Ferris wheels and tombs off-limits to Iraqis on Eid holidays

A deserted amusement park in Baghdad, Iraq. (Reuters)
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Updated 31 July 2020
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Ferris wheels and tombs off-limits to Iraqis on Eid holidays

  • The virus has cost almost 4,700 lives and infected over 121,000 people in Iraq
  • It has also sharpened an economic crisis born of a slide in lifeline oil revenues

BASRA, Iraq: On the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha, when Iraqis visit loved ones’ tombs and take children to the funfair, the coronavirus pandemic put both cemeteries and Ferris wheels off-limits on Friday.
The virus has cost almost 4,700 lives and infected over 121,000 people in Iraq, but it has also sharpened an economic crisis born of a slide in lifeline oil revenues.
“Civil servants’ salaries are being paid late, taxis or day laborers no longer have work, this has an impact on everyone,” said Ahmed Abdel Hussein, an official in Basra, a port city near the southern tip of Iraq.
“I’m thinking of all the children who this year will not get any presents because of the crisis,” he said on the first day of the feast, being celebrated with the country under curfew.
“Eid used to be the happiest day of the year before, now it’s a burden,” said another official, Falah, 35, who has two children and an elderly mother to support.
Shopkeepers and traders, who rely on Eid Al-Adha for a large part of their annual turnover, are also affected.
Abu Hassan Al-Bazouni, who owns a sheep farm in Basra, has seen sales decline despite the tradition of sacrificing a lamb for the feast.
Apart from high unemployment, “this year, confinement has prevented trade from one province to another, so sheep prices have increased,” he told AFP.
In a survey by the International Rescue Committee, 73 percent of Iraqis said they were eating less to save money, while more than 60 percent had taken loans to make ends meet.
Said Attiya, who runs a clothes store, said business was down 95 percent on last year.
For Eid in 2019, he hired eight vendors. This year, he is on his own, opening the store only five hours a day.
Many other stores in Basra, he said, have closed “because you can’t import anything and many can’t even pay the rent.”
For Ahmed Nejem, another resident, it’s hard to stay at home during the holidays, traditionally a time for family gatherings.
“This year, we’re not going out and we can’t even buy presents for the kids,” he said.
Animated messages, most decorated with flowers, others jokes, sent on social media apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook have taken the place of family visits.
In one such animation, a sheep, spared the slaughter because of costs, merrily sings: “We are celebrating with our masks. It’s Eid, I’m wearing my gloves. It’s Eid and I won’t kiss anyone.”


Two of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza encircled by Israeli forces

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Two of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza encircled by Israeli forces

