#Bab al Hawa

[warningsine]

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/31642-Turkish-shelling-hits-northern-Aleppo-after-Turkish-base-targeted

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish forces with heavy artillery shelled several villages in northern Aleppo controlled by Kurdish forces and the Syrian government, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Sunday.

The Turkish shelling came after Turkish forces in Aleppo’s countryside were targeted by missiles fired from areas under control by Kurdish and Syrian government forces in northern Aleppo.

The missile attack struck two Turkish military bases: the Kaljebrin base and a base near the Bab Al-Salama crossing.

Turkish forces and their proxies fired heavy artillery shells on the vicinity of Tal Rifaat city, Abin, Kashta’ar, Mara’anaz, Tatimrash, Al-Malkiya, Soghanka and Herasha in Sherawa district in the Afrin countryside. The area is controlled by Syrian government and Kurdish forces.

Moreover, the area is inhabited by thousands of displaced Kurds from Afrin, who fled the Turkish offensive in Afrin in March 2018.

The area in northern Aleppo is known for its frequent artillery shelling and missile strikes between Turkish and Kurdish forces, which began after Turkish forces took control of Afrin. Turkey also regularly carries out drone strikes in the area.

On Saturday, a Turkish drone strike killed three Kurdish fighters in northern Aleppo.

According to a tweet of the Syrian-based Rojava Information Centre (RIC), this is the 17th Turkish drone strike in northeast Syria since the start of the year.

[postcard-from-the-past]

Ruins of Bab al-Hawa, Syria

French vintage postcard

[kristinhelberg]

Interview DW Der Tag 7.2.2023

(4´18 Min.)

[mariacallous]

While the EU, US and European countries rush to help Turkey following two major earthquakes registering 7.9 and 7.7 on the Richter scale, northern Syria, which was also badly hit, appears to have been left out in the cold.

More than 16,000 people in Turkey lost their lives in the quakes on Monday and nearly 63,000 were injured. The death toll in neighbouring Syria, stood at least at 3,900 on Thursday.

The European Union’s disaster agency, European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, announced that 20 EU member states as well as the Balkan countries of Albania, Montenegro and Serbia had offered help to Turkey under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

“With 31 search and rescue teams and five medical teams via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, the teams consist in total of over 1,500 rescuers and 100 search and rescue dogs,” European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations said, announcing an initial 3 million euros in emergency assistance.

Other Balkan countries including Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Kosovo have also joined the help for Turkey, sending rescuers and aid.

But while Syrian authorities on Wednesday asked the EU to activate the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and as the EU announced 3.5 million euros of assistance, it is not clear how and when help will arrive in Syria.

BIRN did not get an answer from the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations by time of publication.

Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria as well as several Balkan NGOs have mentioned sending help to Syria but details of the help are not known.

Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu stated that Romania is ready to help Syria with equipment and medicine and is looking for logistical means to transport them to the country.

“We have approached the Syrian authorities to provide us with a list of equipment and concrete needs for humanitarian aid. I have forwarded this list to colleagues at the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Health. Furthermore, in cooperation with our institutional partners, we are trying to identify transport methods for these aids,” Aurescu told a government meeting on Wednesday.

The Polish government and NGOs have mentioned Turkey and Syria at the same time but details of potential help for Syria are not known. A Catholic charity in Poland, Help the Church in Need, is collecting funds specifically for Syria.

Greece, which has sent hundreds of rescuers and firefighters to Turkey, also promises support for Syria. A Greek rescue mission will soon travel to Syria after it activated its request to the European Civil Protection Mechanism.

Athens Macedonia News agency reports that the aid includes tents, medicines and other supplies for people who are homeless and need immediate support.

“This earthquake has not just affected Turkey, it has also affected Syria. There, the situation is even more complicated because essentially there is no official interlocutor. So we have to work through international organizations,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview with CNN.

