EL AARJATE: A mutt with a blue tag clipped to her ear whimpers as she’s lifted from a cage and carried to a surgery table for a spay and a rabies vaccine, two critical steps before she’s released back onto the streets of Morocco’s capital.
The “Beldi,” as Moroccan street dogs are called, is among the hundreds taken from Rabat to a dog pound in a nearby forest. As part of an expanded “Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Return” program, dogs like her are examined, treated and ultimately released with tags that make clear they pose no danger.
“We have a problem: That’s stray dogs. So we have to solve it, but in a way that respects animals,” said Mohamed Roudani, the director of the Public Health and Green Spaces Department in Morocco’s Interior Ministry.
Trying to balance safety and animal well-being
Morocco adopted “Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Return,” or TVNR, in 2019. One facility has opened in Rabat and more are set to be launched in at least 14 other cities, aligning Morocco with recommendations from the World Organization for Animal Health. The government has spent roughly $23 million over the past five years on animal control centers and programs.
Roudani said Morocco’s updated approach balanced public safety, health and animal well-being. Local officials, he added, were eager to expand TVNR centers throughout the country.
Though population estimates are challenging, based on samples of marked and tagged stray dogs, Moroccan officials believe they number between 1.2 to 1.5 million. Some neighborhoods welcome and care for them collectively. However, others decry their presence as a scourge and note that more than 100,000 Moroccans have needed rabies vaccinations after attacks.
A draft law is in the works that would require owners to vaccinate pets and impose penalties for animal abuse.
Inside the center
On a visit organized for journalists to a TNVR center in El Aarjate, enclosures for dogs appear spacious and orderly, with clean floors and the scent of disinfectant. Food and water bowls are refreshed regularly by staff who move between spaces, offering gentle words and careful handling. Some staff members say they grow so attached to the dogs that they miss them when they’re released to make space to treat incoming strays.
Veterinarians and doctors working for the Association for the Protection of Animals and Nature care for between 400 and 500 stray dogs from Rabat and surrounding cities. Dogs that veterinarians deem unhealthy or aggressive are euthanized using sodium pentobarbital, while the rest are released, unable to spread disease or reproduce.
Youssef Lhor, a doctor and veterinarian, said that aggressive methods to cull dogs didn’t effectively make communities safer from rabies or aggression. He said it made more sense to to try to have people coexist with dogs safely, noting that more than 200 had been released after treatment from the Rabat-area center.
“Slaughtering dogs leads to nothing. This TNVR strategy is not a miracle solution, but it is an element that will add to everything else we’re doing,” he said, referring to “Treat, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return.”
It’s designed to gradually reduce the stray dog population while minimizing the need for euthanasia.
It’s a program that Morocco is eager to showcase after animal rights groups accused it of ramping up efforts to cull street dogs after being named co-host of the 2030 FIFA World Cup last year.
Animal rights groups protest
Animal rights groups routinely use large sporting events to draw attention to their cause and similarly targeted Russia in the lead-up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup there.
Citing unnamed sources and videos it said were shot in Morocco, the International Animal Welfare and Protection Coalition claimed in January that Morocco was exterminating 3 million dogs, particularly around cities where stadiums are being built. The allegations, reported widely by international media lacking a presence in Morocco, triggered anti-FIFA protests as far away as Ahmedabad, India.
“These dogs are being shot in the street, often in front of children, or dragged away with wire nooses to die slow, agonizing deaths,” Ian Ward, the coalition’s chairman, said in a statement.
Moroccan officials vehemently deny the claims, say they’re implementing the very programs that activists propose, including TNVR. They rebuff the idea that any policy is related to the World Cup. Still, critics see their efforts as publicity stunts and are skeptical such programs are as widespread as officials claim.
Instances of mistreatment and euthanasia by gunshot have been reported in local media but Moroccan officials say, despite international attention, they’re isolated incidents and don’t reflect on-the-ground reality nationwide.
Morocco unveils policies it hopes bolster the care and management of stray dogs
https://arab.news/2mzw8
Morocco unveils policies it hopes bolster the care and management of stray dogs

Starvation among kids in Gaza reaches record levels, humanitarian chiefs tell UN Security Council

