War-weary villages in Lebanon’s south find hope in Christmas festivities

Special War-weary villages in Lebanon’s south find hope in Christmas festivities
The ceasefire agreement brokered by the US has brought hope to Christians in Lebanon, particularly in the south of the country, after more than a year of war, suffering and destruction. (AFP)
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Updated 24 December 2024
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War-weary villages in Lebanon’s south find hope in Christmas festivities

War-weary villages in Lebanon’s south find hope in Christmas festivities
  • Despite ceasefire violations, a fragile calm in Lebanon allows Christian-majority villages to celebrate the festive season
  • Municipalities in war-torn areas bordering Israel pledge to support locals in rebuilding their homes, restoring hope

DUBAI: After being caught in the crosshairs of the 13-month Hezbollah-Israel conflict, predominantly Christian border villages in southern Lebanon are cautiously optimistic as they celebrate the Christmas season and displaced families return home.

Earlier this month, municipalities adorned the streets of these villages with Christmas lights and decorations, expecting the festive atmosphere and a gradual return to normalcy to encourage more displaced residents to come back.

The economic toll of the war, which began as a spillover from the Hamas-Israel conflict in Gaza, has forced villages to scale back holiday preparations. However, mayors have vowed to preserve the Christmas spirit and pledged support for families recovering from the war’s devastating economic and social tolls.

On Oct. 7, 2023, militants from the Palestinian group Hamas carried out a surprise attack in southern Israel, resulting in 1,200 deaths and the abduction of 240 others. In retaliation, Israel launched a large-scale bombing campaign that has so far killed at least 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health authority.

Cross-border clashes started between the Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Israeli military on Oct. 8, 2023. Within less than a year, Israel launched a barrage of airstrikes across Lebanon. Over more than 13 months, the airstrikes have displaced more than 1.3 million people, according to UN figures, killed at least 4,000 Lebanese, and destroyed entire villages in southern Lebanon.




Workers clear the rubble at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted the Shiyah neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs on November 26, 2024. (AFP)

Ain Ebel, a Christian-majority village in southern Lebanon, is among the hardest-hit areas. Its residents were ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate ahead of the ground invasion on Oct. 1. However, the ceasefire agreement signed on Nov. 27 has offered a glimmer of hope.

Imad Lallous, the village’s mayor, said Ain Ebel is holding Christmas festivities — albeit on a smaller scale than in previous years — to celebrate the community’s resilience and hopes for a brighter future.

“We were worried that we would not be able to celebrate this year,” he told Arab News. “However, after the ceasefire and the return of Ain Ebel’s residents, it was impossible to let this holiday pass without celebrations, decorations, a Christmas tree, and Jesus Christ’s nativity scene.”

“We are working on restoring the joyful spirit in Ain Ebel,” he added.




A man sets up a Christmas tree amidst the rubble of the Melkite Church, which hit by an Israeli airstrike on October 9, in the southern Lebanese village of Derdghaya on December 20, 2024. (AFP)

The village, once alive with street celebrations, bustling church squares, and vibrant Christmas markets showcasing local products, has been overshadowed by the economic hardships of war in a country already grappling with a severe financial crisis since 2019.

Lallous called for community solidarity through donations to restore the spirit of Christmas and support families returning to their war-wrecked homes.

“There is serious damage to the houses, and we will see what we can do to help the owners repair or rebuild them,” he said.

“I hope we can celebrate Christmas and other holidays peacefully. I hope we don’t relive wars, destruction and bombardment anymore. I hope no one loses their home and everything they own. I hope this year’s war will be the last in the region.”

Located just a few miles from Lebanon’s border with Israel, Ain Ebel is currently home to 240 families. Lallous hopes the number will rise to 330 after the festive season. “This will boost the economic activity of shops and businesses,” he said.

He also believes the reopening of schools, a symbol of life returning to normal, could encourage those who relocated to Beirut to return to Ain Ebel.




