GENEVA: The UN special envoy for Syria on Thursday voiced his growing concern at increased hostilities in the south of the country and warned of the alarming shortages faced by civilians.
Norwegian diplomat Geir Pedersen reiterated his call for an immediate end to the violence and urged all parties to uphold the principle of protecting civilians.
“Increased hostilities, which have included heavy shelling and intensified ground clashes, have resulted in civilian casualties, as well as damage to civilian infrastructures,” his office said in a statement.
“Thousands of civilians have been forced to flee Daraa Al-Balad. Civilians are suffering with acute shortages of fuel, cooking gas, water, and bread. Medical assistance is in short supply to treat the injured.
“The situation is alarming.”
At Thursday’s virtual meeting of the International Syria Support Group’s Humanitarian Task Force, Pedersen stressed that immediate, safe and unimpeded humanitarian access must be granted to all affected areas and communities, and that the near siege-like situation must end.
“There is the potential for increased confrontations and further deterioration unless there is an immediate calm and a political way forward,” Pedersen’s office said.
“The special envoy also continues to hear from people in Daraa, including civil society representatives on the ground, who have expressed grave fears for their safety.”
He also noted an escalation of violence in northwest Syria, and multiple water security challenges in the northeast.
Syria’s war has killed around half a million people since 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
UN Syria envoy alarmed by hostilities, civilian shortages
https://arab.news/9r9we
UN Syria envoy alarmed by hostilities, civilian shortages
- Pedersen reiterated his call for an immediate end to the violence and urged all parties to protect civilians
- He stressed that immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access must be granted to all affected areas
Hummels stuns Mbappe and PSG to take Dortmund to Champions League final
- Hummels struck five minutes into the second half
- Dortmund will face Bayern Munich or Real Madrid in the final in London
Paris, May 7, 2024 Agence France Presse: Mats Hummels headed in the only goal as Borussia Dortmund stunned Kylian Mbappe and Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League semifinal second leg on Tuesday, winning 1-0 on the night and advancing 2-0 on aggregate to next month’s final at Wembley.
Hummels struck five minutes into the second half at the Parc des Princes and PSG were unable to muster a response, the home side all out of luck as they hit the woodwork four times in total.
Dortmund, who sit fifth in the German Bundesliga, were never expected to go so far and will be underdogs in the June 1 showpiece regardless of whether they face their old rivals Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, who meet on Wednesday.
It will be their first final since 2013 when, remarkably, the match was also played at Wembley and Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund lost to Bayern.
Hummels played in that final and here, 11 years later, he was the hero as Dortmund built on the advantage given to them by Niclas Fuellkrug’s goal in the first leg.
“It’ll take us a bit of time to realize that, but we’re looking forward to it extremely,” Dortmund coach Edin Terzic told broadcaster Amazon Prime of getting to the final.
“We did it somehow, making it to London.”
The story of this semifinal, however, is as much about PSG’s failure in another crunch knockout tie in the competition.
They have still never won the trophy despite all the money invested by their Qatari owners since the 2011 takeover, and there will be no dream send-off for Mbappe.
He will leave when his contract expires after this season and had been hoping to play his last game for the club in the June 1 final.
Instead PSG will be left to reflect on how they failed to get their hands on the biggest trophy of all during Mbappe’s seven years at his hometown team.
“We were not clinical enough. They scored two goals, one from a corner and one from a long ball. We created lots more chances, many more than them, but we didn’t take them,” PSG captain Marquinhos told Canal Plus.
“We got so close and we wanted to get to the final. But we had to win tonight and be more clinical, and we were not.”
PSG’s last two semifinal appearances both came during the pandemic, meaning this was the first time they had hosted a match at this stage of a European competition with fans in 29 years, since losing to AC Milan in 1995.
Luis Enrique’s team had won 2-0 at home against Dortmund in the group stage and were safe in the knowledge that a repeat of that performance would be enough.
The PSG coach made one major selection decision, dropping Bradley Barcola and bringing in Portuguese striker Goncalo Ramos. That meant moving Mbappe from the middle onto the left wing.
Dortmund would have been bracing themselves for an onslaught from kick-off, but that did not transpire.
Mbappe took only seven minutes to produce his first attempt, yet his volley was easily saved by Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.
The hosts had most of the possession but struggled to get Mbappe into the game, the France captain often looking isolated on the wing.
In fact it was Dortmund who had the best chance of the first half, when Karim Adeyemi led a counterattack before seeing his shot saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
It felt as though the hosts needed to change something or risk going out with a whimper.
They should have been ahead two minutes after the restart, when Ramos touched on a ball driven into the box by Mbappe, but Warren Zaire-Emery contrived to hit the post from close range.
