Turkey welcomes US plan for Syria ‘safe zone’/node/1435921/middle-east
Turkey welcomes US plan for Syria ‘safe zone’
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would solve issues with a ‘spirit of alliance’ with US President Donald Trump as long as his country’s sensitivities were taken into account. (Reuters)
Ankara ‘not targeting Kurds in a military operation in Syria’
Although technical details have not yet been disclosed, it will cover strategic areas such as Kobani, Tal Abyad, Ras Al-Ayn, Ayn Al-Arab and Qamishli
Updated 24 May 2023
MENEKSE TOKYAY
ANKARA: President Donald Trump, who last month announced his intention to withdraw US forces from Syria, tweeted on Sunday that the creation of a “safe zone” in the north of the country is on the horizon.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who on Monday spoke on the phone with Trump, said he responded positively to the idea.
“Turkey will continue to do what it has to in order to solve this issue in line with the spirit of its alliance, so long as our rights and laws are respected,” Erdogan told reporters on Tuesday. “We reached a historic understanding with Trump last night.”
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, met his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar on Tuesday in Ankara.
Dr. Magdalena Kirchner, a senior analyst at Conias Risk Intelligence in Germany, said a safe zone should prevent direct confrontation between the Turkish Army and the Syrian-Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), reduce the YPG’s military presence near the border, and prevent an influx of Daesh and other extremist fighters.
“This would reduce Turkish post-US-withdrawal fears of being confronted at the border by a YPG no longer constrained by the US, or a Daesh no longer targeted by American forces,” she told Arab News.
However, experts say it is unclear how sustainable the zone will be, and whether it can be implemented quickly.
Although technical details have not yet been disclosed, it will cover strategic areas such as Kobani, Tal Abyad, Ras Al-Ayn, Ayn Al-Arab and Qamishli. It is as yet unknown whether Turkish troops will be allowed in the zone. Kirchner said among the challenges is if the YPG refuses to withdraw from strategic towns such as Kobani.
“A safe zone as described is a political win for Turkey, and could give Ankara major leverage over questions such as local governance and refugee returns,” she added.
But “the proximity to local elections in Turkey in March could limit Ankara’s patience regarding such an agreement and trigger military action nevertheless.”
Another challenge will be maintaining the morale and commitment of YPG elements in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to continue fighting Daesh in such a scenario, as the plan for the safe zone threatens the idea of Kurdish autonomy and local governance, Kirchner said. She expects a return to cooperation between Ankara and Damascus against Kurdish autonomy, as a strengthened central government in Syria will seek to regain full control and sovereignty over Syrian territory.
“Border control and containing YPG and PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) forces will be a key Turkish demand in any negotiations over a withdrawal of Turkish forces from northern Syria,” she said.
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, Ankara office director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said he is skeptical about how the YPG can be persuaded to withdraw from what it sees as its future autonomous region to areas where there are few Kurds.
“Even if the YPG is persuaded and the plan is implemented, this will mean that the US will need to continue controlling the airspace east of the Euphrates (river) and leave behind a small force to monitor… the safe zone,” he told Arab News.
“The US government is working on a Manbij-like plan — involving joint Turkish-American patrols — which would address Ankara’s concerns and make a Turkish operation east of the Euphrates unnecessary,” Unluhisarcikli added.
Oubai Shahbandar, an Ankara-based defense analyst, told Arab News that a safe zone in northern Syria “will provide a sustainable security solution along Turkey’s sensitive border with Syria,” and “allow commerce and local governance to thrive.”
It would also prevent groups such as Daesh and the PKK from re-establishing a foothold in areas they once controlled, he added.
Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin recently rejected US claims that Ankara was targeting Kurds in a planned military operation in Syria, saying the aim of such an operation would be to protect Kurds from oppression by terrorist groups.
Shahbandar said although Turkish leaders have pledged to protect the Kurdish community, the YPG has threatened to attack Turkish forces and their Free Syrian Army (FSA) ally if they enter cities controlled by the YPG.
TEHRAN: Iranian bank cards can now be used in Russia, state television reported, as the two countries linked their banking systems in the latest bid to counteract sanctions.
Iranian banks have been excluded since 2018 from the SWIFT international financial messaging service, which governs the vast majority of trans-actions worldwide.
The move is part of a raft of sanctions that were re-imposed on Iran after the US withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.
Iranian bank cards can now be used in Russia, state television channel IRINN said on Monday, showing the withdrawal of money using an Iranian bank card from an ATM in Russia.
