A BASE IN EASTERN SYRIA: At a base in eastern Syria, a senior US coalition commander said Monday that American troops who remain in Syria are redeploying to bases, including in some new locations, and working with the Kurdish-led forces to keep up the pressure on the Daesh militants and prevent the extremists from resurging or breaking out of prisons.
The commander, Air Force Maj. Gen. Eric T. Hill, said even though Bradley armored vehicles have arrived in eastern Syria, the mission’s focus has not changed. He said the “force mix,” including the mechanized armored vehicles deployed in Syria for the first time since the war against Daesh, has an array of capabilities to deny Daesh the chance to regroup.
“The mission still continues. And Daesh is trying to resurge wherever they can,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for the group. He said the forces have captured 700 IS fighters since its last territorial holding fell in March. “We’ve destroyed many and war remnants and we continue to do so as we find them.”
Speaking at a remote base in Syria where the Bradleys arrived last week, he said “our primary way that we do that” is through working with the US partners, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
The deployment of the mechanized force comes after US troops pulled out from northeastern Syria, making way for a Turkish offensive against Kurdish fighters that began last month. Only several miles away from the base, fighting between Turkish-allied fighters and the SDF was ongoing, despite a cease-fire that has so far curbed the Turkish invasion but didn’t end the violence.
Smoke billowed in the distance, visible from across a major highway that has become a de-facto frontier between Turkish-held areas and areas where US troops are going to operate. An SDF official on the scene said Turkish shelling was continuing.
Further north, three car bombs went off Monday in the town of Qamishli, killing at least six people while a priest was shot dead. Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack that killed the Armenian Catholic priest and his father as they drove from Qamishli to the city of Hassakeh, in a sign that the extremists still have reach.
The US withdrawal from northern Syria was widely criticized, even by allies of President Donald Trump. The Kurdish-led force, deserted by Washington in the face of the threat of a military operation by NATO ally, leaned on the Syrian government and Russia for help. The cease-fire reached in late October left Turkey in control of a stretch of land along the border that is roughly 120 kilometers (70 miles) wide and 30 kilometers (20 miles) deep. But fighting south of that zone continued. Kurdish officials say Turkey is seeking to expand its area of control.
Hill’s stress on the continued partnership with the Kurdish-led forces comes as US troops sent reinforcements to bases in the oil-rich region of eastern Syria.
Trump approved an expanded military mission which he said was to secure an expanse of oil fields across eastern Syria. The directive raised questions about how the troops will operate, particularly in an area where there are Russian-backed Syrian troops, who may try to take back oil facilities.
The decision was a partial win for those who were against the withdrawal from Syria. Pentagon officials said as many as 800 may stay in Syria, down from about 1,200 and including about 200 in a southern garrison.
Hill said while some troops are going home or withdrawing to Iraq, others are redeploying to Qamishli area, Deir Ezzor and Derik, an area where no US bases were before.
In a day visit to some of the bases where reinforcements were sent, Associated Press journalists spoke to some of the troops, many of them newly arrived. The military required that the names and exact locations of the bases not be identified.
First Lt. Jacob Moore said a group of his Bradley armored vehicles were asked to provide security for a US convoy passing through the fighting area, Tal Tamr, setting up a security blockade to allow the forces to pass.
“We were prepared for the worst,” said Moore, who arrived last week in Syria, “but we got the best. There was no fighting when we got there,” Instead, he said, locals were happy to see the new deployment.
In the crowded terrain, US officials say de-conflicting with Russia and Turkey is essential to avoid any friction.
But the reality created on the ground by US withdrawal and the Turkish invasion has made for a tense and at times, surreal terrain, where Russia, Turkish troops patrol together, while Syrian government forces clash with Turkey-backed allies despite a cease-fire brokered by Moscow, a main ally of Damascus. An earlier cease-fire negotiated between Washington and Ankara ensured that the two NATO allies don’t come into confrontation. But it left the Kurdish forces, which were in control of 30 percent of Syria’s territory, pushed away from the borders and reliant on a new political agreement that would protect a five-year experiment in self-administration.