- More than 5,800 children diagnosed with acute malnutrition last month, triple the number compared with February
- UNICEF chief Catherine Russell says children are being killed and maimed as they queue for food and medicine
NEW YORK: Children in Gaza are suffering from the worst starvation rates since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023, aid officials told the UN Security Council on Wednesday, in a devastating assessment of the conditions young Palestinians in the territory face as they try to survive.
“Starvation rates among children hit their highest levels in June, with over 5,800 girls and boys diagnosed as acutely malnourished,” said the UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher.
Israel imposed an 11-week blockade on humanitarian aid earlier this year, and has only allowed a trickle of relief supplies to enter the territory since the end of May. The effects on the health of children have been catastrophic, according to the details presented to members of the Security Council. Levels of acute malnutrition have nearly tripled since February, just before the total blockade on aid was imposed.
“Children in Gaza are enduring catastrophic living conditions, including severe food insecurity and malnutrition,” UNICEF’s executive director, Catherine Russell, told the council.
“These severely malnourished children need consistent, supervised treatment, along with safe water and medical care, to survive.”
Yet youngsters in the territory are being killed and maimed as they queue for lifesaving food and medicine, she added. Last week, nine children were among 15 Palestinians killed by an Israeli strike in Deir Al-Balah while they waited in line for nutritional supplies from UNICEF.
“Among the survivors was Donia, a mother seeking a lifeline for her family after months of desperation and hunger,” Russell said.
“Donia’s 1-year-old son, Mohammed, was killed in the attack after speaking his first words just hours earlier. When we spoke with Donia, she was lying critically injured in a hospital bed, clutching Mohammed’s tiny shoe.”
Russell painted a bleak picture of desperation for the 1 million Palestinian children in the territory, where more than 58,000 people have been killed during the 21 months of war.
Among the dead are 17,000 children — an average of 28 each day, the equivalent of “a whole classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years,” Russell said.
Youngsters also struggle to find clean water supplies, she added, and are therefore forced to drink contaminated water, increasing the risk of disease outbreaks; waterborne diseases now represent 44 per cent of all healthcare consultations.
“Thousands of children urgently need emergency medical support,” Russell said, and many of those suffering from traumatic injuries or severe preexisting medical conditions are at risk of death because medical care is unavailable.
She repeated calls from other UN officials for Israel to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza “at sufficient speed and scale to meet the urgent needs of children and families.”
A new aid-distribution system, introduced and run by Israel and the US, has sidelined traditional UN delivery mechanisms and restricted the flow of humanitarian supplies to a fraction of what was previously available.
Since the new system, run by the newly formed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating, hundreds of people, including children, have been shot dead as they gathered to collect aid.
Russell urged the Security Council to push for a return to UN aid-delivery systems so that essentials such as medicine, vaccines, water, food, and nutrition for babies can reach those in need.
Fletcher, the humanitarian chief, told the council that the shattered healthcare system in Gaza meant that in some hospitals, five babies share a single incubator and pregnant women give birth without any medical care.

He said the International Court of Justice has demanded that Israel “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance,” and added: “Intentionally using the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare would, of course, be a war crime.”
During the meeting, Israel faced strong criticism from permanent Security Council members France and the UK.
The British ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, described the shooting of Palestinians as they attempted to reach food-distribution sites as “abhorrent.”
She called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and said the UK “strongly opposes” the expansion of Israeli military operations.
French envoy Jerome Bonnafont said Israel must end its blockade of humanitarian aid, and denounced the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation system as “unacceptable and incompatible” with the requirements of international law.
He said an international conference due to take place on July 28 and 29 at the UN headquarters in New York, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, would offer a “pathway toward the future” and identify tangible ways in which a two-state solution might be reached to end the wider conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
Dorothy Shea, the ambassador to the UN from Israel’s main international ally, the US, said the blame for the situation in Gaza lay with Hamas, which continues to hold hostages taken during the attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the conflict in Gaza.
Unrecognized Bedouin villages in Israel build own bomb shelters

