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Missile strike kills at least 12 civilians, including children, in Syria’s Idlib province: UN humanitarians
Violence in Syria continues to kill and maim civilians with reports that missiles fired into settlements for people fleeing conflict in the country’s northwest on Wednesday night killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens more, including children, UN humanitarians said on Thursday.
“Reports of shelling near the Qah IDP camp near the Turkish border in Idlib last night caused damage to a nearby maternity hospital,” Fran Equiza, UNICEF Syria Representative for Syria, told journalists in Geneva. “Children were also among the reported casualties; nearby IDP camps were also destroyed.”
Echoing those comments, Mark Cutts, UN Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, called for an investigation into the “horrific” incident.
“I find it sickening that missiles hit vulnerable civilians, including elderly people, women and children sheltering in tents and makeshift shelters in a camp for internally displaced people,” he said in a statement, which also noted “dozens of attacks against medical facilities and staff across Syria” this year. He added: “International humanitarian law requires all parties to strictly distinguish between civilians and combatants and to take constant care to spare civilians in the conduct of military operations.”
In northeast Syria since 9 October, following the Turkish military incursion into Kurdish-held Syrian territory, at least 10 children have died and another 28 have been maimed, UNICEF’s Mr. Equiza said (Please note “28” is a corrected figure issued by UNICEF after today’s press conference, updating the number from 22 indicated in the shotlist sent earlier).
This toll doesn’t include three more children injured on Wednesday, when a shell hit a school in the southern town of Tal Abyad,that was housing 12 internally displaced families.
In 2018, the UN confirmed that 1,106 children were killed in fighting linked to the nearly nine-year war. That was the highest number of children killed in a single year since the start of the war in 2012, according to UNICEF, which noted that the actual figure is likely much higher – a trend that has continued this year.
The agency noted too that as of September, the UN has verified 1,792 grave violations against children’s rights this year alone. This includes killing, injuring, recruiting and abducting children and attacks against schools and health facilities.
“Last year was the deadliest for year for the children in Syria and very unfortunately it looks that this year is following the same track record,” Mr. Equiza said. “So far, 657 children have been killed in Syria.”
In the troubled northeast of Syria, around 74,000 people - including an estimated 31,000 children - remain displaced. More than 15,000 people have fled to neighbouring Iraq.
Turning to the Al Hol camp complex, which houses people displaced from former ISIL-held territory, the UNICEF official said that it contained “around 40,000 children”. Of that number, 28,000 were foreigners, comprising 20,000 from Iraq and 8,000 “from around 60 different nationalities”, while around 80 per cent of the children there are below 12 and 15 per cent are below five years old.
Elsewhere in the northeast, the UN agency has received reports that “at least 250 children” – some as young as nine - are being held in detention centres.
They “are spread around the northeast and we don’t have the coordinates sadly of where these centres are”, Mr. Equiza said.
In an appeal for the international community to repatriate the children of citizens who had gone to Syria, Mr. Equiza insisted that keeping them in Syria was only doing additional harm.
“So far we know that 17 countries have repatriated at least 650 children over the last months and we expect that the figure will go up in the coming days. Every day is too late for not taking those kids out of this, the camp.”
Across Syria, people face massive vulnerabilities, UNICEF says, with limited services, damaged schools and infrastructure presenting “an almost insurmountable hurdle for children and their families”.
While the northeast is home to some of the most vulnerable children in the country, with one in five affected by stunting in Deir-ez-Zor and Al-Hasakeh governorates, the national average is one in eight.
With just six weeks left to go in the year, UNICEF’s emergency operations in Syria are about 60 per cent funded. Of the $295 million required in 2019, the agency has received around $180 million.
- Exterior shot, Palais des Nations flag alley.
- Medium shot, journalists, podium with speakers and TV cameras, Press Room I, Palais des Nations.
- Close up, TV camera viewer and podium with speakers behind.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Fran Equiza, UNICEF Syria Representative: “Reports of shelling near the Qah IDP camp near the Turkish border in Idlib last night caused damage to a nearby maternity hospital. Children were also among the reported casualties, nearby IDP camps were also destroyed.”
- Medium shot, journalists, Press Room I, Palais des Nations.
- Medium shot, journalist framed between two other journalists opposite him, Press Room I, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Fran Equiza, UNICEF Syria Representative: “Last year was the deadliest for year for the children in Syria and very unfortunately it looks that this year is following the same track record. So far, 657 children have been killed in Syria.’
- Medium shot, speaker’s hands, Press Room I, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Fran Equiza, UNICEF Syria Representative: “In Al Hol, there are around 40,000 children – four, zero – of them; 28,000 are foreigners, two, eight – of this, 28,000, 20,000 are Iraqis and 8,000 are from around 60 different nationalities. Around 80 per cent of the children in the camp are below 12 and 15 per cent are below five years old.”
- Medium shot, back of journalist’s head, other journalists opposite, Press Room I, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English)— Fran Equiza, UNICEF Syria Representative: “Detention centres are spread around the northeast and we don’t have the coordinates sadly of where these centres are. So we don’t know that. We have reports that at least 250 children are in those detention centres.”
- Medium shot, journalists in semi-profile, Press Room I, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English)— Fran Equiza, UNICEF Syria Representative: “So far we know that 17 countries have repatriated at least 650 children over the last months and we expect that the figure will go up in the coming days. Every day is too late for not taking those kids out of this, the camp.”
- Medium shot, journalists, TV cameras, Press Room I, Palais des Nations.
- Close-up, journalist’s handwriting, Press Room I, Palais des Nations.
- Close up, TV camera operator, Press Room I, Palais des Nations.
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New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
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- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
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Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
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Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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