The first convoy of UN aid for opposition-held north-west Syria has reportedly crossed into the area from Turkey. War between the Syrian government and the opposition forces still continues in the area. Even before the earthquake struck, 4.1 million people in the area – most of them women and children – were relying on humanitarian assistance.

According to media reports, search and rescue missions in the area are very limited and authorities urgently need rescue teams, shelter and medicine.

The only way into the area is via the Bab al-Hawa crossing in Idlib with Turkey, but nearby motorways and airports have been devastated in Turkey making delivery of assistance to Syria even harder.

[silverwhittlingknife]

Just to signal boost - if you're looking for a place to donate, as ever do your own Googling, but OP lists three good places.

Asylum Access describes the situation in Türkiye and Syria and lists established local aid groups here. You can see some of the urgent search-and-rescue operations being done by the first-responder White Helmets on their Twitter here (or e.g. near the end of video clips here and here, cw this is footage of quake survivors & rescue operations & is very difficult viewing). Islamic Relief is posting photos of their work delivering food, medical supplies, and other necessities on their Twitter here (and you can also see an interview with one of their aid workers).

Just to add a few more good NGOs:

Doctors without Borders (MSF) and Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) - these two orgs provide free medical care in Syrian hospitals and are currently treating people injured by the earthquake; Doctors without Borders is also working on expanding aid to Türkiye; donation link for MSF here and for SAMS here; Twitter updates for MSF here and for SAMS here

Basmeh and Zeitooneh - founded by and for Syrian refugees in Türkiye and Lebanon; currently raising money and coordinating w/partners to set up shelters w/mattresses and heating for displaced people in the freezing cold weather in northern Syria and Türkiye; donation link here; Twitter updates here; they're a long-established org as you can see in e.g. news articles here and here

People in both Türkiye and Syria are suffering a great deal right now, but many of the bigger international orgs may find it easier to get aid to Türkiye but struggle getting aid to northern Syria (see e.g. here for context on the Bab Al-Hawa aid corridor as a geopolitical hotspot last year, and here, here, and here for more recent news). So if you're planning on donating, local groups on the ground in Syria now could really use extra support. <3

Please can you publish trustworthy links for donating to Syria so it helps reach the less supported people?

There are 3 main ones I know of (I have family in Syria that are directly affected)

1. Molham

I've included a link to where people can donate and here is a link to their twitter page where they're giving regular updates. Here's a third link to donate in Euros

Molham, to those who don't know, are specifically a non profit, non government team that have been providing relief for displaced & refugee Syrians. They're now helping out with the Earth Quake.

2. The White Helmets 

Currently searching  for survivors and pull ing the dead from collapsed buildings

3. Islamic Relief (this link should work for all countries donating)

Has for a very long time been extremely reliable. I usually donate through them and they tend to help out people all cross the world. They currently have a team in Syria, last I've heard.

here's a link if you're donating specifically in Canada, UK, America,

please PLEASE donate.

Even one dollar, one pound, can go a long way.

And if you can't, PLEASE reblog!!

Syria needs help too! Syria matters too! They're not receiving aid for a variety of political reasons and they desperately need it!!!

[uniqueeval]

Syria funding crisis leaves vital Idlib hospital on brink of closure | Syria's War News

Idlib, Syria – Ayman al-Khayal, 43, sat with his family as he waited for his latest dialysis session at Bab al-Hawa Hospital in the north of Syria’s Idlib province. He was looking forward to having a few hours of rest as the treatment proceeded, doing the job of removing toxins from his body that his kidneys can no longer do. Al-Khayal has been receiving free dialysis three times a week for the…

[divinum-pacis]

June 2023: One of the Hajj pilgrims who were injured during the war in Syria bidding farewell to other family members at the Bab al-Hawa crossing. [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]

[beardedmrbean]

Turkey closed its main border crossings into northwest Syria on Tuesday after Turkish troops came under fire from Syrians angered by violence against their compatriots in Turkey, a Syrian opposition source and residents said.

