LIMASSOL: Hours before the masked men came, brandishing Cypriot flags and molotov cocktails, hushed whispers of the imminent rampage travelled down the Limassol seafront strip home to many migrant-owned businesses.
Egyptian restaurant owners rushed to bring their water pipes indoors, and a Vietnamese vendor quickly cleared their street displays of greens and sugar cane stalks.
But they couldn't hide the distinct cultural heritage each of them has proudly embraced as they have built their livelihoods on the Mediterranean island.
Egyptian restaurateur Mohammed el-Basaraty, 38, recalled, "I was standing with a neighbour and she told me to leave... 'because if they see you, a foreigner, they will beat you', she said".
He stowed away at the back of the restaurant as the men smashed the windows of the business he had built with his life savings.
"We began to hear the sound of glass breaking... After that I smelled the smell of smoke and fire."
The attack early this month came amid a surge in violence against migrants in Cyprus, which last year recorded the European Union's highest proportion of first-time asylum seekers relative to population.
Experts blame the increased mainstreaming of xenophobia in Cypriot politics and media, fuelled by the spread of disinformation and the mismanagement of the large number of people trying to reach Europe.
Just days earlier, locals near the western city of Paphos had launched a similar attack on migrants after years of friction with the hundreds of mostly Syrians living in a condemned apartment complex.
Men with crowbars and sticks could be seen in videos shared on social media, shouting "out, out" as they marched through the streets. Twenty-one people were arrested, including 12 Syrians.
Police had earlier raided the building to clear it of its residents after allegations of electricity theft spread on social media.
Despite that precedent, as well as a heavy police presence ahead of the Limassol protest, residents say little was done to intervene.
"They were more than 600 people," said Adel Hassan, 76, a local resident. "How many did the police arrest? Just 13?"
Police did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment, but police chief Stelios Papatheodorou acknowledged before parliament that the response was "slow".
Some observers have voiced suspicions that hidden under the black balaclavas were members of the extreme right-wing party Elam, a group initially formed out of Greece's now-outlawed neo-Nazi Golden Dawn.
Elam did not respond to AFP's request for comment, but the group has repeatedly denied involvement in the violence.
Their staunch anti-immigration stance has helped them gain followers, with leader Christos Christou winning six percent of the vote in February's presidential election.
But Giorgos Charalambous, a professor focused on European party politics and mobilisation at the University of Nicosia, said the violence could also be attributed to smaller far-right groups that accuse Elam of becoming too soft on immigration since achieving mainstream success.
Charalambous says overall "hate speech" has become normalised across the political spectrum, creating an atmosphere conducive to the attacks that he described as "pogroms".
"Individuals and politicians that spread fake news and racist rhetoric about immigration also come from more mainstream centre-right parties," he told AFP.
Cyprus has been at the frontlines of large-scale migrant arrivals in recent years, which have seen the government take harsher steps, including increased pushbacks, according to the Cyprus Refugee Council.
The UN refugee agency last month expressed concern after more than 100 Syrians were deported to Lebanon without adequate screening of their asylum applications.
Such steps, buffeted by the crackdown near Paphos, may have emboldened far-right activists to turn their long-standing grievances into action, observers said.
The violence has "never escalated to this, although I can't say that we haven't seen it coming," said Corina Drousitiou of the Cyprus Refugee Council.
She largely blamed the growing anti-migrant sentiment on inadequate measures by the authorities, particularly the previous government, also pointing to "the language used in official statements... which was quite evidently xenophobic".
Responding to a request for comment, the interior ministry spokesperson in the current government, which was formed in March, blamed the unrest on "accumulated problems that were exploited by anonymous accounts on social media platforms".
"In no case did the official side express any racist rhetoric," Elena Fysentzou told AFP.
For many foreigners on the island, the damage is already done.
"Things have changed. There isn't the sense of safety that we used to feel," Sayed Samir, the owner of Mr Habibi, one of the ransacked restaurants, told AFP.
