How disruption of Al-Aqsa’s status quo reignited the Israel-Palestine conflict

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the Haram Al-Sharif holds significance for all three Abrahamic faiths, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, but only Muslims may pray here while other faiths may only visit. (AFP/File)
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Updated 18 October 2023
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How disruption of Al-Aqsa’s status quo reignited the Israel-Palestine conflict

  • Haram Al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, has been the scene of provocative visits by Jewish religious extremists
  • Israeli legal expert Daniel Seidemann says occupation is “undermining the moral foundations of Israeli society”

LONDON: On Friday, Sept. 29, Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer who specializes in Israeli-Palestinian relations in Jerusalem, made the finishing touches to a research paper he had been commissioned to write by the Research & Studies Unit of Arab News.

The subject was the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the Haram Al-Sharif, known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount, which holds such significance for all three Abrahamic faiths, but where only Muslims may pray and other faiths may only visit.

That, at least, is the status quo that has prevailed at the site since 1967.




A general view of East Jerusalem and the Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site on October 15, 2023. (AFP)

But as the founder of Terrestrial Jerusalem, a nongovernmental organization focused on finding a resolution to the question of the city consistent with the two-state solution, in recent months Seidemann had become increasingly aware, and concerned, that the delicate balance that has been maintained at the site for the past 56 years was in danger of being torn apart.

 

That, he understood, was a recipe for disaster and in the hope of averting it he was anxious “to familiarize both leadership and the public at large with the relevant facts.”

Just over a week later, Seidemann awoke on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 7, to the news that the Palestinian militant group Hamas had launched its devastating attack on Israel from Gaza.

As he listened to the news unfolding, it came as no surprise to him when he heard that Hamas commander Mohammed Deif had described the assault as “Operation Al-Aqsa Deluge,” which he claimed had been launched in retaliation for Israel’s “desecration” of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Whether or not the attack had been motivated solely by recent events at the mosque — and Hamas had certainly issued previous warnings about the increasingly frequent breaches of the long-established status quo at the site — Seidemann knew one thing was certain.




Israeli minister and Jewish Power party chief Itamar Ben-Gvir (C) walking through the courtyard of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, known to Jews as Temple Mount, early on January 3, 2023. (AFP)

“The Al-Aqsa was a contributing factor, no doubt,” he said. “It always comes back to Al-Aqsa, and Jerusalem always has the last word.

“We have to familiarize both the Israeli public and the Arab world with the idea of a Jerusalem which will allow for cohabitation of these conflicting narratives. It isn’t utopia, but Jerusalem knows how to do this.

“And whether this comes to fruition or not, we will always be dealing with the question of Al-Aqsa, and nobody in the Arab or Muslim world can afford to ignore it.”

The sensitivity of the site was highlighted on Sept. 27 when Nayef Al-Sudairi, the newly appointed Saudi ambassador to the Palestinians, was reported to have agreed to postpone a planned visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque out of deference to unspecified Palestinian concerns.

These are thought to relate to the unwelcome rise in the Israeli security presence at the site, which has aided a series of provocative visits by Jewish religious extremists who are dedicated ultimately to building a Jewish temple on the site.

The extremists have the support of many in Israel’s Cabinet. On Oct. 3, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s right-wing national security minister, called on the Knesset and the state security cabinet to urgently consider “opening the Temple Mount to Jews 24/7.”




A Palestinian man prays as Israeli security forces escort a group of Jewish settlers visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on June 2, 2019. (AFP)

That day, 500 members of the Israeli settler movement entered the site. The following day, the fifth day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, more than 1,000 forced their way into the compound, repeating a performance that in recent months has been seen more and more often.

This time the incursion, not only witnessed but assisted by members of Israel’s security forces, earned a rebuke for the Israeli government from Jordan, which since 1924 has been the universally recognized custodian of the site through the auspices of the Jordanian-appointed Jerusalem Waqf and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs Department.

