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Israel court convicts Palestinian boy of murder attempt

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Ahmed Manasra’s family condemns the ruling, saying it was an unjust court decision.

An Israeli rammed his car into Manasra shortly after the alleged attack. [Photo by the Israeli Government Press Office via Getty Images]

An Israeli rammed his car into Manasra shortly after the alleged attack. [Photo by the Israeli Government Press Office via Getty Images]

by Zena Tahhan, Al Jazeera

Israel’s Jerusalem District court has convicted a 14-year-old Palestinian boy on two charges of attempted murder after he allegedly carried out a stabbing attack on two Israelis.

Ahmed Manasra was with his cousin, 15-year-old Hassan Manasra, who was shot dead by Israeli police after the incident on October 12 at the illegal Pisgat Zeev settlement in occupied East Jerusalem.

“There was no kind of justice in the court’s handling of the case – this was an unjust decision. We did not expect it,” Ahmed’s father Saleh Manasra told Al Jazeera.

Shortly after the alleged attack, Manasra was hit by an Israeli driver who rammed him with his car. A video showing Ahmed bleeding on the ground and gasping for help was shared widely, garnering media attention.

Voices of Israeli bystanders shouting and swearing at the boy, telling him to ‘die’ were heard in the video, causing outrage.

“He did not have the intention to kill any one – he and his cousin were merely trying to scare Israelis with the knife. There is no evidence that he tried to stab any one,” Tariq Barghouti, Ahmed’s lawyer, told Al Jazeera.

“This is a racist court and a court of the occupation. It had a preconceived notion about the incident due to the media uproar and [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu’s statements about it. The Israeli public opinion influenced the court decision and led to the conviction of the child Ahmed Manasra on no basis and without any explanation,” he added.

After the incident, Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, appeared on television accusing Israel of using excessive force against Palestinians, in which he referred to Manasra’s case as an execution.

Netanyahu responded by saying Abbas’s comments constituted a “new big lie.” The Israeli government released videos and photos showing Manasra alive in an Israeli hospital shortly after.

Another video exposing an Israeli security interrogation of Manasra was leaked to local media. In the video (WARNING: some viewers may find this disturbing) which Al Jazeera cannot verify, several Israeli police interrogators are seen yelling at Manasra and accusing him of attempted murder, causing more uproar.

Barghouti expects that Manasra may face up to ten years in prison, but says they are planning to appeal the court’s decision. “How is this an attempted murder when the Israeli soldier, Elor Azarya, who was filmed executing a Palestinian man in Hebron wasn’t murder? A small comparison such as this one is enough to explain that we are dealing with a court without any kind of justice,” said Barghouti.

The soldier was charged with manslaughter, spurring thousands of Israelis to rally in support of Azarya at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on April 19.

Manasra’s next court case is set for July 11, but his lawyer says he expects the session to be postponed until the end of July, after which the sentencing is supposed to take place.

In the latest wave of violence since October, the Israeli army has killed at least 206 Palestinians, including protesters, bystanders and alleged attackers, while 33 Israelis have been killed in stabbing and shooting incidents.

Fresh air strikes batter Syria after truce expires

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At least 20 government strikes hit Damascus suburbs as UN Security Council calls meeting to discuss escalating violence.

People inspect damaged buildings targeted by air strikes in Deir al-Asafir district, in the Damascus suburbs [Mohammed Badra/EPA]

People inspect damaged buildings targeted by air strikes in Deir al-Asafir district, in the Damascus suburbs [Mohammed Badra/EPA]

by Al Jazeera

At least 20 Syrian government air strikes have peppered the Damascus suburbs after a temporary truce agreement expired, a monitoring group said.

The strikes targeted areas in Eastern and Western Ghouta after the deal expired at midnight, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Wednesday.

The monitor also reported fighting between rebels and government forces in Deir al-Asafir, an area targeted by the strikes in Eastern Ghouta.

Separately, the UN Security Council scheduled a meeting on escalating violence in the city of Aleppo in response to an urgent request from the UK and France.

“Aleppo is burning … and its civilians are being killed,” Matthew Rycroft, Britain’s ambassador to the UN, told the Security Council after members adopted a resolution demanding an end to attacks on hospitals and medical workers in Syria and other warzones.