It took Chu Thi Dao years of hard work to scrape together enough money to open her convenience store overlooking the Limassol waterfront.
"She wanted a better life for her children," her 17-year-old daughter, Flora, told AFP.
A video of the 35-year-old Vietnamese woman crying at her shop after the attack quickly went viral across the island, drawing solidarity and support from the community and government.
Like the Vietnamese shop, the majority of the businesses that were attacked are owned by people who had fled either unrest or dire economic conditions to settle in Cyprus years ago.
Towards the end of the conversation, Flora's eyes start to glaze over with tears. "I want to stay here and live with my mom and family," the teenager said, struggling with the notion that this dream may now be shattered.
Cyprus migrants face wave of attacks as hostility brews
https://arab.news/2wjrw
Cyprus migrants face wave of attacks as hostility brews

- Egyptian restaurant owners rushed to bring their water pipes indoors
- A Vietnamese vendor quickly cleared their street displays of greens and sugar cane stalks
One person killed, 4 injured in Israeli airstrike on car in Beirut

- Israeli military spokesperson says the army ‘targeted a terrorist in Lebanon who was involved in arms smuggling and advancing terrorist plots against Israeli citizens and army forces’
- Israeli army forces enter Kfar Kila, the closest Lebanese town to Israel, on Thursday morning and blow up a civilian home
BEIRUT: An Israeli drone attack hit a car on Khaldeh Road in southern Beirut at about 5 p.m. on Thursday. Initial reports suggested one person was killed and at least four injured.
The drone fired two guided missiles at the vehicle, scoring direct hits. The road on which it was traveling was described as a typically busy road.
The Israeli army confirmed the attack. In a message posted on social media platform X, military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said: “The Israeli army targeted a terrorist in Lebanon who was involved in arms smuggling and advancing terrorist plots against Israeli citizens and army forces on behalf of the Iranian Quds Force.”
The attack took place three days before US envoy Thomas Barrack is due visit to Beirut to receive Lebanon’s response to US disarmament proposals designed to restrict control of weapons in the country to the Lebanese state, and a day after Hezbollah reiterated its rejection of the demand.
Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Naim Qassem, said on Wednesday that the group “categorically rejects any efforts to disarm. We do not accept being led into humiliation, nor surrendering our land or weapons to the Israeli enemy.”
The matter of weapons is “an internal Lebanese issue that must be addressed internally, without external supervision or interference,” he added.
“The party will not submit to any external threat or pressure. No one decides for us or imposes choices on us that we do not accept. Our weapons are our legitimate and legal right to confront the Israeli occupation.”
On Thursday morning, Israeli army forces entered the southern town of Kfar Kila and blew up a civilian home. Located across the border from the Israeli settlement of Metula, Kfar Kila is the closest Lebanese town to Israel, separated only by a border fence. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon and the Lebanese army maintain a permanent presence in the area.
Algeria jails historian who questioned Amazigh culture

- He was arrested on May 3 for “the crime of undermining national unity“
- Belghit’s lawyer Toufik Hichour said on Facebook that a court sentenced him to five years
ALGIERS: An Algerian court on Thursday sentenced historian Mohamed Amine Belghit to five years in prison for offending national symbols, his lawyer said, after remarks questioning the existence of the native Amazigh culture.
Belghit sparked outrage in the North African country when he said in a recent interview that “the Amazigh language is an ideological project of Franco-Zionist origin,” and that “there’s no such thing as Amazigh culture.”
He was arrested on May 3 for “the crime of undermining national unity” by targeting “symbols of the nation and the republic” as well as “disseminating hate speech,” the prosecution said at the time.
On Thursday, Belghit’s lawyer Toufik Hichour said on Facebook that a court outside the capital Algiers sentenced him to five years behind bars.
The prosecutor had requested seven years jailtime and a fine of 700,000 dinars ($5,400).
