Will Turkiye and Syria succeed in turning the page on decade-long enmity?
Will Turkiye and Syria succeed in turning the page on decade-long enmity?/node/2553811/middle-east
Will Turkiye and Syria succeed in turning the page on decade-long enmity?
Protesters in opposition-held Idlib and the Aleppo countryside wave flags of the Syrian revolution and hold signs that read: ‘If you want to get closer to Assad, congratulations, the curse of history is upon you.’ (AN photo by Ahmed Akasha)
ATHENS/QAMISHLI, Syria: Since 2022, senior Syrian and Turkish officials have periodically met in Moscow for talks mediated by Russia. But those meetings have failed to result in a thaw in their icy relations.
It is a different matter now, however, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announcing his desire to restore formal ties with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad.
He said earlier this month that he could invite Assad to Turkiye “at any moment,” to which the Syrian leader responded that any meeting would depend on the “content.”
Ankara and Damascus severed diplomatic ties in 2011 following the eruption of Syria’s civil war. Relations have remained hostile ever since, particularly as Turkiye continues to support armed groups resisting the Assad regime.
Since the civil war erupted in 2011, Turkiye has supported armed Syrian factions in their fight against the regime of President Bashar Assad. (AFP)
What, then, is the motivation for changing course now? And what are the likely consequences of Turkish-Syrian normalization of ties?
Syrian writer and political researcher Shoresh Darwish believes President Erdogan is pursuing normalization for two reasons. “The first is preparation for the possibility of the arrival of a new American administration led by Donald Trump, which means the possibility of a return to the policy of (a US) withdrawal from Syria,” he told Arab News.
“Erdogan will therefore need to cooperate with Assad and Russia.”
This photo released by the Syrian Arab News Agency shows President Bashar Assad (R) meeting with then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Aleppo. (SANA/AFP)
The second reason, Darwish says, is Erdogan’s desire to get closer to Syrian regime ally Russia after Turkiye’s drift toward the US following the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Indeed, as a NATO member state, the conflict has complicated Turkiye’s normally balanced approach to its ties with Washington and Moscow.
“Ankara’s cooperation with Moscow is difficult in terms of the Ukrainian issue,” said Darwish. “As a result of the significant Western interference in this issue, their cooperation in Syria represents a meeting point through which Erdogan wants to highlight his friendship with Putin and Moscow’s interests in the Middle East.”
Those in Syria’s opposition-held northwest, which is backed by Turkiye, see an Ankara-Damascus rapprochement as a betrayal.
Protesters in opposition-held Idlib and the Aleppo countryside wave flags of the Syrian revolution and hold signs that read: ‘If you want to get closer to Assad, congratulations, the curse of history is upon you.’ (AN photo by Ahmed Akasha)
During one of several protests in Idlib since the beginning of July, demonstrators held signs in Arabic that read: “If you want to get closer to Assad, congratulations, the curse of history is upon you.”
Abdulkarim Omar, a political activist from Idlib, told Arab News: “Western Syria, Idlib, the Aleppo countryside, and all areas belonging to the opposition completely reject this behavior because it is only in the interest of the Syrian regime.
Turkish-backed Syrian rebel fighters take part in a military parade in the rebel-held northern part of the Aleppo province on July 2, 2022. (AFP)
“The Syrian people came out 13 years ago and rose up in their revolution demanding freedom, dignity, and the building of a civil, democratic state for all Syrians. This can only be achieved by overthrowing the tyrannical Syrian regime represented by Bashar Assad. They still cling to this principle and these slogans and cannot abandon them.”
Those living in areas controlled by the Kurdish-led and US-backed Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, or AANES, which holds much of Syria’s territory east of the Euphrates River, are also wary of the consequences of normalization.
Map of Syria showing zones of control by the different partipants in late 2020. Some cities then under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had been seized by Turkish forces. (AFP/File)
“There are fears among the population that reconciliation may be a prelude to punishing the Syrian Kurds for their political choices,” said Omar.
Incursions into Syria from 2016 to 2019 saw Turkiye take control of several cities, many of which were previously under the control of the AANES.