If the US insists its mission is still fighting Daesh, for the Kurds their priority has now shifted. It is time for the alliance with the US to bear political fruit, said Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the SDF, who was present at one of the bases.
He said keeping the oil in the hands of his forces was a good card for political negotiations.
“Here in northeast Syria, we are part of the total picture that is dealing with a crisis and requires finding a track for a political resolution,” Bali said. “The presence of the US forces, a military weight, will have a positive role in finding a political way out.”
Pentagon officials have stressed that securing oil facilities was a way to ensure that the Kurdish fighters maintain control of an important source of revenue.
One of the bases visited by journalists Monday was close to oil fields, but there was no way of telling if there was an increase of security around the facilities. While one base was provided with the Bradley vehicles, Apache helicopters had moved in to another, apparently from a base dismantled further north.
US officials say the enhanced presence of Apaches and artillery are a deterrent to any hostile forces in the area.
Adding to the complicated terrain in Syria, Deir Ezzor province is divided between the Kurdish-led forces on one side of the Euphrates River and the Syrian government and their Iranian-backed militias on the other. In February 2018, US forces responded firmly to an attempted advance on Kurdish-held areas by Syrian troops, at the time backed by Russian contractors.
At the base, soldiers said the troop presence also secures other infrastructure, such as water facilities and major highways.
Hill said the continued US presence is also to assist and train Kurdish-led forces, including in securing prisons where over 10,000 Daesh militants are held. The US does not guard the facilities but helps the Kurdish forces do so.
“One of the missions that we will continue to support with the Syrian Democratic Forces is to contain the prisons and make sure that all the prisoners that are under SDF control remain in those prisons and secure,” he said.
US troops at Syria base say they will keep pressure on Daesh
US troops at Syria base say they will keep pressure on Daesh
Syrian refugees in Jordan camp say they have nothing to go home to
- Refugees fear the security situation might once again deteriorate after 13 years of civil war
- In 2012, neighboring Jordan opened Zaatari camp and is now hosting 75,000 Syrians
They fear the security situation might once again deteriorate after 13 years of civil war, and some say their homes have been destroyed while others lost their jobs and feel they have nothing to go back to.
In 2012, a year into the war in Syria, neighboring Jordan opened Zaatari camp to host people fleeing the conflict.
It is now home to 75,000 people, according to UN figures.
To begin with, it was a squalid collection of tents dotting an arid landscape, but over time, it grew into a town of prefabricated homes, supplied with free electricity, water, health and schools.
On a street named the Champs-Elysees, after the famed Parisian avenue, 60-year-old shop owner Yousef Hariri told AFP he wanted to stay in Zaatari with his family, where they feel safe.
“I can’t go back. That would mean losing everything and selling the shop would be hard,” said Hariri, whose store sells construction materials.
“The situation in Syria is not good at the moment and it is not clear what will happen. Prices are through the roof and there are armed rebels. Our houses are destroyed.”
The war in Syria, which began with Assad’s crackdown on democracy protests in 2011, forced millions of people to flee the country, with most of them seeking refuge in neighboring countries.
Tens of thousands have returned since an Islamist-led coalition ousted Assad on December 8, but most refugees have yet to make the journey home.
Most of the refugees in Zaatari came from the south Syrian province of Daraa, near the Jordanian border.
It was, earlier in the conflict, home to 140,000 people.
Refugees in the camp receive cash assistance for food, and they have the right to work outside the camp.
“Where are we going to go back to?” said Khaled Al-Zoabi, 72, who has lived in the camp since 2012, and who cited the destruction wrought by the war.
“The refugees’ finances aren’t good enough for anyone to return, and no one knows what will happen in Syria,” he said.
“We fled the injustice and tyranny of Assad’s gangs in Syria, where human life had no value. Here, I feel I am a human being, and I prefer to stay,” said the shop owner.
To date, there is no financial assistance to help people return.
Radwan Al-Hariri, a 54-year-old father of three, said his contacts in Syria had all advised him to stay put.
