Egypt agrees to send aid trucks through Israeli crossing to Gaza but impact is unclear

Hundreds of truckloads have been sitting on the Gaza side of the crossing unretrieved. (File/AFP)
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Updated 25 May 2024
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Egypt agrees to send aid trucks through Israeli crossing to Gaza but impact is unclear

  • Israeli troops seized the Rafah crossing into Egypt, which has been inoperative since
  • The UN says it cannot reach Kerem Shalom to pick up aid as it enters because fighting in the area makes it too dangerous

TEL AVIV, Israel: Egypt said Friday it has agreed to send United Nations humanitarian aid trucks through Israel’s main crossing into Gaza, but it was unclear if they will be able to enter the territory as fighting raged in the southern city of Rafah amid Israel’s escalating offensive there.
Gaza’s humanitarian crisis has spiraled as the UN and other aid agencies say the entry of food and other supplies to them has plunged dramatically since Israel’s Rafah offensive began more than two weeks ago. On Friday, the top UN court — the International Court of Justice — ordered Israel to halt the Rafah offensive, though Israel is unlikely to comply.
At the heart of the problem lie the two main crossings through which around 300 trucks of aid a day had been flowing into Gaza before the offensive began.
Israeli troops seized the Rafah crossing into Egypt, which has been inoperative since. The nearby Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza has remained open, and Israel says it has been sending hundreds of trucks a day into it. But while commercial trucks have successfully crossed, the UN says it cannot reach Kerem Shalom to pick up aid as it enters because fighting in the area makes it too dangerous.
As a result, the UN says it has received only 143 trucks from the crossing in the past 19 days. Hundreds of truckloads have been sitting on the Gaza side of the crossing unretrieved, according to Israeli officials, who say UN manpower limitations are to blame. UN and other aid agencies had to rely on the far smaller number of trucks entering daily from a single crossing in northern Gaza and via a US-built pier bringing supplies by sea.
Humanitarian groups are scrambling to get food to Palestinians as some 900,000 people flee Rafah, scattering across central and southern Gaza. Aid workers warn Gaza is near famine. UNRWA, the main UN agency in the humanitarian effort, had to halt food distribution in Rafah city because it had run out of supplies.
The Egyptian announcement appeared to resolve a political obstacle on one side of the border.
Israel says it has kept the Rafah crossing open and asked Egypt to coordinate with it on sending aid convoys through it. Egypt refused, fearing the Israeli hold will remain permanent, and demanded Palestinians be put back in charge of the facility. The White House has been pressing Egypt to resume the flow of trucks.
In a phone call with US President Joe Biden on Friday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi agreed to allow trucks carrying humanitarian aid and fuel to go to the Kerem Shalom crossing until a solution is found for the Rafah crossing, El-Sisi’s office said in a statement.
But it remained unclear whether the UN will be able to access additional trucks coming from Egypt.
UNRWA did not immediately reply to requests for comment. In a post on social media outlet X on Thursday, it said, “We could resume (food distribution in Rafah) tomorrow if the crossing reopened & we were provided with safe routes.”
Mercy Corps, an aid group operating in Gaza, said in a statement Friday that the offensive had caused the “functional closure … of the two main lifelines” of aid and “has brought the humanitarian system to its knees.”
“If dramatic changes do not occur, including opening all border crossings to safely surge aid into these areas, we fear that a wave of secondary mortality will result, with people succumbing to the combination of hunger, lack of clean water and sanitation, and the spread of disease in areas where there is little medical care,” it said.
Fighting appeared to escalate in Rafah. Bombardment intensified Friday in eastern parts of the city, near Kerem Shalom, but shelling was also taking place in central, southern and western districts closer to the Rafah crossing, witnesses said.
Israeli leaders have said they must uproot Hamas fighters from Rafah to complete the destruction of the group after its Oct. 7 attack.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others in the Oct. 7 attack. Around half of those hostages have since been freed, most in swaps for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a weeklong ceasefire in November.
Israel’s campaign of bombardment and offensives in Gaza has killed more than 35,800 Palestinians and wounded more than 80,200, the Gaza Health Ministry said Friday. Its count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The Israeli military said its troops overnight found the bodies of three people killed in the Oct. 7 attack and subsequently taken into Gaza and counted among the hostages.
The bodies of Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum, and Orion Hernandez Radoux were found in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops have been fighting for the past week with Hamas militants, the military said.
The announcement comes less than a week after the army said it found in the same area the bodies of three other Israeli hostages also killed on Oct. 7.
Nisenbaum, 59, was a Brazilian-Israeli from the southern city of Sderot. He was killed in his car as he went to get his 4-year-old granddaughter from a site near Gaza that came under attack by the militants.
Oryon Hernandez Radoux, 30, and Yablonka, 42, a father of two, were both killed as they tried to escape the Nova music festival, where the attackers killed hundreds of people. Hernandez Radoux had been attending the festival with his partner, German-Israeli Shani Louk, whose body was among those found by the army earlier.
Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of at least 39 more, while 17 bodies of hostages have been recovered.
The group representing the families of the hostages said the bodies had been returned to their families for burial. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country had a duty to do everything to return those abducted, both those killed and those who are alive.
French President Emmanuel Macron gave condolences to the family of Hernández-Radoux, a French-Mexican citizen, saying France remains committed to releasing the hostages.
CIA Director Bill Burns was meeting in Paris on Friday with Israeli and Qatari officials in informal talks aimed at getting hostage and ceasefire negotiations back on track, a US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive discussions. Burns is in close contact with Egyptian officials, who like the Qataris have acted as mediators with Hamas, the US official said.
Ceasefire talks ground to a halt at the beginning of the month after a major push by the US and other mediators to secure a deal, in hopes of averting a planned Israeli invasion of the southern city of Rafah. The talks were stymied by a central sticking point: Hamas demands guarantees that the war will end and Israeli troops will withdraw from Gaza completely in return for a release of all the hostages, a demand Israel rejects.