In a letter of protest to the Israeli Embassy in Amman the Jordanian Foreign Ministry condemned “incursions by hardliners, settlers and Knesset members into the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque under police protection” and “the restriction of access for worshippers to the mosque, the desecration of Islamic graves and the increasing attacks on Christians in occupied Jerusalem.”

Seidemann said the ideological thinking behind the incursions into Al-Aqsa by “what began as a small, perhaps lunatic fringe, has become more mainstream.”

He added: “The National Religious Party, the ideological right, including cabinet ministers, see Israel as a continuation of ancient biblical history. For them, this is ‘the third Jewish Commonwealth,’ after the first and second temples.”

The “first temple” is the Temple of Solomon, believed by Jews to have existed on the site of the Temple Mount from the 10th to the 6th century BCE, when it was destroyed by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II in 587 BCE. The “second temple,” its replacement, was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.

“From the perception of the religious right, the greatest blunder that Israel has made since 1967 was (Israel’s then defense minister) Moshe Dayan’s decision to take down the Israeli flags on the Temple Mount and hand the keys over to the Waqf,” said Seidemann.




Israeli Border police stand guard by newly-installed security metal detectors at the entrance to Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, on July 16, 2017. (AFP)

After victory in the Six Day War in 1967, Israel occupied East Jerusalem, including the Haram Al-Sharif, and has held it ever since.

On June 7, 1967, shortly after Israeli paratroopers stormed the compound, their commander, Col. Motta Gur, radioed a message to headquarters that has struck a controversial chord with right-wing Israelis ever since: “The Temple Mount is in our hands.”

Controversial, because it would not be in their hands for long.

The story goes that Dayan was watching the scene unfold through binoculars when, to his horror, he saw that one of the paratroopers had climbed to the top of the Dome of the Rock and raised the Israeli flag.

Dayan, keenly aware of how the crass symbolism would play across the Islamic world, ordered the flag to be taken down immediately. Later, standing by the Western Wall, at Israel’s moment of victory, Dayan made a remarkably conciliatory statement.

“To our Arab neighbors we extend, especially at this hour, the hand of peace,” he said. “To members of the other religions, Christians and Muslims, I hereby promise faithfully that their full freedom and all their religious rights will be preserved.

“We did not come to Jerusalem to conquer the holy places of others.”




People stand over bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike on the Ahli Arab hospital in central Gaza after they were transported to Al-Shifa hospital, on October 17, 2023. (AFP)

The keys to the gates and responsibility for the policing and control of the Al-Aqsa compound were returned to the Waqf.

Over the following decades Jews were allowed into the compound on certain days, entering through the Mughrabi Gate. This was the only entrance through which non-Muslims could reach the esplanade.

All that started to change, said Seidemann, after 2003, when the Israeli government unilaterally imposed new arrangements that increasingly sidelined the Waqf.

Today, it is Israeli police who decide who can and cannot visit the compound, which is now seeing increasing numbers of settlers and other activists laying claim to the site.

“They believe it is the raison d’etre of this government to reverse the decision of Dayan because it thwarts the unfolding of the divine plan that is Israel,” said Seidemann. “This has now become mainstream.”

It has also become an article of faith for many in the Israeli Cabinet, despite (current Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement in 2015, at the urging of US Secretary of State John Kerry, that “Israel will continue to enforce its longstanding policy: Muslims pray on the Temple Mount; non-Muslims visit the Temple Mount.”

At the time, PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat rejected Netanyahu’s assurances.




Israeli soldiers are positioned outside kibbutz Beeri near the border with the Gaza Strip on October 17, 2023. (AFP)

“Before the year 2000, tourists used to enter the Haram Al-Sharif under the guard of the employees of the Waqf department and non-Muslims were not allowed to pray there,” Erekat was quoted as saying in the Jerusalem Post.

“But now the Israelis have changed the regulations and tourists visit the site after receiving permits from Israeli authorities and under protection of the Israel police.”

Since then, provocations have escalated. In January this year a visit to the Al-Aqsa compound by Israel’s extreme right-wing national security minister Ben-Gvir was described as “just one more irresponsible provocation” by Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

It was, said Seidemann, a “triumphal visit, showing them who’s boss.”