- Amid threat of Iranian missiles, Bedouin families resorted to building shelters out of available material
- The feeling of not having anywhere to go or hide is almost as terrifying as the missiles themselves
BEERSHEBA, Israel: When the sirens wail in the southern Israeli desert to herald an incoming missile, Ahmad Abu Ganima’s family scrambles outside. Down some dirt-hewn steps, one by one, they squeeze through the window of a minibus buried under 10 feet of dirt.
Abu Ganima, a mechanic, got the cast-off bus from his employer after it was stripped for parts. He buried it in his yard to create an ad-hoc bomb shelter for his family. Abu Ganima is part of Israel’s 300,000-strong Bedouin community, a previously nomadic tribe that lives scattered across the arid Negev Desert.
More than two thirds of the Bedouin have no access to shelters, says Huda Abu Obaid, executive director of Negev Coexistence Forum, which lobbies for Bedouin issues in southern Israel. As the threat of missiles became more dire during the 12-day war with Iran last month, many Bedouin families resorted to building DIY shelters out of available material: buried steel containers, buried trucks, repurposed construction debris.
“When there’s a missile, you can see it coming from Gaza, Iran or Yemen,” says Amira Abu Queider, 55, a lawyer for the Shariah, or Islamic court system, pointing to the wide-open sky over Al-Zarnug, a village of squat, haphazardly built cement structures. “We’re not guilty, but we’re the ones getting hurt.”
Al-Zarnug is not recognized by the Israeli government and does not receive services such as trash collection, electricity or water. Nearly all power comes from solar panels on rooftops, and the community cannot receive construction permits. Residents receive frequent demolition orders.
Around 90,000 Bedouins live in 35 unrecognized villages in southern Israel. Even those Bedouin who live in areas “recognized” by Israel have scant access to shelter. Rahat, the largest Bedouin city in southern Israel, has eight public shelters for 79,000 residents, while nearby Ofakim, a Jewish town, has 150 public shelters for 41,000 residents, Abu Obaid says.
Sometimes, more than 50 people try to squeeze into the 3 square meters of a mobile bomb shelter or buried truck. Others crowded into cement culverts beneath train tracks, meant to channel storm runoff, hanging sheets to try to provide privacy. Shelters are so far away that sometimes families were forced to leave behind the elderly and people with mobility issues, residents say.
Engineering standards for bomb shelters and protected rooms are exhaustive and specific, laying out thickness of walls and types of shockwave-proof windows that must be used. The Bedouins making their own shelters know that they don’t offer much or any protection from a direct hit, but many people say it makes them feel good to go somewhere. Inside the minibus, Abu Ganeima says, the sound of the sirens are deadened, which is comforting to his children.
“Our bomb shelters are not safe,” says Najah Abo Smhan, a medical translator and single mother from Al-Zarnug. Her 9-year-old daughter, terrified, insisted they run to a neighbor’s, where they had repurposed a massive, cast-off truck scale as the roof of a dug-out underground shelter, even though they knew it wouldn’t be enough to protect them from a direct hit. “We’re just doing a lot of praying.”
When sirens blared to warn of incoming missiles, “scene filled with fear and panic” unfolded, says Miada Abukweder, 36, a leader from the village of Al-Zarnug, which is not recognized by Israel. “Children screamed, and mothers feared more for their children than for themselves. They were thinking about their children while they were screaming, feeling stomach pain, scared, and crying out, ‘We are going to die, where will we go?’” says Abukweder, part of a large clan of families in the area.
The feeling of not having anywhere to go or hide, many say, is almost as terrifying as the missiles themselves.
Immediately after the Oct. 7 attack, Israeli security services placed around 300 mobile bomb shelters in Bedouin areas, Abu Obaid says. Civil service organizations also donated a handful of mobile shelters. But these mobile bomb shelters are not built to withstand Iran’s ballistic missiles, and are grossly inadequate to meet widespread need. Abu Obaid estimates thousands of mobile shelters are needed across the far-flung Bedouin communities
UN expert on Palestinians says US sanctions are a ‘violation’ of immunity

