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NEW YORK CITY: The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, told the Security Council on Thursday that the situation in the country remains “deeply fragile,” with a ceasefire in Sweida under growing strain and political tensions on the rise.

He urged the international community to renew its efforts to protect civilians, ensure accountability, and support a Syrian-led political process that is capable of delivering lasting peace.

Marking the anniversary of the 2013 chemical weapons attack in Ghouta, carried out by the forces of former President Bashar Assad, Pedersen described the occasion as “a painful reminder of the suffering endured by Syrian civilians, and of the grave abuses and violations of international law that must never be repeated.”

He urged council members to help Syria “emerge from a dark past toward a brighter future.”

The July 19 ceasefire agreement in Sweida has so far prevented a return to open conflict following a spike in violence, Pedersen said, but he warned that the peace remains tenuous.

“We are still seeing dangerous hostilities and skirmishes on the margins of Sweida and violence could resume at any moment,” he said.

“Absent more tangible and binding measures, including to build confidence, the ceasefire risks remaining fragile — an interim truce rather than the foundation for lasting stability.”

He welcomed the creation by the US, Jordan and Syrian authorities of a trilateral working group to support the truce. However, he cautioned that “a month of relative military calm belies a worsening political climate, with escalatory and zero-sum rhetoric hardening among many.”

He also condemned ongoing Israeli ground operations in southwestern Syria, despite a pause in airstrikes.

“Such actions are unacceptable,” Pedersen said. “We must insist on full respect for Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.”

The humanitarian cost of unrest, he added, remains severe, with more than 186,000 people displaced in Sweida, Daraa and rural Damascus. Access to affected areas is limited as a result of insecurity and road closures, and widespread damage to infrastructure compounds the suffering.

Referring to reports of abuses during fighting in Sweida last month, including a video that appeared to show the execution of an unarmed man in a hospital, Pedersen said it was “essential” that the conclusions of a fact-finding committee’s investigation into such violations “are made fully public and that all perpetrators — regardless of affiliation — are held responsible.”

He called on all sides to combat divisive rhetoric and build a shared national vision, adding: “Security forces must demonstrate that they are acting solely to protect all Syrians and do not constitute a threat.”

To avoid future violence, Pedersen stressed the need for comprehensive reforms of the security sector, including disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of armed factions. He praised efforts by the new Syrian authorities to counter Daesh and Al-Qaeda but emphasized that “continued vigilance” remains critical.

On the political front, Pedersen noted a decree that was issued on Wednesday for indirect elections to appoint two-thirds of the 210 members of an interim People’s Assembly. The remaining 70 will be appointed by the president. For this process to succeed, he said, it must be transparent, inclusive and allow the participation of all major groups within Syrian society, not only “trusted individuals,” and include the “equal and visible” representation of women.

“Anything less,” he warned, “would entrench skepticism, aggravate the forces pulling Syria apart, and impede reconciliation.” He called for dialogue with all communities, including those critical of the interim authorities.

Pedersen also voiced concern about stalled efforts to implement the March 10 agreement between the interim government and the Syrian Democratic Forces for the integration of the latter into state institutions, citing in particular recent flare-ups of violence in Aleppo.

“We hope that reported further contacts between interim authority officials and SDF representatives can be cemented into real compromise,” he said.

He also underscored the role of civil society in the political transition process, and the important need for women to play a significant part.

“Syrian women continue to stress the necessity of meaningful political participation,” Pedersen said, while acknowledging the risks and pressures they face.

Tom Fletcher, the UN’s humanitarian chief, echoed Pedersen’s concerns and warned that “the humanitarian crisis is not over.” He said 16 million Syrians remain in need of support, a situation he described as “dire.”

UN teams are managing to provide life-saving aid to about 3.5 million people a month, despite funding shortfalls and access challenges, he revealed.

“Our humanitarian appeal for 2025 is only 14 percent funded,” Fletcher said, warning that budget cuts could reduce humanitarian staffing levels by 40 percent. Already, he noted, “16 percent of health facilities have suspended or reduced capacity.”

He welcomed recent sanctions-relief measures announced by the US, EU and UK, but said it will take time to feel the full effects of this.

