TISHRIN DAM, Syria (AP) — A key dam in northern Syria has become a flash point in the conflict between Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed armed groups, which has intensified in the weeks since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive.
Over a thousand protesters from Kurdish areas in northeast Syria gathered Wednesday afternoon at the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates River in Aleppo province, a critical source of both water and electricity that has been at the center of clashes.
Protesters called for an end to Turkish airstrikes, which they said are damaging vital infrastructure and endangering civilian lives.
Turkish drones and warplanes remained in the air during the protest, and airstrikes targeted areas near the march route, according to participants and a war monitor. The health administration in Kobani said the strikes killed five civilians and injured 15 others.
Turkey, for its part, accused the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces of using civilians as “human shields” by encouraging them to come to the area of the fighting.
A coalition of Turkish-backed groups in Syria, known as the Syrian National Army, are carrying out attacks to take control of regions near the border with Turkey that are under control of Kurdish groups. Heavy fighting has been reported in areas near the Tishrin Dam, some 90 kilometers (60 miles) east of the city of Aleppo.
“While we were walking in this march, there were about 13 or 14 airstrikes around us,” said Berfin Dumar from Kobani, who joined Wednesday’s protest. “They tried to silence our voices so we wouldn’t be able to protect this dam.”
Farhan Haj Issa, co-chair of the executive council of the Autonomous Administration in Kobani, called for Syria’s new authorities and a U.S.-led coalition that has allied with Kurdish forces in the fight against the Islamic State to help bring about a halt to hostilities.
“After the collapse of the Baath regime, we were supposed to enter a new phase of dialogue and laying foundations to end the crisis,” he said, referring to the ruling party under Assad. “Instead, the Turkish state and its mercenaries have increased instability, added to the crisis, and turned Syria into a haven for those spreading corruption.”
He called on “whoever leads the government in Damascus to take responsibility and end the brutality and violence.”
In a later interview, Haj Issa also addressed the U.S.-led coalition.
“We stood united with the coalition against international terrorism,” he said. “Now, it’s time for them to stand with us against this aggression.”
The new Syrian government is de facto led by the Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which allied with the Turkish-backed groups in the offensive that toppled Assad.
HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa has called for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to be integrated in the national army that the new authorities in Damascus are attempting to form from a patchwork of armed factions.
The state-run Anadolu Agency quoted unnamed Turkish defence ministry officials Thursday as saying the SDF was using “innocent civilians as human shields” in the Tishrin Dam region, adding that the practice is against “international law, human rights and humanity.”
Turkey views the SDF as an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is listed as a terror organization by Turkey and several other states, and has conducted several cross-border operations against the group since 2016.
The SDF is, however, allied with the United States in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.
The Turkish government has repeatedly threatened to launch a new military offensive unless the Syrian Kurdish fighters lay down arms.
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Martany reported from Irbil. Associated Press staff writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed.
Residents of northeastern Syria walk towards the Tishrin Dam to join a sit-in demanding an end to the war in the region in Aleppo's countryside, Syria, Wednesday Jan. 8, 2025. The Tishrin Dam has become a flashpoint in the conflict between Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed armed groups, which has intensified in the weeks since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive.(AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
Residents of northeastern Syria walk at the Tishrin Dam to join a sit-in demanding an end to the war in the region in Aleppo's countryside, Syria, Wednesday Jan. 8, 2025. The Tishrin Dam has become a flashpoint in the conflict between Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed armed groups, which has intensified in the weeks since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive.(AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
A Turkish drone strike hits near protesters demanding an end to the war around the Tishrin Dam, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. Turkish drones and warplanes hovered during the protest, with airstrikes targeting areas near the march route, according to participants and a war monitor. The health administration in Kobani reported five civilians killed and 15 injured. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza's Health Ministry said Thursday, with no end in sight to the 15-month conflict.
The ministry said a total of 46,006 Palestinians have been killed and 109,378 wounded. It has said women and children make up more than half the fatalities, but does not say how many of the dead were fighters or civilians.
