At least 750 households have fled the village of Hwaiz in northern rural Hama to Idlib province over the past month to escape the Assad regime’s intensive shelling. The shelling caused massive destruction to civilian homes.
Local activists said that only 200 households remained in the village, while the majority of the townsmen fled towards Atma IDP camps, the town of Deir Hassan, and Jabal al-Zawia region.
Head of the local council in the village, Mohammad Khattab, told the local news network Smart News that 8,250 people, including 1,750 internally displaced people, used to live in the village before the start of the Assad regime’s intensive bombing campaign.
The Assad regime forces continue to shell the liberated areas, especially the areas covered by the Idlib Agreement on the demilitarized zone. The shelling injured a woman and caused damage to residential buildings in the village of Hawija north of Hama earlier today.
The Assad regime’s bombing campaign has caused an exodus of civilians from the towns and villages of northern rural Hama. The Emergency Response Coordinators Team earlier reported that 88,942 people, mostly children and women, have been displaced from the town of Khan Sheikhoun alone in recent weeks.
Local news outlets indicated that the majority of the displaced people headed towards IDP camps near the Turkish border.
President of the Syrian Coalition, Abdurrahman Mustafa, earlier condemned the intensified shelling by regime forces on the residential areas covered by the Idlib agreement. He stressed that the shelling cast serious questions about the role of the United Nations in the protection of civilians as well as the role of Assad’s so-called guarantors in stopping its “criminal, terrorist behavior.”
Assad’s forces on Monday shelled the village of Ma’arkiba north of Hama with artillery, without reports of casualties. Regime forces stationed in the town of Shatha shelled the village of Bab al-Taqa north of Hama with rockets, without reports of casualties.
Towns and villages in rural Idlib and rural Hama have been subjected to relentless artillery and rocket shelling by the Assad regime and Russian forces. More recently, the Assad regime’s air force has taken part in the bombing campaign, killing and injuring civilians although the area is covered by the Idlib Agreement. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
