ALEPPO, Syria — The Syrian Response Coordination Group (RCG), a humanitarian nongovernmental organization assisting the displaced in northwestern Syria, issued May 4 a statement reporting the return of about 234,600 internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their towns and villages in the countrysides of Aleppo and Idlib, which are far from the contact lines with regime forces. This number was recorded between the start of the implementation of the cease-fire on March 6 and May 4.

Mohammed al-Hallaj, director of the RCG, told Al-Monitor that his group “documented 273 violations from the Syrian regime forces since the cease-fire was implemented more than a month ago. [Regime forces] have used artillery and missile shells as well as drones.”

Hallaj called on “the international parties concerned with Syria to enforce the cease-fire in the country’s northwest and end the ongoing violations to facilitate the return of thousands of displaced.”

Dozens of displaced Syrians demonstrated April 23 in front of the Ghazawiya crossing near the city of Darat Izza, in northern Aleppo. The crossing connects the Turkey-backed armed opposition areas in the northern Aleppo countryside to areas in Idlib, in northwest Syria, controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations Security Council in 2018. International sanctions were imposed on the organization.