-Analysis-
Jana, a 5-year-old girl, and Abdul-Muhaimin,a 12-year-old boy, both went to school that October day — and never came home. They were killed in attacks in the northwest Syrian province of Idlib that were carried out by regime forces, along with their Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah allies.
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A few hours separated the regime artillery shell that killed Jana in the Jabal al-Zawiya area, and the death of Abdul-Muhaimin who’d been working in a nearby sawmill that was hit by a missile from a Russian warplane.
They were the youngest of 11 civilians killed in the massacre over two days of aerial and ground bombardment on a number of towns and villages in Idlib. The mid-October attacks also wounded more than 30, according to the Syrian Civil Defense.
Two-day massacre
Russian warplanes carried out 20 airstrikes on several towns in the western countryside of Hama and Idlib provinces.
In Aleppo, Iranian and Hezbollah militias launched artillery attacks on the city of Atarab, killing at least one civilian and wounding eight others, including two children, said activist Farid al-Mahloul.
On October 16, Syrian regime forces and their allies bombed civilian homes in the village of Maarbalit in Jabal al-Zawiya, south of Idlib, with heavy artillery. Among those homes was the home of the girl Jana Hajouz, who died from her wounds.
The next day, Russian warplanes flew continuously over the province, bombing a sawmill and a furniture manufacturing workshop in the vicinity of Idlib city, said activist Ahmed al-Ali. At least 40 civilians, including 14 children, were killed or wounded.
The Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, said its teams spent long hours recovering the bodies of the victims and the injured from under the rubble of the sawmill building.
More than 50 people, including children, were working there at the time, the Civil Defense said. It posted a video on social media showing their teams searching under the rubble of the building.
The Civil Defense said in a statement published on its social media pages that Russian warplanes launched two consecutive air raids, with six highly explosive missiles on a furniture manufacturing workshop, killing 10 people, including a child, and wounding 32 others including 10 children.
Israel attacks in the south
The bloody days in northwestern Syria came soon after an overt Israeli incursion into Syrian territory.
On October 12, An Israeli force, accompanied by armored vehicles, infiltrated Syrian territory near the southern town of Koudna, and bulldozed some of the agricultural lands there, according to sources and media reports.
The sources said Israeli forces annexed and wire-barbed an area of 500 meters with a width of another 1,000 meters.
The government should stop the Israeli ground incursion, instead of arresting and disappearing Syrians.
Before the ground incursion, Israel launched airstrikes on the government-controlled areas, the latest hit in the Damascus neighborhood of Mezzeh, near the home of Bashar al-Assad and senior members of his government, the Ministry of Defense, and the security branches.
The Syrian army did nothing to repel this incursion. And the Russian forces deployed in large numbers in Quneitra province stayed silent.
Traitor in charge
Rights activist Safwan al-Ali said the government should be responding to stop the Israeli ground incursion, instead of arresting and disappearing Syrians.
Lawyer and international law expert Abdul Nasser Hawshan considers Assad a “traitor,” according to the definition laid out in the country’s Constitution. He also noted that Israel’s latest strikes and incursion into Syrian territories is a breach of the armistice and disengagement agreement between the two countries.
Assad’s position is a source of bitterness across Syria. We are not talking only about the enormous crimes committed in Syria because of him, for him, and in his name, but also his inability to defend the last card that gives him some legitimacy before his supporters: war with Israel.