The operation was made possible by connecting Iran’s interbank network Shetab to its Russian equivalent Mir, the channel said.
Iranians can currently withdraw money in Russia, and will in the future be able to use their cards to pay for in-store purchases, it added.
“The plan is also going to be implemented in other countries that have a wide range of financial and social interactions with Iran, for example Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkiye,” it said.
Both Iran and Russia have sought to counteract the effects of sanctions on their economies.
Lebanese artists struggle to keep creativity alive in a nation at war
Artists use their work as an outlet for the frustration and despair they feel
Updated 8 min 28 sec ago
Reuters
BEIRUT: As Israel presses a deadly offensive against armed group Hezbollah in his home country, Lebanese artist Charbel Samuel Aoun wrestles with the role of art in a country engulfed in conflict.
“Does art still have a place in such a crisis?” said Aoun, a 45-year-old mixed media painter and sculptor.
Lebanon has historically played a central role in the Arab world’s artistic scene, serving as a vibrant hub for visual arts, music and theater, blending traditional and contemporary influences.
Now, Lebanese artists are using their work as an outlet for the frustration and despair they feel after a year-long Israeli offensive that has killed more than 3,200 people, the vast majority of them since September.
Aoun’s pieces are a direct reflection of Lebanon’s back-to- back crises. In 2013, he began gathering dust from Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon to create a series of layered paintings, before moving on to explore other mediums.
Now, he says the darkness and hopelessness of the war — and the debris left behind by Israel’s intense bombing campaign across Lebanon’s south, east and Beirut’s southern suburbs — has revived his desire to work with dust.
“You either stop everything or keep going with the little that still has meaning,” he said.
Two of his exhibitions have been canceled due to the war. While he once lived on the income from his art, he now also relies on selling honey from his beehives, which he first set up as a project to create art from beeswax.
“I can no longer rely on the art market,” he said.
Galleries across Beirut have shut down in recent months, with owners saying there was no demand to buy art at this time. Lebanon’s famed modern art museum, the Sursock Museum, has moved its collections to underground storage.
Lebanese singer and musician Joy Fayad has grappled with the emotional toll of the conflict — which made it difficult for her to perform for months.
“It limited my creativity, it was like I shut down. I couldn’t give to others, nor to myself,” Fayad, 36, said.
Instead, she threw her energy into songwriting. One line in a new song reads: “You are from the downtrodden people, whose word has been silenced, and by their weapons, you are paying the price with your blood.”
She recently began performing again, singing for displaced and refugee children in Lebanon at a charity event north of Beirut.
“They’re changing the atmosphere, having fun after such a difficult period,” she said, especially for those who became accustomed to the sound of bombs instead of beats.
How Israeli far-right violations of East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa compound are growing in scope and severity
Jews and other non-Muslims may visit Al-Aqsa but must not pray there or display religious symbols
In recent years, the restrictions have been increasingly flouted by hardline religious nationalists, prompting violence
Updated 6 min 48 sec ago
Jonathan Gornall
LONDON: As feared, they came in their thousands, swarming into the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem at the height of the week-long Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot.
On Sunday, Oct. 20, while the world’s attention was focused on the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, more than a thousand Israeli settlers occupied the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem. Over the next two days, thousands more followed.
Inside, protected by police who prevented Muslims from entering, they performed Jewish religious rituals in defiance of the longstanding status quo at the Haram Al-Sharif, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
A member of the Israeli security forces and Palestinians waiting near the Lion's Gate scuffle as they wait to enter the Al-Aqsa mosque compound to attend the last Friday noon prayer of Islam's holy fasting month of Ramadan, on April 5, 2024. (AFP)
The forced entries over three days, the latest in a series of provocative acts orchestrated by far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, came as no surprise to Ir Amim, an Israeli human rights organization that works “to render Jerusalem a more equitable and sustainable city for the Israelis and Palestinians who share it.”
On the eve of the Jewish High Holiday season, Ir Amim (“City of Nations” in Hebrew) issued a report revealing that 2024 was already “a record year in terms of the scope and severity of Israel’s violations of the status quo on the Mount.”
It warned that the situation “is particularly dangerous given that undermining the status quo on the Haram Al-Sharif/Temple Mount is liable to escalate into another front of violence” and added that the Israeli government’s “distorted priorities regarding the management of the war in Gaza and the north are also reflected in its conduct on the Haram Al-Sharif/Temple Mount.”
FASTFACTS
• Jews, other non-Muslims may visit Al-Aqsa compound in East Jerusalem, but may not pray there or display religious symbols.
