Jomaa Haleem sits among hundreds of displaced people at a mosque in Aleppo, its floor covered with rows of sprawling mattresses.
They fled heavy fighting between government troops and the mainly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces in the city, some carrying children on their backs.
It is not the first time Mr Haleem has been displaced from his native neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsoud, one of the three contested Kurdish-majority areas in Aleppo.
Life has been filled with “suitcases, losses and poverty”, he says in the crowded space.
Mr Haleem recounts the hardship of being forced to leave his home once again this week, to seek temporary refuge in a makeshift shelter.
The SDF controls much of Syria’s resource-rich north-east, as well as the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighbourhoods of Aleppo. Bani Zeid is the other contested district in this city.
The Kurdish-led armed force's integration into Syria’s central government has been one of the most sensitive challenges facing the country’s new authorities.
The process has been marked by outbreaks of violence – the latest and most intense fighting entering its fourth day on Friday.
Mr Haleem, who says he is Kurdish, fled on the first day of the clashes, as Sheikh Maqsoud turned into an urban battlefield. He left on foot, alongside “children, people with disabilities and the sick,” he tells The National, and has been staying at the displacement centre ever since.
At least nine civilians have been killed and more than 140,000 have fled their homes in Aleppo, according to figures compiled by war monitors and officials. The SDF said that at least eight civilians in the Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods have been killed.
“We have nothing, no help, nothing. I haven’t changed my clothes in a month. Is that a life?” Mr Haleem asks, clasping his worn-out coat to illustrate his words.
He was first displaced in 2011, as Bashar Al Assad’s brutal repression turned peaceful protests into a devastating civil war, and forced to move to Turkey.
Assad was ousted in a rebel offensive in December 2024, and the new government took over. But tension has been brewing between factions and some sects, leading to violence across parts of the country.
“Now we have to leave once again, and for what? For whom? It’s been 14 years. It’s enough, enough. We want to reconcile, we want to live,” Mr Haleem said, his voice heavy with anger and exhaustion.
It is difficult to determine which side initiated the latest clashes, with both the government and SDF trading accusations of human rights violations. But for Mr Haleem, it hardly matters, as “we’re all losing,” he said. “We want to live in peace; we don’t want blood.”
An official at the displacement centre told The National that Damascus has opened three shelters in Aleppo and a total of 45 across the country to provide temporary relief for the displaced.
On Friday evening, Kurdish families were seen fleeing Sheikh Maqsoud, as the Syrian army announced the opening of an evacuation convoy for civilians, ahead of an imminent resumption of clashes, despite a ceasefire announced by the Ministry of Defence hours earlier.
Weighed down by heavy bags slung over their backs, filled with the few belongings they had managed to gather during the two-hour window allotted for the evacuation, families fled on foot in the rain, some clutching their children’s hands. Others crowded onto buses deployed by the Damascus governorate, hurriedly tossing their suitcases into trucks. None was willing to speak.
The situation in Aleppo deteriorated rapidly on Friday after hours of relative calm. On Thursday, the army announced it had taken control of Ashrafieh. The following day, it gave remaining Kurdish fighters in Sheikh Maqsoud, where the Syrian army has yet to deploy, until 9am to leave the area as part of a temporary truce. The fighters and their families were to be escorted by bus to the SDF-controlled north-eastern region.
But after several hours of tense uncertainty, Kurdish groups in Sheikh Maqsoud said they would not surrender. The sound of artillery once again filled the air as Kurdish fighters opened fire on security forces deployed to secure the convoy of departing fighters, signalling the collapse of the temporary deal.
Late in the afternoon, the Ministry of Defence published a series of warning maps highlighting military targets in Sheikh Maqsoud and urging civilians to evacuate the area, which it said had been taken over by the SDF and its allies.
“Are the clashes still ongoing? When is it going to be over?” Mr Haleem asked from the shelter, as Aleppo residents braced for more violence.
