[46] In early October 2020, Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan began threatening to launch another offensive into the area calling it a "terrorist zone.

[48] Tensions increased when Turkish and allied forces intensified shelling on Ayn Issa and its surroundings in the northern Raqqa countryside on 23 November, thus violating the October 2019 agreements.

[54] On December 10, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that 7,000 people had fled their homes in Ayn Issa over the past month, fearing a Turkish military campaign.

[55] After a week of relative calm, SNA forces backed by Turkish artillery launched an attack on 18 December on the Jahbal and Mushayrifah villages in the eastern countryside of Ayn Issa.

[63] The villages witnessed clashes again on January 6, with the SDF managing to destroy a technical belonging to the SNA on the Mu'alaq frontline.

[64] Kurdish officials claimed that Turkey is accelerating its efforts to capture more ground in northern Syria during the current presidential transition period in the United States.

One official stated that Ankara knew that the upcoming US administration would have a different policy towards the region, and that this was the reason the SDF was being pressured so heavily around Ayn Issa.

In exchange, Damascus was seeking a plan to expel rebel forces and end the Turkish military presence in the Idlib Governorate.

[70][71] Russia withdrew from Ayn Issa and Al-Hasakah on 21 February seeking to exert pressure on the SDF after it refused to hand over nearby villages and food silos to regime forces.

[23] Turkish shelling on Hadriyat village east of Ayn Issa resulted in the death of one child, four other people were reportedly wounded.

[77] As the spring progressed, the situation calmed down, with the last skirmishes reported on 19 April when Turkish-backed forced shelled positions in Ayn Issa, injuring three people at a petrol station.