AL-MALIKIYAH, Syria: Turkish warplanes killed more than two dozen Kurdish fighters Tuesday in strikes in Syria and Iraq, where the Kurds are key players in the battle against Daesh.
Turkey said it had carried out the strikes in northeast Syria and northern Iraq against “terrorist havens,” vowing to continue acting against groups it links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
In northeast Syria, strikes targeting the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — who are leading the offensive against Daesh stronghold Raqqa — were reported to have killed 20 fighters.
In northern Iraq they killed six peshmerga fighters from the autonomous Kurdish government, usually allied with Ankara, in an apparent accident.
Iraqi government spokesman Saad Al-Hadithi said: “The Iraqi government condemns and rejects the strikes carried out by Turkish aircraft on Iraqi territory.”
The strikes underlined the complexities of the battlefields in Iraq and Syria, where twin US-backed offensives are seeking to dislodge Daesh from its last major urban strongholds.
They could also exacerbate tensions between Ankara and its NATO ally Washington, which leads an anti-Daesh coalition carrying out airstrikes in Syria and Iraq and sees the Kurds as instrumental in the fight against Daesh.
Turkey said its strikes aimed “to destroy terrorist havens targeting our country” and vowed to press the offensive “until the very last terrorist is neutralized.”
An army statement said the strikes “destroyed” shelter areas, ammunition warehouses and PKK communications facilities. It said 40 PKK fighters were “neutralized” in Iraq and around 30 in Syria.
The bombardment near the Syrian city of Al-Malikiyah saw “dozens of simultaneous airstrikes” overnight on YPG positions including a media center, a monitoring group said.
A commander for Kurdish forces urged the US-led coalition to prevent further Turkish strikes on their forces.
“We are asking the international coalition to intervene to stop these Turkish violations,” the commander told AFP. “It’s unthinkable that we are fighting on a front as important as (Daesh bastion) Raqqa while Turkish planes bomb us in the back,” the commander said.
“The YPG will not be silent on this blatant attack, and we reserve our right to defend ourselves and take revenge for our martyrs,” YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said.
The US-led coalition “has a huge responsibility and must carry out its duty to protect this area, because we are partners in fighting Daesh,” he said.
Turkish strikes kill Kurdish fighters in Syria, Iraq
Turkish strikes kill Kurdish fighters in Syria, Iraq
Emir of Kuwait, Lebanese president discuss historic opportunity to shape future
- The meeting at Bayan Palace in Kuwait addressed the recent developments in Lebanon
- Officials highlighted that Lebanon has a historic opportunity to shape its future
LONDON: Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah met with Lebanese President Gen. Joseph Aoun on Monday morning to discuss ways to enhance collaboration between their countries in various sectors.
The meeting at Bayan Palace in Kuwait addressed the recent developments in Lebanon. Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, acting Prime Minister Sheikh Fahad Yusuf Saud Al-Sabah, and senior officials from both countries attended the meeting.
Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah stated that the discussions centered on strengthening ties and exploring ways to develop them across all possible areas.
Officials highlighted that Lebanon has a historic opportunity to shape its future, overcome past challenges, and initiate reconstruction and development to fulfil the aspirations of the Lebanese people for security and stability, the Kuwait News Agency reported.
Sheikh Mohammad noted that the session also addressed key issues of mutual interest, methods to enhance unified Arab action, and recent regional and international developments.
Hundreds march in West Bank against killings of Palestinian medics
- Protesters carried symbolic white shrouds bearing the names and pictures of the dead, as well as signs demanding the release of three staff members
RAMALLAH: Hundreds of Palestinian Red Crescent staff marched in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday to protest the killing of medical workers in Gaza over the past 19 months of war.
Gathering in the city’s Clock Square, medical personnel, support staff and volunteers wore white and orange vests and waved flags bearing the Red Crescent’s emblem.
The demonstration marked World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day, usually observed on May 8, and called for the “protection for medical and humanitarian workers.”
In a statement released Monday, the Red Crescent said 48 of their staff members have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank since the war began on October 7, 2023 — including 30 who “were killed while performing their humanitarian duty wearing the Red Crescent emblem.”
Protesters carried symbolic white shrouds bearing the names and pictures of the dead, as well as signs demanding the release of three staff members who have been detained by the Israeli army for over a year.
Some 1,400 humanitarian and medical workers have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war, according to the statement, which added that “dozens of medical personnel working in Gaza... were detained while performing their humanitarian duties.”
It highlighted a particularly deadly attack in March in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, when 15 first responders including eight Red Crescent paramedics were killed by the Israeli army.
The first responders were answering distress calls after Israeli air strikes.
The incident drew international condemnation, including concern about possible war crimes from UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk.
An Israeli military investigation, the results of which were published, acknowledged “professional failures” and “violations of orders” during the shooting.