Turkiye’s justification for its 2018 and 2019 incursions and continued presence on Syrian territory was its aim to establish a “safe zone” between itself and the armed forces of the AANES — the Syrian Democratic Forces.
A member of the Syrian Kurdish Asayish security forces stands guard as mourners march during the funeral of two Kurdish women killed in a Turkish drone strike in Hasakah, northeastern Syria, on June 21, 2023. (AFP)
Turkiye views the SDF as a Syrian wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a group that has been in conflict with the Turkish state since the 1980s.
“Naturally, the Syrian Kurds know that they will be part of any deal that Erdogan wants to conclude with Assad,” said Darwish. “This issue unnerves the Syrian Kurds, who see Turkiye as ready to do anything to harm them and their experience in self-administration.”
Darwish says the Syrian Kurds would accept reconciliation on three conditions. First they would want to see Turkiye remove its troops from Afrin and Ras Al-Ain. Second, an end to Turkish strikes against AANES areas. And third, a guarantee from the Assad regime “that the Syrian Kurds will enjoy their national, cultural, and administrative rights.”
In this photo taken on January 27, 2018, a Turkish military convoy drives through the Oncupinar border crossing as troops enter Syria during a military campaign in the Kurdish-held Syrian enclave of Afrin. (AFP/File)
But just how likely is a rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus? Not very, according to conflict analyst and UNHRC delegate Thoreau Redcrow. “I find the prospects of an Erdogan and Assad detente very unlikely,” he told Arab News.
“Historically, Turkiye’s ideas of ‘normalization’ with Syria amount to a policy of one-way influence for Ankara’s benefit. In this arrangement, Turkiye continues to occupy Hatay (Liwa Iskenderun), which they seized from Syria in 1938, and make military incursion demands on their sovereignty, like with the Adana Agreement in 1998, but give nothing in return.”
Assad has made it clear in public statements that a meeting between him and Erdogan would only occur on the condition of a Turkish withdrawal from Syrian territory. Redcrow believes Turkiye has no intention of leaving.
“I cannot see Damascus being interested in being manipulated for a photo-op,” he said. “The Syrian government is far more prideful than some of the other regional actors who are happy to be one of Turkiye’s ‘neo-Ottoman vilayets.’”
Erdogan may be attempting to capitalize on the trend toward normalization among Arab countries, which began in earnest with Syria’s reinstatement into the Arab League last year. European states and the US, however, remain divided.
A parade by female staff of the internal security and police force of the US-backed AANES, which governs much of Syria’s territory east of the Euphrates River. (AN photo by Ali Ali)
“Whereas Germany, France, Italy, and the UK in particular are more focused on how Turkiye can control the gateway into Europe and act as a ‘continental bouncer’ for refugees from the Middle East and Western Asia, the US is more focused on denying Russia and Iran full access to all of Syria again for strategic reasons, like Mediterranean Sea access and the ‘Shiite land bridge’ from Tehran to Beirut,” said Redcrow.
“The current status quo is far more beneficial to Washington than any reconciliation would be, as it would also endanger the northeast portions of Syria, where the US military is embedded with their most reliable military partners against Daesh in the SDF. So, Turkiye would not be given any kind of green light to place American interests at risk.”
The US House of Representatives in February passed the Assad Regime Anti-Normalization Act of 2023, which prohibits any normalization with Assad. In a post on the social media platform X on July 12, the bill’s author, Rep. Joe Wilson, voiced his disappointment with Erdogan’s calls for normalization, likening it to “normalizing with death itself.”
Troops from the Syrian Democratic Forces and the US-led anti-jihadist coalition, take part in heavy-weaponry military exercises in the countryside of Deir Ezzor in northeastern Syria, on March 25, 2022. ((AFP)
Though there may be little chance of reconciliation succeeding at this point, the approximately 3.18 million Syrian refugees living in Turkiye view even rumors of normalization with fear and dread.
“People are very afraid,” Amal Hayat, a Syrian mother of five living in southeastern Turkiye, told Arab News. “Since the rumors (of reconciliation) started, many people don’t even leave their homes. Even if they are beaten by their bosses at work, they are afraid to say anything for fear of being deported.”