“We need investment in longer-term support for development and reconstruction that will allow the people of Syria to reduce, and ultimately end, reliance on humanitarian aid,” he said.

“With funding and access, we aim to no longer be needed.”

Fletcher concluded his remarks with a direct appeal to members of the Security Council: “The people of Syria do not need us to be commentators and problem-observers. They need us to move with genuine urgency, generosity and purpose.”

LONDON: As many as 83 percent of Palestinian casualties in Gaza could be civilians, classified Israeli data suggests.

A joint investigation by The Guardian, Hebrew-language Local Call and the Israeli-Palestinian +972 Magazine found that Israeli officials had been able to name 8,900 people killed or “probably dead” in Gaza as members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad as of May this year.

At the time, the total death toll from the war was believed to be at least 53,000 people according to local authorities, meaning that just 17 percent of those identified were combatants.

The database used to assess combatant casualty figures is based on documents seized by the Israeli military in Gaza.
In total, 47,653 Palestinians are identified as being members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, meaning that a little under 40,000 are believed to be still alive

The Israeli military also believes Gaza’s health authorities’ data on casualties to be reliable, Local Call reported, though these figures are likely to be an underestimate as thousands of people remain buried under rubble, and only bodies positively identified are counted.

Therese Pettersson of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program told The Guardian: “That proportion of civilians among those killed would be unusually high, particularly as it has been going on for such a long time.

“If you single out a particular city or battle in another conflict, you could find similar rates, but very rarely overall.”

She added that since 1989, UCDP had only identified the siege of Srebrenica, the Rwandan genocide and the 2022 siege of Mariupol as conflicts that saw civilian casualties outnumber combatants.

Previously, Israeli politicians have cited a far more balanced casualty rate, with some suggesting it could even be equal between combatants and civilians. Others have suggested in the past that 20,000 people killed in Gaza were militants.

This could be on account of collating members of the enclave’s civilian infrastructure or people with loose ties to fighters — such as police and politicians — with membership of militant groups, but it is also believed that civilians without ties to Islamic Jihad or Hamas are included in those tallies.

One source who spent time with the Israeli military in Gaza told The Guardian that “people are promoted to the rank of terrorist after their death,” adding: “If I had listened to the brigade, I would have come to the conclusion that we had killed 200 percent of Hamas operatives in the area.”

Retired Gen. Itzhak Brik, a former commander of Israel’s military colleges, told The Guardian that he had been told by former colleagues the numbers were inflated.
“There is absolutely no connection between the numbers that are announced and what is actually happening,” he said. “It is just one big bluff.”

Palestinian analyst Muhammad Shehada told the newspaper that by last December, the number of dead Hamas and Islamic Jihad members from their own data was around 6,500.

“Israel expands the boundaries so they can define every single person in Gaza as Hamas,” he said. “All of it is killing in the moment for tactical purposes that have nothing to do with extinguishing a threat.”

Moreover, the number of dead, and the disparity between civilian and combatant deaths, may have increased since May, with hunger now believed to be widespread due to a lack of food in Gaza, and an increase in the number of civilian deaths at aid distribution sites in the enclave.

The impending Israeli ground offensive in the north of Gaza will likely further widen this gap. So far, in excess of 62,000 people are believed to have been killed in the enclave.

Mary Kaldor, professor of global governance at the London School of Economics, said the nature of the Gaza conflict is also causing a disproportionate number of civilian casualties.

“In Gaza we are talking about a campaign of targeted assassinations, really, rather than battles, and they are carried out with no concern for civilians,” she added.

Comparing Gaza to recent conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Sudan, she said: “These are wars where the armed groups tend to avoid battle. They don’t want to fight each other, they want to control territory and they do that by killing civilians.

“Maybe that is the same with Israel, and this is a model of war (in Gaza) that is about dominating a population and controlling land. Maybe the objective always was forced displacement.”

Neta Crawford, professor of international relations at Oxford University, said tactics used by Israel mark a “worrisome” departure from previously established norms to protect civilians.

“They say they’re using the same kinds of procedures for civilian casualty estimation and mitigation as states like the United States. But if you look at these casualty rates, and their practices with the bombing and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, it is clear that they are not,” she said.

In a statement to The Guardian, the Israeli military said the figures published in the investigation “are incorrect.”