Adil Al-Shalchi
speaker
19 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 15 Dec
Adil Al-Shalchi’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Dec 2025 with 1.
Appearances
Thunderstorms flooded hundreds of tents in Gaza, leaving thousands of already displaced Palestinians homeless and cold.
Buildings have collapsed, killing several families, while at least two babies died of hypothermia, according to local health officials.
Mahmoud Basal is the spokesperson for the Gaza Civil Defense.
He says the tents are just not strong enough.
He says there's an urgent need for caravans rather than tents and that the reconstruction of Gaza needs to begin immediately.
Humanitarian groups say the Israeli government is obstructing their work as it restricts aid into Gaza.
Hadil Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv.
You're listening to NPR News from Washington.
So the leader of HTS, which is short for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is Ahmed al-Shar'a, formerly known by his nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Jolani. And at least publicly, he's been making all the right noises. This week, he said that all rebel factions that helped overthrow Bashar al-Assad will be disbanded and absorbed into the Ministry of Defense and that everyone will be subject to the rule of law.
He said it's time to move on from war to civilian life. He's even stopped wearing his fatigues. But Syria is a very diverse country, so HTS needs to find a way to reunite it. And so many cities have been destroyed in the war, so rebuilding the infrastructure is going to be something they'll need to tackle. And then HTS has roots in al-Qaeda.
It has told Syrians it won't turn the country into another Afghanistan. But a lot of Syrians are worried, will they end up imposing a very stringent form of Islamic rule that will upend their lives?
Sure. So HDS has been using former Assad regime bureaucrats to get things up and running. They have to. These rebels just don't have the expertise needed to run a country. So students did go back to school this week. ATMs are working again. And even the first domestic flight took off from Damascus International Airport.
And then I went to a protest last night, probably the first mass gathering ever. in more than a decade. The site was unimaginable just a couple of weeks ago. People chanting for a secular state, against an Islamist state, even some anti-HTS slogans. There were some HTS forces guarding the area also, but they pretty much left the protesters alone.
I met Sana Mustafa at the protest, and she was exiled for 11 years for being a Syrian activist. This was her first time back, and she said, yes, she feels fear and is cautious, but there was a lot of fight in her voice.
Right. So we already know that countries like Qatar and Turkey have opened up their embassies. And then even though the French embassy is still closed, it raised its flag there over the past week. The French foreign ministry said it was a show of solidarity with the Syrian people in this time of crisis. quote, transition. And seniors U.S.
diplomats are now in Damascus, the first official diplomatic delegation to enter the capital since it severed ties in 2012. They're meeting with HTS and want to make it clear that they're pushing for an inclusive and democratic Syria. They are designated a terrorist organization, and they are desperate for the U.S. to drop that so that it can get aid, desperate aid, to rebuild the country.
Also with the delegation is the U.S. 's top hostage negotiator, and he's going to be pressing for any more information about the missing American journalist Austin Tice.
You know, it's not so bad. The traffic is pretty bad. But I saw yesterday a couple of traffic controllers. There's just a few of them, but they're really trying very hard. I went to the main market in the Old City, and it was buzzing with people. You could see that people were just very happy, you know, taking selfies and telling me also that this was their first time in the souk.
So, yeah, it's pretty cool.
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