• In recent years, the restrictions have been increasingly flouted by hardline religious nationalists, prompting violent reactions.
In January 2023, nine months before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Ben Gvir staged one of his controversial visits to the site, ignoring warnings from other Israeli politicians that he risked provoking violence and saying that he would not “surrender to the threats of Hamas.”
According to Hamas, it was repeated provocations such as those orchestrated by Ben Gvir that led to the Oct. 7 attack, which it codenamed “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.” About 1,200 Israelis were killed and some 250 others kidnapped during the coordinated attack by Palestinian militant groups. The subsequent Israeli military retaliation has, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, left nearly 42,000 Palestinians dead and more than 92,000 injured.
Israeli men pray on the Mount of Olives overlooking the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, where Muslim devotees participate in their Friday Noon prayer, in Jerusalem on March 29, 2024. (AFP)
Resolving the thorny status of Jerusalem is viewed as an important prerequisite to peace. On Monday, Arab and Muslim leaders concluded a landmark summit in Riyadh with a unified demand for Israel to withdraw from all occupied Palestinian territories.
The summit’s closing statement stressed that East Jerusalem is the “eternal capital of Palestine,” and rejected any Israeli decisions aimed at “Judaizing” it, considering such measures “null, void and illegitimate under international law.”
The leaders of 57 nations said they considered “Al-Quds Al-Sharif a red line for the Arab and Islamic nations,” and reaffirmed their “absolute solidarity in protecting the Arab and Islamic identity of occupied East Al-Quds and in defending the sanctity of the holy Islamic and Christian sites therein.”
Israeli police take position during clashes with Palestinians on Laylat al-Qadr during the holy month of Ramadan, at Jerusalem's Old City, May 8, 2021. (REUTERS)
For Muslims, the mosque compound is the third-holiest site in Islam. As the Temple Mount, it also holds great significance for Jews, who believe it was the site of both the First Temple, destroyed by Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar II in 587 B.C., and the Second Temple, built in the first century B.C. and destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70.
For decades, a delicate status quo has preserved the balance of interests at the site, which has been a waqf — an Islamic religious endowment — since the 12th century. Since 1948, the site has been managed by the Jordanian-appointed Jerusalem Islamic Waqf and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs Council, known simply as the Waqf.
By international agreement, the Waqf has retained responsibility for the site ever since, although since the occupation of the Old City of Jerusalem by Israel after the Six Day War in 1967, Israeli forces have controlled access to it.
Challenging the status quo on the Temple Mount is a dangerous, unnecessary, and irresponsible act, says Yoav Gallant, Israel’s former defense minister. (AFP)
The compound has always been open for Jews to visit during specified hours, but they are not allowed to pray there or display religious symbols.
Ironically, said Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer and founder of nongovernmental organization Terrestrial Jerusalem, it was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who “best defined this core understanding in 2015 when he said: ‘Muslims pray at the Temple Mount; non-Muslims visit the Temple Mount’.”
Seidemann added: “Until 2017, Netanyahu reasonably maintained the status quo. But since then, he has incrementally allowed Jewish prayer, while disingenuously asserting that Israel is committed to maintaining the status quo.
“That was, and is, a lie.”
Israeli police confronts Palestinians at al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, Monday, Feb. 18, 2019. (AP)
The UN Security Council has repeatedly had cause to rebuke Israel for undermining the status quo, and last month the Waqf issued a joint statement with the Supreme Islamic Authority and the Palestinian Fatwa House accusing Israel of an “extremely dangerous escalation” by allowing settlers free rein in the compound.
In the past, said Seidemann, “many hundreds of Israelis, many Jewish, visited the mosques daily without incident. They came as guests and were treated as guests.
“But today’s visitors are best represented by Ben Gvir. He visits as the proprietor and treats the Muslims as his tenants.
“Jewish visits to the Mount no longer have anything to do with piety, and everything to do with ultra-nationalist religious triumphalism.”
He added: “Commencing with the new Netanyahu government, the veil has been ripped away. The violation of the status quo is both so blatant and consistent it cannot be denied.”
During Ramadan this year, “some of these new developments were temporarily suspended. That required a lot of discrete negotiations, leading to public safety being vested in security people with cool heads and steady hands.
“This year, as an exception, it was the quietest Ramadan in memory. Nothing stabilizes Jerusalem as much as the pursuit of the status quo in good faith.”
But following the end of Ramadan in April, said Ir Amim researcher Aviv Tatarsky, “Israel again imposed harsh restrictions on Muslim entry to Al-Aqsa, reverting to the unprecedented measures implemented after Oct. 7 and the subsequent outbreak of the war.”
