Humanitarian aid deliveries across Turkish-Syrian border extended till July

The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved on Monday the use of Bab al-Hawa border crossing for the delivery of humanitarian aid to several million people in Syria for another six months.

The current approval of the UN aid operation was due to expire on Tuesday.

Authorization by the 15-member council is needed because Syrian authorities did not agree to the humanitarian operation, which has been delivering aid including food, medicine and shelter to the region since 2014.

In July 2022, the UN Security Council had approved a resolution extending humanitarian aid deliveries to Idlib governerate in northwestern Syria, which is home to 4.1 million people. Many of the people sheltering in the area have been internally displaced by the nearly 12-year conflict.

Large parts of Idlib is under the control of Al Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), and Turkey have set up dozens of military installations and observation posts in the region that effectively prevents Russia and Damascus from carrying out large scale military campaigns in HTS-held areas.

Russia, which is allied with Damascus, has moved to replace humanitarian aid crossing the Turkish border into Syria with convoys, which pass through government-controlled areas.