Syria leader to miss Arab summit in Iraq: diplomatic source
- Powerful Iraqi politicians have rejected hosting the former jihadist leader who became Syria's interim president
- Ahmed Al-Sharaa was imprisoned for years in Iraq on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda following the 2003 US-led invasion
BAGHDAD: Syria’s interim president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, will not attend an upcoming Arab League summit in Baghdad, an Arab diplomatic source said Monday, as powerful Iraqi politicians have rejected hosting a former jihadist leader.
Sharaa, whose Islamist group spearheaded the offensive that toppled Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December, was imprisoned for years in Iraq on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda following the 2003 US-led invasion.
The Iraqi government has invited Sharaa for the meeting planned for Saturday, but he “will not attend the Arab Summit,” the diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Instead, Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani will lead the Syrian delegation.
Several powerful Iraqi politicians have voiced opposition to Sharaa’s planned visit to Iraq.
They include former prime minister Nuri Al-Maliki, a leading member of Iraq’s main pro-Iran coalition that holds a parliamentary majority.
Armed groups aligned with Tehran have also joined the call against Sharaa, including the powerful faction Kataeb Hezbollah which has previously fought in Syria alongside Assad’s forces.
Several Iraqi security sources told AFP that an old arrest warrant for Sharaa from his time as a member of Al-Qaeda remains in place.
However, authorities seek good relations with Syria’s new leadership to help maintain regional stability, the sources said.
The fall of Assad, who was a close ally of the government in Baghdad, has complicated relations between the neighboring countries.
Iraq, where the majority are Shiite Muslims, remains deeply scarred by decades of conflict following the US-led invasion, which triggered sectarian violence and the rise of Sunni jihadist groups including Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
‘Settlers on all sides’: West Bank bypass raises fears of Israeli annexation
- Israel has promoted the bypass project as a way to further facilitate settlement expansion in the area near occupied East Jerusalem
- Illegal settler outposts have spread rapidly across the West Bank since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022
KHAN Al-AHMAR, Palestinian Territories: A creeping Israeli presence is nothing new for the Bedouins who inhabit the arid hills east of Jerusalem, but a recently approved road in the area means the spectre of annexation now looms large.
Israeli authorities in March green lit the construction of a separate route for Palestinian vehicles to bypass a central stretch of the occupied West Bank — one of the territory’s most disputed parcels of land.
Israel has promoted the project as a way to further facilitate settlement expansion in the area near occupied East Jerusalem.
But Palestinians warn the move threatens to further isolate their communities and undermines hopes for a contiguous future state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
“If they open a road there, that’s it, this area will be annexed,” said Eid Jahaleen, who lives in the Bedouin village of Khan Al-Ahmar.
The village, a cluster of shacks and tents some 10 kilometers from Jerusalem’s Old City, sits surrounded by Israeli settlements.
“It’s going to be hard to reach out to the outside world. No Palestinian services will be allowed to get in here,” he said.
Pro-settler coalition
“If you want clothes, food for your home, (Israel) will be the one to open the gate.”
Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law.
Outposts — unauthorized structures under Israeli law that often precede the establishment of a settlement — have spread rapidly across the West Bank since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022, leading a hard-line, pro-settler coalition.
After a new outpost appeared just 100 meters away, Jahaleen said he has “settlers on all sides.”
Israel heavily restricts the movement of West Bank Palestinians, who must obtain permits from authorities to travel through checkpoints to cross into East Jerusalem or Israel.
Far-right ministers have in recent months openly called for Israel’s annexation of the territory.
The alternative bypass would mean Palestinian vehicles driving north-south through the West Bank could travel directly between Palestinian towns rather, without passing the large Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim.
Israel has hailed the move as enabling settlement development between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem on a super-sensitive land corridor known as E1.
Israel has long had ambitions to build on the roughly 12 square kilometers, but the international community has repeatedly warned it could deal a fatal blow to a future Palestinian state.
Maale Adumim’s Mayor Guy Yifrach said the Palestinian bypass would reduce congestion on the current highway between the settlement and Jerusalem and “allow for a natural urban continuity” between the two.
Plans exist to build 4,000 housing units, schools, health clinics and a country club on E1, Yifrach said, but added they had not yet been approved.
Khan al Ahmar, E1 and Maale Adumim all lie within a planned section of Israel’s separation barrier for which construction has been frozen for years.
Israel says the barrier — made up of ditches, roads, razor wire, electronic fences, checkpoints and concrete walls — is necessary to prevent Palestinian attacks.
For Palestinians, the structure further separates them and drastically reduces their freedom of movement.
De facto annexation
Aviv Tatarsky, from the Israeli anti-settlement organization Ir Amim, said that once the road is built, Israel could go ahead with constructing the barrier as planned.
“They want to create this de facto annexation, which means take the space around Maale Adumim and make it an integral part of Jerusalem, of Israel,” he said.
By creating an alternative route for Palestinians to travel through the West Bank, Israel could argue that expanding Jewish settlements in the area would not compromise the contiguity of Palestinian territory, Tatarsky added.
For Mohammad Matter, from the Palestinian Authority’s Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, the road “has nothing to do with making life easier for Palestinians.”