That was to prove crucial as Dortmund struck moments later.
PSG cheaply conceded a corner, and Julian Brandt’s delivery from the Dortmund right was headed in by Hummels.
Ramos swept a shot over on the hour mark before Nuno Mendes became the second PSG player to strike the right-hand post, this time with a powerful shot from distance.
It was starting to look as if it would not be PSG’s night, and Luis Enrique realized he had to act as he sent on Barcola and Marco Asensio for Ramos and Fabian Ruiz, moving Mbappe through the middle.
Dortmund sent on an extra defender in the hulking Niklas Suele and they withstood everything PSG threw at them while also being helped by the frame of the goal.
Kobel turned Mbappe’s shot onto the bar on 86 minutes and Vitinha also rattled the woodwork but Dortmund hung on to book their date in London.
Israeli Rafah offensive would break international law, says UK deputy foreign minister
- Andrew Mitchell warns a ground invasion could strengthen Hamas, in comments viewed as attempt to get Israel to sign up for peace deal accepted by Hamas on Monday
- UN chief Antonio Guterres urges Israel to ‘stop any escalation’ after tanks enter Rafah and army takes control of crossing on the border with Egypt
LONDON: An Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would contravene international humanitarian law and would not succeed in removing Hamas from power in Gaza or eradicating the organization, Britain’s deputy foreign minister warned on Tuesday.
Andrew Mitchell said Israeli authorities had failed to present a military plan that complies with international law, and that entering Rafah, which has become the final refuge for more than a million people displaced by fighting in other parts of Gaza, could strengthen, not weaken, Hamas.
However, he stopped short of saying what international consequences, if any, Israel might face if it proceeds.
Mitchell reiterated the UK government’s desire for a permanent, sustained ceasefire in Gaza. His comments, which followed a similar statement by authorities in France on Monday, were seen as an attempt to put pressure on Israel to sign up for a provisional, three-stage peace deal that was accepted by Hamas on Monday, The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Israeli minister Benny Gantz has said the peace proposal did not “correspond to the dialogue that has taken place so far with the mediators and has significant gaps.”
Mitchell also echoed calls from the UN for Israel to end a renewed block on humanitarian aid entering Gaza. Also on Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for border crossings to be reopened “immediately” so that essential aid can be delivered to Gaza. He urged Israeli authorities to “stop any escalation” after they sent tanks into Rafah early on Tuesday and the army took control of the nearby crossing on the border with Egypt.
“Things are moving in the wrong direction. I am disturbed and distressed by the renewed military activity in Rafah by the Israel Defense Forces,” Guterres said.
International pressure has been building on Israel over the potentially devastating consequences of a threatened ground invasion of Rafah, where the UN estimates about 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said such action could cause many “civilian casualties.” White House spokesperson John Kirby said that Israel told Washington its operation in Rafah “was limited and designed to cut off Hamas’s ability to smuggle weapons” into Gaza.
Egypt has urged Israeli authorities to “exercise the utmost restraint.” The Organization for Islamic Cooperation condemned Israel’s “criminal aggression.”
US completes construction of Gaza aid pier
WASHINGTON: The US military has completed construction of its Gaza aid pier, but weather conditions mean it is currently unsafe to move the two-part facility into place, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
The pier — which the US military started building last month and which will cost at least $320 million — is aimed at boosting deliveries of desperately needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza, which has been ravaged by seven months of Israeli operations against Hamas.
“As of today, the construction of the two portions of the JLOTS — the floating pier and the Trident pier — are complete and awaiting final movement offshore,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists, using an acronym for Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, the official name for the pier capability.
“Today there are still forecasted high winds and high sea swells, which are causing unsafe conditions for the JLOTS components to be moved. So the pier sections and military vessels involved in its construction are still positioned at the port of Ashdod,” in Israel, Singh said.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) “stands by to move the pier into position in the near future,” she added.
The vessels and the under-construction pier were moved to the port due to bad weather last week. Once the weather clears, the pier will be anchored to the Gaza shore by Israeli soldiers, keeping US troops off the ground.
Aid will then be transported via commercial vessels to a floating platform off the Gaza coast, where it will be transferred to smaller vessels, brought to the pier, and taken to land by truck for distribution.
Plans for the pier were first announced by US President Joe Biden in early March as Israel held up deliveries of assistance by ground, and US Army troops and vessels soon set out on a lengthy trip to the Mediterranean to build the pier.
Some two months later, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire. The United Nations said Tuesday that Israel had denied it access to the Rafah crossing — the key entry point for aid into the besieged territory.
The White House said the closing of Rafah and the other main crossing, Karem Shalom, was “unacceptable” and needed to be reversed.