Lebanese and Palestinian children gather in Martyrs Square in central Beirut to send a message of love to the children of Gaza on the occasion of Christmas, on December 26, 2023. (AFP)

“Classes resumed this week for attending students, but most of those receiving an education in Beirut will return to Ain Ebel’s school — College des Sœurs des Saint Coeurs — to continue their studies here.”

Christian-majority villages near the Israeli border have been badly affected by the hostilities, including Debel, Ain Ebel, Rmeich, and Al-Quzah in Bint Jbeil; Alma Shaab in Tyre District; and Deir Mimas and Qlayaa in Marjeyoun.

Several of these, namely Ain Ebel, Deir Mimas, Qlayaa, and Alma Shaab, were among the 27 areas ordered to evacuate.

And while some residents, including priests, refused to leave their homes, most fled north or to Beirut.

Since the ceasefire was announced on Nov. 27, more than 900,000 people have begun returning to their areas of origin, but nearly 179,000 remain displaced, according to UN figures.




Smoke billows in the background from Israeli bombardment as children pick olives during the harvest season in Rmeich in southern Lebanon on October 23, 2024. (AFP)

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri urged people to return to their homes in the south, even if it means having to “live on the rubble,” he said in a televised speech.

The 13-month war has partially or fully destroyed around 100,000 homes across Lebanon. The World Bank estimates the damage at approximately $8.5 billion, further deepening the country’s financial crisis.

Despite both Hezbollah and Israel accusing each other of violations, the ceasefire also represents a hopeful step toward a permanent cessation of hostilities and the enforcement of UN Resolution 1701, which called for a demilitarized zone, free of armed personnel except for the Lebanese army.

The US-brokered ceasefire agreement requires Israel to gradually withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, to be replaced by Lebanese troops over 60 days. Hezbollah must also pull its forces north of the Litani River and dismantle its military infrastructure in the south.

Mayor Lallous said Christmas offers an opportunity to emphasize the solidarity and unity of the Lebanese people, countering fears of sectarian divisions sparked by mass displacement and the targeting of Christian villages.




This picture shows destruction in the southern Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil, on November 27, 2024. (AFP)

“We have always lived peacefully together in our region and have not seen any divisions,” he said. “I hope the war we have experienced has not left any consequences here. We deal with our neighbors in a civilized way, and we wish we could always remain like this.”

He added: “We must be convinced that we need to seek our community’s well-being rather than society’s suffering.

“I hope the experience we have gone through will be a lesson for everyone so that we can move toward peace and family and keep our young people here instead of seeing them leave. I hope we won’t have to rebuild our homes in 10-15 years.”

Among the Christian areas that displayed deep solidarity during the war was Rmeich. The village, neighboring Ain Ebel, sheltered hundreds of displaced Lebanese — both Shiite Muslims and Christians — from other villages in the region at a local monastery.

Others, including those who fled from Ain Ebel, found refuge in fellow villagers’ homes.




A man walks towards Saint George church in the southern Lebanese Christian village of Qlayaa on October 10, 2024. (AFP)

Miled Alam, mayor of Rmeich, said: “Lebanon cannot rise without the participation of all its sects, communities and religions.

“Since its establishment, Lebanon has been made up of several sects, and nobody can eliminate the other,” he told Arab News. “All its components can, together, build a new Lebanon that relies on hope, its culture, state, institutions, and judiciary.”

Emphasizing the importance of celebrating Christmas this year, Alam expressed hope that all of Rmeich’s more than 8,000 residents would attend the festivities, along with those from the nearby villages of Ain Ebel and Debel.

“The occurrence of war does not mean we will not carry out customs, traditions, and religious rituals,” he said. “Last year, we celebrated amidst the war and bombardment.”

“We also organized an event for the children in the church square, rang the bells, prayed and held masses.”

Rmeich, while maintaining a sense of safety with its schools remaining open, still felt the effects of war. Commercial activities came to a halt, and residents faced severe shortages of food and essential resources.




Smoke from an explosion due to Israeli bombardment rises in the hills of Rmeich in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, on October 22, 2024. (AFP)

“People were left without work for 14 months and zero productivity. Those who had small sums of money had to spend them,” Alam said.