Encouraged by politicians like Ben-Gvir, members of settler groups, the Temple Mount movement and the National Religious Party have increasingly thronged Al-Aqsa, even though under a long-established Rabbinic law related to concepts of ritual purity Jews are forbidden from entering the site.

“Last May, thousands of young ultra-right religious Israelis celebrating the victory in 1967 marched through the Muslim Quarter shouting ‘Death to the Arabs.’  It was just horrible. I think that was the worst day that I can remember in Jerusalem,” said Seidemann.

Prior to the march, hundreds of ultranationalists entered the Al-Aqsa compound.

“They could have gone by all sorts of other routes, but they went through the Muslim Quarter, to show them: ‘This is our place, we’re the landlord, you’re the tenant’.”




An Israeli border guard intervenes as participants of an Israeli annual far-right, flag-waving rally, beat Palestinian men during the event in the Old City of Jerusalem, on May 18, 2023. (AFP)

And it is not just Muslims who are on the receiving end of the new wave of religious intolerance, he said.

“In recent months there has also been a serious spike in hate crimes against Christians, inspired, I believe, by some of the people in the government, which only condemned it last week, for the first time after eight months. Meanwhile, the mayor of Jerusalem has not condemned it, and the city council has not condemned it.”

Extremists are also pressing for the building of a national park on the Mount of Olives, a site of central importance to the Christian faith.

“It’s a mirror image of what’s happening at Al-Aqsa,” said Seidemann. “A Christian holy site is being transformed by settlers into a shared Christian-Jewish holy site in a way that the Temple Mount movement wants to transform Al-Aqsa from a Muslim site into a shared Jewish-Muslim site.”

It is not that the politicians who are attempting to sabotage the status quo in Jerusalem “are necessarily inherently racist,” Seidemann believes.

“It’s that they understand that speaking with empathy and respect to the equities of others, Muslims, Arabs, or Christians, is an electoral liability and they’ll lose votes among their base.

“Personally, I would prefer them being racist, because otherwise this is a reflection on what has become of us.

“In 1967 Israel annexed Jerusalem. Every Israeli prime minister until Netanyahu has said ‘Let’s not force the issue, especially on the religious sites. We are also custodians of the most important sites in Christianity and Islam, we will deal with it with sensitivity and respect’.”




The family of a Palestinian child killed in an Israeli air strike mourn outside a hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 17, 2023. (AFP)

Now, Seidemann says he fears that Israel, increasingly in the grip of extremist religious groups and politicians, is in danger of losing its way.

“Occupation is not what we do,” he said. “Occupation is who we became, and it is undermining the moral foundations of Israeli society.”

Al-Aqsa, he added, “is becoming the quintessential arena of conflict for Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims. It is not ennobling the souls of any of us and to a certain extent has defiled a very sacred spot.”

On Sept. 6, Tamir Pardo, a former head of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, told the Associated Press that Israel was enforcing an apartheid system in the West Bank. “He said that before the war started, but I think he would still say it now,” said Seidemann.

“He said there is only one existential threat to Israel in this generation. It’s not the Iranian nuclear threat — we can handle that. It’s not 100,000 Hezbollah rockets — horrible, but we can deal with it.

“But Israel cannot survive as a perpetually occupying power. Israel will end occupation, or occupation will be the end of us.”

 


Israeli army said ‘eliminated’ attacker who killed pregnant woman

Updated 59 min 15 sec ago
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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

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

Updated 22 May 2025
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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

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.


War-displaced Sudanese return to collapsed cities, disease and dwindling aid

Updated 21 May 2025
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War-displaced Sudanese return to collapsed cities, disease and dwindling aid

  • Humanitarian agencies face security threats, access restrictions and deep funding cuts while trying to support returning populations
  • Areas reclaimed by the SAF often lack clean water, electricity, shelter and healthcare, forcing returnees to survive in dire conditions

DUBAI: As Sudan’s civil war grinds through its second year, a new chapter is unfolding — the slow and uncertain return of families to towns and cities recently recaptured by the Sudanese Armed Forces from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

But as they do so, aid agencies say, they are finding not assurances of normalcy but scenes of devastation, disease and dwindling humanitarian support.