Two of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospitals have been encircled by Israeli troops, preventing anyone from leaving or entering the facilities, hospital staff and aid groups said this week, as Israel pursued its renewed offensive into the devastated Palestinian territory.
The Indonesian hospital and Al-Awda hospital are among the region’s only surviving medical centers. Both have come under fire this week, including shelling at Al-Awda that happened Wednesday as The Associated Press spoke to its director on the phone.
A third hospital, Kamal Adwan, is out of service, its director said, citing Israeli troops and drones in its vicinity.
Israeli authorities issued evacuation orders Friday for large parts of northern Gaza ahead of attacks intended to pressure the Hamas militant group to release more hostages. New evacuation orders followed Tuesday.
All three hospitals and three primary health care centers are within the evacuation zone. Israel has not ordered the evacuation of the facilities themselves. Another two hospitals and four primary care centers are within 1,000 meters (yards) of the zone, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization.
Israeli military operations and evacuation orders “are stretching the health system beyond the breaking point,” he said.
Hundreds of attacks on health facilities
Only 20 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functioning, serving the territory’s more than 2 million people, amid continued bombing, rising malnutrition rates, and dwindling medical supplies.
The WHO said hospitals in northern Gaza are “at a serious risk of shutting down completely.” The United Nations agency has documented nearly 700 attacks on health care facilities in Gaza since the start of Israel’s 19-month war against the Hamas militant group.
The Israeli military has raided or laid siege to hospitals throughout the war, accusing Hamas of using them as command centers and to hide fighters, though it has only provided evidence for some of its claims. Hamas security men have been seen in hospitals during the war, controlling access to certain areas, and in recent weeks Israel has targeted alleged militants inside health facilities.
Palestinians say the latest attacks on hospitals in the north are part of a larger plan to displace the population to the south and eventually drive them from Gaza.
Israel has vowed to facilitate what it refers to as the voluntary migration of much of Gaza’s population to other countries, which many Palestinians and others view as a plan for forcible expulsion.
Israel wants to “ensure the forced displacement of people from the area” by putting hospitals out of service, said Rami Shourafi, a board member of Al-Awda hospital.
The Indonesian hospital comes under attack
The Indonesian hospital, once the largest in northern Gaza, has been surrounded by Israeli troops, who were positioned about 500 meters (545 yards) away. Drones have hovered above, monitoring any movement, since Sunday, an aid group that supports the hospital said.
The Israeli military said its forces were operating around the hospital and targeting Hamas infrastructure but that troops had not entered the facility and ambulances were allowed to move.
Israeli bulldozers demolished a perimeter wall of the hospital, according to the aid group MERC-Indonesia and a hospital staff member who had since evacuated. The staffer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
On Tuesday, airstrikes targeted the hospital’s generators, sparking a fire and damaging its main power supply. The strikes also caused damage to the hospital’s water supply, according to a video posted by MERC-Indonesia. Large flames were seen rising from the area before daybreak. A speaker in the video said the fire was close to the hospital fuel supply, but firefighters controlled the flames.
At least one staff member was killed, according to WHO, which said those who remained in the hospital were in urgent need of water and food. The UN said it was working to transfer remaining patients to other facilities.
Military activity around the hospital also damaged ceilings, the hospital roof and some equipment. At least 20 doctors and staff members decided to stay in the building, said MERC-Indonesia, and most patients evacuated themselves after fighting intensified in the area starting Thursday.
Doctors and staffers at the hospital were not immediately reachable for comment. A video posted by MERC-Indonesia that was shot from the hospital windows showed an Israeli tank a few meters (several feet) away from the hospital.
Israeli strikes isolate Al-Awda hospital
Nearly a kilometer (about half a mile) away, Israeli drones fired Monday into the Al-Awda hospital courtyard, preventing movement, Shourafi said. On Wednesday, the hospital was shelled while its director was on the phone with The Associated Press. A large boom could be heard on the call.
“They are bombing the hospital,” said Dr. Mohammed Salha, the facility’s director. He later said one security guard was wounded. Patients were not near to the area hit, he said.
A video shared with AP showed damage to the roof and debris in the corridors, with dust still rising from the area.
On Tuesday, Israeli drones fired at two ambulances that transferred three patients to Gaza City as the crews tried to return to the hospital, spokesperson Khaled Alhelo said.
Alhelo himself was unable to return to the hospital Tuesday because of military activity. There are currently no ambulances or Internet lines at Al-Awda hospital, according to Shourafi and Alhelo.
Israeli troops are about 900 meters (about half a mile) away from the hospital, Alhelo said. But the real risk, he said, is from Israeli drones flying over the hospital and preventing any movement in or out.
“Anyone moving in the hospital is fired at. They are all keeping low inside the hospital,” he said.
The Israeli military had no comment when asked on the situation at Al-Awda and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday’s shelling.
About 47 patients, including nearly 20 children and several pregnant women, and some 140 doctors and medical staff members are still at the hospital, hospital board member Shourafi said.
He said the hospital board decided not to evacuate the hospital and called for supplies and the return of ambulances because there are still bombings and wounded people in the area.
“In light of the war, and conflict, it should remain functioning,” Shourafi said. He said the hospital has been besieged and raided several times since the war began in October 2023, but he called the current phase the “most critical.”
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
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Associated Press journalists Fatma Khaled in Cairo and Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

Lebanon says Israel strikes in south kill two

Updated 6 min 22 sec ago
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Lebanon says Israel strikes in south kill two

An “Israeli enemy drone” struck a car in the town of Ain Baal in the coastal district of Tyre
The Israeli army said its forces struck a Hezbollah operative

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed two people in the south on Wednesday, the latest attacks despite a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

An “Israeli enemy drone” struck a car in the town of Ain Baal in the coastal district of Tyre, the ministry said.