Turkish authorities deported more than 57,000 Syrians in 2023, according to Human Rights Watch.
“A forced return would affect us a lot,” said Hayat. “For example, if a woman returns to Syria with her family, her husband may be arrested by the regime. Or if a man gets deported back to Syria and his wife and children stay in Turkiye, how will they manage? It’s difficult. Here, our kids can study. They have stability and safety.
A Syrian woman is seen at a refugee camp near the Syria-Turkish border. (AN photo by Ali Ali)
The fear of deportation has been compounded by waves of violence against Syrian refugees which swept Turkiye’s south in recent weeks. On June 30, residents of central Turkiye’s Kayseri province attacked Syrians and their property.
Anti-Syrian sentiment in Turkiye is partially due to economic issues, where Turks see underpaid or even unpaid Syrians as a threat to their prospects of employment.
“The Turks are very happy for us to return home,” said Hayat. “For them, it’s not soon enough. We are all living under a heightened level of stress. We are just praying that (Assad and Erdogan) don’t reconcile.”
Israeli opposition leader Yair Golan’s critique of Gaza war toll on Palestinians sparks outcry
Yair Golan’s comments are some of the harshest language against Israel’s wartime conduct in Gaza
It is not uncommon for politicians to criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war strategy
Updated 22 May 2025
AP
TEL AVIV, Israel: Killing babies “as a hobby.” “Expelling a population.” “Fighting against civilians.”
It is some of the harshest language against Israel’s wartime conduct in Gaza and it came this week from a prominent Israeli politician, sparking a domestic uproar as the country faces heavy international criticism.
It is not uncommon for politicians to criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war strategy, especially his failure to free all the hostages held by Hamas. What made the comments by center-left opposition party leader Yair Golan rare – and jarring to officials across the political spectrum – was their focus on the plight of Palestinians.
The ensuing controversy underscored how little the war’s toll on Gaza’s civilians has figured into the public discourse in Israel – in stark contrast to the rest of the world.
Speaking to the Israeli public radio station Reshet Bet, Golan – a former general – said Israel was becoming a pariah state and cautioned that “a sane country doesn’t engage in fighting against civilians, doesn’t kill babies as a hobby and doesn’t set for itself the goals of expelling a population.”
After the outcry, he said he was referring to the conduct of Israel’s far-right government in his remarks, not of its soldiers. A rare focus on the plight of Palestinian civilians
Golan’s words were a shock to the system because, outside of the country’s politically marginalized left, criticism focused on Palestinian civilian suffering and deaths has rarely been spoken publicly in Israel.
The reasons for this include: the trauma Israelis still feel over Hamas’ deadly attack on Oct. 7. 2023, Jewish citizens’ deep faith in the righteousness of the military, dozens of hostages remain in Gaza and soldiers are dying to rescue them.
Criticism of the war has focused overwhelmingly on Netanyahu. His opponents believe his own political motives have dictated war strategy and his failure to reach a deal with Hamas to release all the hostages – an accusation he denies.
“Part of the Israeli public and media outlets are still trapped in an obsession over the initial shock that started this war,” said Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister and fierce critic of the current government. “But this is changing and it’s just a matter of time.”
Public opinion polls show that most Israelis support ending the war in exchange for the release of the remaining 58 hostages held by Hamas, around a third of whom are said to be alive.
Opponents of the war have tended to focus on concerns over the fate of the remaining hostages and the risk of soldier casualties in a campaign that many feel has run its course.
While Olmert disputed Golan’s choice of words, he said the essence of his remarks “reflects what many people think.” Israelis are still traumatized by Hamas’ attack
After Hamas’ 2023 attack, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, Israelis rallied behind the military. They saw the war as a just response to the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. Many Israelis cannot imagine a future where Hamas remains intact.
Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count doesn’t differentiate between combatants and civilians. The fighting has displaced 90 percent of the territory’s roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gaza’s urban landscape.
While international media coverage has largely focused on the war in Gaza and its toll on civilians there, in Israel the media still devotes heavy attention to the Oct. 7 attack itself and the hostage crisis. Photos of those still held captive line the streets.