Muslim worshippers under the age of 40 “are consistently denied access to the Mount by the police, even during Muslim prayer times.
“The most stringent restrictions are imposed during Jewish visits, which ultimately translates into a ban on Muslim entry while Jews conduct prayer unencumbered on the Mount.”
This systematic exclusion of Muslims from their place of worship during Jewish visits, he said, “is not only a breach of Muslim worship rights and the status quo, but also contributes to heightened tensions in an already volatile climate.”
According to Ir Amim, this past year there has been an up to 20 percent increase in the number of Jewish visits to the Mount, with over 50,000 recorded since the beginning of the Hebrew year in September 2023, surpassing the previous annual record.
But this figure refers to the number of visits, and not unique visitors, and what it reflects is an increasing number of visits primarily by “a small, albeit vocal, segment of the population alongside government supporters,” pushing for an increased Jewish presence on the Mount.
“This reality directly contradicts the Israeli government’s attempts to justify changes to the arrangements as a result of ‘pressure from below’,” said Tatarsky.
“The vast majority of the Jewish public remains uninterested in praying at the Holy Compound, while the erosion of the status quo is entirely the work of the government in service to a fringe extremist group.”
Israel’s Heritage Ministry recently announced its intention to fund Jewish visits to the compound with a budget of 2 million shekels (about $530,000.)
“The Temple movements, which are behind the Jewish tours and visits to the Mount, require government funding to sustain their activities,” said Tatarsky.
“Thus, the new budget constitutes a calculated government effort to manufacture further challenges to the status quo, aiming to engineer the Israeli public in service to its goals.”
Ir Amim has made a number of recommendations for maintaining the status quo. These include allowing unrestricted Muslim access to the Mount and, “if the police find it difficult to manage the simultaneous presence of Muslim worshippers and Jewish visitors, the entry of Muslims should take precedence,” it says, adding: “Muslim worship rights trump non-Muslim visiting rights.”
In addition, it says, Israel must prevent any Jewish prayer or worship activity on the Mount, prohibit government ministers from speaking against the status quo and visiting the Mount, and cancel the allocation of all funds to the Jewish Temple movements.
“Even after years of activity by the Temple movements, only a small minority of the Jewish public visits the Temple Mount,” said Tatarsky. “The government is ultimately promoting the interests of a fringe extreme Jewish group, while severely harming millions of Muslim residents and Israel’s relations with Arab countries, especially Jordan.”
In the past, Jewish extremists have made no secret of their wish to destroy the mosque and replace it with a “Third Temple.” This ambition is enshrined in the Amidah, the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy, which includes the entreaty “that the Temple be rebuilt speedily in our days.”
Over the decades, the mosque has been the target of arson and bomb attacks. In 1990, 20 Muslims were killed and dozens more wounded in clashes provoked by an attempt by an extremist Jewish group to lay a symbolic cornerstone for the “Third Temple” in the Al-Aqsa compound.
In recent years, extremist groups, encouraged by Ben Gvir and other right-wing politicians, have stepped up the campaign to see a third temple built on the site. Ben Gvir, who has made multiple provocative visits to the Mount, has insisted Jews should be allowed to pray on the site, a position denounced by some Israeli politicians and rabbis.
A threat made by Ben Gvir in August to build a synagogue at the Al-Aqsa compound drew condemnations from several Israeli officials.
A statement from Netanyahu’s office reiterated that “there (was) no change” to the existing policy.
US says it will not limit Israel arms transfers after some improvements in flow of aid to Gaza
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Tuesday the progress to date must be supplemented and sustained
“We are not giving Israel a pass,” Patel said, adding that “we want to see the totality of the humanitarian situation improve”
Updated 26 min 9 sec ago
AP
WASHINGTON: The Biden administration says Israel has made good but limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza and it will not limit arms transfers to Israel as it had threatened to a month ago if the situation had not improved.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Tuesday the progress to date must be supplemented and sustained but “we at this time have not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of US law.” It requires recipients of military assistance to adhere to international humanitarian law and not impede the provision of such aid.
“We are not giving Israel a pass,” Patel said, adding that “we want to see the totality of the humanitarian situation improve, and we think some of these steps will allow the conditions for that to continue to progress.”
The decision from the US, Israel’s key ally and largest provider of arms and other military aid, comes despite international aid organizations declaring that Israel has failed to meet the US demands to allow greater humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, where conditions are worse than at any point in the 13-month-old war.