Algeria in 2016 granted official status to Tamazight, the language of the Amazigh people, who are also known as Berbers.
The Berber new year celebration, Yennayer, was added in 2017 to the list of national holidays.
Belghit, a university professor, is no stranger to controversies.
His remarks often cause uproar, with critics accusing him of historical revisionism and hostility toward the Amazigh people.
Iran committed to Non-Proliferation Treaty, foreign minister says

- Abbas Araqchi made the comment a day after Tehran enacted a law suspending cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog
- Iran has accused the IAEA of siding with Western countries and providing a justification for Israel’s airstrikes
Iran remains committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its safeguards agreement, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday, a day after Tehran enacted a law suspending cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
“Our cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) will be channeled through Iran’s Supreme National Security Council for obvious safety and security reasons,” Araqchi wrote in a post on X.
President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday enacted the legislation passed by parliament last week to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, a move the US called “unacceptable.”
Araqchi’s comment on X was in response to a call from Germany’s Foreign Ministry urging Tehran to reverse its decision to shelve cooperation with the IAEA.
Araqchi accused Germany of “explicit support for Israel’s unlawful attack on Iran, including safeguarded nuclear sites.”
Iran has accused the IAEA of siding with Western countries and providing a justification for Israel’sJune 13-24 airstrikes on Iranian nuclear installations, which began a day after the UN agency’s board of governors voted to declare Tehran in violation of its obligations under the NPT.
Western powers have long suspected that Iran has sought to develop the means to build atomic bombs through its declared civilian atomic energy program. Iran has repeatedly said it is enriching uranium only for peaceful nuclear ends.
IAEA inspectors are mandated to ensure compliance with the NPT by seeking to verify that nuclear programs in treaty countries are not diverted for military purposes.
The law that went into effect on Wednesday mandates that any future inspection of Iranian nuclear sites by the IAEA needs approval by Tehran’s Supreme National Security Council.
“We are aware of these reports. The IAEA is awaiting further official information from Iran,” the Vienna-based global nuclear watchdog said in a statement.
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told a regular briefing on Wednesday that Iran needed to cooperate fully with the IAEA without further delay.
Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq to hand over weapons in first step toward disarmament

- “A group of guerrilla fighters will come down from the mountains and will bid farewell to their arms in an effort to declare their good will for peace and democratic politics,” PKK said
- A PKK spokesperson said the fighters will destroy their weapons “under the supervision of civil society institutions”
IRBIL, Iraq: A Kurdish militant group that has waged a long-running insurgency in Türkiye announced Thursday its fighters in northern Iraq will begin handing over their weapons, marking the first concrete step toward disarmament as part of a peace process.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, announced in May it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities. The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm.
Ocalan, 76, continues to wield significant influence in the Kurdish movement despite his 25-year imprisonment. His call to end the fighting marked a pivotal step toward ending the decades-long conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the 1980s.
In the latest development, “a group of guerrilla fighters will come down from the mountains and will bid farewell to their arms in an effort to declare their good will for peace and democratic politics,” the PKK said in a statement Thursday.
The ceremony, which is expected to take place between July 10 and July 12 in the city of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, will be the first concrete move toward disarmament.
Zagros Hiwa, a PKK spokesperson, said the fighters will destroy their weapons “under the supervision of civil society institutions and interested parties.” The number of fighters who will take part has not yet been determined but might be between 20 and 30, he said.
For the PKK to take further steps toward disarmament, he said “the regime of isolation” imposed on Öcalan in prison “has to be abolished” and “constitutional, legal and political” must be taken to “ensure that the guerrilla who have abandoned the strategy of armed struggle could be reintegrated into democratic politics in Turkiye.”
An Iraqi Kurdish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the PKK members are expected to hand over their light weapons to the regional government.
The regional government is dominated by two parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, with the KDP overseeing the regional capital, Irbil, and the city of Dohuk. The PUK governs Sulaymaniyah.
