GAZA CITY: After Umm Mazen found her husband shivering in his bed and complaining of a migraine, he confessed he was addicted to painkillers and could no longer provide for the family.
In the Gaza Strip, the tiny Palestinian territory sandwiched between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean and ravaged by three wars in a decade, drug abuse is often a hidden problem.
While no reliable statistics are available, experts and medical support groups estimate there are tens of thousands of drug users in Gaza.
Young men are among those most affected in a territory suffering 45 percent unemployment, rising to more than 60 percent among the youth.
Narcotics such as cannabis are sold illegally in the enclave of some 2 million people, but many of the most serious addicts are hooked on illicitly bought prescription medicines.
Hamas, who has ruled Gaza for a decade and take a firm line on drugs, launched a fresh crackdown this year.
Hamas military courts have sentenced four Palestinians to death for drug smuggling, the first such punishments since Hamas seized the Strip in 2007.
Raids have also uncovered record hauls of drugs, particularly Tramadol — a powerful opiate-based painkiller that is widely available.
Umm Mazen, a 32-year-old mother of three who refused to give her full name for fear of consequences in Gaza’s conservative society, said the drug nearly ruined her life.
Fearing a scandal, her husband refused hospital treatment.
“I warned his family and I even threatened to report it to the Hamas police,” she told AFP.
Iyad Al-Bozum, spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, told AFP there was an “organized plan to smuggle large quantities of drugs into Gaza,” saying dealers were targeting young people.
While some drugs are smuggled through the Israeli border, most enter from Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, the ministry said.
The Gaza Strip has been blockaded for more than a decade by Israel, which has fought three wars with Hamas since 2008.
The Rafah crossing with Egypt, the only entrance to the territory not controlled by Israel, has been almost completely closed since the military ousted Egypt’s President Muhammad Mursi in 2013.
Gaza has almost no industry and suffers from a chronic lack of water and fuel.
Interviewed at a Hamas prison where he is serving seven years for drug dealing, a trafficker arrested in 2013 said he had turned to selling narcotics to make ends meet and pay for his own addiction.
“It was easy to sell them — lots of people were using them because of unemployment and the bad situation in Gaza,” he said in an interview monitored by prison guards.
Egyptian forces have since destroyed hundreds of cross-border tunnels and Hamas has launched a crackdown against dealers, but drugs have continued to flow into the territory.
In January Hamas authorities announced they had seized as many drugs in one month as in the whole of 2016, with a street value of around $2 million.
They seized 1,250 packets of cannabis and 400,000 Tramadol pills in January alone, the Interior Ministry said.
As a result of the crackdown, the price of a 10-pill pack of Tramadol is said to have doubled in two years to $120.
In a territory where more than two-thirds of the population rely on humanitarian aid, it is often the inability to pay that forces people to seek rehabilitation, said Sami Aweida from the Gaza Community Mental Health Program.
Gaza has no center dedicated to treating drug addicts, making reliable figures on abuse all but impossible to obtain.
Addicts who want to get clean often avoid specialists, Aweida said.
“People prefer to do it discreetly through a liberal doctor.”
Umm Mazen did convince her husband to seek treatment, but mainly for economic reasons.
“He could not afford (Tramadol) because of the high prices,” she said.
Stigma keeps drug addicts quiet in Gaza Strip
Stigma keeps drug addicts quiet in Gaza Strip
Amnesty International calls on Hungary to arrest Netanyahu
- Israeli PM due to fly to International Criminal Court member state this week
- Visit ‘must not become a bellwether for the future of human rights in Europe’
LONDON: Amnesty International has called on Hungary to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following reports that he will visit the EU member state on Wednesday at the invitation of his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban.
Netanyahu is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in November over Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Orban, a close ally of Netanyahu, has said he would not enforce the warrant. As a member state, Hungary is required to enforce any arrest warrant issued by the ICC.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, head of global research, advocacy and policy at Amnesty International, said Netanyahu “is an alleged war criminal, who is accused of using starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally attacking civilians and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
As an ICC member, “Hungary must arrest him if he travels to the country and hand him over to the Court. Any trip he takes to an ICC member state that does not end in his arrest would embolden Israel to commit further crimes against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
“Netanyahu’s reported visit should be seen as a cynical effort to undermine the ICC and its work, and is an insult to the victims of these crimes who are looking to the Court for justice. Hungary’s invitation shows contempt for international law and confirms that alleged war criminals wanted by the ICC are welcome on the streets of an EU member state.”
Guevara-Rosas said: “Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary must not become a bellwether for the future of human rights in Europe.
“European and global leaders must end their shameful silence and inaction, and call on Hungary to arrest Netanyahu during a visit which would make a mockery of the suffering of Palestinian victims of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its war crimes in other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and its entrenched system of apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights it controls.
“Amnesty International calls on the ICC Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute all Israel’s crimes.”
Guevara-Rosas added: “Hungary should equally do so by applying universal jurisdiction principles. Powerful leaders, like Netanyahu, accused by the ICC of war crimes and crimes against humanity, must no longer enjoy the prospect of perpetual impunity.”
Health ministry in Gaza says 1,042 killed since Israel resumed strikes
- After a ceasefire that lasted roughly two months, Israel relaunched its military campaign in Gaza on March 18
GAZA CITY: The health ministry in Gaza said on Tuesday that 1,042 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since Israel resumed large-scale strikes on March 18.
According to the ministry’s statement, the figure includes 41 people killed in the past 24 hours. It also reported that the overall death toll had reached 50,399 since the war began on October 7, 2023.
After a ceasefire that lasted roughly two months, Israel relaunched its military campaign in Gaza on March 18. Since then, bombardment and new ground assaults that have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry’s count does not distinguish between militants and civilians, but it says over half those killed are women and children.