An imam at a mosque, the grandfather of 12 children all born in Zaatari said that in Syria, “no one helps you and there is no work.”
According to the Jordanian authorities, 52,000 Syrians have returned home through the Jaber border crossing between the two countries since Assad’s overthrow.
“Insecurity remains a concern. There is still a lot of instability, armed clashes in some parts of the country and an increasing number of civilian casualties due to remnants of war and unexploded ordnance,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesperson in Jordan Roland Schoenbauer said.
“Every refugee has the right to return to their homeland,” he said. “However, when it is the right time to voluntarily cross into Syria will have to remain their decision.”
The UN says around 680,000 Syrians were registered in Jordan from 2011 onwards, though the kingdom says it welcomed 1.3 million.
Not all Syrians in Zaatari were hesitant to return.
Mariam Masalmeh, 63, said she and her husband have decided to go home, as have their children.
But she said she would be “sad to leave Zaatari, which has become my homeland,” as she showed off her garden of rosebushes and apple trees.
Mohammed Atme, 50, could not wait to go home.
“It is time to go back to my family, I haven’t seen my mother and brothers for 13 years,” he said.
“Here, we were treated with respect and our dignity was preserved. But everyone’s destiny is to go back to their country.”
International Criminal Court prosecutor calls for urgent action on Darfur
- Addressing the UN Security Council, he pleads for more support to help bridge the ‘impunity gap’ and ensure those guilty of crimes against humanity are held accountable
- He paints grim picture of violence, famine and gender-based crimes that continue to devastate communities in western Sudan, targeting women and children in particular
NEW YORK CITY: The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, on Monday stressed the urgent need for international action to address continuing atrocities in the Darfur region of western Sudan, and pleaded with the UN Security Council for more support to help bridge the “impunity gap.”
He painted a grim picture of a situation in which violence, famine and gender-based crimes continue to devastate communities, targeting women and children in particular.
Khan underscored a severe decline in the situation in the region over the past six months, including growing reports of civilian casualties, the destruction of vital infrastructure, and widespread violations of human rights.
“Famine is present in Darfur. Conflict is increasing. Children are targeted. Girls and women are subject to rape,” Khan said as he described the environment as one of “destruction” and “criminality.”
The country descended into civil war in April 2023 amid a conflict between rival military factions the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. It has killed more than 28,000 people, forced millions to flee their homes, and some families have resorted to eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive as famine sweeps parts of the country.
In Darfur, ethnic violence has escalated since the war began. The RSF, the origins of which lie in the Arab Janjaweed militia that was responsible for a genocide in the early 2000s that claimed about 300,000 lives, has focused its attacks on the Masalit ethnic group and other non-Arab communities.
This month, the US has accused the RSF of genocide and imposed sanctions on its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as “Hemedti.”
Khan’s latest semi-annual report on the situation in Sudan, published on Jan. 16, noted that his office has gathered sufficient evidence to establish reasonable grounds to believe that a wide range of crimes specified under the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, continue to be committed in Darfur. These include killings, pillaging, attacks against internally displaced persons, the indiscriminate targeting of civilian populations, gender-based crimes, and crimes against and affecting children.
Under the Rome Statute, the ICC has jurisdiction over four types of crime categorized as “international crimes”: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. The court is finalizing applications for arrest warrants against individuals allegedly responsible for war crimes in West Darfur, Khan said. He stressed, however, that the applications will only be filed when there is strong evidence that can withstand judicial scrutiny, to ensure the highest chances of convictions and due process for victims.
He warned that international crimes are being committed as weapons of war in Darfur, including reports of widespread gender-based violence.
“This is not an unverified generalization,” he said, adding that the evidence his office has gathered, including witness testimonies and digital resources, is both extensive and credible.
Khan highlighted his office’s collaboration with national authorities in neighboring countries, where they have also been collecting evidence from displaced communities.
He also mentioned ongoing trials taking place at the ICC, in particular the trial of Ali Kushayb, a former militia leader charged with crimes committed in Darfur in the early 2000s, which began in 2022. Khan highlighted the significance of such trials, not only in terms of pursuing historical accountability but also as a beacon of hope for survivors who continue to suffer in Darfur.
