ISTANBUL: Turkey recorded 14,941 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Friday, the highest daily rise this year, less than two weeks after President Tayyip Erdogan announced an easing of curbs.
The daily tally has roughly doubled from a month ago, a rise authorities have blamed on new variants of the coronavirus.
Erdogan announced a partial opening of schools, cafes and restaurants last week. Turkey also eased weekend lockdowns, after the number of new cases fell below 10,000 daily.
Friday’s data showed 66 people died due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 29,356.
The total number of cases rose to 2,850,930 as of Friday, the data showed.
Turkey, with a population of 83 million, has administered about 10.87 million vaccine doses in a campaign that began in mid-January.
More than 7.88 million people have received a first shot and nearly 2.99 million a second dose of the vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech.
Turkey aims to vaccinate 50 million people by the Autumn.
Turkey logs highest daily rise in COVID-19 cases this year
https://arab.news/2e394
Turkey logs highest daily rise in COVID-19 cases this year
- Erdogan announced a partial opening of schools, cafes and restaurants last week
- Turkey also eased weekend lockdowns, after the number of new cases fell below 10,000 daily
Samaritans mark Passover in West Bank, hoping for ‘peace’
- “The Samaritans’ Passover is the festival of freedom, the festival of independence, of the forgiveness of our Lord for the children of Israel,” Khader Adel Najer Cohen, a priest and director of the Samaritan Studies Center, told AFP
GERIZIM, Palestinian Territories: Wearing white overalls and red fez hats, dozens of Samaritan men slaughtered sheep for Passover Friday as prayers in ancient Hebrew echoed across Mount Gerizim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
A group of priests in colorful robes recited the sacred verses as younger men in white caps herded the sheep.
“What’s happening here is something that we’ve been doing for 3,600 years,” 30-year-old Abood Cohen told AFP.
Dressed in butcher’s whites, the young Samaritan wore a smudge of sheep’s blood on his forehead as he explained the traditions of his small religious community that developed alongside Judaism.
According to their tradition, Samaritans are descended from Israelites and view Jews as close, yet distinct, relatives.
Many Christians recognize the name through the parable of the Good Samaritan.
“Every family has to bring one sheep,” Cohen said. The animal is then slaughtered and cooked on Mount Gerizim near the West Bank city of Nablus.
“Why do we do it here in Gerizim? Because the holiest place on earth is Mount Gerizim for the Samaritans,” he said.
The community believes this is the place where Abraham almost sacrificed his son for God.
Like Jews, Samaritans celebrate the Israelites’ freedom from slavery in Egypt at Passover.
“The Samaritans’ Passover is the festival of freedom, the festival of independence, of the forgiveness of our Lord for the children of Israel,” Khader Adel Najer Cohen, a priest and director of the Samaritan Studies Center, told AFP.
But the ritual slaughter, as well as the fact that the community’s holiest site is Gerizim, not the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, are two elements that set Samaritans apart from Jews.
Passover is also the time for two Samaritan communities to come together, Abood Cohen said.
Out of 880 Samaritans, half live in Gerizim and speak mostly Arabic, while the other half have lived in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon since the early 20th century, and speak mostly Hebrew.
“They get involved in the Israeli culture more, so they might speak Hebrew more than us,” said Abood Cohen, who works as a tour guide.
Yefet Tsedaka, a Samaritan priest from Holon and editor of a Samaritan community magazine, highlighted the communities’ shared heritage.
“We in Holon are just a branch of the Gerizim, because the high priest is here,” he said.
Sitting next to him, Hosni Wasef Cohen, priest and director of the Samaritan museum, concurred.
“As Samaritans, we all come together here to make the sacrifice. There is no difference between Samaritans here and in Holon.”
Gerizim’s Samaritans have historically strong ties with Palestinians, and some hold political office in nearby Nablus.
But since the war in Gaza and heightened tensions in the West Bank have led to movement restrictions for Palestinians, crowds were smaller this year.
“It’s very different (this year). If there were no war, there would be many guests coming from Nablus — our friends, and our friends from the government would come to Nablus and the Israelis too, and they would all gather here,” said Jameel Samri, a Samaritan priest.
“We hope there will be peace and that everyone can come and see” next year, he added.
Hod, a Holon Samaritan who did not wish to share his last name for privacy reasons, told AFP that “because of the situation we need to reduce the amount of the Arabs that come here.”
A worker in the high-tech sector, Hod added that “we want to be good with the Israel side, because we are Israelis.”
But priest Khader Cohen lamented the distance that the war and the movement restrictions had brought to the communities.
“We used to love that the Palestinians and Israelis would participate with us and celebrate together, because we are a bridge of love and peace between peoples,” he told AFP.
Israel’s army says it will fire air force reservists who condemned the war
- Soldiers are required to steer clear of politics, and they rarely speak out against the army
- Israel has imposed a blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle
TEL AVIV, Israel: Israel’s military said Friday it will fire air force reservists who signed an open letter that condemns the war in Gaza for mainly serving political interests while failing to bring home the hostages.
