The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian crisis unfolding in Syria’s northwest province of Idlib, as Western powers challenged Syria and its ally Russia to provide assurances that attacks on hospitals and schools would stop.

Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on Friday, UN humanitarian affairs coordinator Mark Lowcock said there had been concern about the escalating situation in Idlib for months. 

“Last September, he (UN secretary general) stressed that it was absolutely essential to avoid a full-scale battle in Idlib, and he warned that would unleash a humanitarian nightmare unlike any we have seen in Syria,” said Lowcock.

“When I briefed you here on 18 September, I said a full-scale military onslaught could result in the worst humanitarian tragedy of the 21st century. Despite our warnings, our worst fears are now coming true.”

The UN warned that three million civilians are at risk as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad‘s forces – backed by Russians – have launched an offensive. 

The council was meeting in an emergency session to discuss the surge of fighting in the Idlib region that has raised alarm of an imminent all-out assault which could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe.

‘We need answers’

The violence has effectively shattered a ceasefire negotiated by Russia and Turkey, in place since September. Russia has firmly backed Assad’s government in the eight-year civil war, while Turkey has supported rebel factions.

More than 180,000 people have been displaced by the latest violence in three weeks, UN aid chief Mark Lowcock said, and up to 160 people have been killed.

At least 18 hospitals and clinics have been destroyed or damaged by air raids and shelling over recent weeks, several of which were on UN “no target” lists that detail exact locations of the health facilities to the warring sides, the UN aid chief told the council. 

Lowcock said 49 health centers had partially or totally suspended activities, some for fear of being attacked, while 17 schools have been damaged or destroyed and many more closed.

Calling for an end to the attacks, Britain and the United States pressed Russia and Syria to provide assurances to the UN Security Council that the situation would not continue.

“Russia and Syria are the only countries that fly planes in the area,” British Ambassador Karen Pierce told the council. “I think we need answers today.”

“If the answer is the Russian and Syrian air forces, I call on both ambassadors here today to give us the assurance that the attacks will stop.” 

The acting US ambassador to the UN said Russia and Syria were responsible for attacks on health facilities and said it was “most alarming” that some were on the “no target” lists.

Piece said, “It would be absolutely grotesque if NGOs and health workers providing coordinates to a mechanism they believe is there to assure their safety were finding themselves being the authors of their own destruction because of deliberate targeting by the [Assad] regime.”

Speaking from UN headquarters in New York, Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays said that members of the Security Council felt the need to address the issue of Idlib in an open UNSC meeting after attempts to address it behind closed doors seemed to fail. 

“Some members of SC hoped that by raising this (the situation in Idlib) in a closed meeting a week ago, that perhaps Russia would not like the pressure on them and that they might back down. 

“They’ve now decided that didn’t work and the bombardment by the Russians and the Syrian air force has continued. They’ve gone on to the next level which is to raise them in an open meeting hoping that some countries such as China … may be able to restrain the Russians and the Syrians.”

But Russia said that hospitals and other civilian infrastructure were not being targeted and stressed that military operations were aimed at wiping out “terrorists”.  

“We categorically reject accusations of violations of international humanitarian law,” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council.

“Not the Syrian army, or the Syrian air force, or Russia are conducting hostilities against civilians or civilian infrastructure.” 

“Our goal is the terrorists,” he said.

Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate which is on the UN “terror” list, controls most of Idlib province as well as parts of neighboring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces. 

‘Deliberate’ targeting of schools and hospitals

Meanwhile, some 70 aid groups called for an immediate end to the fighting in Idlib, saying conditions have reached a “crisis point”. 

The groups said violence has forced at least 16 humanitarian organisations to suspend their operations in the region, adding that staff were either displaced themselves or the facilities came under attack. 

In a statement to the UNSC meeting, Amnesty International called on members states to pressure Russia over the “deliberate” targeting of health and education facilities and ending the “onslaught” against civilians.

“Bombing hospitals carrying out their medical functions is a war crime,” said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s director of research for the Middle East.

“The international community has so far utterly failed to protect civilians in Syria from the horrors of this conflict,” she said. 

Staff from four hospitals in Idlib and Hama told Amnesty International that they had been targeted despite sharing their coordinates with the Syrian and Russian governments.

Corroborating UN statements, Physicians for Human Rights said it has verified that over the last four weeks Syrian government forces and their Russian allies have carried out nine attacks on hospitals and medical facilities.

The aid groups said that at least 15 health facilities and 16 schools were reported to have been significantly damaged or destroyed. At least two health workers were killed. 

The war in Syria, now in its ninth year, has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since it started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Image: NurPhoto via Getty Images

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki has described the anticipated US Israel-Palestine peace plan as a “consecration” of Palestinian suffering.

“The US ‘deal of the century’ is the consecration of our century old ordeal: no independence, no sovereignty, no freedom, no justice,” al-Maliki said on Friday at the London-based Chatham House think-tank.

“And if they do not think that this situation will have an impact on the future of Israel and the region, one way or the other, they are the ones that are delusional, not us.”

The foreign minister’s speech comes amid diplomatic efforts by the Palestinian administration to garner foreign support as the US prepares to release its peace plan, devised by Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump‘s son-in-law and senior adviser.

The US has not confirmed details of the plan, which it says could be presented next month.

Previous US attempts to revive the peace process between Israel and Palestinian leaders have failed to reach a final agreement, with the status of Jerusalem and the ongoing expansion of the Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories key obstacles.

In early May Kushner suggested the plan could pull back from long-standing mentions of a two-state solution and accept Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The plan has been described by Palestinians such as Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, as being “dead on arrival”.

Israel has not adopted an official position on the plan.

Palestinian leaders have refused to participate in the US-led effort since December 2017, when the Trump administration turned its back on decades of US policy by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv.

‘A surrender act’

Al-Maliki also criticised the US administration for preparing to give “its stamp of approval to Israel’s colonial policies”.

He expressed appreciation to the international community for standing up against the embassy move and against cuts to UNRWA ( the UN agency for Palestinian refugees), but urged the world to take a more proactive stance in leading the peace process, saying that “the world left the steering wheel in the hands of a reckless driver”.

“We disagree with the view that we should wait till he goes over a cliff or runs over the Palestinian people to do something about it,” al-Maliki said.

The foreign minister said there were two options to end the conflict – a peace accord or capitulation.

Al-Maliki said Palestinians are ready to negotiate a peace accord based on the internationally recognised pre-1967 borders under international monitoring holding parties to account, but that they will “never be ready to sign a surrender act”.

“If people struggling against oppression across history surrendered to the odds, they will all be in chains today. We have defied the odds many times before and we will again,” al-Maliki said.

He added that the two-state solution should be examined and that the international community should ensure that the cost of having ties with the settlements and “their associated regime” far outweighs the benefits, for both officials, entities, companies and governments.

Defeating colonialism, apartheid and achieving peace “cannot be our purpose alone”, al-Maliki added.

“The freedom of the Palestinian people and peace for all the peoples of the region is a worthy objective that deserves much more from everyone.”

Last week al-Maliki expressed alarm at a United Nations meeting, saying that the US wasn’t crafting a peace plan, but rather “conditions for surrender“.

Kushner has said the peace plan will be released sometime in June after the conclusion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

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