Nowhere is this more visible than in the capital, Khartoum. Once the heart of Sudan’s political and economic life, it was among the first cities to be consumed by violence when a violent factional struggle erupted on April 15, 2023.

Fighters loyal to the army patrol a market area in Khartoum on March 24, 2025. (AFP photo)

Following months of intense urban warfare and the occupation of the city by the RSF, Khartoum was retaken by government troops in early March.

Since then, an estimated 6,000 returnees have arrived in the city each day, according to state police. Most return with few possessions and even fewer options, compelled by necessity rather than optimism.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that roughly 400,000 people returned to Khartoum and surrounding states such as Al-Jazirah and Sennar between December and March.

The figures mark the first recorded decline — a modest 2.4 percent — in Sudan’s displaced population since the conflict began. Yet for many, the homecoming is fraught with hardship.

“Many of those returning home from abroad or from elsewhere in the country remain with critical needs, often coming back with only what can be easily carried, or returning to find their previous homes unsafe for dignified living,” Natalie Payne, program support officer in IOM’s emergency response team, told Arab News.

Much of Khartoum’s infrastructure — homes, schools, hospitals, power grids, and water treatment facilities — lies in ruins. In many neighborhoods, rubble clogs the streets, health clinics are shuttered, and there is no running water or electricity.

A man walks in the shrapnel-riddled ward of a hospital in Khartoum on April 28, 2025. (AFP photo)
Sudanese people gather at a camp for displaced people, in Port Sudan, on April 15, 2025. (AFP)

With no functioning schools or job opportunities, families are forced to rely on the overstretched aid system for survival.

Across Sudan, the needs are immense. Payne said IOM has recorded large-scale gaps in access to food, basic household goods, clean water, healthcare, and sanitation — not only for returnees but for communities that hosted them during the war.IN NUMBERS:

• 24.6 million People facing acute food insecurity in Sudan (World Food Programme)

• 12.5 million People displaced (inside and outside) since April 2023 (International Organization for Migration).

• 13.2 percent Proportion of humanitarian funding received for Sudan’s $4.2 billion UN appeal in 2025 (OCHA).

• 17 million Children out of school in Sudan (Oxfam).

Livelihood support is also urgently needed to help people rebuild some measure of stability.

However, international agencies face mounting challenges in responding. The war has displaced more than 11.3 million people inside Sudan and forced nearly four million more to seek refuge in neighboring countries — including Egypt, Chad, and South Sudan — making it the world’s largest displacement crisis.

Displaced Sudanese sit at a shelter after they were evacuated by the Sudanese army to a safer area in Omdurman, on May 13, 2025, amid the ongoing war in Sudan. (AFP)

At the same time, the conflict has sparked what the UN calls the world’s worst hunger crisis. Famine has already been declared in 10 areas, and aid officials fear this number will grow without immediate intervention.

“Given that the fighting has destroyed health, water, and sanitation infrastructure, IOM looks to operate mobile clinics, rehabilitate primary health care centers, and rehabilitate water infrastructure at gathering sites, as well as major border entry areas, such as the Askheet and Argeen border crossing point in Northern state between Sudan and Egypt,” said Payne.

To operate in insecure or hard-to-reach areas, aid agencies partner with local organizations that have access and trust. One such partner is Sudan Zero Waste Organization, a grassroots NGO based in Khartoum, which is helping prevent disease outbreaks in communities of return.

In a statement to Arab News, SZWO said cholera cases are rising in the capital and nearby Jebel Aulia due to a lack of safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

“Many returnees are being affected by cholera as a result of contact with the affected ones due to lack of awareness, lack of clean water access, and improper hygiene practices,” the organization said.

SZWO is collaborating with NGOs and UN agencies to rehabilitate water points and hygiene facilities. It also plans to scale up community kitchens to combat food insecurity and distribute cash to the most vulnerable households.

