A man with an amputated leg walks on a street in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen, May 18, 2016. (Reuters)
Five children were killed by Houthis and pro-Saleh forces on Thursday, in an attack targeting a residential neighborhood in Yemen’s Taiz governorate.
The German Press Agency (DPA) quoted medical sources as saying that five children were killed and three injured in a shelling by pro-Saleh and Houthi militias.
The Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations denounced the heinous massacre, stressing in a statement that it is closely monitoring all violations committed by the militias, documenting them and unveiling them to public opinion in the Arab world and the West.
The coalition demanded that the international community, the UN and local and international organizations decry the crimes committed by the insurgents against Yemen’s children and halt the massacres taking place against unarmed civilians under the watchful eyes of everyone.
Such crimes are added to the huge violations committed by the insurgents amid the international community’s silence, knowing that these acts come in contravention of the international humanitarian law and international human rights law, the coalition said.
In Nihm, more than fifty people were killed and dozens injured while many fled to the capital after fierce clashes.
The Yemeni National Army’s progress coincided with intense military operations led by the coalition supporting legitimacy in Yemen.
Battlefield sources saw that the military operations in Nihm bring hope to the YNA and citizens in Sana’a.
Military sources affirmed the national army’s ongoing offensive on insurgent locations stretching over 30 kilometers.
Back in Taiz, YNA continued its operation in the west of the city, while maintaining its presence in the locations it seized in the past three days.
The insurgents on the other hand were desperate to regain control of the locations they had lost in the western front.
Hundreds of Syrian Refugees Head Home as Anti-refugee Sentiment Surges in Lebanonhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5017346-hundreds-syrian-refugees-head-home-anti-refugee-sentiment-surges-lebanon
Syrian refugees gather as they prepare to leave the Arsal area, before their journey to their homes in Syria, at Arsal in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, 14 May 2024. (EPA)
TT
TT
Hundreds of Syrian Refugees Head Home as Anti-refugee Sentiment Surges in Lebanon
Syrian refugees gather as they prepare to leave the Arsal area, before their journey to their homes in Syria, at Arsal in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, 14 May 2024. (EPA)
More than 300 Syrian refugees headed back home to Syria in a convoy on Tuesday, leaving two remote northeastern towns in crisis-stricken Lebanon where anti-refugee sentiment has been surging in recent months.
Lebanese officials have long urged the international community to either resettle the refugees in other countries or help them return to Syria. Over the past months, leading Lebanese political parties have become increasingly vocal, demanding that Syrian refugees go back.
A country of about 6 million people, Lebanon hosts nearly 780,000 registered Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands who are unregistered — the world’s highest refugee population per capita.
In the northeastern town of Arsal, Syrian refugees piled their belongings onto the back of trucks and cars on Tuesday as Lebanese security officers collected their UN refugee agency cards and other paperwork before clearing them to leave.
As the trucks pulled away, the refugees waved to friends and relatives staying behind, heading to an uncertain future in Syria.
Ahmad al-Rifai, on his way to the Qalamoun Mountains after over a decade in Lebanon, said that whatever the situation was in Syria, “it’s better to live in a house than in a tent.”
Lebanese security forces this year stepped up deportations of Syrians, although nowhere near the level threatened two years ago when the Lebanese government announced a plan to deport some 15,000 Syrians every month, to what they dubbed “safe areas,” in cooperation with the government in Damascus.
Tuesday's convoy from the mountainous towns of Arsal and al-Qaa consisted of only 330 refugees who had signed up for repatriation, the first such “voluntary return” return organized by Lebanese security forces since late 2022.
“Nobody can not be happy to return to their home,” Ahmad Durro told The Associated Press while waiting in his truck. “I signed up a year ago to be in the convoy.”
But many other Syrians — especially young men facing compulsory military service or political opponents of the government of President Bashar Assad — say it's unsafe to return.
Others see no future in Syria, where in many parts the fighting may have died down, but an economic crisis has pulled millions into poverty.
An increasing number of refugees in Lebanon have taken to the sea in an attempt to reach Europe.
The UNHCR has said it only supports voluntary returns of Syrians based on informed consent. Yet, major human rights organizations remain skeptical of the voluntary nature of these returns amid anti-refugee hostility in Lebanon.
“Syrian refugees are, targeted by both geo sources and host communities. They are subjected to violence, insults and other degrading treatment," Amnesty International’s deputy Middle East and North Africa Regional Director Aya Majzoub told the AP, also decrying curfews and other restrictions imposed on refugees by a handful of Lebanese municipalities.
"So our assessment is that in these conditions, it is very difficult for refugees to make free and informed decisions about returning to Syria.”
A Syrian refugee woman sits inside a car, as she prepares to go back home to Syria as a part of a voluntary return, in the eastern Lebanese border town of Arsal, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. (AP)
Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have documented cases of refugees detained and tortured by Syrian security agencies upon their return.