Rmeich is known for its red-tiled houses, nestled among green hills renowned for tobacco cultivation.

Alam noted that Christian festivities aim to bring hope and joy to families who have suffered and lost during the war. He promised to find ways to support those in pain.

“Despite all these circumstances, we will identify means through which we can help them and stand by them,” he said. 

“We will bring joy to their hearts, as this is the least we can do after the resilience they demonstrated over the course of 14 months.”

 


West Bank Palestinians fear Gaza-style clearance as Israel squeezes Jenin camp

West Bank Palestinians fear Gaza-style clearance as Israel squeezes Jenin camp
Updated 6 sec ago
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West Bank Palestinians fear Gaza-style clearance as Israel squeezes Jenin camp

West Bank Palestinians fear Gaza-style clearance as Israel squeezes Jenin camp
  • Month-long operation in northern West Bank has been one of biggest seen since Second Intifada
  • At least 40,000 Palestinians have left their homes in Jenin and nearby city of Tulkarm in West Bank

JENIN, West Bank: Israeli bulldozers have demolished large areas of the now virtually empty Jenin refugee camp and appear to be carving wide roadways through its once-crowded warren of alleyways, echoing tactics already employed in Gaza as troops prepare for a long-term stay.
At least 40,000 Palestinians have left their homes in Jenin and the nearby city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank since Israel began its operation just a day after reaching a ceasefire agreement in Gaza after 15 months of war.
“Jenin is a repeat of what happened in Jabalia,” said Basheer Matahen, spokesperson for the Jenin municipality, referring to the refugee camp in northern Gaza that was cleared out by the Israeli army after weeks of bitter fighting. “The camp has become uninhabitable.”

He said at least 12 bulldozers were at work demolishing houses and infrastructure in the camp, once a crowded township that housed descendants of Palestinians who fled their homes or were driven out in the 1948 war in what Palestinians call the ‘Nakba’ or catastrophe at the start of the state of Israel.
He said army engineering teams could be seen making preparations for a long-term stay, bringing water tanks and generators to a special area of almost one acre in size.
No comment was immediately available from the Israeli military but on Sunday, Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered troops to prepare for “a prolonged stay,” saying the camps had been cleared “for the coming year” and residents would not be allowed to return.
The month-long operation in the northern West Bank has been one of the biggest seen since the Second Intifada uprising by Palestinians more than 20 years ago, involving several brigades of Israeli troops backed by drones, helicopters, and, for the first time in decades, heavy battle tanks.
“There is a broad and ongoing evacuation of population, mainly in the two refugee camps, Nur Shams, near to Tulkarm and Jenin,” said Michael Milshtein, a former military intelligence official who heads the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies.
“I don’t know what the broad strategy is but there’s no doubt at all that we didn’t see such a step in the past.”
Israel launched the operation, saying it intended to take on Iranian-backed militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad that have been firmly implanted in the refugee camps for decades, despite repeated Israeli attempts to root them out.
But as the weeks have gone on, Palestinians have said the real intention appears to be a large scale, permanent displacement of the population by destroying homes and making it impossible for them to stay.
“Israel wants to erase the camps and the memory of the camps, morally and financially, they want to erase the name of refugees from the memory of the people,” said 85-year-old Hassan Al-Katib, who lived in the Jenin camp with 20 children and grandchildren before abandoning his house and all his possessions during the Israeli operation.
Already, Israel has campaigned to undermine UNWRA, the main Palestinian relief agency, banning it from its former headquarters in East Jerusalem and ordering it to stop operations in Jenin.
“We don’t know what is the intention of the state of Israel. We know there’s a lot of displacement out of the camps,” said UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma, adding that refugees enjoyed protected status regardless of their physical location.

