Northern Syria faces a new surge of displacement amid an intense military escalation by Assad regime forces and allied militias, supported by Russia and Iran. Villages and towns in the countryside of Idlib and Aleppo have come under near-daily shelling, targeting residential areas and compelling thousands to flee. Local sources reported relentless artillery and missile strikes in the western Aleppo countryside yesterday, while members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) downed a regime-operated suicide drone near the village of San, east of Idlib. The San axis itself faced drone assaults, though no casualties were reported.
The Syrian Response Coordinators Team (SRC) has documented the displacement of 6,277 residents from the Idlib and Aleppo countryside in recent days. The organization has appealed for international intervention to halt these attacks and called for humanitarian organizations to support the newly displaced until stability can be restored.
With winter approaching, the situation is dire. The Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, has warned of an impending humanitarian catastrophe. The group highlighted the ongoing shelling as a clear indicator that the Assad regime, Russia, and their allies are determined to continue their military campaign, showing little regard for international law or humanitarian norms. The White Helmets urged the international community and human rights organizations to take decisive action to protect more than 5 million civilians in the region and hold the perpetrators accountable.
Hadi al-Bahra, head of the Syrian National Coalition, emphasized in a statement on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that the attacks on civilian homes, farms, and facilities threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands in the countryside of Aleppo and Idlib, creating fresh waves of displacement. “The Assad regime and its allies’ war crimes, along with their strategy of repression, are among the primary causes driving more than half of the Syrian population into displacement,” al-Bahra stated.
Al-Bahra reiterated that Syria remains unsafe for the voluntary return of refugees. He urged the international community to activate accountability measures and enforce binding actions to curb the violence, warning that failure to act would exacerbate the ongoing humanitarian crisis that has beleaguered Syrians for years.
Humanitarian workers also lamented the attacks and noted that their ability to provide vital services is impeded by significant communication challenges due to disruptions in internet service, complicating their ability to provide immediate updates and assess the response efforts in northern Syria. As attacks persist, residents who had begun returning to previously secured areas are once again forced to leave, compounding the hardship in a region already home to millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs).
The White Helmets and other humanitarian organizations have called for a unified international stance to protect civilians and aid workers in northwestern Syria. The continued shelling, combined with the cold winter months ahead, risks turning an already severe situation into a humanitarian disaster of unprecedented scale. The SRC called on global humanitarian bodies to step in and provide essential supplies to those newly displaced.