Stories about the plight of Palestinian civilians are less prominent, and largely avoid the harshest images emanating from Gaza. Most outlets repeat the official line that Hamas is solely to blame for the civilian toll.
For many Jewish Israelis, it is hard to fathom that their own children, most of whom must enlist in Israel’s military, could be committing the crimes that Golan described.
All that has helped solidify a national narrative that views the war as an existential struggle.
“When you fight a war of existence, you don’t much think about the suffering of the enemy,” said Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank. Golan’s words have sparked outcry before
A former deputy chief of staff of the military, Golan’s words have sparked outcry in the past. The most notable occasion was a 2016 speech marking Israel’s Holocaust remembrance day, when he compared what he said was an increasingly illiberal atmosphere in Israel to that of Nazi-era Germany.
On Oct. 7, Golan donned his uniform and grabbed a gun to help battle militants during Israel’s flailing first response to Hamas’ assault. Olmert called him “one of Israel’s greatest warriors.”
Golan is not the first public figure to have made such remarks about Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Former defense minister and military chief of staff Moshe Yaalon accused Israel of ethnic cleansing during a major operation last year. Zehava Galon, a former leader of a dovish political party, highlighted the deaths of thousands of children at a recent protest in Tel Aviv.
But unlike them, Golan has his political future at stake, lending more weight to his words. Pictures of dead Palestinian children
Netanyahu said Golan’s words “echoed disgraceful antisemitic blood libels.” Benny Gantz, an opposition leader, said Golan’s remarks were extreme and false and called on him to recant and apologize, which he did not do. Yair Lapid, another opposition leader, said Golan’s words were “a gift to our enemies.”
Rosner said Golan’s wording was “uncareful” and that instead of triggering introspection, they prompted a media debate over Golan himself and the damage his remarks might cause to Israel.
But they could resonate among the steadfast anti-war protest movement, said Alma Beck, an activist who is part of a small contingent of demonstrators who have been holding up pictures of Palestinian children killed in Gaza ever since Israel ended a ceasefire in March. She said the group began as 20 people and has grown to 600, still just a fraction of the thousands attending the broader anti-government protests.
Beck said the protest movement has been receptive to messages that focus on the Palestinian toll, and more signs with that message have been held up by demonstrators in recent weeks. Their main criticism remains that Netanyahu is continuing the war to appease his governing partners and ensure his own political survival.
“I think there is a shift. I think people are starting to connect the dots,” she said, while noting that the bulk of Israeli society hasn’t changed. “I hope that it will only grow.”
UN warns of renewed conflict in Syria but offers hope with sanctions lifting
The new Syrian government, led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, has said Syria’s heritage of coexistence must be preserved at all costs, but the country faces massive challenges
Updated 22 May 2025
AP
UNITED NATIONS: The top UN official for Syria warned Wednesday of the “real dangers of renewed conflict and deeper confrontation” in the war-battered country but also hoped for a better life for its people following decisions by the US and European Union to lift sanctions.
Geir Pedersen noted the fragilities in the multiethnic country and “the urgent need to address the growing polarization.” He pointed to violence against the Druze minority in late April following the killings in Alawite-minority areas in March.
“The challenges facing Syria are enormous, and the real dangers of renewed conflict and deeper fragmentation have not yet been overcome,” he told the UN Security Council.
But Pedersen said the Syrian people are cautiously optimistic that President Donald Trump’s announcement last week that the US will lift sanctions and a similar EU announcement Tuesday will “give them a better chance than before to succeed against great odds.”
Speaking by video from Damascus, Pedersen called sanctions relief, including by the United Kingdom last month, as well as financial and energy support from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkiye “historic developments.”
“They hold major potential to improve living conditions across the country and to support the Syrian political transition,” the UN special envoy said. “And they give the Syrian people a chance to grapple with the legacy of misrule, conflict, abuses and poverty from which they are trying to emerge.”
