DAMASCUS: Firefighters were battling on Tuesday to extinguish multiple wildfires raging across the central Syrian countryside, local civil defense officials said, as temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius in parts of the country.
One fire broke out on public farmland in the central province of Hama, where firefighting teams were working to stop it spreading to surrounding areas, the head of the local forest protection center, Amjad Hammad, told state news agency SANA.
Another was raging across agricultural zones in the adjacent province of Homs, the head of civil defense there told SANA, saying civil defense teams were struggling to contain it due to “the mountainous and rugged terrain.”
Local outlet Sham FM reported that families from the village of Al-Marana had fled their homes as the wildfire approached.
The state news agency said temperatures were up to six degrees Celsius higher than average across the country on Tuesday, with active gusts and “very hot clouds.”
They hit 40C (104F) at the ancient city of Palmyra, in the province of Homs, and touched 39C in the capital Damascus, where chronic power cuts have made it hard for families to stay cool.
One group of women in the capital charged tiny electric fans with portable batteries and regularly dunked their feet in cool water to make up for the lack of air conditioning.
“We move the couches here, pour water on the ground and direct the fans toward the ground, then we feel like we are in the Maldives,” said one of them, Mounira Wassouf.
Erratic rainfall and rising heat are among the suspected impacts of climate change already affecting Syria. They have shrunk Syria’s wheat crop in recent years down some 75 percent from around 4 million tons annually pre-war.
Syria struggles to contain wildfires as temperatures rise
https://arab.news/4eksb
Syria struggles to contain wildfires as temperatures rise
- Erratic rainfall and rising heat are among the suspected impacts of climate change already affecting Syria
13-year-old Palestinian boy shot and killed by Israeli forces in West Bank
- Soldiers briefly detained Ammar Mutaz Hamayel after he was shot near the village of Kafr Malik, 17 km from Ramallah
- He was handed over to Palestinian paramedics who took him to hospital, where he was pronounced dead
LONDON: A Palestinian teenager died after being shot by Israeli forces on Monday in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces briefly detained 13-year-old Ammar Mutaz Hamayel after he was shot near the village of Kafr Malik, before handing him over to a Palestinian ambulance crew, the Wafa news agency reported. The paramedics took him to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, where he was pronounced dead.
Kafr Malik, which has a population of about 2,500 Palestinians, is located 17 kilometers northeast of Ramallah and is surrounded by the Israeli settlement of Kokhav HaShahar.
Risk of genocide in Sudan ‘very high’: UN
- The fighting has killed tens of thousands and displaced 13 million, including 4 million who fled abroad, triggering what the UN has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis
GENEVA: The risk of genocide in Sudan’s devastating civil war remains “very high,” amid ongoing ethnically motivated attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, a top UN official warned Monday.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a power struggle between army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.
The fighting has killed tens of thousands and displaced 13 million, including 4 million who fled abroad, triggering what the UN has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
“Both parties have committed serious human rights violations,” said Virginia Gamba, a UN under-secretary-general and acting special adviser to UN chief Antonio Guterres on the prevention of genocide.
“Of specific concern to my mandate is the continued and targeted attacks against certain ethnic groups, particularly in the Darfur and Kordofan regions,” she told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
She highlighted in particular that the RSF and allied armed militias “continue to conduct ethnically motivated attacks against the Zaghawa, Masalit and Fur groups.”
“The risk of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Sudan remains very high,” Gamba warned.
EU finds ‘indications’ Israel is breaching key agreement with its actions in Gaza
BRUSSELS: The EU says there are indications that Israel’s actions in Gaza are violating human rights obligations in the agreement governing its ties with the EU, according to its findings seen by The Associated Press.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas presented the review to foreign ministers of the 27-member bloc in Brussels on Monday, leading at least one country to propose suspending the agreement openly.
“There are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement,” according to the review by the EU’s diplomatic corps, the European External Action Service.
Suspending ties would require a unanimous decision, which is likely impossible to obtain from countries like Austria, Germany and Hungary that tend to back Israel.
Other actions — such as ending visa-free travel to Europe for Israelis, sanctioning Israeli settlers in the West Bank or halting academic partnerships — could be pushed if a “qualified majority” — 15 of the 27 nations representing at least 65 percent of the population of the EU — agree.
Countries like the Netherlands, Ireland, and Spain have been vocal in their support for the Palestinians in Gaza as Israel battles Hamas.