French ambassador François Delattre said the city had “been under constant bombardment since 2012” and described it as the “martyred centre of the resistance” to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Jan Egeland, chairman of the UN task force on humanitarian access in Syria, said during a press conference on Wednesday that the fighting in Aleppo is creating new areas for endless suffering with new possible besieged areas where hundreds of relief workers are unable to move.

“We do not need declarations, we need an end to the bombardment and an end to the fighting,” Egeland said.

At least three people were killed in a rebel rocket attack on a hospital there on Tuesday, the observatory said, in shelling that killed at least 19 people in government-controlled parts of the city.

Rebels and government forces have been battling each other with rockets and bombs across Aleppo. More than 250 people have been killed – mostly by government air strikes – in less than two weeks.

Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy, recently estimated that 400,000 people have been killed in a five-year conflict that has driven millions of people from the country.

Baghdad car bomb kills at least 13 Shia pilgrims

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Attack targets pilgrims commemorating death anniversary of Imam Musa al-Kadhim in Iraq’s capital.

The pilgrimage has in recent years turned into a huge event that brings Baghdad to a standstill for days [Husseini/Reuters]

The pilgrimage has in recent years turned into a huge event that brings Baghdad to a standstill for days [Husseini/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A car bombing has killed at least 13 Shia pilgrims commemorating the death anniversary of a revered imam in Baghdad, according to Iraqi officials.

A parked explosives-laden car detonated shortly after midday on Monday in the southwestern Saydiyah neighbourhood, a police officer told the AP news agency

Tens of thousands of Shia Muslims have been making their way this week to the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Kadhimiyah, where the 8th century Imam Musa al-Kadhim is buried.

Kadhim, the seventh of 12 imams revered in Shia Islam, died in 799AD.

The pilgrimage has in recent years turned into a huge event that brings Baghdad to a standstill for days.

Security forces had previously said they would be blocking major roads in Baghdad on Monday and Tuesday to prevent potential attacks on pilgrims.

On Saturday, a car bomb killed at least 23 people and injured 38 others near the Iraqi capital.

The bomb targeted an open air market frequented by Shia in Nahrawan. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Israel army kills Palestinian siblings in ‘attack’

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More than six months of violence leaves at least 209 Palestinians and 29 Israelis dead.

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians during an alleged knife attack at the Qalandia checkpoint [Mohamad Torokman/Reuters]

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians during an alleged knife attack at the Qalandia checkpoint [Mohamad Torokman/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Israeli forces have shot and killed two Palestinians as they allegedly attempted to stab soldiers at a checkpoint in between occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.

The troops fatally shot 23-year-old Maram Saleh Hassan Abu Ismail and her younger brother Ibrahim, 16, at the Qalandia military checkpoint between the central West Bank city of Ramallah and East Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said the pair were “armed with knives” and “came toward the border guards” to attack them.

After the incident, Israeli forces fired tear gas and sound grenades during clashes with Palestinian youth.

Since October 1, increased tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel have boiled over into violence.

Throughout that period, Israeli forces and illegal settlers have killed at least 209 Palestinians, including alleged attackers and protesters, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Meanwhile, at least 29 Israelis were killed in shooting and stabbing attacks carried out by Palestinians, says Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs.

‘Extrajudicial killings’

Ramy Abdu, director of the Gaza-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, criticised the Palestinian government’s inaction after six months of escalated violence.

“In many incidents, they [Israeli soldiers] actually committed extrajudicial killings, particularly at checkpoints and military points,” he told Al Jazeera.

“People still believe that the Intifada should be escalated to the next level,” Abdu said. “But they are frustrated with the current situation, the international community and their own government over Israel’s systematic, structural violence.”

More than half a million Jewish Israelis already live in more than 150 Jewish-only settlements across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, while Israeli military forces have erected several dozen checkpoints impeding Palestinians’ ability to move freely.

Several Palestinian political parties, including Hamas and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, have blasted the PA’s security cooperation with Israeli forces throughout the ongoing uprising.

“The only way out of the current national impasse is if the PA showed political will to reconcile with its national partners and not with the Israeli occupation,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement on Tuesday.

Israel releases 12-year-old Palestinian girl from jail

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Family welcomes the release of D al-Wawi, who was arrested in February on charges of attempted manslaughter.

