Palestinians Start Aid Campaign for Syrian Refugees

Raed Badr, the head of the Merciful Souls organization, believes videos that circulated on social media of children suffering from cold in the snow motivated people to open their pockets. (Getty Images)
Raed Badr, the head of the Merciful Souls organization, believes videos that circulated on social media of children suffering from cold in the snow motivated people to open their pockets. (Getty Images)
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Palestinians Start Aid Campaign for Syrian Refugees

Raed Badr, the head of the Merciful Souls organization, believes videos that circulated on social media of children suffering from cold in the snow motivated people to open their pockets. (Getty Images)
Raed Badr, the head of the Merciful Souls organization, believes videos that circulated on social media of children suffering from cold in the snow motivated people to open their pockets. (Getty Images)

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel have raised $10 million in less than a month to build homes for Syrian refugees, according to activists behind the campaign.

"The idea was to collect 100 heaters for 100 houses. Then we found out that people are helping and we have lots of stuff," said Ibrahim Khalil, 33, a social activist from the city of Nazareth in northern Israel.

For the past six years, Palestinians have been donating food and other essentials to Syrian refugees in the Idlib region bordering Turkey through a non-profit group called Merciful Souls.

But the volume of donations this winter season was unprecedented, said Raed Badr, the head of the organization. He believes videos that circulated on social media of children suffering from cold in the snow motivated people to open their pockets.

"One day, I hope they will move us into a home because the rain is drowning our tents," said 11-year-old Nada, an orphaned girl living with her grandmother, in one video.

The plan is to build around 3,000 housing units, said Badr. Construction will also include clinics and schools, based on a model published on the organization's website.

A call for contributions went viral on social media with the Arabic hashtag "houses instead of tents".

The images of displaced families resonated with Palestinians because they had suffered as refugees living in tents for years, said Khalil, after they were forced from their homes or fled in the war that surrounded Israel's creation in 1948.

The war in Syria, which spiraled out of an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule in 2011, caused the world's biggest refugee crisis. The war has killed an estimated half a million people and displaced several million more.



Sudan Army Says Recaptures Key State Capital

Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
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Sudan Army Says Recaptures Key State Capital

Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP

The Sudanese army said Saturday it had retaken a key state capital south of Khartoum from rival Rapid Support Forces who had held it for the past five months.

The Sennar state capital of Sinja is a strategic prize in the 19-month-old war between the regular army and the RSF as it lies on a key road linking army-controlled areas of eastern and central Sudan.

It posted footage on social media that it said had been filmed inside the main base in the city.

"Sinja has returned to the embrace of the nation," the information minister of the army-backed government, Khaled al-Aiser, said in a statement.

Aiser's office said armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had travelled to the city of Sennar, 60 kilometres (40 miles) to the north, on Saturday to "inspect the operation and celebrate the liberation of Sinja", AFP reported.

The RSF had taken the two cities in a lightning offensive in June that saw nearly 726,000 civilians flee, according to UN figures.

Human rights groups have said that those who were unwilling or unable to leave have faced months of arbitrary violence by RSF fighters.

Sinja teacher Abdullah al-Hassan spoke of his "indescribable joy" at seeing the army enter the city after "months of terror".

"At any moment, you were waiting for militia fighters to barge in and beat you or loot you," the 53-year-old told AFP by telephone.

Both sides in the Sudanese conflict have been accused of war crimes, including indiscriminately shelling homes, markets and hospitals.

The RSF has also been accused of summary executions, systematic sexual violence and rampant looting.

The RSF control nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur as well as large swathes of Kordofan in the south. They also hold much of the capital Khartoum and the key farming state of Al-Jazira to its south.

Since April 2023, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 11 million -- creating what the UN says is the world's largest displacement crisis.

From the eastern state of Gedaref -- where more than 1.1 million displaced people have sought refuge -- Asia Khedr, 46, said she hoped her family's ordeal might soon be at an end.

"We'll finally go home and say goodbye to this life of displacement and suffering," she told AFP.