The bypass will trace the northern edge of Matter’s village of Al Eizariya, and he fears it will further squeeze Palestinians into isolated enclaves, connected only through transport corridors.
“They (Israel) are realizing their vision: Israelis walk up high and Palestinians walk through valleys or tunnels,” he said.
Food security experts warn Gaza is at critical risk of famine if Israel doesn’t end its blockade
- It says nearly a half million Palestinians are in “catastrophic” levels of hunger, meaning they face possible starvation
- Israel has banned any food, shelter, medicine or other goods from entering the Palestinian territory for the past 10 weeks
TEL AVIV: The Gaza Strip is at critical risk of famine if Israel doesn’t lift its blockade and stop its military campaign, food security experts said in a stark warning on Monday.
Outright famine is the mostly likely scenario unless conditions change, according to findings by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises.
Nearly a half million Palestinians are in “catastrophic” levels of hunger, meaning they face possible starvation, the report said, while another million are at “emergency” levels of hunger.
Israel has banned any food, shelter, medicine or other goods from entering the Palestinian territory for the past 10 weeks, even as it carries out waves of airstrikes and ground operations. Gaza’s population of around 2.3 million people relies almost entirely on outside aid to survive, because Israel’s 19-month-old military campaign has wiped away most capacity to produce food inside the territory.
Desperate scenes as food is running out
Food supplies are emptying out dramatically. Communal kitchens handing out cooked meals are virtually the only remaining source of food for most people in Gaza now, but they too are rapidly shutting down for lack of stocks.
Thousands of Palestinians crowd daily outside the public kitchens, pushing and jostling with their pots to receive lentils or pasta.
“We end up waiting in line for four, five hours, in the sun. It is exhausting,” said Riham Sheikh el-Eid, waiting at a kitchen on Sunday. “At the end, we walk away with nothing. It is not enough for everybody.”
The lack of a famine declaration doesn’t mean people aren’t already starving, and a declaration shouldn’t be a precondition for ending the suffering, said Chris Newton, an analyst for the International Crisis Group focusing on starvation as a weapon of war.
“The Israeli government is starving Gaza as part of its attempt to destroy Hamas and transform the strip,” he said.
Israel demands a new aid system
The office of Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, did not respond to a request for comment. The army has said that enough assistance entered Gaza during a two-month ceasefire that Israel shattered in mid-March when it relaunched its military campaign.
Israel says the blockade aims to pressure Hamas to release the hostages it still holds. It says it won’t let aid back in until a new system giving it control over distribution is in place, accusing Hamas of siphoning off supplies.
The United Nations denies substantial diversion of aid is taking place. It says the new system Israel envisages is unnecessary, will allow aid to be used as a weapon for political and military goals, and will not meet the massive needs of Palestinians.
The United States says it is working up a new mechanism that will start deliveries soon, but it has given no timeframe. The UN has so far refused to participate, saying the plan does not meet humanitarian standards.
Monday’s report said that any slight gains made during the ceasefire have been reversed. Nearly the entire population of Gaza now faces high levels of hunger, it said, driven by conflict, the collapse of infrastructure, destruction of agriculture, and blockades of aid.
Commenting on the report, the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said any delay in restoring the flow of aid “bringing us closer to famine.”
“If we fail to act, we are failing to uphold the right to food, which is a basic human right,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack on Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage, most of whom have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 52,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, whose count does not distinguish between civilians or combatants.
Three criteria for declaring famine
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, first set up in 2004 during the famine in Somalia, groups more than a dozen UN agencies, aid groups, governments and other bodies.
It has only declared famine a few times — in Somalia in 2011, and South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and last year in parts of Sudan’s western Darfur region. Tens of thousands are believed to have died in Somalia and South Sudan.
It rates an area as in famine when at least two of three things occur: 20 percent of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving; at least 30 percent of children six months to five years suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they’re too thin for their height; and at least two people or four children under five per every 10,000 are dying daily due to starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease.
The report found that the first threshold was met in Gaza, saying 477,000 people — or 22 percent of the population — are classified as in “catastrophic” hunger for the period from May 11 to the end of September, and another million area at “emergency” levels, meaning they face very large gaps in food and high levels of acute malnutrition.
The malnutrition and deaths thresholds were not met. The data was gathered in April and up to May 6. Food security experts say it takes time for people to start dying from starvation.
The report warned of “imminent” famine in northern Gaza in March 2024, but the following month, Israel allowed an influx of aid under US pressure after an Israeli strike killed seven aid workers.
Malnutrition is rising
Aid groups now say the situation is the most dire of the entire war. The UN humanitarian office, known as OCHA, said on Friday that the number of children seeking treatment at clinics for malnutrition has doubled since February, even as supplies to treat them are quickly running out.
Aid groups have shut down food distribution for lack of stocks. Many foods have disappeared from the markets and what’s left has spiraled in price and is unaffordable to most. Farmland is mostly destroyed or inaccessible. Water distribution is grinding to a halt, largely because of lack of fuel.
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