The KDP has good relations with Türkiye and has been at odds with the PKK, while the PUK is closer to the PKK.
In Türkiye on Monday, Omer Celik, a spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or AKP, said the PKK could begin handing over arms “within days,” but did not provide details. Celik added that Erdogan would meet with members of the pro-Kurdish party next week to discuss the peace effort.
There was no immediate statement from Türkiye’s government on Thursday’s announcement.
The PKK has long maintained bases in the mountains of northern Iraq. Turkish forces have launched offensives and airstrikes against the PKK in Iraq and have set up bases in the area. Scores of villages have emptied as a result.
The Iraqi government in Baghdad last year announced an official ban on the separatist group, which has long been prohibited in Türkiye.
Killings rise when Gaza Health Foundation distributes aid: Analysis

- Sky News finds correlation between aid drops, increased fatalities
- UN labels GHF sites ‘death traps,’ amid claims Israeli soldiers deliberately fire at civilians
LONDON: An investigation has found an increase in deaths in Gaza correlated with aid distribution overseen by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Health Foundation.
The GHF took over humanitarian supply systems in the Palestinian enclave in May, replacing around 400 distribution sites run by other charities and NGOs with four designated facilities, called Secure Distribution Sites.
They were meant to ensure that aid did not fall into the hands of Hamas or other armed groups, which Israel alleges frequently happened under the previous UN-backed system.
However, Gaza’s health authorities say more than 600 Palestinians have been killed trying to access aid at the sites, which the UN has labeled “death traps.” Israeli soldiers have been accused of opening fire directly at civilians.
Analysis conducted by Sky News suggests that killings rise when aid is distributed by the GHF.
Sky’s Data & Forensics Unit found that an average of 48 deaths and 189 injuries are reported when the GHF operates two or fewer aid distributions. That number rises almost threefold when it runs five to six aid drops.
Sky reported that between June 5 and July 1, 77 aid distributions were conducted by the GHF. Of those, 23 — or 30 percent of the total — resulted in reports of violence, and at SDS4 half of all drops saw bloodshed.
A recent report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz interviewed Israeli soldiers who said they were ordered to fire at crowds of unarmed Palestinians at the GHF sites.
The Israeli military denies the allegations, but said it is investigating incidents where civilians have been harmed.
The UN, in its most recent update on June 24, put the number of casualties at GHF sites at 410, citing data available from nearby hospitals.
The GHF has been severely criticized for the manner in which aid is distributed, with footage obtained by Sky on June 15 showing Palestinians at SDS1 crowding and rummaging among hundreds of scattered aid packages discarded on the floor.
Sky’s analysis found that aid is often delivered in significantly smaller quantities than required, with supplies running out on average after just nine minutes. At 23 percent of aid drops, supplies were exhausted before the official opening time.
Sky reported that 86 percent of distributions were announced to people in the area less than 30 minutes in advance, and that maps and instructions distributed to locals to navigate and access the sites were inaccurate or dangerous, including telling civilians trying to reach SDS2, 3 and 4 to congregate inside areas labeled live combat zones by Israel.
In addition, the congregation areas are typically some distance from the sites, causing surges when they open as people attempt to cover the open ground to access the aid.
The shortest distance from a waiting point to an SDS is 689 meters, at SDS4, approximately 10 minutes away on foot — more than the average time before supplies run out.
Sam Rose, director of operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, called the GHF’s system a “free-for-all.”
He told Sky: “What they’re doing is, they’re loading up the boxes on the ground and then people just rush in.”
Rose added: “They (the GHF) don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t have anyone working on these operations who has any experience of operating, of administering food distributions because anyone who did have that experience wouldn’t want to be part of it because this isn’t how you treat people.”
A group of charities and humanitarian groups on Tuesday condemned the GHF’s operations, saying they violate international principles.
More than 200 groups have called for the reinstatement of the previous aid distribution system overseen by the UN.