In Turkey, police detained 474 people involved in attacks targeting the Syrian community across the country overnight, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said, in spreading unrest that began late on Sunday.

Properties and vehicles owned by Syrians were vandalised and set on fire in the central city of Kayseri, stoked by social media reports that a Syrian man had sexually abused a female child relative. Yerlikaya said the incident was being investigated.

The violence spread to the provinces of Hatay, Gaziantep, Konya, Bursa and an Istanbul district, Turkey's MIT intelligence agency said in a statement. There were social media reports of some injuries among Syrians.

Subsequently, hundreds of angry Syrians took to the streets in several towns in the rebel-held northwest Syria, an area where Turkey maintains thousands of troops and has carved out a sphere of influence that has stopped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from regaining control.

Late on Monday, Turkey responded to the unrest by closing until further notice the Bab al Hawa border crossing, a main trade and passenger conduit for more than 3 million inhabitants, along with Bab al Salam and other smaller crossings, a border official told Reuters.

The Syrian border city of Afrin was the scene of the most violent clashes, with at least four people killed in an exchange of fire between armed protesters and Turkish troops.

Elsewhere, there were skirmishes and armed clashes, with civilians hurling stones at Turkish convoys in several towns, and tearing down the Turkish flag on some offices.

Several Turkish officials described the unrest in Syria as "provocations", with the Foreign Ministry saying: "It is wrong to use the sad events that took place in Kayseri ... as the basis for some provocations beyond our borders."

In a speech on Tuesday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan blamed the "chaos plan" on groups associated with terrorist organisations, and vowed to reveal the "dirty hands" behind the recent incidents.

"We know who is playing in these games staged with the remnants of the terrorist organisation. Neither us, nor our Syrian brothers, will fall into this sly trap .we will not give in to racist vandalism," Erdogan said following the cabinet meeting.

Erdogan said more than 670,000 people have returned to areas in northern Syria, where Turkey has been operating to create safe zones over the past decade.

He added, the refugee issue will be solved humanely and morally in line with the economic realities of Turkey, which is hosting more than 3 million Syrian war refugees.

Erdogan said last Friday a meeting with Assad was possible to help restore bilateral relations. Turkey severed ties with Syria after the 2011 Syrian civil war and supported rebels looking to oust Assad.

[amirblogerov]

Turks continue to deport internally displaced persons to Syria

A few days ago, information appeared in the media and social networks that Hayat-Tahrir al-Sham militants and Turkish border guards fired at a group of Syrian refugees trying to break into Turkish territory near the Bab al-Hawa checkpoint. At least five people were reported killed, including a small child, and several seriously injured. One of the reasons why people are fleeing Idlib is the actions of Hayat-Tahrir al-Sham militants, who are forcibly staffing their units with local residents. If earlier these were isolated cases, in the last few weeks militants have been taking dozens of “recruits” from villages and hamlets of the province. Of course, we are not talking about any salary or anything else; people actually become slaves of the militants. They carry out their orders, receiving food for this at best, so as not to die of hunger. Local residents have no choice but to seek refuge in neighboring Turkey. However, the country's authorities are not going to help them and will deport them back, straight into the hands of the militants under their control.

[delectablywaywardbeard-blog]

Siria, il varco per gli aiuti all’area più povera al mondo resta chiuso: “Quattro milioni di persone a rischio”

ROMA – Da un mese esatto i varchi che dal Sud della Turchia portano in Siria restano chiusi, affamando quel che resta di una popolazione sopravvissuta a dodici anni di guerra e due terremoti. L’Onu, per i veti plurimi che al suo interno incrostano i rapporti internazionali del regime siriano, il 10 luglio scorso non ha rinnovato l’accordo per il transito da Bab-al Hawa (è la risoluzione…

[oceansoulmatesblog]

UN agency slashes cash aid to Syrian refugees in Jordan, raising the alarm on its funding crunch