In a statement to The Associated Press, an army official said there was no room for any individual, including reservists on active duty, “to exploit their military status while simultaneously participating in the fighting,” calling the letter a breach of trust between commanders and subordinates.
The army said it had decided that any active reservist who signed the letter will not be able to continue serving. It did not specify how many people that included or if the firings had begun.
Nearly 1,000 Israeli Air Force reservists and retirees signed the letter, published in Israeli media Thursday, demanding the immediate return of the hostages, even at the cost of ending the fighting.
The letter comes as Israel has ramped up its offensive in Gaza, trying to increase pressure on Hamas to return the 59 hostages still being held. More than half are presumed dead. Israel has imposed a blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle. It has pledged to seize large parts of the Palestinian territory and establish a new security corridor through it.
While those who signed the letter did not refuse military service, they are the latest in a growing number of Israeli soldiers speaking out against the prolonged conflict, some saying they saw or did things that crossed ethical lines.
“It’s completely illogical and irresponsible on behalf of the Israeli policy makers … risking the lives of the hostages, risking the lives of more soldiers and risking lives of many, many more innocent Palestinians, while it had a very clear alternative,” Guy Poran, a retired Israeli Air Force pilot who spearheaded the letter told The AP.
He said he’s not aware of anyone who signed the letter being fired, and since it was published, it has gained dozens more signatures.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplayed the letter on Friday, saying it was written by a “small handful of weeds, operated by foreign-funded (non-governmental organizations) whose sole goal is to overthrow the right-wing government.” He said anyone who encourages refusal will be immediately dismissed.
Soldiers are required to steer clear of politics, and they rarely speak out against the army. After Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel quickly united behind the war launched against the militant group. Divisions here have grown as the war progresses, but most criticism has focused on the mounting number of soldiers killed and the failure to bring home hostages, not actions in Gaza.
Advocates for hostage return keep up the pressure
Freed hostages and their families are doing what they can to keep attention on their plight and urge the government to get everyone out.
Agam Berger, a military spotter who was taken hostage and freed in January, plans to join an upcoming March of the Living Ceremony at the sites of former Nazi concentration camps in Poland. Berger, playing a 130-year-old violin that survived the Holocaust, will be accompanied by Daniel Weiss, a resident of Kibbutz Be’eri whose parents were killed by Hamas.
But the war ignited by that attack shows no signs of slowing.
Since Israel ended an eight-week ceasefire last month, it said it will push farther into Gaza until Hamas releases the hostages. More than 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire collapsed, according to the United Nations.
The Israeli military on Friday issued an urgent warning to residents in several neighborhoods in northern Gaza, calling on them to evacuate immediately. At least 26 people have been killed and more than 100 others wounded in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Palestinians lined up at a charity kitchen Friday in central Gaza said shortages of food, fuel and other essentials are worsening.
“There is no flour or gas or wood. Everything is expensive and there is no money,” said Reem Oweis, a displaced woman from Al-Mughraqa in south Gaza, waiting in line for a serving of rice, the only food available.
“I completely rely on charity kitchens. If those charity kitchens close, my children and I will die,” said another displaced woman, Nema Faragallah.
Brazil pushes for the release of body of teen who died in Israeli custody
Also this week, Brazil’s Embassy in the West Bank said it had requested the immediate release of the body of a 17-year-old Palestinian prisoner who died in Israeli custody.
A representative from Brazil’s office in Ramallah, told the AP it was helping the family speed up the process to bring Walid Ahmad’s body home. Ahmad had a Brazilian passport.
According to an Israeli doctor who observed the autopsy, starvation was likely the primary cause of his death.
Ahmad had been held for six months without being charged. He was extremely malnourished and also showed signs of inflammation of the colon and scabies, said a report written by Dr. Daniel Solomon, who watched the autopsy conducted by Israeli experts at the request of the boy’s family.
Israel’s prison service said it operates according to the law and all prisoners are given basic rights.
Family of Palestinian-American teen killed by Israeli troops seeks justice, US govt response
- Amer Rabee, 14, was shot dead on April 6 while picking almonds near his West Bank home
- Not ‘a single word of remorse or concern’ from American government, uncle tells Arab News
CHICAGO: The family of Palestinian-American Amer Rabee, 14, who was killed on April 6 by Israeli soldiers while picking almonds near his home in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayyah, is seeking justice and a response from the US government, his uncle Rami Jbara said.
The family has not heard “a single word of remorse or concern” from the US government, Jbara, who lives in the state of New Jersey, told Arab News.
He said Rabee was shot dead while with two other Palestinian-American boys, Ayoub Assad and Abdul Rahman Shehadeh.
“The US will move its army for any American citizen in the whole world except in Israel,” he added. “These kids … were unarmed. They had no weapons on them. They’re 13 and 14 years old.”
Jbara said his nephew was shot “all over — his head, his shoulders, his stomach, his legs,” adding that Rabee was in the West Bank studying at the local high school, living with his parents who had moved back there from New Jersey.