“When all the focus is on Iran and the escalation regarding Iran, we should not forget about Gaza,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp, who led the charge for the review.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
About 56,000 Palestinians have since been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and relatively little aid has entered since Israel ended the latest ceasefire in March.
Outrage over Israel’s actions in Gaza has grown in Europe as images of suffering Palestinians have driven protests in London, Berlin, Brussels, Madrid, and Amsterdam.
Spain has canceled arms deals with Israel and called for an arms embargo.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares Bueno on Monday called for suspending the EU-Israel agreement.
“The time for words and declarations is behind. We had enough time,” he told the meeting. “And at the same time, Palestinians in Gaza have no more time to lose. Every day, babies, women, and men are being killed. This is the time for action.”
Manuel Albares also called for an embargo on EU countries selling weapons to Israel and for the widening of individual sanctions on anyone undermining the proposed two-state solution.
“Europe must show courage,” he told journalists.
Israeli raids deep inside southern Lebanon target Hezbollah’s tunnels
- Warplanes carry out surprise airstrikes
- According to Lebanese security source, no casualties reported
BEIRUT: Israel launched airstrikes on alleged weapons caches of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, and tunnels in southern Lebanon on Monday, soon after it had struck targets within Iran.
Israeli warplanes carried out the surprise strikes on the outskirts of several villages, and valleys and hills in the districts of Jezzine and Nabatieh, and all the way to the district of Sidon.
The Israeli military claimed that “air force warplanes raided Hezbollah military sites containing rocket launchers and missiles, as well as weapons depots in the area north of the Litani (River),” adding that “the presence of Hezbollah weapons and activities in this area constitute a flagrant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
According to a Lebanese security source, no casualties were reported in the raids that focused on the valley between Ansar and Al-Zarariyeh, the Kfar Melki valley, and the area between the towns of Azza, Kafrwa Zefta, and Deir Al-Zahrani, along with the outskirts of Al-Aishiyeh, Al-Mahmoudiya, Al-Dashmakiyeh, and Wadi Barghoz.
The source told Arab News: “These raids apparently targeted areas containing Hezbollah tunnels and previous gathering points, which had previously been targeted repeatedly.”
The source noted that “the Israeli army used concussion missiles in these new raids, the sound of which caused powerful explosions and ground shaking, and the echoes of the explosions reverberated throughout most of the southern regions.”
He added: “The reason for these raids now is (as) a warning message to Hezbollah not to consider any attempt to rehabilitate what has been completely destroyed.
“The Lebanese army has not yet entered these targeted areas north of the Litani River to confiscate their contents, as it is still confining its mission to searching for weapons and ammunition south of the Litani River.”
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and the country’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam have held a series of meetings in light of regional developments to help prevent Lebanon suffering any repercussions from the escalating Israeli-Iranian conflict and to keep Lebanon neutral.
Aoun said on Sunday: “Lebanon, its leadership, parties, and people, are aware today, more than ever, that it has paid a heavy price for the wars that have erupted on its soil and in the region. It is unwilling to pay more, and there is no national interest in doing so, especially since the cost of these wars has been and will be greater than it can bear.”
Salam has stressed the need to “prioritize the supreme national interest and maintain unity and national solidarity, which requires avoiding Lebanon’s involvement or being dragged in any way into the ongoing regional confrontation.”
Iranian combat drone crashes into restaurant in Jordan’s capital, Amman
- Jordanian army says the Shahed 101 device had an explosive warhead but it did not detonate on impact
- Residential buildings in Abu Nseir and Azraq were recently hit, and 27 intact drones with explosive payloads crashed in uninhabited parts of the country
LONDON: An Iranian Shahed 101 combat drone crashed into a building in the Umm Uthaina area of Jordan’s capital, Amman, on Monday.
Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hyari, a spokesperson for the Jordanian army, said the drone had an explosive warhead but did not detonate on impact when it hit the patio of a restaurant in Umm Uthaina. There were no injuries and military engineers dismantled the device.
Recently, two drones struck residential buildings in Abu Nseir and Azraq, he said, and 27 intact drones with explosive payloads crashed in uninhabited parts of the country. In addition, hundreds of drone and missile parts fell onto Jordanian territory, Hyari added, but did not cause significant damage or serious injuries. He urged Jordanians to seek shelter when sirens sound, the Jordan News Agency reported.
Tensions have been rising in the region since a conflict between Israel and Iran began on June 13, sparking fears of a full-scale war across the Middle East. The two countries have continued to exchange attacks since then, and the situation escalated on Sunday when the US carried out airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites.