Former Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted in a lightning rebel offensive late last year after a 13-year war, ending more than 50 years of rule by the Assad family. The new Syrian government, led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, has said Syria’s heritage of coexistence must be preserved at all costs, but the country faces massive challenges.
Today, 90 percent of Syrians live in poverty, with 16.5 million needing protection and humanitarian assistance, including nearly 3 million facing acute food insecurity, Ramesh Rajasingham, the UN humanitarian division’s chief coordinator, told the council.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday that Syria is potentially “on the verge of collapse,” warning that would lead to civil war and the country again becoming “a playground” for the Daesh group and other militants.
Pedersen told the Security Council that IS has been escalating attacks in areas of Syria in recent weeks, with signs of more coordinated operations using improvised explosive devices and medium-range weapons.
Rubio said there’s no guarantee that “things are going to work out” by lifting sanctions and working with Al-Sharaa’s transitional government, but if the US didn’t try, “it’s guaranteed not to work out.” He said Trump’s announcement of sanctions relief has led regional and Arab partner nations to help stabilize the country.
“No one should pretend this is going to be easy, because it’s not,” Rubio said. But if Syria could be stabilized, it would mean broader stability in the region, including Lebanon, Jordan and Israel, he said.
“It is a historic opportunity we hope comes to fruition,” Rubio said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make it succeed.”
John Kelley, political coordinator at the US mission to the United Nations, told the council that “US government agencies are now working to execute the president’s direction on Syria’s sanctions.”
“We look forward to issuing the necessary authorizations that will be critical to bringing new investment into Syria to help rebuild Syria’s economy and put the country on a path to a bright, prosperous and stable future,” he said. “The United States also has taken the first steps toward restoring normal diplomatic relations with Syria.”
Syria’s transitional government is urged to take “bold steps” toward Trump administration expectations, Kelley said, including making peace with Israel, quickly removing foreign militant fighters from the Syrian military, ensuring foreign extremists such as Palestinian militias can’t operate from Syria, and cooperating in preventing the resurgence of the Daesh group.
Syria’s deputy UN ambassador, Riyad Khaddour, praised Trump’s “courageous decision” to lift sanctions as well as his meeting with Al-Sharaa. Khaddour also touted actions by the European Union, UK, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates “to support Syria as it moves forward with confidence and hope.”
“The new Syria” is seeking to become “a state of peace and partnership, not a battleground for conflicts or a platform for foreign ambitions,” he said.
A look at South Sudan, where the US is accused of quietly sending migrants
Years of conflict have left South Sudan heavily reliant on aid that has been hit hard by another Trump administration decision — sweeping cuts in foreign assistance
Updated 22 May 2025
AP
The United States is being asked to explain why it appears to be deporting migrants from as far away as Vietnam and Cuba to South Sudan, a chaotic country that’s once again in danger of collapsing into civil war.
A US judge ordered Trump administration officials to appear at an emergency hearing Wednesday to answer questions. The administration said it had expelled eight immigrants convicted of violent crimes in the US but refused to say where they would end up.
If South Sudan is the confirmed destination, that means people from Vietnam, Mexico and elsewhere are being sent to a nation they have no link to, thousands of miles from where they want to be. Vietnam’s list of its embassies in Africa shows the closest one to South Sudan is in Tanzania, over 800 miles away.
South Sudan’s police spokesperson, Maj. Gen. James Monday Enoka, told The Associated Press that no migrants had arrived and if they did, they would be investigated and “redeported to their correct country” if not South Sudanese.
Some in the capital, Juba, worried their country would become a kind of dumping ground. “Those people who are deported, some of them are criminals, they have been involved in crimes. So once they are brought to South Sudan, that means that criminal activities will also increase,” said Martin Mawut Ochalla, 28.
This would not be the first time the Trump administration has pressured South Sudan over deportees. Recently, the administration abruptly revoked the visas of all South Sudanese, saying their government failed to accept the return of its citizens “in a timely manner.” South Sudan pushed back, saying the person in question was Congolese, but later said it would allow him to enter “in the spirit of maintaining friendly relations” with the US
South Sudan’s government has struggled since independence from Sudan in 2011 to deliver many of the basic services of a state. Years of conflict have left the country heavily reliant on aid that has been hit hard by another Trump administration decision — sweeping cuts in foreign assistance.