Some Israeli soldiers refuse to keep fighting in Gaza

Israeli soldiers are seen at a staging ground near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Tuesday, April 30, 2024.
Updated 9 sec ago
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Some Israeli soldiers refuse to keep fighting in Gaza

  • Seven soldiers who’ve refused to continue fighting in Gaza spoke with AP, describing how Palestinians were indiscriminately killed and houses destroyed
  • Ishai Menuchin, spokesperson for Yesh Gvul, a movement for soldiers refusing to serve, said he works with more than 80 soldiers who have refused to fight and that there are hundreds more who feel similarly but remain silent

JERUSALEM: Yotam Vilk says the image of Israeli soldiers killing an unarmed Palestinian teenager in the Gaza Strip is seared in his mind.
An officer in the armored corps, Vilk said the instructions were to shoot any unauthorized person who entered an Israeli-controlled buffer zone in Gaza. He saw at least 12 people killed, he said, but it is the shooting of the teen that he can’t shake.
“He died as part of a bigger story. As part of the policy of staying there and not seeing Palestinians as people,” Vilk, 28, told The Associated Press.
Vilk is among a growing number of Israeli soldiers speaking out against the 15-month conflict and refusing to serve anymore, saying they saw or did things that crossed ethical lines. While the movement is small — some 200 soldiers signed a letter saying they’d stop fighting if the government didn’t secure a ceasefire — soldiers say it’s the tip of the iceberg and they want others to come forward.

Destroyed buildings inside the Gaza Strip are seen from southern Israel, on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP)

Their refusal comes at a time of mounting pressure on Israel and Hamas to wind down the fighting. Ceasefire talks are underway, and both President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump have called for a deal by the Jan. 20 inauguration.
Seven soldiers who’ve refused to continue fighting in Gaza spoke with AP, describing how Palestinians were indiscriminately killed and houses destroyed. Several said they were ordered to burn or demolish homes that posed no threat, and they saw soldiers loot and vandalize residences.
Soldiers are required to steer clear of politics, and they rarely speak out against the army. After Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel quickly united behind the war launched against the militant group. Divisions here have grown as the war progresses, but most criticism has focused on the mounting number of soldiers killed and the failure to bring home hostages, not actions in Gaza.

