon on 20 November 2024. (EPA)
An Israeli fighter jet flies over the northern border with Lebanon on 20 November 2024. (EPA)

Israeli officials demanded Wednesday the freedom to strike Lebanon's Hezbollah as part of any ceasefire deal, raising a potential complication as a top US envoy was in the region attempting to clinch an agreement.

The development came as an airstrike hit the historic Syrian town of Palmyra, killing 36 people, according to Syrian state-run media, which blamed the attack on Israel. The Israeli military declined to comment.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar each said Israel sought to reserve the right to respond to any violations by Hezbollah under an emerging proposal, which would push the group’s fighters and Israeli ground forces out of a UN buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

There have been signs of progress on the ceasefire deal, with Hezbollah’s allies in the Lebanese government saying the militant group had responded positively to the proposal.

“In any agreement we will reach, we will have to maintain our freedom to act if there will be violations,” Saar told dozens of foreign ambassadors in Jerusalem. “We will have to be able to act in time, before the problem will grow.”

Katz, in a meeting with intelligence corps officers, said “the condition for any political settlement in Lebanon” was the right for the Israeli military “to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah.”

Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s point man on Israel and Lebanon, has been working in recent days to push the sides toward agreement. He has been meeting this week with officials in Lebanon and said Wednesday he would travel to Israel in an attempt to “try to bring this to a close if we can.”

On Tuesday, Hochstein said an agreement to end the Israel-Hezbollah war is “within our grasp.”

The emerging ceasefire deal would push Hezbollah and Israel out of southern Lebanon Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas after its attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in the Gaza Strip. Israel has been responding with strikes in Lebanon, and dramatically escalated its bombardment in late September by launching a ground invasion just inside the border.

In the more than a year of exchanges, more than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, most in the past month, the Health Ministry reported, and over 1 million people have been displaced. It's unknown how many of the dead were Hezbollah fighters.

In Israel, more than 70 people have been killed by Hezbollah fire, and tens of thousands have fled their homes.

Hochstein’s proposal is based on UN resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. The resolution stipulates that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should operate in southern Lebanon.

Still, after 2006, Hezbollah never fully ended its presence in the south. Lebanon accuses Israel of also violating the resolution by maintaining hold of a small, disputed border area and conducting frequent military flights over Lebanon.

Israel says that since then, Hezbollah built up a military infrastructure throughout villages and towns in southern Lebanon.

The proposal currently being discussed would include an implementation plan and a monitoring system to ensure each side follows its obligations to fully withdraw from the south. That could involve the US and France, but details are still unclear.

There’s been progress, but the deal isn’t done yet The Israeli ministers did not outline what Israel’s demand to maintain freedom of operation would entail. Since the 2006 war, Israel has struck Hezbollah on the few occasions when border violence did flare up, but any larger scale response could push the region back into turmoil.

It is also unlikely that Lebanon would agree to a deal that permits Israeli violations of its sovereignty.

And although the proposal attempts to nail down an implementation mechanism, the failure to fully implement the UN resolution after the 2006 war could point to the difficulties in getting the sides to uphold a sustainable ceasefire that would bring long-term quiet.

Israel has continued to pound Hezbollah throughout the ceasefire attempts, and rockets have continued to rain down on northern Israel. Any perceived escalation could derail the talks.

Even if a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah is reached, the war in Gaza grinds on into its 14th month.

Israel is still battling Hamas there, sending the death toll soaring to nearly 44,000 dead — over half of them women and children, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their count.

While Hezbollah throughout the war in Gaza said it wouldn’t stop firing at Israel until the fighting in the Palestinian territory ends, that condition was dropped in September after Israel intensified its offensive on the group, killing its top leadership and degrading its military capabilities.

That leaves Gaza waiting for a ceasefire of its own, as people there continue to endure a humanitarian crisis that has displaced much of the territory’s 2.3 million people and prompted widespread hunger, especially in the north, where the UN says virtually no food or humanitarian aid has been delivered to for more than 40 days because of the Israeli military’s siege there.