D's parents said their daughter was 'paying a heavy price for something that did not happen' [Mary Pelletier/Al Jazeera]

D’s parents said their daughter was ‘paying a heavy price for something that did not happen’ [Mary Pelletier/Al Jazeera]

by Rania Zabaneh, Dalia Hatuqa, Al Jazeera

Halhul, occupied West Bank –   At the Jbara checkpoint near Tulkarem, the al-Wawi family and human rights groups’ representatives waited patiently. The 12-year-old finally emerged, after having spent 2.5 months in a prison, making her the youngest Palestinian female detainee. As her relatives embraced her, the girl, clad in a pink shirt, fought back tears and said nothing.

D* was arrested on February 9 near the illegal settlement of Karmei Tzur, just north of her hometown of Halhul. Now, out on early parole, D served more than half of her sentence of 4.5 months in an Israeli prison for attempted voluntary manslaughter and illegal possession of a knife.

The family had appealed her detention, citing international legal norms, and Israeli law, which prohibits the imprisonment of children younger than 14 for the country’s citizens.

D is the first child in her family, which includes six girls and three boys, to see the insides of a prison cell. Her father, 54-year-old Ismael al-Wawi, had been working in Israel for more than 25 years before Israeli authorities revoked his permit on the day she was arrested.

According to Israeli military court documents, D approached the settlement with a knife hidden under her school uniform. The documents cited footage that showed the girl lying on the ground after she was told to give up the knife.

This was not the child her family knew. A lively girl, D spent a lot of her time playing outside with her cousins – something that left their relatives wondering how she would cope in a prison cell.

“Even inside the courtroom, she was playing,” said Sabha al-Wawi, D’s mother. “She’d move her shackled feet or her hands around to play with the handcuffs. Even the judge told her to stop.”

Her mother recalled an incident that left her questioning the Israeli authorities’ version of events.

“One day, I overheard the girls talking about the spate of knife attacks. D and her eldest sister both said to each other, ‘If anyone tells you I’ve done something like this, please don’t believe them. I would never attack anyone,'” Sabha said.

The day D was arrested, her mother feared she was either injured or killed – the fate of many Palestinians who have either carried out attacks or were accused of being assailants in a spate of unrest that began in October 2015. Since then, 207 Palestinians and 33 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed.

On March 28, more than a month after the incident, D was finally allowed to see her mother, but they were banned from any physical contact. Before she was detained, D had been asking about the fate of the children of Palestinian journalist Mohammad al-Qeeq, who at the time was on a months-long hunger strike, if he were to die.

“She kept wondering – who will take care of his children?” Sabha recalled. “Who will take them out on excursions, who will buy them gifts on Eid, who will feed them?”

Even as the family welcomed D’s release, they were still reeling from the loss of Ismael’s job, their only source of income. D’s parents also have to pay a $2,000 court-ordered fine.

“I’m unemployed now and taking out loans to cultivate a plot of land that we have,” Ismael said. “It will be a while before the land yields any produce. So in the meantime, I have reached out to several institutions to help financially.”

There are 7,000 Palestinians currently in Israeli prisons, according to the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Prisoners Affairs Commission. The figures include 70 women, 750 in administrative detention, 700 sick detainees, and 30 who have been imprisoned for more than 20 years.

The figures also include 440 Palestinian children, who are held in Israeli detention for “security” offences, according to Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCI), a Ramallah-based rights group. This is the highest tally since the Israel Prison Service started providing figures in 2008, the group said. More than 100 of these children are between 12 and 15, while 12 are girls and seven are in administrative detention.

A majority of children endure physical violence in the Israeli military detention system, according to a recent report by DCI called No Way to Treat a Child. The “widespread and systematic ill-treatment of Palestinian children” includes detaining them in the middle of the night, often without notifying the parents of the reasons for the arrest.

“International law is clear: Children should only be detained as a last resort, for the shortest appropriate period of time, and under absolutely no circumstances should they be subjected to torture or ill-treatment,” said Khaled Quzmar, the group’s general director. “Why then, year after year, do we see Palestinian children experiencing widespread, systematic, and institutionalised ill-treatment at the hands of Israeli forces?”

Israeli authorities said D confessed to planning a stabbing attack, but DCI found that “many children maintain their innocence, but plead guilty as it is the fastest way to get out of the system. Most receive plea deals of less than 12 months. Trials, on the other hand, can last a year, possibly longer. Bail is rarely granted and most children remain behind bars as they await trial”.