“They say that they are not forgotten, they are not invisible,” Khan said, as he reiterated the ICC’s role in keeping the promise of justice alive for victims long denied recognition.
Despite these efforts, Khan acknowledged the deep frustrations arising from the lack of swift progress in Darfur. He pointed to the need for greater cooperation from Sudanese authorities, and said that while there have been some signs worthy of cautious optimism, more support from the UN Security Council is needed to help bridge the “impunity gap.”
Khan called in particular for the transfer of suspects, including Ahmed Harun, a former governor of Kordofan and minister of state who is wanted by the ICC for his alleged role in the Darfur conflict.
“We believe we know where Ahmed Harun is,” Khan said as he urged Sudan to honor its obligations under Security Council Resolution 1593, which requires authorities to cooperate fully with the ICC.
Khan invoked the historical significance of ensuring accountability for crimes against humanity, drawing parallels with past genocides, including the Holocaust. He called on the Security Council to prioritize the victims of Darfur over political divisions among council members, and echoed the sentiment that justice must be delivered to those who are suffering in the region.
He urged the council to renew its commitment to the principle of “Never Again,” referencing the outcome of the Nuremberg Trials and global efforts to combat cultures of impunity in post-conflict societies.
“The people of Darfur have a right to justice,” Khan said. “It’s time for us collectively to join hands and deliver on that promise.”
The US has historically backed ICC efforts related to Sudan. However the court faced criticism late last year after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Those warrants, related to charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes linked to Israeli military operations in Gaza since October 8, 2023, sparked a backlash from Washington.
Northern Gaza is shattered. The spirit of returning Palestinians is not
- Under the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Palestinians were allowed starting Monday to return north
- Those returning crossed through the Netzarim corridor, a swath of land bisecting the Gaza Strip that Israeli forces turned into a military zone to seal off the north
WADI GAZA, Gaza Strip: They walked for hours loaded with whatever clothes, food and blankets they could carry. Many smiled, some hugged loved ones they hadn’t seen for months. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians filled Gaza’s main coastal road as they streamed back to homes in the north.
The mood was joyous, even though many knew their homes had been destroyed in Israeli offensives against Hamas that leveled large parts of Gaza City and the surrounding north.
The important thing was to go back, they said, to prevent what many had feared would be a permanent expulsion from their homes.
“By returning, we are victorious,” said Rania Miqdad, who was heading back to Gaza City with her family.
Ismail Abu Mattar returned with his wife and four children to the ruins of their Gaza City home, which was partially destroyed by Israeli bombardment early in the war. Like many others whose houses are damaged, he planned to set up a tent nearby and start clearing the rubble.
“A tent here is better than a tent there,” he said, referring to the vast, squalid tent camps that arose in central and southern Gaza where he and much of the territory’s population have lived for months.
“We had thought we wouldn’t return, like our ancestors,” said Abu Mattar. His grandparents were among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians driven from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation.
A mass return on foot and by car
Under the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Palestinians were allowed starting Monday to return north. UN officials estimated that some 200,000 people made their way back over the course of the day. The scenes of celebration were a sharp contrast to the misery and fear during the war as more than 1 million people fled south on the same routes to escape Israel’s assaults.
Associated Press photos, videos and drone footage showed huge crowds heading north on foot along Gaza’s main coastal road. On one side was the Mediterranean Sea; on the other stretched a landscape of destroyed buildings and bulldozed land left behind by withdrawing Israeli forces. Armed Hamas fighters were visible in some spots, a sign of the militant group’s continued power in Gaza despite Israel’s vows to eliminate it.
Families carried bags of belongings and rolled up blankets. On their shoulders, men carried young children — or sacks of food and metal cannisters of cooking gas. Women balanced infants in their arms with satchels of clothes and jugs of water.
A little girl dressed in teddy-bear pajamas held her younger sister’s hand as they trailed their mother. A teenager strapped a pet carrier to his chest with his cat inside.