The Biden administration last month set a deadline expiring Tuesday for Israel to “surge” more food and other emergency aid into the Palestinian territory or risk the possibility of scaled-back military support as Israel wages offensives against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top national security adviser, Ron Dermer, in Washington a day earlier to go over the steps that Israel has taken since Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned in mid-October of possible repercussions if the aid situation had not improved in 30 days.
Blinken stressed “the importance of ensuring those changes lead to an actual improvement in the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, including through the delivery of additional assistance to civilians throughout Gaza,” the State Department said.
The obstacles facing aid distribution were on this display this week. Even after the military gave permission for a delivery to the northernmost part of Gaza — virtually cut off from food for more than a month by an Israeli siege — the United Nations said it couldn’t deliver most of it because of turmoil and restrictions from Israeli troops on the ground.
Hunger experts have warned the north may already be experiencing famine.
Meanwhile, in the south, hundreds of truckloads of aid are sitting on the Gaza side of the border because the UN says it cannot reach them to distribute the aid — again because of the threat of lawlessness, theft and Israeli military restrictions.
Israel has announced a series of steps — though their effect was unclear. On Tuesday, it opened a new crossing in central Gaza, outside the city of Deir Al-Balah, for aid to enter. It also announced a small expansion of its coastal “humanitarian zone,” where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering in tent camps. It connected electricity for a desalination plant in Deir Al-Balah.
US officials haven’t said whether they will take any action. President Joe Biden met Tuesday at the White House with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who said a “major objective” for the US should be reining in Iran and its proxies. Herzog also called for the return of the hostages taken from Israel in the Hamas attack that started the war, to which Biden said, “I agree.”
A day earlier, Israel’s new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, appeared to downplay the deadline, telling reporters that he was confident “the issue would be solved.” The Biden administration may have less leverage after Donald Trump won the presidential election — he was a staunch supporter of Israel in his first term.
Eight international aid organization said in their report Tuesday that “Israel not only failed to meet the US criteria” but also took actions “that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza. … That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago.”
The report listed 19 measures of compliance with the US demands. It said Israel had failed to comply with 15 and only partially complied with four. The report was co-signed by Anera, Care, MedGlobal, Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International and Save the Children.
In an Oct. 13 letter, the US gave Israel 30 days to, among other things, allow a minimum of 350 truckloads of goods into Gaza each day; open a fifth crossing; allow people in coastal tent camps to move inland before the winter; and ensure access for aid groups to northern Gaza. It also called on Israel to halt legislation that would hinder operations of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.
Aid levels remain far below the US benchmarks. Access to northern Gaza remains restricted, and Israel has pressed ahead with its laws against UNRWA.
Israel launched a major offensive last month in the north, where it says Hamas militants had regrouped. The operation has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands.
Through October and the first days of November, Israel allowed no food to enter the area, where tens of thousands of civilians have stayed despite evacuation orders.
Last week, Israel allowed 11 trucks to go to Beit Hanoun, one of the north’s hardest-hit towns. But the World Food Organization said troops at a checkpoint forced its trucks to unload their cargo before reaching shelters in the town.
On Tuesday, COGAT — the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza — announced it allowed a new delivery of food and water to Beit Hanoun a day earlier. Again, the WFP said that while it tried to send 14 trucks, only three made it to the town “due to delays in receiving authorization for movement and crowds along the route.” When it tried to deliver the rest Tuesday, Israel denied it permission, it said.
Aid into all of Gaza plummeted in October, when just 34,000 tons of food entered, only a third of the previous month, according to Israeli data.
UN agencies say even less actually gets through because of Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and lawlessness that makes it difficult to collect and distribute aid on the Gaza side.
In October, 57 trucks a day entered Gaza on average, and 75 a day so far in November, according to Israel’s official figures. The UN says it only received 39 trucks daily since the beginning of October.
COGAT said 900 truckloads of aid are sitting uncollected on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south.
“Before the organizations give out grades, they should focus on distributing the aid that awaits them,” COGAT said in response to the aid groups’ report.
Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, said the miliary was not coordinating movements for aid trucks to reach the stacked-up cargos. “If we are not provided a safe passage to go and collect it ... it will not reach the people who need it,” she said.
COGAT blamed the drop in October on closures of the crossings for the Jewish high holidays and memorials marking the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that triggered the war.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities, who don’t say how many of those killed were militants. Around 90 percent of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced, and hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps, with little food, water or hygiene facilities.