The group also said that interrogators often use “position abuse, threats and isolation to coerce confessions”, documenting 66 cases in which children were held in solitary confinement.

Sabha says the family believes D has “suffered a grave injustice”.

“She’s too young to hurt anybody. She’s not even physically capable of attacking anyone. She did not pose a threat,” Sabha said. “She is paying a heavy price for something that did not happen.”

Morocco renovates one of the world’s oldest Islamic libraries

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University of Al-Qarawiyyin library

by Cii Broadcasting

The settling dust from renovations and the banging of tools aren’t ideal sights and sounds for a library — but this is no ordinary library.

Founded 12 centuries ago by a pioneering woman and nestled in the old medina of Fez, Morocco’s University of Al-Qarawiyyin library is one of the world’s oldest libraries, home to unique Islamic manuscripts treasured by historians. Yet it’s been largely hidden from the public. The architect leading its restoration, Fez native Aziza Chaouni, didn’t even know it existed until she was asked to work on it.

King Mohammed VI is expected to inaugurate its reopening soon.

Chaouni is hoping it will mark an ideological change, too, and open to the public for the first time in its long history. Until now, the privilege of using the library has been limited to scholars who seek formal permission, and authorities haven’t decided yet whether to change that.

From calligraphic designs on the walls to ceramic patterns on the floors and wooden carvings on the ceilings, the fingerprint of almost every ruling dynasty since the 9th century can be seen in the architecture.

A devout and wealthy Muslim woman from the Tunisian town of Kairaouan, Fatima Al-Fihri, provided the endowment for building Al-Qarawiyyin in the 9th century. Originally a mosque, it expanded in the 10th century to become a university, Abdelmajid El-Marzi, imam and administrator of the mosque, told The Associated Press.

The library houses a collection of manuscripts written by renowned thinkers from the region, including Ibn Khaldun’s “Muqadimmah.”

The 14th-century historical work spent six months on loan to the Louvre Museum in Paris during the renovations, library curator Abdelfattah Bougchouf said.

Other texts include a 9th-century Quran written in Kufic calligraphy, and a manuscript on the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence by Ibn Rochd, also known as Averroes.

The manuscripts are now kept in a secure room, with strict temperature and humidity control. They weren’t always kept like this, however.

“The original manuscript room door had four locks,” Bougchouf told The AP. “Each of those keys was kept with four different people. In order to open the manuscript room, all four of those people had to physically be there to open the door.”

Now, he chuckled, “all of that has been replaced with a four-digit security code.”

A previous renovation and expansion effort in 1940 opened up the library to foreigners and non-Muslims by creating a separate entrance. Before that, the only way to access the library was via the mosque. Non-Muslims aren’t allowed to enter the Qarawiyyin mosque to this day.

“It was a sign of tolerance,” Abdelfattah said.

Since ascending to the throne in 1999, King Mohammed VI has called for restorations at Qarawiyyin.

Architect Chaouni said she was pleasantly surprised when the Culture Ministry approached her in 2012 to work on the project — especially in a field dominated by men.

“I knew about the mosque, but never even knew there was a library there,” she said, despite growing up in the city.

She specializes in restoring old buildings in a sustainable fashion, and is also trained as an engineer, with degrees from Harvard and Columbia universities.

The restoration is fixing a plumbing issue that increasingly threatened to drench the rare manuscripts in sewage water.

Chaouni is also lobbying for opening a public exhibition room for the first time – calling it “the biggest challenge of my soul” during the restoration project.

The Culture Ministry accepted the idea but bureaucratic control over the site shifted to the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs. Chaouni worries that this shift will squash her efforts. Authorities are also concerned about the cost of keeping the previous manuscripts secure.

Another way to improve access to the manuscripts is to digitize them, which the library has been doing, and about 20 percent are now available in electronic form.

Syria death toll: UN envoy estimates 400,000 killed

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Staffan de Mistura’s estimate, which far exceeds those given by UN in the past, is not an official number.

De Mistura appealed to all involved parties to help revamp negotiations between government and opposition [Denis Balibouse/Reuters]

De Mistura appealed to all involved parties to help revamp negotiations between government and opposition [Denis Balibouse/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

The UN special envoy for Syria has estimated that 400,000 people have been killed throughout the last five years of civil war, urging major and regional powers to help salvage a crumbling ceasefire.

