DAMASCUS: UN officials and volunteers from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent offered children vaccinations and distributed desperately needed aid on Sunday, the first such assistance since January to reach thousands in a remote camp for the displaced on Syria’s border with Jordan.
Residents said that teams from international organizations entered their desolate camp for the first time since it was set up over three years ago, where nearly 50,000 have been stranded in limbo.
Fadwa Baroud of the United Nations Office of the Resident Coordinator said it was the first time a UN aid convoy had accessed Rukban camp from inside Syria. She said aid workers were in the Rukban area.
Before January, aid only reached the camp from Jordan and aid workers were barred from accessing the camp because of security concerns.
The Arab Syrian Red Crescent and the United Nations posted pictures of staff unloading trucks of life-saving assistance and administering vaccines to children.
Residents posed with the aid trucks driving through the desolate camp, where 10,000 children are expected to be vaccinated.
The US-led coalition fighting against Daesh militants said its local allies, a Syrian armed group known as Maghawir Al-Thawra, provided security for the aid convoys.
Resident Abdul-Fatah Al-Khaled, who also runs a camp school, said aid workers, including UN staff, were on the ground at the camp for the first time.
“Before (January) the aid used to be distributed from the Jordanian side over the sand berms” or by rebel groups who resided in the camp, Al-Khaled said.
Al-Khaled said distribution of food and winter clothes began late Saturday.
People started gathering in Rukban three years ago, fleeing Daesh militants and airstrikes by the US-led coalition, Russia and Syria. Jordan sealed its border and stopped regular aid deliveries in 2016 after a cross-border Daesh attack that killed seven Jordanian soldiers. The attack, and other violence, fueled accusations that militants were hiding among camp residents and raised concern that deteriorating humanitarian conditions amounted to collective punishment.
The last aid delivery from Jordan was in January, leaving the camp’s residents dependent on goods largely smuggled from government-held areas. The situation sharply deteriorated after the Syrian government blocked supply routes last month following a botched reconciliation deal with rebel groups in the area.
Russia, a close ally of the Syrian government, has blamed the US for the deterioration of the situation in Rukban, which is within a 55-square kilometer (20 sq. mile) “deconfliction zone” set up by US forces stationed in the nearby Tanf military base.
The US-led coalition has denied such allegations and blamed Russia and the Syrian government instead.
“We continue to stand ready to enable future delivery of UN humanitarian relief to the people of Rukban until they are able to return home as we pursue our mission of an enduring defeat of (Daesh),” said Maj. Gen. (UK) Christopher Ghika, a deputy commander for the US-led Coalition.
The UN said aid deliveries would continue for up to four days, describing the condition in the camp as “critical” with reported shortages of basic commodities, protection concerns and increasing violence.
At least four people have died in the past month due to malnutrition and lack of medical care as regional powers traded blame.
Also on Sunday, the US-led coalition conducted joint patrols with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces along the borders with Turkey, the second this week following increased tension after Turkish artillery shelled Kurdish positions in northeast Syria.
“Sunday’s joint patrol with the SDF is the second of the week, after the first one was conducted by US forces on Friday,” Col. Sean Ryan, the coalition spokesman, told The Associated Press in an email. “The US forces’ assurance patrols enables us to maintain safety and security in the region, but are not carried out on a routine basis.”
Senior Kurdish official Ilham Ahmed said the patrols were conducted along the borders with Turkey in Ras Al-Ayn, Tal Abiyad and Manbij.
In recent tension, Turkey said its military shelled Kurdish positions across the border in Syria, east of the Euphrates River, at least twice last week, in an area where US-led coalition are based.
Turkey considers the Kurdish militia that forms the backbone of SDF a terror threat and an extension of Kurdish rebels waging an insurgency within Turkey. US support for the Kurdish-led forces has resulted in increased tension between Washington and Ankara.
Separately on Sunday, the Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told the pro-government daily Al-Watan that Syria would cooperate with the new UN envoy Geir Pederson if he avoids the “methods” of his predecessor, commits to the country’s territorial integrity and stops supporting “terrorists, as his predecessor did.”
Pedersen succeeds Staffan de Mistura, who steps down this month after four years of unsuccessful peace efforts.
Aid workers reach remote Syrian camp for 1st time
Aid workers reach remote Syrian camp for 1st time
UK tells ICJ Israel must allow aid supplies into Gaza
- British lawyers outline Israel’s obligations under international law during hearings at the Hague
- UK supports banned Palestinian aid agency’s continued work in Gaza
LONDON: Lawyers representing the UK government have told the UN’s top court that Israel must allow aid supplies back into Gaza.
Speaking at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Sally Langrish, legal advisor to the UK’s Foreign Office, said Israel must also give the International Committee of the Red Cross access to Palestinian prisoners and insisted that the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees was impartial.