BOGOTA: The UN’s unflinching expert on Palestinian affairs Francesca Albanese said Tuesday that Washington’s sanctions following her criticism of the White House’s stance on Gaza are a “violation” of her immunity.
The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories made the comments while visiting Bogota, nearly a week after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions, calling her work “biased and malicious.”
“It’s a very serious measure. It’s unprecedented. And I take it very seriously,” Albanese told an audience in the Colombian capital.
Albanese was in Bogota to attend an international summit initiated by leftist President Gustavo Petro to find solutions to the Gaza conflict.
The Italian legal scholar and human rights expert has faced harsh criticism for her long-standing accusations that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza.
“It’s clear violation of the UN Convention on Privileges and Immunities that protect UN officials, including independent experts, from words and actions taken in the exercise of their functions,” Albanese said.
Rubio on July 9 announced that Washington was sanctioning Albanese “for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt (ICC) action against US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.”
The sanctions are “a warning to anyone who dares to defend international law and human rights, justice and freedom,” Albanese said.
On Thursday, the UN urged the US to reverse the sanctions against Albanese, along with sanctions against judges of the International Criminal Court, with UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman calling the move “a dangerous precedent.”
On Friday, the European Union also spoke out against the sanctions facing Albanese, adding that it “strongly supports the United Nations human rights system.”
Albanese, who assumed her mandate in 2022, released a damning report this month denouncing companies — many of them American — that she said “profited from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid, and now genocide” in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The report provoked a furious Israeli response, while some of the companies also raised objections.
Washington last month slapped sanctions on four ICC judges, in part over the court’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, barring them from the United States.
UN special rapporteurs like Albanese are independent experts who are appointed by the UN human rights council but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.
Presidents of UAE and Turkiye witness signing of agreements to strengthen ties

- They cover key areas including protection of classified information; founding of a joint consular committee; and investments in food, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, tourism and hospitality
- Ministers sign the documents during ceremony at Presidential Palace in Ankara, during state visit by Emirati leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan
LONDON: The president of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, witnessed on Wednesday the signing of several agreements and memorandums of understanding between their countries.
The aim of the deals, finalized during Sheikh Mohammed’s state visit to Turkiye, is to expand cooperation, and they reflect the shared commitment of both nations to the advancement of ties across various sectors, officials said.
The agreements covered a number of key areas, including: mutual protection of classified information; the establishment of a joint consular committee; investments in food and agriculture, the pharmaceutical industry, and tourism and hospitality; and cooperation in the industrial sector and polar research.
They were signed during a formal ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Ankara by Emirati and Turkish ministers responsible for the industrial, trade, investment and technology sectors.
US hopeful of quick ‘deescalation’ after Syria ‘misunderstanding’

- Rubio blamed “historic longtime rivalries” for the clashes in the majority-Druze city of Sweida
- State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said that the US was asking Syrian government forces to pull out of the flashpoint area
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Washington hoped within hours to ease tensions in Syria, as he voiced concern over violence that has included Israeli strikes on its war-torn neighbor.
“In the next few hours, we hope to see some real progress to end what you’ve been seeing over the last couple of hours,” Rubio told reporters in the Oval Office as President Donald Trump nodded.
Rubio blamed “historic longtime rivalries” for the clashes in the majority-Druze city of Sweida, which Israel has cited for its latest military intervention.
“It led to an unfortunate situation and a misunderstanding, it looks like, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side,” Rubio said of the situation which has included Israel bombing the Syrian army’s headquarters in Damascus.
“We’ve been engaged with them all morning long and all night long — with both sides — and we think we’re on our way toward a real deescalation and then hopefully get back on track and helping Syria build the country and arriving at a situation in the Middle East that is far more stable,” said Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security adviser.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said that the United States was asking Syrian government forces to pull out of the flashpoint area.
“We are calling on the Syrian government to, in fact, withdraw their military in order to enable all sides to de-escalate and find a path forward,” she told reporters, without specifying the exact area.
She declined comment on whether the United States wanted Israel to stop its strikes.
Rubio, asked by a reporter earlier in the day at the State Department what he thought of Israel’s bombing, said, “We’re very concerned about it. We want it to stop.”
“We are very worried about the violence in southern Syria. It is a direct threat to efforts to help build a peaceful and stable Syria,” Rubio said in a statement.
“We have been and remain in repeated and constant talks with the governments of Syria and Israel on this matter.”
Trump has been prioritizing diplomacy with Syria’s new leadership.