Aron Lund
The New Humanitarian, Dec. 7, 2023
“… the most significant Gaza-related escalation in Syria involves neither Israel nor Hamas, but Iraq. Since 17 October, a new group that calls itself “the Islamic Resistance in Iraq” has fired at US bases in eastern Syria dozens of times. The group, which appears to be a front for several Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militias, has been hitting US bases in both Syria and Iraq.”
While armed conflict has declined across Syria in the past years, the war is not over. October saw renewed airstrikes and shelling in the rebel-held northwest, while the economy continues to sink to new lows.
About half of the pre-war population has either fled abroad or been displaced inside Syria, and the UN says that two thirds of the remaining population is in need of aid. But this aid has been decreasing due to a lack of funding, and the World Food Programme said this week that some of these cuts will be even more dramatic from January.
The outbreak of war in Gaza, between Israel and Hamas — the Palestinian group that controls the territory, which is home to more than two million people — has been highly destructive. Since a Hamas attack that killed around 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, most of them civilians, both the Ministry of Health in Gaza and the Israeli military say Israel has killed more than 15,000 Palestinians, again mostly civilians. But the war is also likely to compound the suffering of millions of Syrians. The conflict could spill across the border, and even if it doesn’t, the destruction in Gaza is likely to pull much-needed aid funding away from Syria.
Here’s a look at how the Gaza conflict has impacted Syria so far, and where the situation might be headed:
Who are the main groups in the Syria war, and how have they reacted to Gaza?
… [To read the full article, click here]