The UNHCR says nine out of 10 Syrian refugees in Lebanon live in extreme poverty and need humanitarian aid to survive. That aid has declined amid donor fatigue and as international attention shifted to other crises.
Many increasingly impoverished Lebanese have accused Syrian refugees of benefitting from the aid while beating Lebanese to jobs by accepting lower pay.
Lebanon’s ruling political parties and leadership claim that most Syrians living in the tiny Mediterranean country are economic migrants rather than refugees escaping the war at home, now in its 13th year. Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group, a top ally of Assad, has made such an allegation.
“They have dollars and they are sending those dollars to relatives in Syria,” Nasrallah said in a speech on Monday.
Lebanese security agents have in the past weeks raided shops and other businesses employing undocumented Syrian workers, and shut them down.
The European Union this month announced an aid package worth 1 billion euros — about $1.06 billion — of which about 200 million euros would go to security and border control, in an apparent bid to curb migration from Lebanon to Cyprus, Italy, and other parts of Europe.
While Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed the aid, other officials described it as a bribe for tiny Lebanon to keep the refugees.
Parliament is to discuss the EU package on Wednesday, with lawmakers from the entire political spectrum expected to ramp up anti-refugee sentiment and call for more refugee returns and crackdowns.
Palestinian Truckers Fear for Safety After Aid Convoy for Gaza Wreckedhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5016936-palestinian-truckers-fear-safety-after-aid-convoy-gaza-wrecked
Egyptian Red Crescent members and volunteers gather next to a truck carrying humanitarian aid as it drives through the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer
Palestinian Truckers Fear for Safety After Aid Convoy for Gaza Wrecked
Egyptian Red Crescent members and volunteers gather next to a truck carrying humanitarian aid as it drives through the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer
Palestinian hauliers said on Tuesday they feared for the security of aid convoys to Gaza, a day after Israeli protesters wrecked trucks carrying humanitarian supplies bound for the enclave, which is facing a severe hunger crisis.
Footage circulated on social media showed at least one burning truck while other images showed trucks wrecked and stripped of their loads, which lay strewn over the road near Tarqumiya checkpoint outside Hebron in the occupied West Bank.
"Yesterday there was coordination for 70 trucks of aid to go the Gaza Strip," said Waseem Al-Jabari, Head of the Hebron Food Trade Association.
"While the trucks were uploaded with products at the crossing settlers attacked the trucks and they destroyed the products and set fire in trucks," he said, saying Israeli soldiers had stood by as the attack took place.
Monday's incident was claimed by a group calling itself Order 9, which said it had acted to stop supplies reaching Hamas and accusing the Israeli government of giving "gifts" to the group.
No comment was available from the Israeli military. The Israeli police said the incident, in which a number of people were arrested, was being investigated, Reuters reported.
The violent protest drew condemnation from Washington, which has urged Israel to step up deliveries of aid into Gaza to alleviate a growing humanitarian crisis in the enclave, seven months since the start of the war.
Palestinians and human rights groups have long accused the Israeli military and police of deliberately failing to intervene when settlers attack Palestinians in the West Bank.
Adel Amer, a member of the West Bank-based hauliers' union, said around 15 trucks had been damaged by Israeli protestors who beat some drivers and caused about $2 million worth of damage.
"The drivers are now refusing to take goods to Gaza because they're afraid," he said. "It's a disaster here because of the settlers."
Even when the military was present, the convoys were still at risk, he said. "The army says we cannot do anything to the settlers."
UK's Cameron Says Attacks on Gaza Aid Convoys 'Appalling'https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5016831-uks-cameron-says-attacks-gaza-aid-convoys-appalling
UK's Cameron Says Attacks on Gaza Aid Convoys 'Appalling'
Palestinians walk through destruction in Gaza City on Friday, Nov. 24, 2023, as the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect. (AP)
British foreign minister David Cameron said on Tuesday attacks on aid convoys headed for Gaza were "appalling" and that Israel must hold those responsible to account.
"Attacks by extremists on aid convoys en route to Gaza are appalling. Gazans are at risk of famine and in desperate need of supplies," Cameron wrote on X.
"Israel must hold attackers to account and do more to allow aid in – I will be raising my concerns with the Israeli government."
KSrelief's Masam Project Helps Clear 935 Mines in Yemen in a Weekhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5016796-ksreliefs-masam-project-helps-clear-935-mines-yemen-week
KSrelief's Masam Project Helps Clear 935 Mines in Yemen in a Week
Photo by SPA
The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center's (KSrelief) Masam Project, dedicated to clearing mines in Yemen, dismantled 935 mines in various regions during the first week of May 2024. These included seven anti-personnel mines, 47 anti-tank mines, 876 unexploded ordnances, and five explosive devices.