Her comments on Thursday were made on the fourth day of hearings at the ICJ, which was asked last year by the UN General Assembly to give an advisory opinion on Israel’s legal obligations on the operations of UN agencies and international organizations in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The hearings, which finish on Friday, have centered around Israel’s cutting off of aid supplies to Gaza and come amid dire warnings about the collapse of emergency food and water supplies to Palestinians.
“Israel must facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian provision to the population of Gaza, including food, water and electricity, and must ensure access to medical care in accordance with international humanitarian law,” Langrish told the court.
David Lammy, the UK’s foreign secretary, this week said Israel’s decision to block aid deliveries to Gaza was a “horrendous” decision that was causing dire suffering.
On Friday, the Red Cross warned that aid operations in Gaza were on the “verge of total collapse,” describing scenes of starving children and fights over water.
The stating of the UK’s legal position at the ICJ also came as the British government confirmed it was in talks with France and Saudi Arabia over officially recognizing the Palestinian state.
Spain, Norway and Ireland recently added themselves to the 160 countries that already recognize Palestine.
The UK was among the 137 countries to vote in favor of the UN General Assembly resolution in December to request the ICJ opinion. The US and 10 other nations voted against and 22 abstained.
The resolution was in response to Israel passing a law that effectively banned the main UN organization delivering aid to Palestinians, UNRWA, from operating in Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel claims that workers at the agency took part in the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 that sparked Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza.
Langrish said the allegations of any UNRWA staff involvement in the “barbaric” Hamas attack must be thoroughly investigated. But she said the UK “supports UNRWA’s continued work and commitment to the principle of neutrality.”
She also highlighted Israel’s obligations under international law to allowing the Red Cross access to Palestinian prisoners.
Langrish said there had been “credible reports of ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli custody” since the war started and that Red Cross access was aimed at ensuring they are treated humanely.
That Hamas had also not allowed Red Cross access to the hostages held in Gaza was also “completely unacceptable,” she said, but added that this could not be used to justify Israel denying Red Cross access to Palestinian detainees since.
The ICJ’s opinion is expected to take months to be delivered.
At least 29 people were killed in Gaza on Friday, AFP reported, with the number of Palestinians killed in the conflict now more than 52,000. The Hamas attack in October 2023 killed 1,218 people.
UAE had hottest April on record: met office
- That topped the average daily high of 42.2 Celsius
- UAE has been gripped by a heatwave for several days
DUBAI: The UAE endured its hottest April on record with an average daily high of 42.6 degrees Celsius (108.7 Fahrenheit), the National Center of Meteorology (NCM) said.
That topped the average daily high of 42.2 Celsius (108 Fahrenheit) recorded in April 2017, said the center, which has been keeping comprehensive figures since 2003.
UAE has been gripped by a heatwave for several days that has prompted authorities to warn residents to drink plenty of fluids and avoid work outdoors during the hottest part of the day.
NCM meteorologist Ahmed Habib said the culprit was a mass of very hot air that had blown in from the desert.
On April 27, temperatures in the emirate of Fujairah peaked at 46.6 Celsius (115.9 Fahrenheit), the second highest ever recorded in April in the UAE.
This year’s heatwave stands in stark contrast to April 2024, when the UAE was swept by its heaviest rains in 75 years, in which four people died.
Scientists of the World Weather Attribution network said last year’s rains were “very likely” exacerbated by global warming.
‘No dumping ground’: Tunisia activist wins award over waste scandal
- The 57-year-old was among seven environmentalists from different countries handed this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize
- Gharbi “helped spearhead a campaign that challenged a corrupt waste trafficking scheme between Italy and Tunisia,” the Goldman committee said
TUNIS: Tunisian environmentalist Semia Labidi Gharbi, awarded a global prize for her role exposing a major waste scandal, has a message for wealthy nations: developing countries are “no dumping ground.”
Gharbi was among the first to speak out when Italy shipped more than 280 containers of waste to the North African country in 2020.
The cargo was initially labelled as recyclable plastic scrap, but customs officials found hazardous household waste — banned under Tunisian law.
“It’s true, we are developing countries,” Gharbi said in an interview with AFP. “But we are not a dumping ground.”
The 57-year-old was among seven environmentalists from different countries handed this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize — commonly known as the “Green Nobel” — in California last week.
The Goldman committee said her grassroots activism helped force Italy to take the waste back in February 2022.
Gharbi “helped spearhead a campaign that challenged a corrupt waste trafficking scheme between Italy and Tunisia,” the Goldman committee said.
And her endeavours ultimately led to the return of 6,000 tons of “illegally exported household waste back to Italy,” the US-based organization added.
The scandal took on national proportions in Tunisia and saw the sacking of then environment minister Mustapha Aroui, who was sentenced to three years in prison.