A victim of unexploded ordnance lies on a bed at a hospital in Omdurman on April 28, 2025, as the Sudanese army deepens control in the city. (REUTERS)

Long term, it hopes to support local healthcare centers in newly accessible areas, though it acknowledges that needs are currently far greater than capacity.

Meanwhile, global humanitarian funding is drying up. The UN’s Humanitarian Needs Response Plan for Sudan in 2025 is seeking $4.2 billion to reach nearly 21 million people. As of mid-May, only 13.2 percent of that amount had been secured.

Humanitarians also face logistical challenges, particularly during Sudan’s rainy season, which runs from June to October. Flooded terrain makes it difficult to reach remote or newly liberated areas, many of which are in desperate need of food and medical assistance.

“Access in Sudan is restricted at different times of the year due to adverse weather conditions,” said Payne. “Shocks throughout the rainy season can lead to increased needs with limited opportunities to respond.”

A van drives down a street in the capital Khartoum's southern neighborhood of al-Kalakla on April 29, 2025. (AFP)

And while some areas are stabilizing, violence is flaring elsewhere. Port Sudan, the de facto wartime capital and humanitarian hub, recently came under attack — prompting the UN to warn that continued hostilities there could disrupt aid operations across the country.

Other areas remain perilously unstable. West Kordofan and West Darfur have seen renewed fighting. In North Darfur, the SAF-held capital of Al-Fasher is under siege, and the nearby Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps — already gripped by famine — have come under attack.

These offensives have pushed new waves of displacement, with an estimated 450,000 people recently fleeing the region.

Displaced Sudanese sit at a shelter after they were evacuated by the Sudanese army to a safer area in Omdurman, on May 13, 2025, amid the ongoing war in Sudan.

Beyond Sudan’s borders, neighboring countries are also straining under the weight of the crisis. According to UNHCR, more than 2,000 people are crossing into Chad every day, with rising numbers arriving in Libya and Uganda.

Host countries, many of which are grappling with their own economic or security challenges, are running out of resources.

“Countries and communities receiving refugees have nothing to offer but a big heart,” Mamadou Dian Balde, UNHCR’s regional refugee coordinator for Sudan, told Arab News.

“In Eastern Chad today, we have more refugees than nationals. South Sudan, itself mired in poverty, is further struggling to meet the needs of Sudan’s refugees. If we do not put an end to this conflict, its repercussions will expand to other countries.”

A Sudanese refugee completes her biometric registration with UNHCR teams in the Tine transit center, in Tine, Wadi Fira province, Chad, on April 9, 2025. (AFP)

Within Sudan, the influx of returning and displaced populations into devastated neighborhoods is stretching local resources to breaking point. The economic collapse, lack of essential services, and ongoing violence have created perfect conditions for a humanitarian catastrophe.

Balde said while returns from abroad have begun, the conditions are far from ideal.

“We have started seeing people returning, but these returns happen in adverse circumstances,” he said. “Some people consider going back home or some families have decided to divide the family into two, sending some members first to go and see what properties they have left.”

Internally displaced people walk along a street in Juba, South Sudan, on Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)

He added: “People need support, but it needs to be balanced because there are returns that are not in large numbers versus the large number of refugees outside the country. I don’t know whether we will still see this large number of people returning if we continue hearing about all these attacks.”

Ultimately, aid agencies say the success of any return initiative hinges on far more than food or tents. It depends on a sustained ceasefire, political will and a long-term commitment from donors to rebuild essential infrastructure — from hospitals and schools to power stations and roads.

Until then, Sudan’s returnees in Khartoum must remain in a bleak and dangerous limbo while the SAF and RSF slug it out in other parts of the country.
 