Since the start of the project, a total of 440,067 mines have been cleared, SPA reported.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, through KSrelief, remains steadfast in its commitment to rid Yemeni lands of all mines. This menace has tragically resulted in the loss of lives and injuries to innocent children, women, and the elderly.
Nothing Wrong with Gaza Death Toll Figures, WHO Says https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5016426-nothing-wrong-gaza-death-toll-figures-who-says%C2%A0
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, May 14, 2024. (Reuters)
TT
TT
Nothing Wrong with Gaza Death Toll Figures, WHO Says
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, May 14, 2024. (Reuters)
The World Health Organization voiced full confidence in Gaza Ministry of Health death toll figures on Tuesday, saying they were actually getting closer to confirming the scale of losses after Israel questioned a change in the numbers.
Gaza's health ministry last week updated its breakdown of the total fatalities of around 35,000 since Oct. 7, saying that about 25,000 of those have so far been fully identified, of whom more than half were women and children.
This sparked allegations from Israel of inaccuracy since Palestinian authorities had previously estimated that more than 70% of those killed were women and children. UN agencies have republished the Palestinian figures, which have since risen above 35,000 dead, citing the source.
"Nothing wrong with the data, the overall data (more than 35,000) are still the same," said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier at a Geneva press briefing in response to questions about the toll. "The fact we now have 25,000 identified people is a step forward," he added.
Based on his own extrapolation of the latest Palestinian data, he said that around 60% of victims were women and children, but many bodies buried beneath rubble were likely to fall into these categories when they were eventually identified.
He added that it was "normal" for death tolls to shift in conflicts, recalling that Israel had revised down its own death toll from the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks to 1,200 after checks.
"We're basically talking about 35,000 people who are dead, and really every life matters, doesn't it?" Liz Throssel, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said at the same briefing.
"And we know that many and many of those are women and children and there are 1,000s missing under the rubble."
Egyptian Military Officials Cancel Meetings with Israeli Counterpartshttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5016416-egyptian-military-officials-cancel-meetings-israeli-counterparts
Egyptian Military Officials Cancel Meetings with Israeli Counterparts
Egyptian army soldiers at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza at the beginning of May (German News Agency)
Egyptian military officials canceled scheduled meetings with their Israeli counterparts, without previous notice, an Israeli source told the Israeli i24 channel on Tuesday.
This came in the wake of Israel's military escalation in eastern Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli sources said that the sudden cancellation indicates the deepening diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
Egypt had repeatedly warned Israel against attacking Rafah, saying it would affect Egyptian national security. But the Israeli army penetrated east of Rafah last week and took control of the Palestinian side of the crossing.
In response, Cairo declared its support for the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), on charges of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The cancellation of the military meetings angered the Israeli side, given the necessary cooperation between the two countries in the Sinai Peninsula.
Although no official in Egypt spoke explicitly about the possibility of suspending or canceling the peace agreement, Israel monitored threats from media figures and researchers close to the decision-making center in Cairo.
Ofir Winter, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said that Egypt’s announcement of its support to the petition submitted by South Africa against Israel before the ICJ in The Hague was an escalation in the tension that has recently been observed between the two countries since the start of the limited army incursion into Rafah.
He added that the Egyptian move aims to increase international pressure on Israel to prevent it from expanding the operation in Rafah, and to warn that the continuation of the operation will affect the relations between the two countries.
Winter noted that in recent days, he has heard threats from media professionals and researchers close to the regime in Cairo, to harm relations between the two countries to the point of suspending or canceling the peace agreement.
He stressed that Egypt will lose a lot if it withdraws from the peace agreement, adding that the threats - even if they are only rhetorical - may create a dangerous dynamic in a sensitive period.
UNRWA: More Than Half a Million People Flee Fighting in Rafah, Northern Gaza https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5016331-unrwa-more-half-million-people-flee-fighting-rafah-northern-gaza%C2%A0
Displaced Palestinians arrive in central Gaza after fleeing from the southern Gaza city of Rafah in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP)
TT
TT
UNRWA: More Than Half a Million People Flee Fighting in Rafah, Northern Gaza
Displaced Palestinians arrive in central Gaza after fleeing from the southern Gaza city of Rafah in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP)
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said nearly 450,000 people have fled from Gaza’s southern city of Rafah since Israel launched an incursion there last week.
In a post on the social platform X on Tuesday, UNRWA said: “People face constant exhaustion, hunger and fear. Nowhere is safe. An immediate #ceasefire is the only hope.”
The UN said Monday that another 100,000 people have been displaced in northern Gaza. Israel has ordered new evacuations in the north as it battles a resurgent Hamas in areas that were heavily bombed and cleared by ground troops earlier in the war.
That would mean that nearly a quarter of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced in just the last week, more than seven months into the Israel-Hamas war.