’MILITARY OPERATION’
The camps, permanent symbols of the unresolved status of 5.9 Palestinian refugees, have been a constant target for Israel which says the refugee issue has hindered any resolution of the decades-long conflict.
But it has always held back from clearing them permanently. On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denied that the operation in the West Bank had any wider purpose than combating militant groups.
“It’s military operations taking place there against terrorists, and no other objectives but that,” he told reporters in Brussels where he met European Union officials in the EU-Israel Association Council.
But many Palestinians see an echo of US President Donald Trump’s call for Palestinians to be moved out of Gaza to make way for a US property development project, a call that was endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the operation in the northern West Bank appeared to be repeating tactics used in the Gaza, where Israeli troops systematically displaced thousands of Palestinians as they moved through the enclave.
“We demand that the US administration force the occupation state to immediately stop the aggression it is waging on the cities of the West Bank,” he said.
Israeli hard-liners inside and outside the government have called repeatedly for Israel to annex the West Bank, a kidney-shaped area around 100 kilometers long that Palestinians see as the core of a future independent state, along with Gaza.
But pressure has been tempered by fears that outright annexation could sink prospects of building economic and security ties with Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, and face a veto by Israel’s main ally, the United States.
However, hard-liners have been heartened by the large number of strongly pro-Israel figures in the new US administration and by Trump himself, who said earlier this month that he would announce his position on the West Bank within weeks.


Israel refuses entry to 2 EU lawmakers and accuses 1 of promoting boycotts of it

Rima Hassan (L) and Lynn Boylan. (Supplied)
Rima Hassan (L) and Lynn Boylan. (Supplied)
Updated 25 February 2025
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Israel refuses entry to 2 EU lawmakers and accuses 1 of promoting boycotts of it

Rima Hassan (L) and Lynn Boylan. (Supplied)
  • “Israel is a rogue state, and this disgraceful move shows the level of utter disregard that they have for international law. Europe must now hold Israel to account”

TEL AVIV, Israel: Israel on Monday denied entry to two European Union lawmakers, accusing one of promoting boycotts of the country.
Lynn Boylan, who chairs the European Parliament EU-Palestine delegation, and Rima Hassan were refused entry at Ben-Gurion airport and ordered to return to Europe.
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel said French politician Hassan has “consistently worked to promote boycotts against Israel in addition to numerous public statements both on social media and in media interviews.”
No reasons were immediately given for Boylan being denied entry.
Hassan was born in Aleppo, Syria, and, like Boylan, is a member of The Left group in the EU parliament. On Friday, The Left group called for the immediate suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement – a pact that underpins their relations – given the International Court of Justice investigation into crimes committed against Palestinians in Gaza.
Boylan said she had planned to meet with Palestinian Authority officials, representatives of civil society organizations and people living under Israeli occupation. Boylan is a member of the Sinn Fein party in Ireland, which has been among the most vocal countries in criticizing the Israeli government over its treatment of Palestinians.
“This utter contempt from Israel is the result of the international community failing to hold them to account,” Boylan said in a statement. “Israel is a rogue state, and this disgraceful move shows the level of utter disregard that they have for international law. Europe must now hold Israel to account.”
Israeli legislators passed a law this month that prohibits entry to people who have denied Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack or expressed support for the international prosecution of Israeli soldiers.
The law, which applies to non-citizens and non-residents of Israel, builds on previous legislation that denied entry to anyone calling for a boycott of Israel. The law also bans the entry of Holocaust deniers.
The original law was seen by opponents as an attempt by Israel to silence critics. It was used on multiple occasions to bar entry to activists who support the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, known as BDS.
Supporters portray BDS as nonviolent activism based on a similar campaign against apartheid South Africa. Israel views the movement as an attack on its very legitimacy and accuses some organizers of antisemitism, allegations they deny.
Hassan, who hails from the French hard-left France Unbowed, called for a rally outside EU headquarters where the meeting took place on Monday, and where some protesters had gathered.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar was on a diplomatic visit to Brussels for the EU-Israel Association Council. The council does not meet frequently, and Monday’s meeting was called amid pressure from Spain and Ireland to suspend the forum over Israel’s actions in Gaza. Saar met with several European leaders in Brussels.
Earlier on Monday, Saar told reporters Israel was used to facing criticism and ready to approach all discussions with an open mind.
“It’s OK as long as the criticism is not connected to the delegitimization, demonization or double standards, which from time to time are things we see in the attacks against Israel,” he said.
 