In addition to seeking to establish a maritime corridor for aid shipments, the United States has also been delivering assistance via the air.
CENTCOM said American C-130 cargo planes dropped more than 25,000 Meal Ready To Eat military rations into Gaza on Tuesday in a joint operation that also delivered the equivalent of more than 13,000 meals of Jordanian food supplies.
“To date the US has dropped 1,200 tons of humanitarian assistance,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
Gaza’s bloodiest-ever war broke out following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,789 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Gull Guide: North America’
Author: AMAR AYYASH
Gull identification can be challenging for even the most seasoned birder.
While these birds are common to coasts, lakes, and rivers, they exhibit remarkable plumage changes related to age, which is sometimes complicated by similarities between species and a readiness to hybridize.
This book provides an invaluable identification guide to all regularly occurring gull species and subspecies throughout North America.
Berlin students protest for Gaza as demos spread across Europe
- Scuffles erupt between officers, protesters
- Crackdown on University of Amsterdam protest
- Israel has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas government's Ministry of Health
AMSTERDAM: German police on Tuesday broke up a protest by several hundred pro-Palestinian activists who had occupied a courtyard at Berlin’s Free University earlier in the day, the latest such action by authorities as protests that have roiled campuses in the US spread across Europe.
Some demonstrators have even called for a break in academic ties with Israel over the war in Gaza.
In Berlin, the protesters had put up about 20 tents and formed a human chain around them. Most had covered their faces with medical masks and draped keffiyeh scarves around their heads, shouting slogans such as “Viva, viva Palestina.”
Berlin police called on the students via loudspeakers to leave the campus. Police were seen carrying some students away as scuffles erupted between officers and protesters. Police also used pepper spray against some of the protesters.
In the eastern German city of Leipzig, about 50 pro-Palestinian protesters set up tents on campus of Leipzig University and occupied a lecture hall on Tuesday afternoon.
Earlier on Tuesday, Dutch police broke up a similar pro-Palestinian demonstration camp at the University of Amsterdam. Police spokeswoman Sara Tillart said about 140 protesters were arrested, two of whom remain in custody on suspicion of committing public violence.
Amsterdam police said on the social media platform X that their action was “necessary to restore order” after protests turned violent. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Video aired by national broadcaster NOS shows police using a mechanical digger to push down barricades and officers with batons and shields moving in, beating some of the protesters and pulling down tents. Protesters had formed barricades from wooden pallets and bicycles, NOS reported.
In Austria, protesters camped out in about 20 tents set up in the main courtyard of the University of Vienna for a second day Tuesday. With police monitoring, protesters cordoned off the encampment, which is near a memorial for Austrian Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
The University of Vienna and the main Austrian Union of Students distanced themselves from the protest. The union said “antisemitic groups were among the protest’s organizers,” which the protesters denied. Pro-Palestine protest camps have sprung up at about a dozen universities in Britain, including at Oxford and Cambridge, urging the institutions to fully disclose investments, cut academic ties with Israel and divest from businesses linked to the country.
Dozens of students have pitched up Gaza solidarity encampments on lawns outside King’s College at Cambridge University and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.
“Oxbridge’s profits cannot continue to climb at the expense of Palestinian lives, and their reputations must no longer be built on the whitewashing of Israeli crimes,” said a joint statement from protesters at the two universities.
Over 200 Oxford academics have signed an open letter supporting the protests.
In Finland, dozens of protesters from the Students for Palestine solidarity group set up an encampment outside the main building at the University of Helsinki, saying they would stay there until the university, which is Finland’s largest academic institution, cuts academic ties with Israeli universities.
In Denmark, students set up a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Copenhagen, erecting about 45 tents outside the campus of the Faculty of Social Sciences. The university said students can protest but called on them to respect the rules on campus grounds.
In Italy, students at the University of Bologna, one of the world’s oldest universities, set up a tent encampment over the weekend to demand an end to the war in Gaza as Israel prepared an offensive in Rafah, despite pleas from its Western allies against it. Groups of students organized similar protests in Rome and Naples, which were largely peaceful.
In Spain, dozens of students have spent over a week at a pro-Palestinian encampment on the University of Valencia campus. Similar camps were set up Monday at the University of Barcelona and at the University of the Basque Country. A group representing students at Madrid’s public universities announced it would step up protests against the war in the coming days.
In Paris, student groups called for gatherings in solidarity with Palestinians later Tuesday.
On Friday, French police peacefully removed dozens of students from a building at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po, after they had gathered in support of Palestinians.
On Tuesday, students at the prestigious institution, which counts French Premier Gabriel Attal and President Emmanuel Macron among its alumni, were seen entering the campus unobstructed to take exams as police stood.
