Syrian Democratic Council Urges Int'l Community to Prevent Turkish Offensive

A general view shows Qabasin town northeast of the Syrian town of al-Bab, Syria January 7, 2017. (Reuters)
A general view shows Qabasin town northeast of the Syrian town of al-Bab, Syria January 7, 2017. (Reuters)
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Syrian Democratic Council Urges Int'l Community to Prevent Turkish Offensive

A general view shows Qabasin town northeast of the Syrian town of al-Bab, Syria January 7, 2017. (Reuters)
A general view shows Qabasin town northeast of the Syrian town of al-Bab, Syria January 7, 2017. (Reuters)

The Kurdish Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) urged on Thursday member states of the international anti-ISIS coalition to intervene to prevent Turkey's planned offensive on regions in northeastern Syria.

It called on the international community and Untied Nations to "seriously deal with the rising threats and to immediately intervene and take strong and brave stances."

In a statement, the SDC noted that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced the offensive shortly after he revealed a plan to return a million Syrians in the safe zone in northern Syria.

The zone is home to Kurds, Syriacs, Yazidis, Armenians and Arabs, it added.

Erdogan's plan "exposes Syria to more occupation, threatens the social fabric, poses a real danger to the future of the region, and dashes all efforts and sacrifices that have been made in combating terrorism," it warned.

Moreover, it is a real danger "to the shape and future of the political solution" in Syria.

The targeted area houses prisons and detention centers holding fighters that had joined ISIS. The area struggles with the danger of the reemergence of the terrorist group and its cells are very active.

The SDC noted that earlier this year the area witnessed a prison break by ISIS at the Gweiran jail that led to a bloody standoff with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Gweiran Prison held some 5,000 ISIS detainees. The weeklong fighting left 350 ISIS members and 130 SDF fighters dead.

Executive chief of the SDC, Ilham Ahmed told Asharq Al-Awsat that Turkey's plan to naturalize Syrians "in regions that aren't their own after the displacement of the North's original inhabitants aims to create demographic change among the Kurdish population."

"This is a crime against humanity" and a violation of United Nations Security Council resolution 2254, she said.

Turkey, and its allied Syrian factions, have not established any safe zones in the areas they have occupied in each of Idlib, Afrin city, Tal Abyad, al-Bab and Ras al-Ain, she added. Rather it has committed the ugliest of atrocities against the original locals and used Syrians as mercenaries in it foreign wars.



Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel’s new defense minister said Friday that he would stop issuing warrants to arrest West Bank settlers or hold them without charge or trial — a largely symbolic move that rights groups said risks emboldening settler violence in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Israel Katz called the arrest warrants “severe” and said issuing them was “inappropriate” as Palestinian militant attacks on settlers in the territory grow more frequent. He said settlers could be “brought to justice” in other ways.

The move protects Israeli settlers from being held in “administrative detention,” a shadowy form of incarceration where people are held without charge or trial.

Settlers are rarely arrested in the West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians has spiraled since the outbreak of the war Oct. 7.

Katz’s decision was celebrated by far-right coalition allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. National Security Minister and settler firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir applauded Katz and called the move a “correction of many years of mistreatment” and “justice for those who love the land.”

Since Oct. 7, 2023, violence toward Palestinians by Israeli settlers has soared to new heights, displacing at least 19 entire Palestinian communities, according to Israeli rights group Peace Now. In that time, attacks by Palestinian militants on settlers and within Israel have also grown more common.

An increasing number of Palestinians have been placed in administrative detention. Israel holds 3,443 administrative detainees in prison, according to data from the Israeli Prison Service, reported by rights group Hamoked. That figure stood around 1,200 just before the start of the war. The vast majority of them are Palestinian, with only a handful at any given time Israeli Jews, said Jessica Montell, the director of Hamoked.

“All of these detentions without charge or trial are illegitimate, but to declare that this measure will only be used against Palestinians...is to explicitly entrench another form of ethnic discrimination,” said Montell.