Jbara said Rabee’s father protested to the US Embassy in Jerusalem, adding that this was not the first incident with soldiers or settlers from the settlement of Shiloh just north of Turmus Ayyah.
Settlers have been harassing the town’s residents for years, but the harassment has increased in the past year with “no response” from Israel’s government, police or military, he added.
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, representing New Jersey, said Rabee’s death “is another devastating reminder of the horrific human cost of ongoing conflict and tensions in the region.
“There must be a full and transparent accounting of the circumstances around his death and the actions of Israeli security forces.”
Booker added: “I call on the Trump administration to reinstate sanctions on perpetrators of such violence, which directly threatens the objectives of protecting innocent Israeli and Palestinian civilians and preventing the war in Gaza and tensions in the West Bank from escalating into a wider regional conflict.”
Palestinians at the Palestinian American Community Center in the city of Clifton, New Jersey, told Arab News that they are meeting to determine how to raise the issue of Rabee’s killing with the US government and to raise awareness of Israeli violence.
Kurdish fighters leave northern city in Syria as part of deal with central government
The deal is a boost to an agreement reached last month
ALEPPO, Syria: Scores of US-backed Kurdish fighters left two neighborhoods in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo Friday as part of a deal with the central government in Damascus, which is expanding its authority in the country.
The fighters left the predominantly Kurdish northern neighborhoods of Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh, which had been under the control of Kurdish fighters in Aleppo over the past decade.
The deal is a boost to an agreement reached last month between Syria’s interim government and the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast. The deal could eventually lead to the merger of the main US-backed force in Syria into the Syrian army.
The withdrawal of fighters from the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces came a day after dozens of prisoners from both sides were freed in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.
Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported that government forces were deployed along the road that SDF fighters will use to move between Aleppo and areas east of the Euphrates River, where the Kurdish-led force controls nearly a quarter of Syria.
Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh had been under SDF control since 2015 and remained so even when forces of ousted President Bashar Assad captured Aleppo in late 2016. The two neighborhoods remained under SDF control when forces loyal to current interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa captured the city in November, and days later captured the capital, Damascus, removing Assad from power.
After being marginalized for decades under the rule of the Assad family rule, the deal signed last month promises Syria’s Kurds “constitutional rights,” including using and teaching their language, which were banned for decades.
Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, who were displaced during Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war, will return to their homes. Thousands of Kurds living in Syria who have been deprived of nationality for decades under Assad will be given the right of citizenship, according to the agreement.
Kurds made up 10 percent of the country’s prewar population of 23 million. Kurdish leaders say they don’t want full autonomy with their own government and parliament. They want decentralization and room to run their day-to day-affairs.
Gaza ‘hell on earth’ as hospital supplies running out, warns head of Red Cross
- Mirjana Spoljaric says field hospital will run out of supplies within two weeks
- No new humanitarian supplies have entered Gaza since Israel blocked entry on March 2
GENEVA: The president of the Red Cross described the humanitarian situation in Gaza on Friday as “hell on earth” and warned that its field hospital will run out of supplies within two weeks.
“We are now finding ourselves in a situation that I have to describe as hell on earth ... People don’t have access to water, electricity, food, in many parts,” Mirjana Spoljaric said at the International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters in Geneva.
No new humanitarian supplies have entered the Palestinian enclave since Israel blocked the entry of aid trucks on March 2, as talks stalled on the next stage of a now broken truce. Israel resumed its military assault on March 18.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said 25,000 aid trucks had entered Gaza in the 42 days of the ceasefire and that Hamas had used the aid to rebuild its war machine, an allegation that the group has denied. Spoljaric said supplies were running critically low.
“For six weeks, nothing has come in, so we will, in a couple of weeks, run out of supplies that we need to keep the hospital going,” she said.
The World Health Organization said supplies of antibiotics and blood bags were dwindling fast. Twenty-two out of 36 hospitals in the enclave are only minimally functional, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva via video link in Jerusalem.
It is extremely dangerous for the population to move, but it’s especially also dangerous for us to operate.
Mirjana Spoljaric, ICRC president
The Red Cross president also raised concerns about the safety of humanitarian operations.
“It is extremely dangerous for the population to move, but it’s especially also dangerous for us to operate,” Spoljaric said.
In March, the bodies of 15 emergency and aid workers, including eight members of the Palestinian Red Crescent, were found buried in a mass grave in southern Gaza.
The UN and Red Crescent accused Israeli forces of killing them.
The Israeli military said on Monday that an initial investigation showed that the incident occurred “due to a sense of threat” after it said it had identified six Hamas militants in the vicinity.
Spoljaric called for an immediate ceasefire to release the remaining hostages held by Hamas and to address the grave humanitarian issues in Gaza.
Israel began its military campaign in Gaza in October 2023.
Since then, more than 50,800 Palestinians have been killed and much of the territory has been reduced to rubble.