Yuval Green, center, and Yotam Vilk, left, take part in a panel discussion for soldiers refusing to serve in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP)

International rights groups have accused Israel of war crimes and genocide in Gaza. The International Court of Justice is investigating genocide allegations filed by South Africa. The International Criminal Court is seeking the arrests of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
Israel adamantly rejects genocide allegations and says it takes extraordinary measures to minimize civilian harm in Gaza. The army says it never intentionally targets civilians, and investigates and punishes cases of suspected wrongdoing. But rights groups have long said the army does a poor job of investigating itself.
The army told AP it condemns the refusal to serve and takes any call for refusal seriously, with each case examined individually. Soldiers can go to jail for refusing to serve, but none who signed the letter has been detained, according to those who organized the signatures.
Soldiers’ reactions in Gaza.

Yotam Vilk, who served in an armored unit in the Gaza Strip and is now one of a growing number of Israeli soldiers speaking out against the 15-month conflict, poses for a portrait in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP)

When Vilk entered Gaza in November 2023, he said, he thought the initial use of force might bring both sides to the table. But as the war dragged on, he said he saw the value of human life disintegrate.
On the day the Palestinian teenager was killed last August, he said, Israeli troops shouted at him to stop and fired warning shots at his feet, but he kept moving. He said others were also killed walking into the buffer zone — the Netzarim Corridor, a road dividing northern and southern Gaza.
Vilk acknowledged it was hard to determine whether people were armed, but said he believes soldiers acted too quickly.

Israeli soldiers stand by a truck packed with bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainees in Gaza, on Dec. 8, 2023. (AP)

In the end, he said, Hamas is to blame for some deaths in the buffer zone — he described one Palestinian detained by his unit who said Hamas paid people $25 to walk into the corridor to gauge the army’s reaction.
Some soldiers told AP it took time to digest what they saw in Gaza. Others said they became so enraged they decided they’d stop serving almost immediately.
Yuval Green, a 27-year-old medic, described abandoning his post last January after spending nearly two months in Gaza, unable to live with what he’d seen.
He said soldiers desecrated homes, using black markers meant for medical emergencies to scribble graffiti, and looted homes, looking for prayer beads to collect as souvenirs.
The final straw, he said, was his commander ordering troops to burn down a house, saying he didn’t want Hamas to be able to use it. Green said he sat in a military vehicle, choking on fumes amid the smell of burning plastic. He found the fire vindictive — he said he saw no reason to take more from Palestinians than they’d already lost. He left his unit before their mission was complete.
Green said that as much as he loathed what he witnessed, “the cruelty was at least in part provoked by the havoc wreaked by Hamas on Oct. 7, which people can forget.”
He said he wants his actions in refusing to serve to help break the vicious cycle of violence on all sides.
The soldiers’ refusal as an act of protest
Soldiers for the Hostages — the group behind the letter troops signed — is trying to garner momentum, holding an event this month in Tel Aviv and gathering more signatures. A panel of soldiers spoke about what they’d seen in Gaza. Organizers distributed poster-size stickers with a Martin Luther King Jr. quote: “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
Max Kresch, an organizer, said soldiers can use their positions to create change. “We need to use our voice to speak up in the face of injustice, even if that is unpopular,” he said.
But some who fought and lost colleagues call the movement a slap in the face. More than 830 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the war, according to the army.
“They are harming our ability to defend ourselves,” said Gilad Segal, a 42-year-old paratrooper who spent two months in Gaza at the end of 2023. He said everything the army did was necessary, including the flattening of houses used as Hamas hideouts. It’s not a soldier’s place to agree or disagree with the government, he argued.
Ishai Menuchin, spokesperson for Yesh Gvul, a movement for soldiers refusing to serve, said he works with more than 80 soldiers who have refused to fight and that there are hundreds more who feel similarly but remain silent.
Effects on soldiers
Some of the soldiers who spoke to AP said they feel conflicted and regretful, and they’re talking to friends and relatives about what they saw to process it.
Many soldiers suffer from “moral injury,” said Tuly Flint, a trauma therapy specialist who’s counseled hundreds of them during the war. It’s a response when people see or do something that goes against their beliefs, he said, and it can result in a lack of sleep, flashbacks and feelings of unworthiness. Talking about it and trying to spark change can help, Flint said.
One former infantry soldier told AP about his feelings of guilt — he said he saw about 15 buildings burned down unnecessarily during a two-week stint in late 2023. He said that if he could do it all over again, he wouldn’t have fought.
“I didn’t light the match, but I stood guard outside the house. I participated in war crimes,” said the soldier, speaking on condition of anonymity over fears of retaliation. “I’m so sorry for what we’ve done.”