AP , Wednesday 19 Jul 2023 The United Nations food agency said Tuesday it will reduce monthly cash aid for 120,000 Syrian refugees living in two camps in Jordan because of what it described as an “unprecedented funding crisis.” Workers unload bags of aid at a warehouse near the Syrian Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, on July 10, 2023. AFP Jordan is a country of 11 million people and…

[pressarabia]

Russia reiterates supporting Syria’s decision on authorizing the UN agencies to use Bab al-Hawa crossing for six months

http://dlvr.it/SsQ908

[kristinhelberg]

Interview stern 17.2.2023

[mariacallous]

When civilians in northern Syria went to bed on Feb. 5, they did so while military conflict was in a state of relative calm. Little did they know that the most powerful earthquake to hit the region in almost 100 years would strike while they slept. After 12 years of brutal conflict in which the Syrian regime has used almost every weapon available against its own population, the level of destruction meted out by the earthquake upon Syria’s northwest has no close comparison. Areas now controlled by the regime have been hit hard by the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks as well. Just a day later, the death toll in Syria stands at over 2,000 and continues to rise. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people remain under rubble.

When it comes specifically to opposition-controlled northwestern Syria, a natural disaster like this could not have hit a more vulnerable population. Before the earthquake, the region represented one of the world’s most acute humanitarian crises. More than 4.5 million civilians live there, in a pocket of territory that represents no more than 4 percent of Syria—and nearly 3 million of them are displaced. At least 65 percent of basic infrastructure lay destroyed or heavily damaged, and 90 percent of the population is dependent on humanitarian aid, which comes through just one border crossing via Turkey, in Bab al-Hawa.

That cross-border aid effort is a mammoth operation, coordinated by the United Nations. There used to be three crossings utilized for cross-border aid in northern Syria, but Russia has forced two of them shut by using its veto power at the U.N. Security Council. In recent years, Russia has threatened to close Bab al-Hawa altogether, triggering warnings from U.N. aid bodies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that such a move would spark a humanitarian catastrophe. Since the earthquake, the crossing has been forced shut. The only main road connecting it to Turkey’s interior was heavily damaged and U.N. aid infrastructure was crippled. Aid workers have been suffering the same fate as millions of others living in the disaster-hit region.

This is truly a nightmare scenario—a catastrophic natural disaster strikes one of the world’s most vulnerable populations, leaving thousands of leveled buildings and thousands of casualties amid bitter winter weather, and not a single route is open for aid.

Time is of the essence. Syrians in the northwest are dying by the minute, trapped under rubble. Thousands more are now homeless, with nowhere to go and no shelter to seek. The international community has pledged substantial assistance to Turkey, and rightly so—but as per usual, Syrians appear to be an afterthought. U.S. President Joe Biden has said U.S.-supported Syrian NGOs are responding on the ground, but that is simply not enough. The main NGO in question, the heroic White Helmets, has approximately 3,000 volunteer staff working amid a population of 4.5 million. They were established and are funded to respond to periodic airstrikes, not an apocalyptic earthquake.

Alternative border crossings exist at Bab al-Salameh and al-Yarubiyah through which aid could be provided. Our partners in the fight against the Islamic State, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), have pledged to facilitate an aid response from the northeast, where the United States has 900 troops on the ground. We can do a great deal to help those most in need, but only if we truly want to. Waiting for the existing U.N. cross-border mechanism to recover and implement a response guarantees the loss of many more lives. It is a highly complex arrangement with extensive bureaucracy; it is risk-averse and susceptible to regime pressures. Ultimately, its own logistical struggles in the wake of the earthquake make it ill-suited to front a rapid response. A more unilateral effort, led by the United States and like-minded allies and facilitated by Turkey, is the only option—if we choose to take it.

Beyond the opposition northwest, regime-held areas of Aleppo, Hama, and the Mediterranean coast require an urgent aid response, too—and as the world’s leading donors to the Syrian aid response, U.S. and European funds will play a central role in the U.N.’s ability to assist from Damascus. The governments of Iraq, Algeria, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have also provided additional emergency assistance. An offer of aid from Israel was rebuffed on Feb. 6.