 


West Bank Palestinians fear Gaza-style clearance as Israel squeezes Jenin camp

West Bank Palestinians fear Gaza-style clearance as Israel squeezes Jenin camp
Updated 25 February 2025
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West Bank Palestinians fear Gaza-style clearance as Israel squeezes Jenin camp

West Bank Palestinians fear Gaza-style clearance as Israel squeezes Jenin camp
  • The month-long operation in the northern West Bank has been one of the biggest seen since the Second Intifada uprising by Palestinians more than 20 years ago
  • Already, Israel has campaigned to undermine UNWRA, the main Palestinian relief agency, banning it from its former headquarters in East Jerusalem and ordering it to stop operations in Jenin

JENIN, West Bank: Israeli bulldozers have demolished large areas of the now virtually empty Jenin refugee camp and appear to be carving wide roadways through its once-crowded warren of alleyways, echoing tactics already employed in Gaza as troops prepare for a long-term stay.
At least 40,000 Palestinians have left their homes in Jenin and the nearby city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank since Israel began its operation just a day after reaching a ceasefire agreement in Gaza after 15 months of war.
“Jenin is a repeat of what happened in Jabalia,” said Basheer Matahen, spokesperson for the Jenin municipality, referring to the refugee camp in northern Gaza that was cleared out by the Israeli army after weeks of bitter fighting. “The camp has become uninhabitable.”

HIGHLIGHTS

• Tens of thousands cleared from camps in northern West Bank

• Israeli troops seen preparing for long stay

• Israeli hardliners look to Trump for support

He said at least 12 bulldozers were at work demolishing houses and infrastructure in the camp, once a crowded township that housed descendants of Palestinians who fled their homes or were driven out in the 1948 war in what Palestinians call the ‘Nakba’ or catastrophe at the start of the state of Israel.
He said army engineering teams could be seen making preparations for a long-term stay, bringing water tanks and generators to a special area of almost one acre in size.
No comment was immediately available from the Israeli military but on Sunday, Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered troops to prepare for “a prolonged stay,” saying the camps had been cleared “for the coming year” and residents would not be allowed to return.
The month-long operation in the northern West Bank has been one of the biggest seen since the Second Intifada uprising by Palestinians more than 20 years ago, involving several brigades of Israeli troops backed by drones, helicopters, and, for the first time in decades, heavy battle tanks.
“There is a broad and ongoing evacuation of population, mainly in the two refugee camps, Nur Shams, near to Tulkarm and Jenin,” said Michael Milshtein, a former military intelligence official who heads the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies.
“I don’t know what the broad strategy is but there’s no doubt at all that we didn’t see such a step in the past.”
Israel launched the operation, saying it intended to take on Iranian-backed militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad that have been firmly implanted in the refugee camps for decades, despite repeated Israeli attempts to root them out.
But as the weeks have gone on, Palestinians have said the real intention appears to be a large scale, permanent displacement of the population by destroying homes and making it impossible for them to stay.
“Israel wants to erase the camps and the memory of the camps, morally and financially, they want to erase the name of refugees from the memory of the people,” said 85-year-old Hassan Al-Katib, who lived in the Jenin camp with 20 children and grandchildren before abandoning his house and all his possessions during the Israeli operation.
Already, Israel has campaigned to undermine UNWRA, the main Palestinian relief agency, banning it from its former headquarters in East Jerusalem and ordering it to stop operations in Jenin.
“We don’t know what is the intention of the state of Israel. We know there’s a lot of displacement out of the camps,” said UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma, adding that refugees enjoyed protected status regardless of their physical location.