Explaining that the death toll was based on his own estimate, Staffan de Mistura said on Friday that it was not an official UN statistic.

“We had 250,000 as a figure two years ago,” said de Mistura. “Well, two years ago was two years ago.”

The UN no longer keeps track of the death toll due to the inaccessibility of many areas and the complications of navigating conflicting statistics put forward by the Syrian government and armed opposition groups.

Fighting has flared up in many parts of the country as the fragile ceasefire appears to be falling apart.

Government air strikes killed at least 13 in the eastern countryside of Damascus on Saturday, while air strikes and barrel bombs left several dead and injured in the Bab al-Tariq area of Homs, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

De Mistura also appealed to all involved parties to help revamp negotiations between the government of President Bashar al-Assad and opposition groups.

“Yes we do need certainly a new ISSG at ministerial level,” the envoy said, referring to the International Syria Support Group which includes the United States, Russia, the European Union, Iran, Turkey and Arab states.

De Mistura compared the apparently stalled political talks on Syria’s future, the unravelling ceasefire agreement and the still limited humanitarian relief deliveries to the three legs of a table.

“The level of danger to the table made of three legs – and a table of three legs is always fragile by definition – [means that help] is urgently required,” he said.

“When one of them is in difficulty we can make it. When all three of them are finding some difficulty, it’s time to call the ISSG.”

He gave no date or venue for the high-level ISSG.

The envoy said he planned to continue peace talks next week, despite the “worrisome trends on the ground”, adding that he would seek clarity from government negotiators about their interpretation of political transition.

The government, which says the future of President Bashar al-Assad is not up for discussion in Geneva, says that political transition will come in the shape of a national unity government including current officials, opposition and independent figures.

“Is this going to be cosmetic, is this going to be real, and if it is real what does it mean for the opposition and so on?” he said.

Opposition negotiators have rejected any proposal which leaves Assad in power. They have also accused the government of violating a February “cessation of hostilities” agreement, pointing to air strikes on rebel-held areas which have killed dozens of people this week.

Syria: Civilians killed as air strikes pound Aleppo

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At least 10 people reportedly killed in Aleppo bombardment during Friday prayers.

Air strikes hit several areas across the city as locals attended Friday prayers [File: Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters]

Air strikes hit several areas across the city as locals attended Friday prayers [File: Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Air strikes launched by the Syrian government have killed several civilians and injured dozens in the northern city of Aleppo as the ceasefire between the government and opposition groups crumbles.

At least 10 people were killed across Aleppo and several dozen injured in the attacks, according to sources on the ground.

The strikes targeted four different, predominantly civilian areas in the city, said Zouhir Al Shimale, a local journalist.

“These are all civilian areas, and people were near or at the mosques when the strikes hit,” he told Al Jazeera by telephone, estimating that at least 30 civilians were injured in the Bustan al-Qasr area alone.

“The bombardment happened during the Friday prayers. I was on the way prayers when it happened in the al-Mashhad [neighbourhood]. People started going out of the mosque and running.”

Shimale said Aleppo’s streets mostly emptied following the attacks, with people rushing home to avoid being in open spaces.

“People have gotten used to it. They know that at any moment, the regime could strike again.”

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, government air strikes also targeted towns across Syria’s Idlib province, killing at least three civilians.

Negotiations collapse

The Syrian conflict started as a largely unarmed uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, but has since morphed into a full-on civil war that has claimed the lives of more than 260,000 people, according to the United Nations’ statistics.

The opposition cited the dire humanitarian situation and the Syrian army offensive when it walked out of peace talks in Geneva this week, saying it needed a “pause”. The future of Assad also proved a major sticking point.

The already shaky ceasefire between the government and some rebels was severely strained on Tuesday when at least 44 people were killed in air strikes on two markets in the northwest.

The Geneva talks are aimed at ending the five-year war by fashioning a political transition, writing a new constitution, and holding fresh elections by September 2017.

Syria rebels declare new offensive on government

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Ceasefire in doubt as groups announce new “battle” in response to what they say are violations from the Assad side.