The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. It says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in residential areas. Israel has also repeatedly struck what it claims are militants hiding in shelters and hospitals, often killing women and children.
In recent weeks, Israel and Hamas have appeared to inch closer to an agreement for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week that a deal is “very close” and he hopes to complete it before handing over U.S diplomacy to the incoming Trump administration.
But he and other U.S. officials have expressed similar optimism on several occasions over the past year, only to see the indirect talks stall.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza. Israeli authorities believe at least a third of them were killed in the initial attack or have died in captivity.
The war has flattened large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its 2.3 million people, with many forced to flee multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are packed into sprawling tent camps along the coast with limited access to food and other essentials.
“I swear we were waiting for news about a truce every day but there was no truce, only news of my son and my daughter-in-law and their children being killed, six people martyred," said Fatma Abu Awad, who lost six of her family members on Tuesday due to two Israeli strikes that were 15 minutes apart. "Till when this war, this violence, and slaughtering of people? We’re now at 46,000 martyrs. No one is looking for us and no one is asking where we are,” she said.
“What we are living is not a life. Nobody could bear the situation we’re experiencing for a single day,” Munawar al-Bik, a displaced woman, told The Associated Press in an interview this week.
“We wake up at night to the sounds of men crying, because of the bad situation,” she said. “The situation is unbearable. We have no energy left: we want it to end today.”
Al-Bik spoke on a dusty road in the southern city of Khan Younis next to a destroyed building. Behind her, a sea of makeshift tents filled with displaced families stretched into the distance.
On Thursday, dozens of people took part in funeral prayers outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah for people killed in Israeli strikes the day before.
In the hospital morgue, a man could be seen kneeling and bidding farewell to a relative before slamming a refrigerator door in an outburst of grief.
Palestinian health officials said Israeli airstrikes killed at least nine people in Gaza on Wednesday, including three infants — among them a 1-week-old baby — and two women.
“There is hope every day that there would be truce and ceasefire negotiations would work but it's useless hope as we’ve been waiting for a year and two months for the war to end. On the contrary, we have more martyrs and are losing more of our loved ones,” said Malak Abu Awad, part of the family that lost six people in airstrikes earlier this week.
In Israel, family members of hostages who were killed in captivity echoed the calls for a ceasefire, imploring the Israeli government and world leaders to reach a deal, a day after Israeli soldiers recovered the body of 53-year-old hostage Yosef AlZayadni in an underground tunnel in southern Gaza.
“Military pressure endangers the lives of the hostages,” said Meirav Svirsky, sister of hostage Itay Svirsky, whose body was recovered from Gaza last month. “The policy that prioritizes the continuation of fighting must be replaced by a policy of saving lives and a policy committed to the return of all the hostages.”
Khaled reported from Cairo. Eleanor Reich contributed reporting from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Mourners attend the funeral of Israeli soldier 1st Matityahu Ya'akov Perel, who was killed in a battle in the Gaza Strip, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, Israel, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli soldiers and relatives carry the flag-draped casket of 1st Sgt. Matityahu Ya'akov Perel, who was killed in combat in the Gaza Strip, during his funeral at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, Israel, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli soldiers attend the funeral of 1st Sgt. Matityahu Ya'akov Perel, who was killed in a battle in the Gaza Strip, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Palestinians carry the bodies of their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Kareem Al-Dabaji mourns his brother Anas Al-Dabaji, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment in Deir Al-Balah, at Al-Aqsa Hospital morgue in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Members of the Bedouin community, part of Israel's Palestinian minority who have Israeli citizenship, attend the funeral of Yosef Al Zaydani in Rahat, southern Israel, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 after the Israeli military said his body of was recovered in an underground tunnel in southern Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Members of the Bedouin community, part of Israel's Palestinian minority who have Israeli citizenship, attend the funeral of Yosef Al Zaydani in Rahat, southern Israel, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 after the Israeli military said his body of was recovered in an underground tunnel in southern Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Smoke rises following an explosion in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Smoke rises following an explosion in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian women look at a damaged residential building following an overnight Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian kids look at a damaged residential building following an overnight Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
