TEHRAN: Iran allowed some businesses in the capital and nearby towns to re-open Saturday after weeks of lockdown aimed at containing the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East.
Iran was slow to respond to the pandemic and held off on imposing widespread restrictions even after other countries in the region with far fewer cases forced most businesses to close. Iran has reported more than 80,000 confirmed cases and over 5,000 deaths.
Gyms, restaurants, shopping malls and Tehran’s grand bazaar will remain closed. Shrines and mosques are also shuttered, and a ban on public gatherings remains in place. Government offices have reopened with a third of employees working from home, and schools and universities are still closed.
Traffic was heavy in Tehran early Saturday, the first day of the work week. Authorities allowed businesses outside the capital to reopen a week ago.
The virus causes mild to moderate flu-like symptoms in most patients, who recover within a few weeks. But it is highly contagious and can cause severe illness or death, particularly in older patients or those with underlying health problems.
Iran’s leaders have said they had to consider the economic consequences of quarantine measures, as the country struggles under severe sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump after he withdrew the US from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
On Friday, UN human rights experts called on Iran to release political prisoners who could be vulnerable to infection inside the country’s detention facilities. Iran has temporarily released 100,000 prisoners, but is still detaining many convicted on security charges, including several dual-nationals.
Rights groups say many of the dual-nationals are political prisoners or are being held as bargaining chips for future negotiations with the West.
“We recognize the emergency situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the problems it faces in fighting the pandemic, including reported challenges in accessing medical supplies due to sanctions,” the UN experts said. “Some are at great risk from COVID-19 due to their age or underlying health conditions. We call on the authorities to immediately release them.”
The experts highlighted the cases of human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and defenders Narges Mohammadi and Arash Sadeghi, as well as dual nationals Ahmadreza Djalali , an Iranian-Swedish national; Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian-British-American national; and Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb , two Iranian-Austrian nationals.
They said all seven have requested temporary release but have been rejected or not received a response.
Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili denied nationality was a factor in the prisoner releases. He was quoted by the Hamshahri daily as saying release is denied when it is forbidden by law or when “their freedom puts our citizens’ social, economic and psychological security at risk.”
Elsewhere in the region, Sudanese formed long lines outside bakeries and fuel stations early Saturday ahead of a round-the-clock curfew in the capital, Khartoum, that is set to last three weeks. The country, which is still reeling from last year’s uprising that toppled longtime ruler Omar Al-Bashir, has reported 66 cases, including 10 deaths.
An outbreak in Sudan would severely strain the health system, which has been weakened by decades of civil war and sanctions.
Authorities have also banned Friday prayers in Khartoum mosques, a measure taken by several other countries in the region. The transitional government sacked Khartoum’s governor, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Abdoun Hamad, after he objected to the ban.
In Israel, authorities closed off two small Arab towns in the north to prevent the spread of the virus. Police said movement into and out of Deir Assad and neighboring Bineh would be strictly limited. Israel has increased testing in Arab areas in recent days, and the closures appeared to be linked to a spike in cases. Arab citizens of Israel account for 20% of the population and have long faced discrimination.
Israeli authorities have imposed similar closures on some ultra-Orthodox Jewish areas, where cases spiked after many disregarded health guidelines in the early days of the pandemic.
Israel, which imposed nationwide restrictions and ordered all non-essential businesses to close in mid-March, has reported more than 13,000 cases, including 158 deaths.
Iran lets some Tehran businesses reopen after virus lockdown
https://arab.news/vzuzm
Iran lets some Tehran businesses reopen after virus lockdown
- Gyms, restaurants, shopping malls and Tehran’s grand bazaar will remain closed
- Shrines and mosques are also shuttered, and a ban on public gatherings remains in place
Gaza rescuers say 42 killed in Israeli strikes
Israel resumed its military campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18 after the collapse of a ceasefire that had largely halted the fighting.
Nine people were killed when an Israeli air strike hit a home in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, civil defense official Mohammed Al-Mughayyir told AFP.
AFP footage in the aftermath of a strike on Bureij camp showed Palestinians searching for casualties in the rubble of a flattened building.
“They gave us no warning, no phone call — we woke up at midnight to smoke, rubble, stones, and shrapnel raining down on us,” said Mohammed Al-Sheikh, standing among collapsed concrete slabs.
“We pulled out martyrs — bodies and limbs from under the rubble.”
Another six people were killed in a strike targeting the Al-Masri family home in the northern city of Beit Lahia, civil defense official Mughayyir added.