Here’s a look at South Sudan, whose own people had been granted US temporary protected status because of insecurity at home. A deadly divide
The euphoria of independence turned to civil war two years later, when rival factions backing President Salva Kiir and deputy Riek Machar opened fire on each other in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, in 2013.
The two men’s tensions have been so much at the heart of the country’s insecurity that the late Pope Francis once took the extraordinary step of kneeling to kiss their feet in a plea for lasting peace.
Five years of civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people. A peace deal reached in 2018 has been fragile and not fully implemented, to the frustration of the US and other international backers. South Sudan still hasn’t held a long-delayed presidential election, and Kiir remains in power.
His rivalry with Machar is compounded by ethnic divisions. Machar has long regarded himself as destined for the presidency, citing a prophecy years ago by a seer from his ethnic group.
Earlier this year, the threat of war returned. Machar was arrested and allies in the government and military were detained following a major escalation that included airstrikes and an attack on a United Nations helicopter. Machar’s opposition party announced South Sudan’s peace deal was effectively over.
“Let’s not mince words: What we are seeing is darkly reminiscent of the 2013 and 2016 civil wars, which killed 400,000 people,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned.
Some Western countries have closed their embassies there while others, including the US, have reduced embassy staff. The US Embassy’s travel warning said that “violent crime, such as carjackings, shootings, ambushes, assaults, robberies, and kidnappings are common throughout South Sudan, including Juba.” A country in disarray
The Trump administration’s pressure on South Sudan to take in deportees, including foreign ones, is in sharp contrast to Washington’s past warm embrace as its rebel leaders — including Kiir and Machar — fought for independence.
Now there is less support than ever for most of South Sudan’s over 11 million people because of the cuts in US aid.
Climate shocks including flooding have long caused mass displacement and closed schools. South Sudan’s health and education systems were already among the weakest in the world. Aid organizations had offered essential help.
South Sudan’s government has long relied on oil production, but little money from that is seen, in part because of official corruption. Conflict in neighboring Sudan has affected landlocked South Sudan’s oil exports. Civil servants at times go months without being paid.
How South Sudan is equipped to handle migrants arriving abruptly from the US is yet to be seen.
Israeli army said ‘eliminated’ attacker who killed pregnant woman
A resident of the Israeli settlement of Bruchin, 37-year-old Tzeela Gez died after she was shot in her vehicle
Updated 22 May 2025
AFP
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military announced Wednesday it “eliminated” the perpetrator of an attack that left one pregnant woman dead in the occupied West Bank last week.
In a joint statement with Israel’s internal security agency and the police, the army said that its forces were approached by an armed man in the West Bank town of Bruqin Saturday, near the site of last week’s attack.
They said the man was “running toward the forces while holding a backpack suspected to be rigged with explosives, shouting at them,” as they were conducting search operations.
An intelligence assessment said that “Nael Samara, the terrorist who was eliminated, was the terrorist who carried out the shooting attack adjacent to Bruchin on Thursday, May 14, 2025, in which a pregnant woman, Tzeela Gez, was murdered.”
A resident of the Israeli settlement of Bruchin, 37-year-old Tzeela Gez died after she was shot in her vehicle as she headed to the hospital to give birth.
Her baby was delivered by C-section, but was still in serious condition Tuesday, according to the father.
“We will catch the killers as we always do, we will fight them and we will defeat them,” Netanyahu said in a video released by his office later that day.
Israeli army chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir had earlier said “we will use all the tools at our disposal and reach the murderers in order to hold them accountable.”
Since the beginning of the Gaza war, sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the West Bank has seen a surge in violence.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory are considered illegal under international law.
