During the evening of Tuesday, January 16th, 2024, at least two identified male civilians were killed and at least seven and up to eight civilians were injured, including two girls and a woman. The casualties were caused by an alleged artillery and/or airstrike by the Syrian regime and/or the Russian military and/or the Iranian military in the residential neighborhood of Ariha [Jericho], south of Idlib, Syria. The reported attack hit residential neighborhoods near mosques, a medical facility, and Al-Bazaar Street in the aforementioned city.

At 5:10 PM UTC+2 time, Twitter/X user @Wolveri07681751 shared the following on social media “Civilian Hassan Khaled, 48 years old, displaced from Kafr Zita, was martyred and seven others were injured by an [alleged] missile strike by Iranian militias targeting the city of Jericho, south of Idlib.” The tweet was accompanied by a picture of a middle-aged man with a beard.

At 9:15 AM, January 17th, 2024, Twitter/X user @SyriaCivilDefe shared the following “The death of a civilian, Deeb Muhammad Tako, 64 years old, as a result of his wounds he sustained yesterday, Tuesday, January 16, as a result of [alleged] regime forces’ missile shelling that targeted the neighborhoods of the city of Jericho, south of Idlib, bringing the death toll to two civilians killed and seven civilians injured, including two girls and a woman.”

The civilians injured in the strike were identified by the sources as Mohammed Ma’touq, Taher Ahmad Al Ahmado, Yousef Mohammed Attar, Bashar Nabih Alaa Al Din, Fadi Qaddah, and Nour Hamad Thaer Ahmado. There were no further details on their age and the severity of their injuries.

Twitter/X user @anwaralnhar reported a total of six injured civilians; Syrian Today as well as earlier posts of Syrian Civil Defence relayed eight injured civilians.

Among the injured was also a young girl named Maya whose picture was shared by the SCD among the images of other injured civilians.

Twitter/X user @SyriaCivilDefe shared at 4:43 PM pictures that they related to the event. The pictures showed a parked emergency vehicle – likely an ambulance – with its doors opened. At the same time, a civilian with an IV attached to his arm was being carried inside by men in unrecognized uniforms. The area around the civilian’s mouth was covered with blood and his eyelids were closed. It is not possible to determine from the picture whether the man is conscious or not. The civilian was wearing a gray hat with a white stylized snowflake knitted on it. Another picture showed an elderly man with a white beard lying on a stretcher. The picture showed him covered by dust and dirt and his coat was stained with brown material. His head – hardly visible in the picture – was heavily covered with a red-stained bandage; the same material staining his coat was also present on his face.

Another picture showed a crying girl, on a stretcher inside an emergency vehicle, with her black curls appearing behind a head bandage. Her eyelids were closed, swollen and tainted with hues of purple. Her chin and mouth also presented signs of bruises as well as the inner sides of her lips. Her left arm seemed to be wrapped in a more rigid bandage.

At 5:20 PM the same user shared a picture with the same girl with the following statement: “Maya’s dreams of safety in her home and school, which she loves, and circles of play and fun with her friends in the neighborhood where she lives, changed after she was hit by shrapnel from regime forces’ missiles that targeted the residential neighborhoods of the city of Ariha, south of Idlib, today, Tuesday, January 16, and left her suffering the pain of her wounds. With her tears and shattered dreams, as the regime and Russia’s war on life, hope, and children continues.”

At 5:59 PM the same Twitter/X user shared a video of Maya crying while on a stretcher in an emergency vehicle. In the video, her crying was muffled by the blood in her mouth. The part of the stretcher behind her head was wet, covered in a transparent liquid mixed with blood and the head bandage was soaked in blood behind her head. The girl touched her bandaged left hand with her right hand, covered with dried-up blood. Out of the shot, two men were speaking in Arabic, one in a reassuring voice, another one in a moved and broken voice. The hand of a man gently and repeatedly caressed the cheeks of the girl while her golden earrings and the tears collecting on the side of her eyes shone in the scene. The video is accompanied by the following: “Don’t cry. Don’t cry. There’s nothing wrong with you, thank God.”

Condolences for her pain from the missile fragments that penetrated her body, and for her tears that were mixed with her blood. A volunteer tries to comfort the child after she is injured by a missile strike by regime forces that hit the city of Jericho.

At 6:19 PM, the same user shared on Twitter/X a video of a man, with a gray hat and a white snowflake knitted on it, lying on a surface in an unidentified house. The face of the man was blurred out.

At 6:34 PM, the user shared another video that they connected to the alleged event. The video showed a group of men transporting out of a building an elderly man with a white beard – the man seemed unconscious. The civilian was covered with white dust, to the point that his hands were almost completely white and his head was covered in a red-stained white head bandage. Another man was keeping up his IV. The group of men consisted of both civilian men without uniforms and men wearing “The White Helmets” uniforms as well as other unidentified uniforms. The man was then put in an emergency vehicle. The video also showed an elderly woman wearing a Niqab being helped into an emergency vehicle, where she was taken care of by a man wearing “The White Helmets” uniform.

Facebook user “Syrian today” shared an image related to the event, showing a street filled with rubbles. Facebook user “Editor moment by moment” shared pictures relating to the event as well, showing a tower of smoke, seemingly the result of an explosion in the middle of a residential area. Another picture showed a residential building with signs of destruction. Facebook user |”Authority Net” shared a video showing the crossing of two narrow residential alleys filled with rubbles and debris, with smoke coming out of one of the buildings’ windows.

At 5:16 PM UTC+2 time, Twitter/X user @tAAprK80Nn3GKmd shared two videos related to the alleged attack. The first one showed an unconscious man lying on a road, in what seems like a pool of blood, next to a fallen motorbike. In the video, a group of men gathered around the body, took him up, and put him in the trunk of a car, while an alarm sounded in the background. The other video showed seemingly the same space after the man was taken away. The video showed parked cars torn and burnt down as well as destroyed buildings’ façades. One could see cars’ headlights repeatedly flashing in the dark and their alarm sounding in the empty streets.

Sources were conflicted regarding the responsibility of the attack. SDC news, Ariha TV, Authority Net Anas Al-Maarawi, Mustafa Samak, Event news, Khaled bin Mohammed Hammoud, Damascus and its countryside operations room news network, Twitter/X users @anwaralnhar, @tAAprK80Nn3GKmd identified the Russian military as the responsible of the attack. SCD news, Khaled bin Mohammed Hammoud, Twitter/X users @tAAprK80Nn3GKmd, @Wolveri07681751, @k7ybnd99, @k7ybnd99 identified the Iranian military as responsible for the attack. All the other sources, when they identified the belligerent, referred to the Syrian regime forces as responsible for the attack.

Sources also differed about the nature of the attack: some sources identify it as caused by rocket launchers while others as caused by warplanes.

The incident occured in the evening.