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Turkey Sends ‘Field Messages’ to Kurds over Independence Vote

Turkish tanks are seen near the Habur crossing point between Turkey and Iraq during a military drill launched a week before the Kurdish independence vote on September 25. (AFP)
Turkish tanks are seen near the Habur crossing point between Turkey and Iraq during a military drill launched a week before the Kurdish independence vote on September 25. (AFP)
    Ankara, Baghdad and Irbil - Saeed Abdel Razek and Asharq Al-Awsat
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Turkey Sends ‘Field Messages’ to Kurds over Independence Vote

Turkish tanks are seen near the Habur crossing point between Turkey and Iraq during a military drill launched a week before the Kurdish independence vote on September 25. (AFP)
Turkish tanks are seen near the Habur crossing point between Turkey and Iraq during a military drill launched a week before the Kurdish independence vote on September 25. (AFP)

In response to the Kurdish independence referendum scheduled for September 25 and the Syrian Kurds’ elections of bodies running local communities on September 22, Turkey sent on Monday field messages to both parties by deploying its forces at the border of the two countries.

Sources said that Ankara is deploying its forces and backing the Free Syrian Army to control Idlib and drive out Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham militants, which include factions similar to Fatah al-Sham, as a means to prevent the establishment of a “Kurdish corridor” from Syria’s Afreen to the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, western diplomatic sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met with Commander of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) Sipan Hamo at the Russian Hmeimim air base in Syria on September 12 to discuss ways of fighting ISIS terrorists.

Alarming the Iraqi Kurds, the Turkish army launched on Monday several military maneuvers near the border with Iraq only a week ahead of the referendum on independence.

Meanwhile, political and judicial pressure were still being used to force the autonomous Kurdistan region to postpone the vote.

Iraq’s Supreme Court ordered on Monday the suspension of the independence referendum in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, deeming it unconstitutional. However, Kurdish officials asserted they were not concerned by decisions issued from Baghdad.

Separately, UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon arrived in Baghdad on Monday morning before heading in the afternoon to Kurdistan where he met with President Masoud Barzani in an attempt to convince him to annul the referendum and work with the United Nations on finding alternatives to it.

Also on Monday, Khabar Turk newspaper quoted high-ranking diplomatic sources as saying that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to discuss on Tuesday with French President Emmanuel Macron a three-point joint initiative to resolve the ongoing disputes between Irbil and Baghdad.

The meeting will be held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings currently held in New York.

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Arab World

Israeli Reservist Rams Vehicle into Palestinian Man Praying in West Bank

Israeli security forces secure a street as they leave the Palestinian village of Bizariya, in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli authorities demolished the house of a Palestinian man killed in July after he and another man reportedly killed an Israeli settler on the same day, on December 24, 2025. (AFP)
Israeli security forces secure a street as they leave the Palestinian village of Bizariya, in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli authorities demolished the house of a Palestinian man killed in July after he and another man reportedly killed an Israeli settler on the same day, on December 24, 2025. (AFP)
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Israeli Reservist Rams Vehicle into Palestinian Man Praying in West Bank

Israeli security forces secure a street as they leave the Palestinian village of Bizariya, in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli authorities demolished the house of a Palestinian man killed in July after he and another man reportedly killed an Israeli settler on the same day, on December 24, 2025. (AFP)
Israeli security forces secure a street as they leave the Palestinian village of Bizariya, in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli authorities demolished the house of a Palestinian man killed in July after he and another man reportedly killed an Israeli settler on the same day, on December 24, 2025. (AFP)

An Israeli reservist soldier rammed his vehicle into a Palestinian man as he prayed on a roadside in ​the occupied West Bank on Thursday, after earlier firing shots in the area, the Israeli military said.

"Footage was received of an armed individual running over a Palestinian individual," it said in a statement, adding the individual was a reservist ‌and his ‌military service had ‌been terminated.

The ⁠reservist ​acted "in severe ‌violation of his authority" and his weapon had been confiscated, the military said.

Israeli media reported that he was being held under house arrest.

The Israeli police did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The ⁠Palestinian man went to hospital for checks after ‌the attack, but was unhurt ‍and is now ‍at home.