 


Macron says new Lebanon PM represents ‘hope for change’

French president Emmanuel Macron. (AFP)
Updated 30 min 8 sec ago
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Macron says new Lebanon PM represents ‘hope for change’

  • Lebanon has been managed by a caretaker government for the past two years, and Salam’s backers hope he can reduce the militant group Hezbollah’s domination of Lebanese politics and strengthen the central government

PARIS: France on Monday hailed the appointment of Nawaf Salam as Lebanon’s new prime minister, saying he had the will to help the war-scarred country emerge from its deep economic crisis.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun picked Salam, the presiding judge at the International Court of Justice, as prime minister.
“A hope for change is rising,” France’s President Emmanuel Macron said on X, wishing him “success in forming a government in the service of all Lebanese people.”
A majority of Lebanese lawmakers endorsed Salam to form a government for a country whose economy has been battered by the conflicts engulfing its neighbors.
Lebanon has been managed by a caretaker government for the past two years, and Salam’s backers hope he can reduce the militant group Hezbollah’s domination of Lebanese politics and strengthen the central government.
Macron’s office said Salam was “recognized for his integrity and his skills.”
He “has already expressed in the past his desire to lead the reforms that the Lebanese and the international community expect to put Lebanon back on the path to restoring its sovereignty and the reforms necessary for the economic recovery of the country.”
Macron’s office said he hoped Salam’s government could be both “strong” and “represent all the diversity of the Lebanese people.”
The agreement on a new prime minister “opens extremely promising prospects” to overcome Lebanon’s financial crisis, it said.
“It is about rebuilding trust and we are in a framework that will allow us to reassure international donors, carry out the expected reforms and build a financing framework,” the French presidency said.
Macron is expected to visit Lebanon shortly to show his support for the new leadership.
He has recently also spoken to Nabih Berri, the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, to Najib Mikati, the outgoing prime minister, and to Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the Druze community.

 


Turkiye’s Erdogan launches ‘Year of the Family’ with an attack on the LGBTQ+ community

Updated 14 January 2025
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Turkiye’s Erdogan launches ‘Year of the Family’ with an attack on the LGBTQ+ community

  • Despite its low profile in Turkiye, the LGBTQ+ community has emerged as one of the main targets of the government and its supporters in recent years

ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan marked the launch of Turkiye’s “Year of the Family” on Monday with an attack on the LGBTQ+ community and the announcement of measures to boost birth rates.
Citing the “historical truth that a strong family paves the way for a strong state,” Erdogan unveiled a series of financial measures to support young families.
The president returned to themes he has espoused before about LGBTQ+ people, including the portrayal of the LGBTQ+ movement as part of a foreign conspiracy aimed at undermining Turkiye.
“It is our common responsibility to protect our children and youth from harmful trends and perverse ideologies. Neoliberal cultural trends are crossing borders and penetrating all corners of the world,” he told an audience in Ankara. “They also lead to LGBT and other movements gaining ground.
“The target of gender neutralization policies, in which LGBT is used as a battering ram, is the family. Criticism of LGBT is immediately silenced, just like the legitimate criticisms of Zionism. Anyone who defends nature and the family is subject to heavy oppression.”
Despite its low profile in Turkiye, the LGBTQ+ community has emerged as one of the main targets of the government and its supporters in recent years.
Pride parades have been banned since 2015, with those seeking to participate facing tear gas and police barricades. In recent years, meanwhile, anti-LGBTQ+ rallies have received state support.
Turning to the “alarming” decline in the population growth rate, Erdogan said Turkiye was “losing blood” and recalled his 2007 demand that families have at least three children.
The president also pointed to people getting married later in life and rising divorce rates as causes for concern. Turkiye’s annual population growth rate dropped from 2.53 percent in 2015 to 0.23 percent last year.
“If we do not take the necessary measures, the problem will reach irreparable levels. In such an environment, population loss is inevitable,” he added.
To combat the threat to the family, Erdogan revealed policies such as interest-free loans for newlyweds; improved monetary allowances for the parents of new-born children; financial, counselling and housing support to encourage new families; and free or low-cost childcare.


UAE president welcomes Azerbaijani counterpart to Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week

Updated 14 January 2025
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UAE president welcomes Azerbaijani counterpart to Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week

  • President Ilham Aliyev reaffirms his country’s dedication to enhancement of growing ties with the Emirates in various sectors

LONDON: Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the president of the UAE, on Monday greeted Ilham Aliyev, his counterpart from Azerbaijan, who is visiting the Emirates to take part in Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

During their meeting at Qasr Al-Shati in the capital, the leaders discussed ways in which cooperation between their countries might be enhanced in terms of the economy, investment, development, renewable energy and climate action.

They also examined key aspects of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week and its role in efforts to enhance global awareness of the challenges related to sustainability, the Emirates News Agency reported. Aliyev also reaffirmed Azerbaijan’s dedication to growing ties with the UAE in various sectors.

Other officials present at the meeting included Mohammed Murad Al-Balushi, the Emirati ambassador to Azerbaijan, and Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser and deputy ruler of Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week began on Jan. 12 and continues until Jan. 18.


Moroccan activist jailed for criticism of earthquake response

Updated 14 January 2025
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Moroccan activist jailed for criticism of earthquake response

  • El Haouz province, to the south of Marrakech, was one of the areas hit hardest by the 6.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the region in September 2023, killing close to 3,000 people and wounding 5,600

RABAT: A Moroccan activist who criticized the kingdom’s response to a major 2023 earthquake was jailed for three months on Monday for defamation, according to his defense team.
Said Ait Mahdi, who leads a group for victims of the El Haouz earthquake and has been in detention since December 23, was tried for “defamation, insult and the publication of false allegations aimed at infringing on privacy.”
Three other accused, also members of the group, were charged with “insulting public officials.”
“The Court of First Instance of Marrakech condemned Said Ait Mahdi to three months in prison and acquitted three others,” one of their lawyers, Mohamed Nouini, told AFP.
Ait Mahdi was also ordered to pay 10,000 dirhams ($1,000) in damages to each of the civil parties, Nouini said, adding that he would appeal the verdict.
According to the lawyer, the case was based on “complaints from local officials following social media posts they considered offensive.”
El Haouz province, to the south of Marrakech, was one of the areas hit hardest by the 6.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the region in September 2023, killing close to 3,000 people and wounding 5,600.
It also destroyed around 60,000 homes in the High Atlas mountains, forcing many families to live in tents through the winter.
Ait Mahdi’s group has campaigned for faster reconstruction and more aid to those affected.
The Moroccan authorities said in December they had issued 57,000 reconstruction permits and that more than 35,000 homes had been or were in the process of being rebuilt.
The authorities have put in place an $11 billion, five-year reconstruction and development plan for the six provinces hit by the disaster.