Others returned in cars and trucks piled high with mattresses and other belongings via a second route, Salah Al-Din Road.
Many were smiling. A child waved a “V-for-victory” sign. People tearfully hugged relatives and friends they’d been separated from for months.
One old woman being pushed in a wheelchair sang a traditional Palestinian song of perseverance dating back to 1948.
“Stand by each other, people of Palestine, stand by each other. Palestine is gone, but it has not bid you a final farewell,” she sang with a smile on her face. Then she added, “Thank God, we’re returning to our homes, after suffering so much ruin and hunger and disease.”
The joy was tempered by war’s cost and future’s uncertainty
Those returning crossed through the Netzarim corridor, a swath of land bisecting the Gaza Strip that Israeli forces turned into a military zone to seal off the north. The north saw some of the most intense Israeli offensives, aimed at eliminating Hamas fighters operating in densely populated areas.
Throughout the war, Israel repeatedly ordered civilians to evacuate the north – for their safety, it said – but barred their return. Under the ceasefire’s terms, Israeli troops pulled back from the main routes to allow returns and are eventually to pull out completely from the corridor.
For some, the joy of return was blemished by the deaths of loved ones.
Kamal Hamadah was returning to Gaza City, where his eldest son, his daughter and her children were killed by bombardment early in the war. Their bodies were left buried under rubble in the streets, even as the rest of the family fled south, he said.
Then just over a month ago, another of his sons who fled with him was killed.
“When his mother learned we were going back home, she was struck by a great sadness that she was returning without the boy,” he said.
Returning home, Yasmin Abu Amshah had a happy reunion with her younger sister, Amany, who had stayed in Gaza City throughout the war. “I thought it wouldn’t happen, and we wouldn’t see each other again,” the 34-year-old mother of three said.
Her four-story building was damaged but not destroyed, so she and other members of her extended family will stay there.
Those returning face an uncertain future. If the ceasefire collapses, they could face new Israeli offensives. If peace lasts, it’s not clear when Palestinians will be able to rebuild homes, leaving much of the population in temporary housing.
Ibrahim Hammad, his wife and five children walked five hours back to their neighborhood in Gaza City – knowing their house there had been destroyed by an airstrike in December 2023. His family will stay at his brother’s house until he can clear a space in the ruins of his house to set up a tent.
“We had to return, even to the rubble,” the 48-year-old told the AP. “Here we don’t have a house, but our family is here, and we will help each other.”
Freed hostages’ smiles deceptive, Israel’s military says
JERUSALEM: Israel gave a grim account Monday of seven freed hostages’ health, saying that despite a “show” by Hamas to present them as healthy and smiling, they faced a long recovery from their ordeal.
The seven women freed so far under Israel’s ceasefire deal with the Palestinian militant group were all malnourished, exposed to psychological suffering and wounded in various ways, said the deputy chief of the Israeli army’s medical corps, Col. Avi Benov.
Images of four Israeli soldiers — aged 19 and 20 — released in Gaza on Saturday by Hamas showed them looking healthy and smiling. They greeted people around them and clutched parting gifts in paper bags as they were handed over to the Red Cross.
But Benov said there was more to the story.
“They were given more food in the days before (their release), they were allowed to shower, they were given (new) clothes,” he said in a video call open to the media.
“This is part of the show organized by Hamas.”
Since the deal took effect on January 19, the militants have freed a total of seven Israeli hostages in exchange for 290 prisoners, all Palestinians except for one Jordanian.
But despite the hostages’ joy and relief at being reunited with their families, it “will take time” for them to recover, said Benov.
Hospitalized after their release, the women have been diagnosed with physical health problems including malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies and a metabolic system “in bad shape,” he said.
Some of the hostages had been held for the past eight months in tunnels, Benov said.
“For them it’s more complicated because light, sun and to be able to talk with someone are essential elements to be physically and mentally healthy,” he said, without naming them or giving further details.
All the hostages were “wounded one way or the other” when they were captured on October 7, 2023 in the Hamas attack that ignited the ensuing war, Benov said.
Their wounds were poorly treated in captivity, or not at all, he added.