The Israeli army said its forces struck a Hezbollah operative in the Tyre area, saying he was “responsible for establishing the necessary infrastructure for the production of precise surface-to-surface missiles in the area.”

The health ministry later said an Israeli strike on the southern town of Yater “killed one person and wounded another.”

An official from Yater said the strike killed a man who was using a bulldozer to remove debris from his home which was damaged during the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the state-run National News Agency reported.

It was the third consecutive day of Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

Israel said it killed two Hezbollah members over the previous two days.

Israel has kept up strikes on its northern neighbor despite a November truce that sought to halt
more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of full-blown war.

Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah was to pull back its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south.

Israel was to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems “strategic.”

The Lebanese army has been deploying in the south as Israeli forces have withdrawn and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure there.

The truce was based on a United Nations Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only people to bear arms in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.

Lebanon has called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its attacks and withdraw its remaining troops.

US deputy Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus said on Tuesday that Lebanon still has “more” to do in disarming Hezbollah following the war.

Trump ‘frustrated’ by Gaza war expansion: Report

Updated 8 min 40 sec ago
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Trump ‘frustrated’ by Gaza war expansion: Report

  • US president said to be ‘upset’ at images of suffering Palestinian children
  • He reportedly told Israeli PM via aides that he wants war to be ‘wrapped up’

London: US President Donald Trump is “frustrated” by Israel’s expansion of the Gaza war and is “upset” at images of suffering Palestinian children, White House officials have reportedly said.

Two administration officials told Axios that Trump has relayed messages to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu via aides that he wants the war to be “wrapped up.”

One official told Axios: “The president is frustrated about what is happening in Gaza. He wants the war to end, he wants the hostages to come home, he wants aid to go in and he wants to start rebuilding Gaza.” 

Trump is said to be personally annoyed at Netanyahu, who “he doesn’t even like,” The Times was told.

It follows Trump’s high-profile tour of the Middle East, comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, which is mediating ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.

During the trip, which notably lacked a stop in Israel, Trump “appeared genuinely concerned by the suffering of Gazans,” sources told The Times.

However, the White House is reluctant to openly criticize Tel Aviv’s actions, and officials from both countries deny that Trump is prepared to “abandon” support for Israel.

Trump last week said he wanted to help the “starving” people in Gaza. During talks with Arab leaders, he pledged to facilitate the entry of more aid to the Palestinian enclave.

His Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has presented plans for a ceasefire deal that would lead to the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas.

But Netanyahu’s decision to expand the Gaza war has frustrated hopes of a deal, despite his office saying he had agreed to a plan based on Witkoff’s proposals.

One Israeli official told Axios: “If the president wants a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza he needs to put much more pressure on both sides.”

A White House official told Axios that Trump believes the Gaza war is preventing him from enacting his plans for the region.

“The president sees a real chance for peace and prosperity in the region, but the war in Gaza is the last hot spot and he wants it to end,” the official said.


82 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza as desperately needed aid fails to reach Palestinians

Updated 13 min 53 sec ago
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82 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza as desperately needed aid fails to reach Palestinians

  • UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Gaza staff still waiting to receive aid
  • Many women and one-week old baby and 14 members of the same family among latest killed as Israel prepares further onslaught