Video which aired on Palestinian ‍TV shows a man in civilian clothing with a gun slung over his shoulder driving an off-road vehicle into a man praying on ​the side of the road.

This year ​was one of the most violent on ⁠record for Israeli civilian attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to United Nations data that shows more than 750 injuries.

More than a thousand Palestinians were killed in the West Bank between October 7, 2023 and October 17, 2025, mostly in operations by security forces and some by settler violence, according to the UN In ‌the same period, 57 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks.

Arab World

Deadly Blast Hits Mosque in Syria’s Homs

A Syrian flag waves in Damascus. (Getty Images/AFP)
A Syrian flag waves in Damascus. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Deadly Blast Hits Mosque in Syria’s Homs

A Syrian flag waves in Damascus. (Getty Images/AFP)
A Syrian flag waves in Damascus. (Getty Images/AFP)

A deadly explosion hit a mosque in Syria's Homs on Friday, said authorities who reported at least six people killed.

"A terrorist explosion targeted the Ali Bin Abi Talib Mosque during Friday prayers in Al-Khadri Street in the Wadi al-Dahab neighborhood of Homs," the interior ministry said in a statement, adding that six people were killed and 21 others wounded.

Syria's state news agency SANA, which also reported the blast, said its cause and nature were being investigated.

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights monitor, it was not immediately clear whether the blast "was caused by a suicide attack or an explosive device".

A local security source in Homs told AFP on condition of anonymity the explosion may have been caused by "an explosive device placed inside the mosque".

A resident of the area, requesting anonymity out of fear for his safety, told AFP people "heard a loud explosion, followed by chaos and panic in the neighborhood".

SANA published photos from inside the mosque, one of which showed a hole in a wall.

Black smoke covered part of the mosque, with carpets and books scattered nearby.

Arab World

Fuel Shortage Forces Gaza Hospital to Suspend Most Services

The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
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Fuel Shortage Forces Gaza Hospital to Suspend Most Services

The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)

A major Gaza hospital has suspended several services because of a critical fuel shortage in the devastated Palestinian territory, which continues to face a severe humanitarian crisis, it said.

Devastated by more than two years of war, the Al-Awda Hospital in the central Gaza district of Nuseirat cares for around 60 in-patients and receives nearly 1,000 people seeking medical treatment each day.

"Most services have been temporarily stopped due to a shortage of the fuel needed for the generators," said Ahmed Mehanna, a senior official involved in managing the hospital.

"Only essential departments remain operational: the emergency unit, maternity ward and pediatrics."

To keep these services running, the hospital has been forced to rent a small generator, he added.

Under normal conditions, Al-Awda Hospital consumes between 1,000 and 1,200 liters of diesel per day. At present, however, it has only 800 liters available.

"We stress that this shutdown is temporary and linked to the availability of fuel," Mehanna said, warning that a prolonged fuel shortage "would pose a direct threat to the hospital's ability to deliver basic services".

He urged local and international organizations to intervene swiftly to ensure a steady supply of fuel.

Despite a fragile truce observed since October 10, the Gaza Strip remains engulfed in a severe humanitarian crisis.

While the ceasefire agreement stipulated the entry of 600 aid trucks per day into Gaza, only 100 to 300 carrying humanitarian assistance can currently enter, according to the United Nations and non-governmental organizations.

The remaining convoys largely transport commercial goods that remain inaccessible to most of Gaza's 2.2 million people.

- Health hard hit -

On a daily basis, the vast majority of Gaza's residents rely on aid from UN agencies and international NGOs for survival.

Gaza's health sector has been among the hardest hit by the war.

During the fighting, the Israeli miliary repeatedly struck hospitals and medical centers across Gaza, accusing Hamas of operating command centers there, an allegation the group denied.

International medical charity Doctors Without Borders now manages roughly one-third of Gaza's 2,300 hospital beds, while all five stabilization centers for children suffering from severe malnutrition are supported by international NGOs.

The war in Gaza was sparked on October 7, 2023, following an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

In Israel's ensuing military campaign in Gaza, at least 70,942 people - also mostly civilians - have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.