 


Netanyahu says ready for Gaza ‘temporary ceasefire’

Updated 21 May 2025
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Netanyahu says ready for Gaza ‘temporary ceasefire’

  • Netanyahu's remarks came hours after Israeli troops fired what it called 'warning shots' near a delegation of foreign diplomats visiting the occupied West Bank
  • A European diplomat said the group had traveled to the area to witness the destruction caused by months of Israeli military raids

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he was open to a “temporary ceasefire” in Gaza, as international pressure intensified over Israel’s renewed offensive and aid blockade in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“If there is an option for a temporary ceasefire to free hostages, we’ll be ready,” Netanyahu said, noting that at least 20 hostages were confirmed alive.
But he added the Israeli military aimed to bring all of Gaza under its control by the end of its current operation.
“We must avoid a humanitarian crisis in order to preserve our freedom of operational action,” he said.
His remarks came hours after Israeli troops fired what the army called “warning shots” near a delegation of foreign diplomats visiting the occupied West Bank, triggering global condemnation and fresh diplomatic tension.
The Palestinian foreign ministry accused Israeli forces of “deliberately targeting by live fire an accredited diplomatic delegation” near the flashpoint city of Jenin.
A European diplomat said the group had traveled to the area to witness the destruction caused by months of Israeli military raids.
The Israeli army said “the delegation deviated from the approved route” and entered a restricted zone.
Troops opened fire to steer the group away, it said, adding no injuries were reported and expressing regret for the “inconvenience caused.”
Gazans are not receiving aid
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called on Israel to investigate the shooting and to hold those responsible “accountable.”
The incident came as anger mounted over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Palestinians are scrambling for basic supplies after weeks of near-total isolation.
Palestinian rescue teams said overnight Israeli strikes had killed at least 19 people, including a week-old baby.

No one is distributing anything to us. Everyone is waiting for aid, but we haven’t received anything

Umm Talal Al-Masri, displaced Palestinian in Gaza City

A two-month total blockade was only partially eased this week, with aid allowed into the territory for the first time since March 2, a move leading to critical food and medicine shortages.
Israel said 100 trucks with aid entered Gaza on Wednesday, following 93 the day before which the United Nations has said had been held up.
Humanitarian groups have said that the amount falls far short of what is required to ease the crisis.
Umm Talal Al-Masri, 53, a displaced Palestinian in Gaza City, described the situation as “unbearable.”
“No one is distributing anything to us. Everyone is waiting for aid, but we haven’t received anything,” she said.
“We’re grinding lentils and pasta to make some loaves of bread, and we barely manage to prepare one meal a day.”
The army stepped up its offensive at the weekend, vowing to defeat Gaza’s Hamas rulers, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.
Israel has faced massive pressure, including from traditional allies, to halt its expanded offensive and allow aid into Gaza.
Kallas said “a strong majority” of EU foreign ministers backed the move to review its trade cooperation with Israel.
EU pressure on Israel
Sweden said it would press the 27-nation bloc to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers, while Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel and summoned the Israeli ambassador.
Pope Leo XIV described the situation in Gaza as “worrying and painful” and called for “the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid.”
Israel’s foreign ministry has said the EU action “reflects a total misunderstanding of the complex reality Israel is facing.”
Germany defended a key EU-Israel cooperation deal as “an important forum that we must use in order to discuss critical questions” over the situation in Gaza.
In Gaza, Israel resumed its operations across the territory on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.
Gaza’s health ministry said Tuesday at least 3,509 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,655.


Rubio says some ‘optimism’ Gaza war could end ‘pretty quickly’

Updated 21 May 2025
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Rubio says some ‘optimism’ Gaza war could end ‘pretty quickly’

  • “We may have breakthrough achievements,” Rubio told a congressional hearing
  • “I don’t want to be disappointed on it again, but I want you to know there are efforts ongoing”

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced guarded optimism Wednesday for a solution “pretty quickly” to end the Gaza war.
“I have some level of optimism that we may have breakthrough achievements here pretty quickly, hopefully on an end to this and the release of all the hostages,” Rubio told a congressional hearing.
Rubio acknowledged that he has made such predictions before and said he did not “want to get ahead of myself.”
“I have felt that way now at least four separate times in the last couple of months, and for one reason or another at the last minute, it didn’t happen,” he said.
“I don’t want to be disappointed on it again, but I want you to know there are efforts ongoing to both provide more humanitarian assistance and bring about the end of this conflict.”