’MILITARY OPERATION’
The camps, permanent symbols of the unresolved status of 5.9 Palestinian refugees, have been a constant target for Israel which says the refugee issue has hindered any resolution of the decades-long conflict.
But it has always held back from clearing them permanently. On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denied that the operation in the West Bank had any wider purpose than combating militant groups.
“It’s military operations taking place there against terrorists, and no other objectives but that,” he told reporters in Brussels where he met European Union officials in the EU-Israel Association Council.
But many Palestinians see an echo of US President Donald Trump’s call for Palestinians to be moved out of Gaza to make way for a US property development project, a call that was endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the operation in the northern West Bank appeared to be repeating tactics used in the Gaza, where Israeli troops systematically displaced thousands of Palestinians as they moved through the enclave.
“We demand that the US administration force the occupation state to immediately stop the aggression it is waging on the cities of the West Bank,” he said.
Israeli hard-liners inside and outside the government have called repeatedly for Israel to annex the West Bank, a kidney-shaped area around 100 kilometers long that Palestinians see as the core of a future independent state, along with Gaza.
But pressure has been tempered by fears that outright annexation could sink prospects of building economic and security ties with Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, and face a veto by Israel’s main ally, the United States.
However, hard-liners have been heartened by the large number of strongly pro-Israel figures in the new US administration and by Trump himself, who said earlier this month that he would announce his position on the West Bank within weeks.

 


Gaza ceasefire faces hurdle but not collapsing yet, say analysts

Gaza ceasefire faces hurdle but not collapsing yet, say analysts
Updated 25 February 2025
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Gaza ceasefire faces hurdle but not collapsing yet, say analysts

Gaza ceasefire faces hurdle but not collapsing yet, say analysts
  • Hamas, in turn, warned that Israel’s decision jeopardizes the “entire agreement,” stopping short of promising a return to fighting
  • Despite Israel demanding Gaza be completely demilitarised and Hamas removed, while the militant group insisting on remaining in the territory after the war, Mendoza said that if Trump throws his weight behind phase two “then it will happen”

JERUSALEM: Gaza’s fragile five-week truce faces a major hurdle with Israel’s refusal to release Palestinian prisoners, but analysts say the ceasefire is likely to hold as Washington pushes for its extension.
“It’s actually the most complicated crisis since the beginning of the ceasefire,” Palestinian affairs expert Michael Milshtein of Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center told AFP.
While previous obstacles have tested the truce — including Hamas’s threat to stop releasing hostages over alleged violations of the ceasefire including insufficient aid entering Gaza — Milshtein emphasized that “this time, it is even more complicated.”
On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, after militants freed six hostages.
He condemned what he described as “humiliating ceremonies” by Hamas to free hostages in Gaza.
Palestinian militants had in the weeks prior paraded Israeli captives and later displayed black coffins containing deceased hostages on stage, sparking outrage across Israel.
Netanyahu went further on Sunday, warning that Israel was ready to “resume intense fighting at any moment” in the Palestinian territory.

Hamas, in turn, warned that Israel’s decision jeopardizes the “entire agreement,” stopping short of promising a return to fighting.
Yet, despite the escalating rhetoric, both sides appear intent on maintaining the ceasefire, according to Milshtein.
“Hamas really wants to implement phase one of the deal because on Saturday, the IDF (military) is meant to start leaving the Philadelphi Corridor,” he noted, referring to a strategic strip that runs along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
For Israel, Mairav Zonszein, an analyst from the International Crisis Group, said that Netanyahu was also stuck “in the same quagmire of trying to get hostages out while trying to get rid of the people holding those hostages.”
“I think Netanyahu is kind of doing what he does best, which is dragging things out, buying time, trying to see if he can leverage withholding these prisoners,” she said.
Zonszein noted that Israeli public opinion is putting pressure on Netanyahu to uphold the ceasefire, particularly as more hostages are seen “coming out alive.”
Some analysts suggest that Israel’s tougher stance is a calculated negotiating tactic ahead of upcoming talks for the second phase of truce.
“I don’t think the ceasefire will collapse, it’s not in Netanyahu’s interest to have it collapse particularly as hostages are still being held in Gaza,” said Sanam Vakil, director of UK-based think tank Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa program.
“What we are witnessing now is political hardball, with them (Israel) trying to up the ante, or increase pressure on Hamas” ahead of the next phase, she said.