Israeli defense firm Elbit gets $130 million European rocket supply deal
- Pro-Palestine activists have repeatedly targeted Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems in the UK
- They accuse the company of supplying weapons used in Israel’s military actions in Gaza and the West Bank
JERUSALEM: Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest defense firm, said on Tuesday it received a $130 million contract to supply advanced rocket munitions to an unnamed European country.
The contract for the Precize and Universal Launching System (PULS), an advanced and versatile artillery rocket system capable of launching a wide range of ammunition types from a single platform, will be performed over three years.
The system, Elbit said, offers precision strike capabilities with a range of up to 300 kilometers.
“As European nations continue to enhance their defense capabilities, the selection of PULS reaffirms its strategic value in modern battlefield scenarios,” said Yehuda Vered, general manager of Elbit Systems Land.
Under the deal, Elbit will supply a variety of advanced rocket systems that are designed to significantly enhance the operational capabilities of the customer’s defense forces.
Pro-Palestine activists have repeatedly targeted Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems in the UK, accusing it of supplying weapons used in Israel’s military actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
The activist group Palestine Action has led these protests, often involving vandalism and direct action against Elbit’s sites. They argue that Elbit profits from war crimes and demand its closure.
Netanyahu reverses decision on new Israel security chief
- Decision to appoint former navy commander Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit as Shin Bet chief reconsidered following criticism, including from a key US senator
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Tuesday he had reversed a decision to appoint former navy commander Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit as security agency chief following criticism, including from a key US senator.
“The prime minister thanked Vice Admiral Sharvit for his willingness to be called to duty but informed him that, after further consideration, he intends to examine other candidates,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Netanyahu had announced Sharvit’s appointment on Monday, pushing back against a supreme court decision to freeze his government’s move to dismiss incumbent director Ronen Bar.
The prime minister had announced Bar’s dismissal on March 21, citing an “ongoing lack of trust.” The supreme court swiftly suspended the decision until April 8.
Bar’s dismissal has sparked daily mass protests in Jerusalem, disrupting the city.
On Monday, hours after Sharvit’s appointment was announced, reports began surfacing that he had been among tens of thousands of Israelis who took to the streets in 2023 to oppose the Netanyahu government’s attempts to reform the judiciary.
Israeli media reports also recalled that Sharvit, who served in the military for 36 years, had supported a 2022 water agreement with Lebanon that Netanyahu had opposed.
It was also revealed that the former naval chief had penned an opinion piece criticizing US President Donald Trump’s policies on climate change, prompting staunch Trump ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, to criticize his appointment in a post on X.
“While it is undeniably true that America has no better friend than Israel, the appointment of Eli Sharvit to be the new leader of the Shin Bet is beyond problematic,” Graham wrote on Monday.
“There has never been a better supporter for the State of Israel than President Trump. The statements made by Eli Sharvit about President Trump and his polices will create unnecessary stress at a critical time. My advice to my Israeli friends is change course and do better vetting.”
Yemen’s Houthis claim they shot down another American drone as US strikes pound country
- The reported shootdown over Yemen’s contested Marib governorate came as airstrikes hit around Sanaa and Saada
- The US military acknowledged to The Associated Press being aware of reports of the downing of a Reaper
DUBAI: Yemen’s Houthi militia claimed Tuesday that they shot down another American MQ-9 Reaper drone, even as the US kept up its campaign of intense airstrikes targeting the group.
The reported shootdown over Yemen’s contested Marib governorate came as airstrikes hit around Sanaa, the country’s militia-held capital, and Saada, a stronghold for the Houthis.
US President Donald Trump issued a new warning to both the Houthis and their main benefactor, Iran, describing the group as having “been decimated” by the campaign of strikes that began March 15.
“Many of their Fighters and Leaders are no longer with us,” Trump wrote on his social media website Truth Social. “We hit them every day and night — Harder and harder. Their capabilities that threaten Shipping and the Region are rapidly being destroyed. Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation.”
He added: “The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran.”
Houthis claim they downed another US drone
The militia claimed to have felled a drone in Marib governorate, home to oil and gas fields still under the control of allies to Yemen’s exiled central government. Footage released on social media showed flames in the night, with a Yemeni man claiming a drone had been shot down.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, separately claimed downing the MQ-9 drone in a prerecorded video message.
Saree described the militia targeting the drone with “a suitable locally manufactured missile.” The Houthis have surface-to-air missiles — such as the Iranian missile known as the 358 — capable of downing aircraft.
Iran denies arming the militia, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments heading to Yemen for the Shiite Houthi militia despite a United Nations arms embargo.
The US military acknowledged to The Associated Press being aware of reports of the downing of a Reaper, but declined to comment further.
General Atomics Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes over 40,000 feet (12,100 meters) and remain in the air for over 30 hours. The aircraft have been flown by both the US military and the CIA for years over Afghanistan, Iraq and now Yemen.
The Houthis claim they’ve shot down 20 MQ-9s over the country over the years, with 16 downed during the militia’ campaign over the Israel-Hamas war. The US military hasn’t acknowledged the total number of the drones it has lost there.
Intense US bombings began March 15
An Associated Press review has found the new American operation against the Houthis under Trump appears more extensive than those under former President Joe Biden, as the US moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel as well as dropping bombs in cities.
The new campaign of airstrikes, which the Houthis now say have killed at least 61 people, started after the militia threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The militia have loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning many vessels could be targeted.
The Houthis targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships, though none has been hit so far.
The attacks greatly raised the Houthis’ profile as they faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting dissent and aid workers at home amid Yemen’s decade-long stalemated war, which has torn apart the Arab world’s poorest nation.