Prior to the earthquake, regime-controlled areas of Syria were suffering the consequences of a debilitating economic collapse—precipitated by the regime’s scorched earth-style pursuit of survival and accelerated by the spillover effects of Lebanon’s 2019 liquidity crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Iran’s own economic decline. Faced by rising internal pressures and civilian discontent, this earthquake has pushed the regime into a corner. It has issued a global call for help. Its ambassador at the United Nations, Bassam al-Sabbagh, told reporters on Feb. 6 that all assistance offered to Syria would be welcomed, but it could only pass through Damascus—suggesting a de facto veto on any cross-border relief into opposition areas.

The international community must remain committed to its long-standing policy of supporting cross-line and cross-border aid to assist all those in need. Temporarily expanding assistance channeled through Damascus should be considered, but only if clearance is provided to do the same into the northwest. The regime has a consistent, decadelong track record of manipulating, diverting, stealing, and spoiling humanitarian aid. The regime also earns enormous sums by forcing manipulated exchange rates on the U.N., thereby stealing half of every aid dollar sent to Syria. We cannot feed these problems, even within such emergency circumstances.

As responsible actors, we supply aid in line with the humanitarian imperative—that action should be taken to prevent or ameliorate human suffering arising out of disaster or conflict. Nothing should override this principle. If we fail to stick to the strict conditions already in place for aid provision through Damascus, we risk unintentionally paving a path toward the regime’s normalization. There is little trust in providing humanitarian exceptions to the regime, and rightfully so. In earlier years of the crisis, the international community agreed to provide the regime’s Russian allies with the coordinates of every hospital in northwestern Syria, in order to shield them from military actions. That information swiftly became targeting intelligence, with almost every hospital on the list destroyed in prevision strikes.

On balance, the regime is more likely to shoot itself in its own foot and rebuff possible offers of assistance from the West, but the United States and like-minded allies must not lose sight of the broader context within which this tragedy has occurred. If supplementary assistance is accepted, strict measures should be put in place to condition that aid on it reaching pre-agreed recipient communities via U.N.-vetted implementers. Even that is highly imperfect, with nearly a quarter of U.N. procurement funds being channeled through sanctioned entities, but the U.N. appears to have accepted this as a necessary evil.

Finally, if the Syrian regime turns its back on foreign offers or enforces impossible conditions upon them, we should be clear-eyed about the severe consequences that will result from this crisis. Prior to the earthquake, Syria was staring into an abyss of economic collapse, humanitarian suffering, and intractable political, ethnic, and sectarian instability. The root cause of all of this—the regime—shows no sign of openness to compromise. In 2022, illegal migration of Syrians into Europe rocketed by 100 percent. With the effects of this earthquake as cataclysmic as they are, those numbers will markedly rise once spring arrives. For too many years, the international community has chosen to take half-measures when it comes to Syria policy, to ignore its root causes, or to ignore it altogether. That must now end.

[infosisraelnews]

La Russie bloque l'aide de l'ONU aux citoyens syriens

L’ONU et les partenaires humanitaires ne sont pas autorisés à continuer d’utiliser le point de contrôle de Bab al-Hawa à la frontière syro-turque pour fournir une aide humanitaire aux personnes dans le nord-ouest de la Syrie. L’extension de l’autorisation pour l’opération humanitaire a été bloquée par la Russie. L’essentiel est que l’ONU a proposé de prolonger l’opération de 9 mois, le…

[neyatimes]

Fears over Syria's proposed control on aid to rebel-held areas

A convoy carrying humanitarian aid arrives in Syria after crossing the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey on July 10, 2023, a day before the UN Security Council failed to reach consensus on extending the route (OMAR HAJ KADOUR) The Syrian government recently announced it would allow aid to cross into rebel-held areas after a United Nations mechanism expired, sparking concerns from…