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza: Israeli strikes continued to pound the Gaza Strip Wednesday, despite a surge in international anger at Israel’s widening offensive, killing at least 82 people, including several women and a week-old infant, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and area hospitals.
Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Tuesday, but the aid has not yet reached Palestinians in desperate need.
Jens Laerke, the spokesperson for the UN’s humanitarian agency, said no trucks were picked up from the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom, the Israeli border crossing with southern Gaza.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Tuesday evening that although the aid had entered Gaza, aid workers were not able to bring it to distribution points, after the Israeli military forced them to reload the supplies onto separate trucks and workers ran out of time.
The Israeli defense body that oversees humanitarian aid to Gaza said trucks were entering Gaza on Wednesday morning, but it was unclear if that aid would be able to continue deeper into Gaza for distribution. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said its staff had waited several hours to collect aid from the border crossing in order to begin distribution but were unable to do so on Tuesday.
A few dozen Israeli activists opposed to Israel’s decision to allow aid into Gaza while Hamas still holds Israeli hostages attempted to block the trucks carrying the aid on Wednesday morning, but were kept back by Israeli police.
Diplomats come under fire in Jenin
A group of diplomats came under fire while visiting Jenin, a city in the Israel-occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Authority. The diplomats were on official mission to observe the humanitarian situation in Jenin when shots rang out.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the shooting.
An aid worker, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal, said a delegation of about 20 diplomats was being briefed about the situation in Jenin by the Palestinian Authority. The group of regional, European and Western diplomats were standing near the entrance of the Jenin refugee camp when they heard gunshots just before 2 p.m., though it was unclear where the shots came from, she said. No one was injured, she added.
Footage shows a number of diplomats giving media interviews as rapid shots ring out close to the group, forcing them to run for cover.
Jenin has been the site of Israel’s widespread crackdown against West Bank militants since earlier this year.
On Jan. 21 — just two days after its ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza — Israeli forces descended on Jenin as they have dozens of times since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. The fighting displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians, one of the largest West Bank displacements in years.
International pressure increases against Israel
On Tuesday, the United Kingdom. suspended free trade talks with Israel over its intensifying assault, a step that came a day after the UK, Canada and France promised concrete steps to prompt Israel to halt the war. Separately, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc was reviewing an EU pact governing trade ties with Israel over its conduct of the war in Gaza.
Israel says it is prepared to stop the war once all the hostages taken by Hamas return home and Hamas is defeated, or is exiled and disarmed. Hamas says it is prepared to release the hostages in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory and an end to the war. It rejects demands for exile and disarmament.
Negotiations stalled as Israeli operation widens
Israel called back its senior negotiating team from ceasefire talks in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday, saying it would leave lower-level officials in place instead. Qatari leaders, who are mediating negotiations, said there was a large gap between the two sides that they had been unable to bridge.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued across Gaza. In the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel recently ordered new evacuations pending an expected expanded offensive, 24 people were killed, 14 of them from the same family. A week-old infant was killed in central Gaza.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, but has said it is targeting Hamas infrastructure and accused Hamas militants of operating from civilian areas.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday urged world leaders to take immediate action to end Israel’s siege on Gaza, issuing the appeal in a written statement during a visit to Beirut, where he is expected to discuss the disarmament of Palestinian factions in Lebanon’s refugee camps.
“I call on world leaders to take urgent and decisive measures to break the siege on our people in the Gaza Strip,” Abbas said, demanding the immediate entry of aid, an end to the Israeli offensive, the release of detainees, and a full withdrawal from Gaza.
“It is time to end the war of extermination against the Palestinian people. I reiterate that we will not leave, and we will remain here on the land of our homeland, Palestine,” Abbas said.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.


Lebanese, Palestinian presidents say era of weapons ‘outside Lebanese state control’ over

Updated 48 min 7 sec ago
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Lebanese, Palestinian presidents say era of weapons ‘outside Lebanese state control’ over

  • Joint statement says two leaders expressed commitment to the principle that arms should be exclusively ‘in the hands of the Lebanese state’

BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas said Wednesday that weapons should be under Lebanese state control, meeting in Beirut to discuss disarming Palestinian refugee camps in the country.
A joint statement released by the Lebanese presidency said the two leaders share the “belief that the era of weapons outside Lebanese state control has ended,” adding that both had expressed commitment to the principle that arms should be exclusively “in the hands of the Lebanese state.”