HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – Abdulhamid Muhammad, 72, a resident of Abu Rasin (Zargan) region in Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) countryside is sitting on a mattress in the lobby of a school in the city of Hasakah, northeastern Syria, while telling North Press the story of his displacement from his village under the Turkish bombing.
Last week, after the Turkish forces and their affiliated opposition armed factions’ bombing was intensified on his village and the surrounding villages, Muhammad fled with his family from to settle in the Ismail Touqan school in the Aziziyah neighborhood in Hasakah.
Because of the continued bombing, hundreds of families were forced to flee from their villages, some of whom sought refuge in Newroz camp near the city of Derik, in the far northeastern Syria, while others settled in a number of Hasakah schools.
Recently, the Turkish forces and the affiliated opposition factions have escalated their bombardment on the town of Tel Tamr and its countryside, 40 km north of the city of Hasakah, targeting inhabited villages and vital facilities in the area.
No aid
“Those who do not fear Allah targeted the village with missiles from 9 pm to 4 am, which caused the destruction of half of the village’s houses,” Muhammad said.
“We left everything behind and spent our night on the bank of the river of Zargan,” he added.
However, Muhammad’s suffering and those with them in the school, exacerbated by the lack of assistance provided to them, as most of them are forced to sleep on the floor without mattresses or blankets, and spend their nights without electricity, in addition to the absence of food and water in the school.
About 150 families live in the aforementioned school, according to one of the IDPs, while families are distributed in other schools in the Ghuweiran neighborhood and the town of Tweina, about 12 km west of Hasakah.
“Military figures and Autonomous Administration officials came and told us to leave because they will not provide us aid,” Abdulsalam al-Mahmoud, an IDP from Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), told North Press.
He added that they threatened to cut off water, “and they did.”
While North Press contacted the co-chair of the Hasakah Council, Samar Abdullah, but she refused to issue any statement.
Frequent displacement
Mahmoud was first displaced from his village in October 2019, when the Turkish forces, accompanied by the affiliated opposition factions, invaded the areas of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad.
The Turkish invasion at the time caused the displacement of about 300,000 people, according to the data of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
At that time, some of the IDPs settled in 80 schools in the city of Hasakah and its countryside and Tel Tamr.
However, after preparing the Washokani camp, 13 km west of Hasakah, and Sere Kaniye camp, east of Hasakah, the AANES began transferring the displaced families to the two camps.
While many families refused to leave schools despite the AANES decision, which came in the interest of the progress of the educational process.
At that time, Mahmoud was displaced to the city of Hasakah and lived with one of his relatives, to settle, after a while, in one of the villages in the countryside of Tel Tamr, but with the intensification of the bombing, he was forced again to migrate and settle in the Ismail Touqan school.
“We no longer have the ability to bear it. We ran away from the bombing to face the prevention of aid and water,” he added.
For her part, Amsha al-Jassem, an IDP from Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), said, “no one gave us bread, water or anything.”
“We do not have food. We are suffering a lot in our lives,” she added.