A total of 26 people, including customs officials, were prosecuted.
Yet the waste remained at the port of Sousse for more than two years, with Tunisian rights groups criticizing the authorities’ inaction as Italy failed to meet deadlines to take it back.
Global waste trade often sees industrialized nations offload rubbish in poorer countries with limited means to handle it.
“What is toxic for developed countries is toxic for us too,” said Gharbi. “We also have the right to live in a healthy environment.”
She added that while richer countries can manage their own waste, developing ones like Tunisia have “limited capacity.”
The Goldman committee said Gharbi’s campaigning helped drive reforms in the European Union.
“Her efforts spurred policy shifts within the EU, which has now tightened its procedures and regulations for waste shipments abroad,” it said.
Gharbi, who has spent 25 years campaigning on environmental threats to health, said she never set out to turn the scandal into a symbol.
“But now that it has become one, so much the better,” she said with a smile.
She hopes the award will raise the profile of Tunisian civil society, and said groups she works with across Africa see the recognition as their own.
“The prize is theirs too,” she said, adding it would help amplify advocacy and “convey messages.”
‘Deadly blockade’ leaves Gaza aid work on verge of collapse: UN, Red Cross
- “The humanitarian response in Gaza is on the verge of total collapse,” the ICRC warned
- WFP said a week ago that it had sent out its “last remaining food stocks” to kitchens
GENEVA: Two months into Israel’s full blockade on aid into Gaza, humanitarians described Friday horrific scenes of starving, bloodied children and people fighting over water, with aid operations on the “verge of total collapse.”
The United Nations and the Red Cross sounded the alarm at the dire situation in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, demanding international action.
“The humanitarian response in Gaza is on the verge of total collapse,” the International Committee of the Red Cross warned in a statement.
“Without immediate action, Gaza will descend further into chaos that humanitarian efforts will not be able to mitigate.”
Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid vital for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
It halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2, days before the collapse of a ceasefire that had significantly reduced hostilities after 15 months of war.
Since the start of the blockade, the United Nations has repeatedly warned of the humanitarian catastrophe on the ground, with famine again looming.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said a week ago that it had sent out its “last remaining food stocks” to kitchens.
“Food stocks have now mainly run out,” Olga Cherevko, a spokeswoman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told reporters in Geneva Friday via video link from Gaza City.
“Community kitchens have begun to shut down (and) more people are going hungry,” she said, pointing to reports of children and other very vulnerable people who have died from malnutrition and ... from the lack of food.”
“The blockade is deadly.”
Water access was also “becoming impossible,” she warned.
“In fact, as I speak to you, just downstairs from this building people are fighting for water. There’s a water truck that has just arrived, and people are killing each other over water,” she said.
The situation is so bad, she said that a friend had described to her a few days ago seeing “people burning ... because of the explosions and there was no water to save them.”
At the same time, Cherevko lamented that “hospitals report running out of blood units as mass casualties continue to arrive.”
“Gaza lies in ruins, Rubble fills the streets... Many nights, blood-curdling screams of the injured pierce the skies following the deafening sound of another explosion.”
She also decried the mass displacement, with nearly the entire Gaza population being forced to shift multiple times prior to the brief ceasefire.
Since the resumption of hostilities, she said “over 420,000 people have been once again forced to flee, many with only the clothes on their backs, shot at along the way, arriving in overcrowded shelters, as tents and other facilities where people search safety, are being bombed.”
Pascal Hundt, the ICRC’s deputy head of operations, also cautioned that “civilians in Gaza are facing an overwhelming daily struggle to survive the dangers of hostilities, cope with relentless displacement, and endure the consequences of being deprived of urgent humanitarian assistance.”
The World Health Organization’s emergencies director Mike Ryan said the situation was an “abomination.”
“We are breaking the bodies and the minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Cherevko slammed decision makers who “have watched in silence the endless scenes of bloodied children, of severed limbs, of grieving parents move swiftly across their screens, month, after month, after month.”
“How much more blood must be spilled before enough become enough?“
Two killed in safety valve incident at BAPCO Refining plant in Bahrain, 3rd person injured
DUBAI: Two workers have been killed in an incident at one of the Bahrain Petroleum Company’s (BAPCO) units, the country’s Ministry of Interior confirmed in a post on X.com.
Members of the Bahraini civil defense, working in cooperation with Bapco’s emergency teams, dealt with the leakage the post explained.
The Bahrain News Agency later reported that BAPCO Refining had confirmed that all precautionary measures had been taken regarding the leak that happened on Friday morning in a safety valve in one of BAPCO Refining’s units.
The statement added that the situation was under full control, the leak has been stopped and work had resumed.
The statement added that Bapco expressed its “sincere condolences, sympathy, and support” to the families of the two employees who died.
The national ambulance service transferred a third person who was injured to the hospital for treatment.