The fighting in Rafah has made the two main border crossings into southern Gaza largely inaccessible, while newly opened crossings in the north only allow in a trickle of aid.
Humanitarian organizations say they are struggling to provide dwindling supplies of food, tents and blankets to the large numbers of newly displaced.
Israel has portrayed Rafah as Hamas’ last stronghold in Gaza and has said it must operate there in order to defeat the group and return scores of hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war.
Before the incursion began last week, Rafah was housing some 1.3 million Palestinians, most of whom had fled fighting elsewhere.
Lebanon: Israeli Airstrike on Southern Town Causes 'Massive' Damageshttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5016321-lebanon-israeli-airstrike-southern-town-causes-massive-damages
A picture shows Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system launching to intercept rockets being fired from Lebanon, next to the northern Israel city of Kiryat Shmona, near the near the Lebanon border on May 10, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
Lebanon: Israeli Airstrike on Southern Town Causes 'Massive' Damages
A picture shows Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system launching to intercept rockets being fired from Lebanon, next to the northern Israel city of Kiryat Shmona, near the near the Lebanon border on May 10, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said on Tuesday that an Israeli airstrike on the southern town of Kfar Kila has caused “massive damages”.
NNA said that Israel hit the southern town of Kfar Kila with four heavy missiles that caused major damage.
Another two air raids targeted the town of Al Khyam at midnight, it added.
Israel on one hand, and Hezbollah and other armed Palestinian factions on the other have engaged in near-daily exchange of cross-border fire since the Israeli war erupted in Gaza on October 6.
On Monday, Hezbollah said it hit three Israeli outposts in north Israel using armed drones and missiles.
Israeli media outlets said four soldiers were injured in an attack near the border.
Talks Over Gaza Ceasefire at Stalemate After Rafah Operation, Qatar PM Says https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5016286-talks-over-gaza-ceasefire-stalemate-after-rafah-operation-qatar-pm-says%C2%A0
A Palestinian boy looks out his tent in a Rafah displacement camp in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
TT
TT
Talks Over Gaza Ceasefire at Stalemate After Rafah Operation, Qatar PM Says
A Palestinian boy looks out his tent in a Rafah displacement camp in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
Talks over a ceasefire in Gaza have reached a stalemate due to Israel's operations in Rafah, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said on Tuesday.
Israeli operations in Rafah, which started this month, have closed a main crossing point for aid from the border with Egypt a move humanitarian groups say has worsened an already dire situation.
"Especially in the past few weeks, we have seen some momentum building but unfortunately, things didn't move in the right direction and right now we are in a status of almost a stalemate. Of course, what happened with Rafah sent us backward," Sheikh Mohammed said at an economic forum in Doha.
Sheikh Mohammed, whose country has mediated heavily between Palestinian group Hamas and Israel throughout the seven-month conflict, said Qatar would keep working to resolve the situation.
"We make it very clear for everyone: our job is limited to our mediation," he said. "That's what we will do, that what we will continue to do."
Sheikh Mohammed said the fundamental difference between the two parties was over the release of hostages and ending the war.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, say health officials in the Hamas-ruled enclave. The war began when Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 252 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
"There is one party that wants to end the war and then talk about the hostages and there is another party who wants the hostages and wants to continue the war. As long as there is not any commonality between those two things it won't get us to a result," Sheikh Mohammed said.
Red Cross Sets Up Rafah Emergency Field Hospitalhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5016281-red-cross-sets-rafah-emergency-field-hospital
A logo of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is pictured in Geneva, Switzerland March 29, 2022. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
The International Red Cross and partners are opening a field hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday to try to meet what it described as "overwhelming" demand for health services since Israel's military operation on Rafah began last week.
Some health clinics have suspended activities while patients and medics have fled from a major hospital as Israel has stepped up bombardments in the southern sliver of Gaza where hundreds of thousands of uprooted people are crowded together, said Reuters.
"People in Gaza are struggling to access the medical care they urgently need due, in part, to the overwhelming demands for health services and the reduced number of functioning health facilities," the International Committee of the Red Cross said. "Doctors and nurses have been working around the clock, but their capacity has been stretched beyond its limit."
Staff at the new facility will be able to treat around 200 people a day and can provide emergency surgical care and manage mass casualties as well as provide pediatric and other services, the ICRC said.
"Medical staff are faced with people arriving with severe injuries, increasing communicable diseases which could lead to potential outbreaks, and complications related to chronic diseases untreated that should have been treated days earlier."
The ICRC will maintain medical supplies to the facility while the Red Cross societies from 11 countries including Canada, Germany, Norway and Japan are providing staff and equipment.
لم تشترك بعد
انشئ حساباً خاصاً بك لتحصل على أخبار مخصصة لك ولتتمتع بخاصية حفظ المقالات وتتلقى نشراتنا البريدية المتنوعة