The United States has rushed billions of dollars in military aid to Israel during the war, while pressing it to allow more aid into Gaza.
Trump has promised to end the wars in the Middle East without saying how. He was a staunch defender of Israel during his previous term, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says they have spoken three times since his reelection last week.
NEW YORK CITY: Israel has failed to meet critical Gaza-related humanitarian demands set by the US government, according to a report published jointly by eight major humanitarian organizations.
The failure comes “at an enormous human cost for Palestinian civilians” in the enclave, where the humanitarian situation “is now at its worst point” since the war began in October 2023, they said.
Their assessment comes a month after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a letter to Israeli officials demanding the implementation of concrete measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza within 30 days.
This deadline passed on Tuesday with no significant signs of progress. Instead, Israeli forces have accelerated their efforts “to bombard, depopulate, deprive and erase the Palestinian population of the North Gaza governorate,” said Abby Maxman, the president of Oxfam America.
“We are witnessing a campaign of ethnic cleansing,” she added. “Oxfam and partner organizations are unable to provide any support to the remaining civilians in the North Gaza governorate, where people are dying every day.
“Access to the rest of Gaza is also severely restricted, with civilians facing starvation and relentless violence. The US must finally make this overdue call to suspend deadly arms sales to Israel or be complicit in the horrific atrocities unfolding before our eyes.”
The aid organizations that contributed to the report, which also include Refugees International, Save the Children and MedGlobal, called on Washington to make an “immediate determination” that Israel is in violation of its assurances under US and international law, and to suspend arms sales and impose restrictions on security cooperation, as required by US law.
The report also urges the American government to press for immediate humanitarian pauses in military operations, the opening of more routes for deliveries of aid, and efforts to ensure civilians and medical facilities are protected.
“With experts again projecting imminent famine in northern Gaza, there is no time to lose,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International. The report “clearly demonstrates that the Israeli government is violating its obligations (to) facilitate humanitarian relief for suffering Palestinians in Gaza,” he added.
Zaher Sahloul, the president and co-founder of MedGlobal, said the organization’s local medical teams and international volunteers in Gaza have personally witnessed “the complete failure by the Israeli authorities to ensure the delivery of critical supplies, including food, water and medicines, and to protect civilians and medical spaces.”
He added: “Our teams are living through the relentless bombing of hospitals, and our medics continue to treat wounded women and children every day. These are egregious violations of the cornerstone principle of international humanitarian law, which protects civilians in time of war.”
Sahloul called on the Biden administration to “do everything possible to push for the full provision of aid to Gaza’s desperate people.”
In addition to the medical crisis, the blockade of Gaza has severely limited the ability of humanitarian organizations to deliver aid. The report says convoys are still often blocked, delayed or looted, and access to key parts of the territory, especially in the north, remains severely restricted.
“I witnessed during my visit to Gaza last week the deliberate starvation of almost 2 million civilians, while the bombardment continues,” said Jan Egelan, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“There is barely any aid crossing into Gaza. The little that does get through is often looted, as the occupying power has obliterated the Palestinian police and refuses to secure, or provide secure access routes to, places where humanitarian organizations could distribute aid to a starving population.”
Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, the CEO of Mercy Corps, said the US government must do “everything in its power to ensure the unfettered provision of essential aid to people in desperate need.”
The report highlights the dire food insecurity among the population of Gaza. Janti Soeripto, the president of Save the Children, said: “Systemic impediments to the humanitarian system are making a deadly conflict even deadlier.
“Enough is enough. The facts are there. Adults have been failing children for over a year. What more will it take?”
With winter and famine looming, the organizations warned that children in particular are at imminent risk, with many of them already suffering the effects of malnutrition.
Sean Carroll, the president and CEO of American Near East Refugee Aid, said the organization’s “humanitarian workers in Gaza have spent the past year expending superhuman effort in subhuman conditions to provide assistance to civilians.”
He added: “In the past month, we’ve seen families throughout Gaza, and particularly in the north, subjected to increasingly horrific conditions. This is a damning indictment of Israel’s failure to follow international humanitarian law and to respond to the critical and reasonable demands of its greatest ally, the United States. The consequences will be more innocent lives ended and destroyed.
“They should also include restrictions on Israel’s ability to continue prosecution of this war in a manner that is increasingly being seen as consistent with ethnic cleansing.”
The report warns that with more than 2 million civilians in Gaza facing starvation, daily bombardments and lack of access to the basic necessities of life, the humanitarian situation in the territory is on the brink of catastrophe.
“There is no time to lose,” it concludes.