The opposition said it was willing to create a transitional body with government members, but not Assad himself [Fabrice Coffrini/Reuters]

The opposition said it was willing to create a transitional body with government members, but not Assad himself [Fabrice Coffrini/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Several Syrian rebel groups have announced a new offensive against the government in a move they said was a response to ceasefire violations from the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

The groups, which included factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and Ahrar al-Sham, said in a joint statement on Monday that they would respond with force to any army units that fired on civilians in what they called a fresh “battle”.

The statement was sent to the Reuters news agency by Mohamed Rasheed, a spokesman for the Jaish al-Nasr rebel group.

It said the groups would set up a joint operations room and gave no further details about where any fighting might take place.

A ceasefire deal in place since February has been strained to breaking point, particularly around the divided city of Aleppo, with each side blaming the other for an escalation that has underlined the huge challenge facing peace talks that are currently being held in Geneva.

Heavy air strikes were also reported north of Homs on Monday, killing at least four people, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The main opposition bloc in Geneva, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), accused the government of sending a message that it did not want a political solution, but a military solution that the opposition said would destroy the country.

Mohammed Alloush, the chief negotiator for HNC, said on Monday that accepting Assad as part of any transitional government, a longtime sticking point at the talks, was out of the question.

Asaad Zoubi, also from the HNC, said opposition forces should respond to any government attack.

Zoubi reiterated calls for the release of people from government prisons, particularly children and women.

“We will not accept or negotiate unless we get what we want and our demands are met,” Zoubi said.

The HNC said last week that it was willing to share membership of a transitional governing body with current members of the government, but not with Assad himself.

UN mediator Staffan De Mistura has said a political transition will be the main focus of the current round of talks, which aim to end a five-year war that has killed more than 250,000 people and forced millions to flee the country.

Syria’s civil war: At least 30,000 flee ISIL attacks

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Rights group says residents of temporary camps in Aleppo among those affected by clashes between ISIL and Syrian rebels.

Syrian girls react following a reported Syrian regime air strike in a rebel-controlled area in the northern city of Aleppo on February 8, 2016. (AFP/Ameer al-Halbi)

Syrian girls react following a reported Syrian regime air strike in a rebel-controlled area in the northern city of Aleppo on February 8, 2016. (AFP/Ameer al-Halbi)

by Al Jazeera

At least 30,000 civilians have fled fighting between armed groups and rebel factions in northern Syria in the past 48 hours, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The US-based watchdog group made the announcement on Friday while calling on Turkey to open its border to the civilians.

It also accused Turkish border guards of shooting at some of those displaced in Aleppo province as they approached the frontier.

Turkey has denied the accusation.

HRW said many of those who fled were residents of emergency camps set up along the border and decided to head for other camps or nearby towns and villages even though they were still unsafe because of fighting between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group and opposition rebels.

“Civilians were trying to flee but some were met with gunfire or told they would not be able to enter,” Nadim Houry, deputy director of Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa division, told Al Jazeera from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon.

“Those people need to be allowed with safety. The whole world is talking about fighting ISIS, and yet people who are escaping them are not welcomed anywhere.”

Al Jazeera’s Reza Sayah, reporting from Geneva in Switzerland, said a senior Turkish official had denied the claims.

“Turkey is denying accusations that it’s firing gunshots at refugees,” he said.

“The official said that sometimes smugglers and armed men infiltrate these groups of refugees, so they are firing at them and not refugees.”

The surge in violence comes as representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime are expected in Geneva on Friday for the latest round of talks aimed at ending the war.

Outlining its bargaining position, the opposition bloc High Negotiating Committee (HNC) said it would be willing to share equally in a transitional council with the government, but repeated its rejection of a role for Assad.

Salim al-Muslet, spokesperson for the HNC, told Al Jazeera there was “no place for Assad” in the new set-up.

“I believe we’re doing the right thing for our people,” Muslet said from Geneva.

“The other side, the government, was forced to come here. They don’t care about our people. We don’t want to see any more fighting and killing. It’s important that we find a solution here in Geneva.

“But there’s no place for Assad or people around him who committed crimes in Syria. For us, it’s important to have people who care about their own people who deserve to see an end to this nightmare.”

The latest violence comes as escalating fighting between Russian-backed regime forces and rebels around the provincial capital, Aleppo city, threatens a nearly seven-week ceasefire that had largely been holding.

ISIL and other armed groups are excluded from the truce.

The five-year conflict in Syria has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced half the population.

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