The UN says no aid that has entered Gaza this week has reached Palestinians
Food security experts have warned that Gaza risks falling into famine unless the blockade ends
Updated 22 May 2025
AP
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza: The UN said Wednesday it was trying to get the desperately needed aid that has entered Gaza this week into the hands of Palestinians amid delays because of fears of looting and Israeli military restrictions. Israeli strikes pounded the territory, killing at least 86 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Under international pressure, Israel has allowed dozens of aid trucks into Gaza after blocking all food, medicine, fuel and other material for nearly three months. But the supplies have been sitting on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the majority of supplies that had entered since Monday had been loaded onto UN trucks, but they could not take them out of the crossing area. He said the road the Israeli military had given them permission to use was too unsafe. Talks were underway for an alternative, he said.
A UN official later said some trucks had left the crossing area, heading for warehouses in Gaza, but there was no immediate confirmation they arrived. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
Food security experts have warned that Gaza risks falling into famine unless the blockade ends. Malnutrition and hunger have been mounting. Aid groups ran out of food to distribute weeks ago, and most of the population of around 2.3 million relies on communal kitchens whose supplies are nearly depleted.
At a kitchen in Gaza City, a charity group distributed watery lentil soup.
Somaia Abu Amsha scooped small portions for her family, saying they have not had bread for over 10 days and she can’t afford rice or pasta.
“We don’t want anything other than that they end the war. We don’t want charity kitchens. Even dogs wouldn’t eat this, let alone children,” she said.
Aid groups say the small amount of aid that Israel has allowed is far short of what is needed. About 600 trucks entered daily under the latest ceasefire. Israeli warning shots shake diplomats
Israeli troops fired warning shots as a group of international diplomats was visiting the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Footage showed a number of diplomats giving media interviews as rapid shots ring out nearby, forcing them to run for cover. No one was reported injured.
The Israeli military said their visit had been approved, but the delegation “deviated from the approved route.” The military said it apologized and will contact the countries involved in the visit.
Israeli troops have raided Jenin dozens of times as part of a crackdown across the West Bank. The fighting displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians. Netanyahu says population will be moved south
Israel has said its slight easing of the blockade is a bridge until a new distribution system it demands is put in place. The UN and other humanitarian groups have rejected the system, saying it enables Israel to use aid as a weapon and forcibly displace the population.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters the plan will begin “in coming days.”
He said in a subsequent phase, Israel would create a “sterile zone” in the south, free of Hamas, where the population would be moved “for the purposes of its safety.” There, they would receive aid, “and then they enter – and they don’t necessarily go back.”
The plan involves small number of distribution hubs directed by a private, US-backed foundation known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Armed private contractors would guard the distribution.
Israel says the system is needed because Hamas siphons off significant amounts of aid. The UN denies that claim.
Initially, four hubs are being built, one in central Gaza and three at the far southern end of the strip, where few people remain.
A GHF spokesman said the group would never participate in or support any form of forced relocation of civilians. The spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with the group’s rules. said there was no limit to the number of sites and additional sites will open, including in the north, within the next month. The trickle of aid is jammed
Currently, after supplies enter at Kerem Shalom, aid workers are required to unload them and reload them onto their own trucks for distribution.
Antoine Renard, the World Food Program’s country chief for Palestine, said 78 trucks were waiting. He told The Associated Press that “we need to ensure that we will not be looted.”
Looting has plagued aid deliveries in the past, and at times of desperation people have swarmed aid trucks, taking supplies.
A UN official and another humanitarian worker said the Israeli military had designated a highly insecure route known to have looters. The military also set a short window for trucks to come to Kerem Shalom and rejected a number of individual truck drivers, forcing last-minute replacements, they said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing aid for Gaza, did not immediately respond when asked for comment. Hospitals surrounded
Israeli strikes continued across Gaza. In the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel recently ordered new evacuations pending an expanded offensive, 24 people were killed, 14 from the same family. A week-old infant was killed in central Gaza. In the evening, a strike hit a house in Jabaliya in northern Gaza, killing two children and their parents, according to hospital officials.
The Israeli military did not comment on the strikes. It says it targets Hamas infrastructure and accuses Hamas militants of operating from civilian areas.
Israeli troops also have surrounded two of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospitals, preventing anyone from leaving or entering the facilities, hospital staff and aid groups said this week.
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 believed to be alive, after most were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has destroyed large swaths of Gaza and 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.