Hostages who were freed during a previous truce in November 2023 have said some wounded captives were operated on with no anaesthesia.
But the most “complicated” wounds are psychological, said Benov.
“Even if they look happy, a fear remains. It’s hard for them to believe that this time around they’re in good hands, that it’s not another show organized by Hamas,” he said.
Benov declined to answer a question on whether the hostages had been victims of physical abuse, torture or sexual violence, saying it was important to “protect their privacy.”
“They will tell what they went through, if they want to, in a few weeks or a few months,” he said.
An Israeli health ministry report sent in December to the United Nations special rapporteur on torture said the hostages released in November 2023 had suffered various forms of physical and psychological violence.
It said freed hostages had reported being branded with hot irons, beaten, sexually assaulted, held in isolation and deprived of food.
Numerous ex-hostages showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and survivor’s guilt, the report said.
Benov said hostages set for release in the coming weeks would likely be in even worse health.
Under the deal, they include captive men over 50 or in poor health.
“We are expecting that the next hostages to be released, who are older, with some of them already ill when they were kidnapped, will come back in worse condition,” he said.
UN agency for Palestinians readies to shutter operations in East Jerusalem after Israeli ban
- The UN rejects accusations of bias and says that UNRWA’s expertise is irreplaceable, particularly in Gaza
JERUSALEM: Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem were set to lose education, health care and other services provided by UN agency UNRWA as an Israeli ban on the organization takes effect on Thursday.
Israel’s government ordered UNRWA to vacate its East Jerusalem compound and cease operations under a law passed last year outlawing the agency and prohibiting Israeli authorities from having contact with it.
At UNRWA’s offices in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, workers were packing boxes and loading portable buildings onto a truck on Monday.
“It’s an unacceptable decision,” said Jonathan Fowler, a spokesperson for UNRWA, formally titled the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“The people that we serve ... we are not able to tell them what is going to happen to our services as of the end of this week.”
Israel has not announced provisions for replacing UNRWA’s activities, and the Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
UNRWA has for decades run schools and clinics in East Jerusalem, the eastern part of the city that Israel has occupied since a 1967 war, for tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees who have no nationality.
“We have everything here for us. When I heard that it will close, I was very sad because here is a place for people in need and for people who don’t have money to pay for medication,” refugee Sara Saeed said at the UNRWA medical center in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Medical center Director Hamza Al Jibrini said the facility serves 30,000 refugees. Among them are patients with diabetes and high blood pressure, pregnant women and children who receive vaccinations, said head of nursing Manal AlKhayat.
“Where they will go?” she asked.
Israel’s ban only directly covers Israeli territory, which Israel considers East Jerusalem to be. UNRWA also operates in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, but it was unclear how the law will affect UNRWA’s work there.
ISRAEL CLAIMS BIAS
UNRWA was established some 75 years ago, serving around 750,000 Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war at the time of the creation of the state of Israel.
Its sprawling headquarters are in a prime position not far from Jerusalem’s Old City, which is home to sites holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims. The agency has long been a thorn in the eye of Israeli governments that considered the agency fundamentally hostile to Israel.
Israel says UNRWA’s continued existence decades after the 1948 war has consolidated the refugee status of generations of Palestinians, who now number in the millions, and has frozen the conflict in place.
Israel regularly accuses the agency of anti-Israel bias and has also claimed its staff includes members of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that launched the deadly cross-border raid on Israel on Oct 7, 2023. Israel calls for UNRWA’s responsibilities to be taken over by other UN bodies such as its main refugee agency.
The UN rejects accusations of bias and says that UNRWA’s expertise is irreplaceable, particularly in Gaza.
A UN investigation found that nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in the Hamas attack. The agency fired them but said Israel had not provided evidence of more widespread involvement by its staff. UNRWA employs around 30,000 people in the region and some 13,000 in the Gaza Strip.
More than 200 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza, the agency says, since the Gaza war started. Around 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack and another 250 were taken hostage into Gaza, Israel says.
Over 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s military launched a retaliatory offensive, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
