Internal Security patrols were deployed, at dawn on Sunday, in the Salhiya neighborhood in the city of Hasakah, with the aim of enhancing security and stability and controlling any potential violations to maintain public safety.
While local media sources reported that people reported to Public Security about a case of kidnapping of a young man working in blacksmithing, at the hands of a group affiliated with the Revolutionary Youth Organization (an organization affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party), the people were able, with the help of the Internal Security Forces, to free the kidnapped person. However, what sparked resentment was that the kidnapping group was released without accountability.
In another provocative incident, members of the Revolutionary Youth opened fire on a bus carrying students on the Qamishli-Al-Hasakah road to prevent it from crossing, according to what the Al-Hasakah Observatory reported.
The Internal Security Command in Al-Hasakah Governorate had announced the allocation of a phone number to facilitate the submission of reports from residents. She confirmed, in a statement on Sunday, that the aim of this measure is “to encourage community cooperation, in a way that contributes to maintaining security and stability.” This came after tensions witnessed in the governorate following the “Friday of Raising the Syrian Flag” demonstrations.
Despite the return of calm to the governorate after days of tension and the heavy deployment of Syrian internal security forces in the governorate, a state of caution still prevails, accompanied by friction and provocative behavior, amid an exchange of accusations between the Arab and Kurdish components of responsibility for the tension.
Meanwhile, the Kurdish leader and politician Abdul Karim Omar, the official of the Syrian Kurdish Council for Relations in Damascus, called on all parties in Hasakah Governorate to “exercise restraint,” and the representative of the Autonomous Administration in Damascus rejected “nationalist incitement and opened direct channels of communication to address any friction before it escalates.” He said in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat: “What is happening in Al-Hasakah is the result of the accumulation of political, administrative and security files, not all of which have been adequately resolved.
On Saturday, the Kurdish National Council in Syria, a political body that includes several allied Kurdish parties, called for an end to exclusionary and inflammatory speeches. He added, in a statement published on his official accounts, that the demonstrations and movements that the governorate witnessed recently included “provocative” slogans that raised tension and fears of their negative repercussions on the relations between the people of the region and its components. He stressed his rejection of “chauvinistic and exclusionary discourses, whatever their source.”
He stressed the need to respect national and cultural peculiarities, reject treason, arrogance and exclusion, and give priority to the language of dialogue and national responsibility. He also called for accelerating the implementation of understandings related to the integration of civil and military institutions, in a way that ensures security and stability and preserves the rights of the various components of the region.
According to data on the ground, there are “fears among segments of citizens regarding security, rights, and participation in the management of their affairs,” Abdul Karim Omar told Asharq Al-Awsat. He believes that the solution is to complete the integration process “in a clear and fair manner, guarantee the rights of all, and open a serious dialogue that includes the various forces and actors in the region.”
He also stressed equality before the law, protecting cultural and linguistic rights within the agreed upon legal frameworks, in accordance with the “January 29 Agreement,” addressing any violations independently and fairly, facilitating citizens’ transactions, and improving services. Considering that “the success of any settlement is measured by what people touch in their daily lives.” He stressed the need today in Al-Hasakah for calm and confidence-building, and for practical steps, the results of which the citizen will feel on the ground.
The Kurdish politician also expressed the certainty that “the unity of Syria must be based on the unity of institutions, the rule of law, and equal citizenship, not on exclusion or revenge.” He called on all parties to exercise restraint, reject nationalist incitement, and open direct channels of communication to address any friction before it escalates.
On Friday, Al-Hasakah witnessed demonstrations that started from the Gweran neighborhood towards the city center, demanding strengthening the presence of Syrian state institutions and imposing security. Amid tensions between supporters and opponents of the movements, and fears of escalation leading to frictions of a national nature.
In a protest, organized by the families of Syrian detainees in Iraq, on Sunday, in front of the Iraqi embassy in the capital, Damascus, they accused the dissolved “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF) of forcibly deporting their children to Iraqi prisons under false and baseless charges. They demanded immediate action to release their children and hand them over to the Syrian government to ensure their safe return to their country and their families.
Israel expanded the borders of the hypothetical “yellow line” separating areas it occupies from those controlled by Hamas, on Sunday, opposite the cities of Gaza and Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, after its military vehicles advanced into new areas, amid intense raids on buildings and homes in areas deep in the Strip for the second day, claiming that they were weapons depots for the “Hamas” and “Jihad” movements.
On Sunday morning, several military and engineering vehicles entered the Al-Shuja'iya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, amid artillery shelling and shooting operations targeting the vicinity of the neighborhood intersection, which led to casualties among the displaced people living in tents in the area, and dozens of families were later displaced from the place after the displaced people discovered the advance of the vehicles.
As the early morning hours dawned, the residents returned to try to collect their belongings from their tents, only to find that yellow cubes had been presented indicating that the “yellow line” had been brought to the intersection completely, specifically on the main “Salah al-Din Street,” which prompted them to dismantle their tents and move them to other areas.
For the residents, the provision of yellow cubes means that the Israeli army and armed gangs will advance to the area, and carry out military operations, kidnappings, and arrests, interspersed with killings of residents, as happened during the past months, in addition to using old military vehicles rigged with tons of explosives to blow them up in the areas.
The Israeli army is not present at the location of the expansion of the new “yellow line.” Rather, it controls fire through military sites installed tens or hundreds of meters away from the new location, and the presence of a military site for armed gangs next to its sites.
The Israeli army also expanded the “yellow line” in the eastern region of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, and forced residents of several homes in those areas to evacuate and head to the western areas of “Salah al-Din Street.”
Israeli army officers claim that they are continuing their movements with the aim of “exposing any tunnels in those areas, and expanding their security control, after they installed 40 military sites in forward points ahead of the original (yellow line),” as the Hebrew newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth” reported them a few days ago.
These ground movements coincide with the continuation of air strikes targeting field activists or financial officials from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements.
Israeli warplanes raided buildings, homes, and lands in the central and northern region of the Gaza Strip, bombing a multi-storey residential building in the Al-Nasr neighborhood, densely populated with residents and displaced people, and completely destroying it, while another building was bombed west of the Shujaiya neighborhood near the Old City, and a house was bombed in the Al-Tawam area, northwest of Gaza, and another house and empty land next to it were bombed in Al-Zawaida and Deir Al-Balah in the middle of the Strip.
These raids came one day after similar raids targeted 4 homes and buildings in Gaza and Khan Yunis. The Israeli army claimed that they contained weapons stores for the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, which the two movements deny. 6 Palestinians were injured in shooting operations by the occupation forces towards the tents of the displaced in Mawasi Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