In Gaza City, a strike on a community kitchen claimed the lives of six more, the civil defense agency reported.
Across the Gaza Strip, at least 21 other deaths were reported in similar attacks, the agency said.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Thursday that at least 2,326 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,418.
The war erupted after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
The Israeli government says its renewed campaign aims to force Hamas to free the remaining captives, although critics charge it puts them in mortal danger.
Israel halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2, days before the collapse of the ceasefire which had come into effect on January 19.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned of the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe on the ground, with famine again looming.
On Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said the humanitarian response in Gaza was on the “verge of total collapse.”
“This situation must not — and cannot — be allowed to escalate further,” its deputy director of operations, Pascal Hundt, said in a statement.
Desperate children and adults in Gaza struggle to get food as Israel blocks aid
- “Until when will life be like that? We’re slowly dying. We haven’t eaten bread for a month and a half,” said Abu Arar
- Aid groups have warned that Gaza’s civilian population is facing starvation
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: Screaming in anguish as the desperate crowd crushes them against a barrier, young children and adults frantically wave pots and pans at charity workers, begging for a portion of some of the last food aid left in Gaza: Rice.
The chaos at the community kitchen in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Friday was too overwhelming for Niveen Abu Arar. She tried and tried, but the 33-year-old mother of eight didn’t get to the front of the crowd in time. She left with her pot empty, and her eyes full of tears.
“Until when will life be like that? We’re slowly dying. We haven’t eaten bread for a month and a half. There is no flour. There is nothing,” said Abu Arar, whose ninth child, a 1-year-old boy, was killed in an Israeli strike near their home at the start of the war in 2023. “We don’t know what to do … We don’t have money. What do we get for them?”
She cradled a toddler in her lap as she spoke. With no milk to provide, she poured water into a baby bottle and pressed it into her youngest daughter’s mouth, hoping to stave off the baby’s hunger pangs.
With Israel blocking any form of aid — including food and medicine – into Gaza for the past two months, aid groups have warned that Gaza’s civilian population is facing starvation.
Israel has said that the blockade and its renewed military campaign aim to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages it still holds and to disarm. Aid groups stress that blocking humanitarian aid is a form of collective punishment and a violation of international law.
Israeli authorities didn’t immediately respond when asked about accusations that starvation was being used as a weapon of war, but in the past they have accused the Hamas militant group governing Gaza of stealing aid.
In an emergency call with reporters on Friday to discuss Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, aid groups described a territory nearly out of food, water and fuel, with prices for the meager supplies remaining skyrocketing beyond the reach of many.
With nearly the entire population reliant on humanitarian aid, according to the United Nations, warehouses are empty, community kitchens are closing down, and families are skipping meals.
A 25-kilogram (55-pound) bag of flour now goes for 1,300 shekels ($360), said Ghada al Haddad, Oxfam’s media coordinator in Gaza.
“Mothers in Gaza now feed their children one meal per day, dinner, so they don’t wake up and complain they are starving,” she said.
Amjad Shawwa, the director of the Palestinian NGO network, said that more than 70 of their community kitchens inside Gaza would close within the week if the Israeli blockade continues.
Israeli airstrikes have also taken out large swaths of Gaza’s agricultural land and livestock, making it nearly impossible for the territory to produce its own food, said Gavin Kelleher, a humanitarian manager with the Norwegian Refugee Council who recently left Gaza. Even fisherman have been targeted, he said, killed in small fishing boats by Israeli naval forces.
“Israel has engineered a situation where Palestinians cannot grow their own food or fish for their own food,” he said.
Kelleher, whose organization coordinates the provision of shelter to Gaza, said that not a single aid group has any tents left to distribute — as 1 million people inside Gaza remain in need of shelter given the devastation caused by the nearly 19-month war.
In Khan Younis, Mustafa Ashour said he had walked for an hour to get to the charity community kitchen, and waiting for another two hours before he managed to get food.
“The situation is hard in Gaza. The crossings are closed. It’s a full siege,” said Ashour, who was displaced from the southern city of Rafah. “There is no food. There is no water. There are no life necessities. The food being sold is expensive and very little.”
As for Abu Arar and her family — left without a handout from the charity kitchen — another family in a neighboring tent took pity, and shared their own meager portions of rice.
Keller of the NRC said that if Israel continues its blockade, “thousands of people will die, there will be a complete breakdown of order, telecommunication networks will come down and we will struggle to understand the situation because it will be unfolding in the dark.”
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 42 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.”
