Iran-backed Militias Use Vegetable Trucks to Smuggle Weapons into Syria

File photo of pro-Iran militias in Deir Ezzor. (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
File photo of pro-Iran militias in Deir Ezzor. (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
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Iran-backed Militias Use Vegetable Trucks to Smuggle Weapons into Syria

File photo of pro-Iran militias in Deir Ezzor. (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
File photo of pro-Iran militias in Deir Ezzor. (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)

A shipment of arms and ammunition loaded on vegetable trucks entered Syrian territory from Iraq, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Observatory said that the shipment was smuggled out "fear of being targeted” by the United States or Israel.

It entered from the Syria through an unofficial border crossing.

The weapons, which included short-range rockets and their launchers, were moved to the town of al-Mayadin in the southern countryside of Deir Ezzor. They were allegedly stored in tunnels dug beneath the town’s historic citadel.

Meanwhile, the Ain al-Furat Network said that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has shut its shared radio frequencies with the Syrian regime forces in the areas of the eastern countryside of Homs.

The forces only kept a single frequency for emergency purposes.

The network’s correspondent quoted a private military source as saying that the decision came at the request of the IRGC leadership at the T-4 military airport, east of Homs, without providing any further explanation.

The military source said there were seven open frequencies between the Syrian regime forces and the IRGC, including five for military purposes, one logistical, and one medical.

The Russian forces communicate with the Revolutionary Guards through the joint emergency frequency with the Syrian regime.

The relationship between the regime and the Iranian militias is witnessing tensions. Activists said "Hajj Askar," the official in charge of the pro-Iranian militias in al-Bukamal, east of Deir Ezzor, has refused to open halls for the regime forces so they can carry out the settlement agreements set to take effect on Monday.

Instead, the regime set up tents at the entrance of Deir Ezzor to handle the settlement, according to the Observatory.

Last month, over 1,000 people agreed to the settlement in the Reconciliation Center in al-Mayadin.

According to human rights sources, 1,050 persons, most of whom are former members of the opposition factions and defectors from the regime forces, arms dealers, and wanted persons on terrorism charges from different areas of the Deir Ezzor countryside, agreed to the settlement in the center inaugurated by the Syrian intelligence last month.



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.