Phase two was “always going to be the hardest phase of the negotiations, made worse by the US position and posturing and by the fact there is no coherent Arab plan,” she said.
Trump has stirred controversy by openly suggesting that the United States should take control of Gaza and expel its 2.4 million inhabitants to Egypt and Jordan.
But in recent days he has toned down his view and on Wednesday his special envoy Steve Witkoff is due to arrive in Israel to push forward the phase two talks.
“I think the key to this is the Americans, they will determine what takes place next,” said Alan Mendoza, executive director of the UK-based Henry Jackson Society.
“Trump was the main factor in getting Netanyahu to agree to ceasefire,” he said, noting that the deal was on the table previously but “Trump pushed it and both the Israelis and Hamas have agreed to its terms.”
Despite Israel demanding Gaza be completely demilitarised and Hamas removed, while the militant group insisting on remaining in the territory after the war, Mendoza said that if Trump throws his weight behind phase two “then it will happen.”
“It’s a tough negotiation round and the odds are we will not be able to agree on a stage two plan but if the Arab states buck up... and take more of an interest given Trump’s Gaza Riveria plans — there’s a possibility we could do it.”
 

 


Doctors Without Borders halts activities at Sudan’s Zamzam camp due to heavy fighting

Doctors Without Borders halts activities at Sudan’s Zamzam camp due to heavy fighting
Updated 25 February 2025
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Doctors Without Borders halts activities at Sudan’s Zamzam camp due to heavy fighting

Doctors Without Borders halts activities at Sudan’s Zamzam camp due to heavy fighting
  • The escalation made it “impossible” for the group to provide life-saving humanitarian needs to thousands of displaced people in the area

CAIRO: Doctors Without Borders on Monday halted its operations in Sudan’s famine-stricken Zamzam camp due to an escalation of attacks and fighting in the vicinity.
The international medical aid group, also known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières and acronym MSF, said fighting between the Sudanese military and its rival paramilitary the Rapid Support Forces intensified in the camp, located in North Darfur.
The escalation made it “impossible” for the group to provide life-saving humanitarian needs to thousands of displaced people in the area, it said in a statement, adding it had suspended all activities in Zamzam, including at its field hospital.
“Halting our project in the midst of a worsening disaster in Zamzam is a heart breaking decision,” said Yahya Kalilah, the group’s head of mission in Sudan.
Kalilah said that being close to violence, experiencing great difficulty in sending supplies, dealing with the “impossibility” of send experienced staff, and the uncertainty around routes out of the camp, left MSF with “little choice.”
Sudan plunged into war when fighting began in April 2023 between the military and the RSF after simmering tensions. As a result of fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to the other parts of the country. The conflict that killed more than 24,000 people, forced over 14 million people out of their homes, and created famine across various parts of the country.
The fighting in Zamzam ramped up on Feb. 11-12, according to the MSF. The field hospital received 130 wounded patients, most suffering from gunshot and shrapnel wounds.
The MSF facility in Zamzam can’t provide trauma surgery for those in critical conditions as it was originally established to address the significant malnutrition crisis unfolding in the camp.
Kalilah said that 11 patients died in the hospital, including five children, because staff couldn’t treat them properly or refer them to the local hospital in El Fasher, the regional capital. Access to water and food in the area has been more compromised because of the fighting, according to the MSF. The central market has been looted and burnt.
Zamzam camp hosts around 500,000 people and has seen displaced families newly arriving from the areas of Abu Zerega, Shagra, and Saluma, who told MSF teams of abuses in villages and roads in the El Fasher locality that include killings, sexual violence, lootings, and beatings.
“In January and December, two of our ambulances carrying patients from the camp to El Fasher were shot at,” Kalilah said. “Now it’s even more dangerous and as a result, many people, including patients requiring trauma surgery or emergency caesarean sections, are trapped in Zamzam.”