Aftershock rattles Morocco as rescuers seek survivors from the earthquake that killed over 2,100

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People comfort each other while digging graves for victims of the earthquake, in Ouargane village, near Marrakech, Morocco, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. (AP)
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Residents inspect their damaged homes after an earthquake in Moulay Ibrahim village, near Marrakech, Morocco on Sept. 9, 2023. (AP)
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Above, a damaged car and debris from the earthquake in Marrakech, Morocco, on September 9, 2023. (Al Oula TV/Handout via Reuters)
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People take shelter and check for news on their mobile phones after an earthquake in Rabat, Morocco late Friday, Sept. 8, 2023. (AP)
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A car is covered in dust in the aftermath of the earthquake in Marrakech, Morocco, on September 9, 2023. (Al Oula TV/Handout via Reuters)
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People inspect the damage from the earthquake in Marrakech, Morocco on Sept. 9, 2023. (Al Oula TV/Handout via Reuters)
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People inspect the damage from the earthquake in Marrakech, Morocco on Sept. 9, 2023. (Al Oula TV/Handout via Reuters)
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People gather on a street in Casablanca early Saturday following a powerful earthquake in Morocco. (Reuters)
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Updated 11 September 2023
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Aftershock rattles Morocco as rescuers seek survivors from the earthquake that killed over 2,100

  • The United Nations estimated that 300,000 people were affected by Friday night’s magnitude 6.8 quake
  • Some Moroccans complained on social networks that the government wasn’t allowing more help from outside

AMIZMIZ, Morocco: An aftershock rattled Moroccans on Sunday as they mourned victims of the nation’s strongest earthquake in more than a century and toiled to rescue survivors while soldiers and aid workers raced to reach desperate mountain villages in ruins. The disaster killed more than 2,100 people — a number that is expected to rise.
The United Nations estimated that 300,000 people were affected by Friday night’s magnitude 6.8 quake and some Moroccans complained on social networks that the government wasn’t allowing more help from outside. International aid crews were prepared to deploy, but some grew frustrated waiting for the government to officially request their assistance.
“We know there is a great urgency to save people and dig under the remains of buildings,” said Arnaud Fraisse, founder of Rescuers Without Borders, who had a team stuck in Paris waiting for the green light. “There are people dying under the rubble, and we cannot do anything to save them.”
Help was slow to arrive in Amizmiz, where a whole chunk of the town of orange and red sandstone brick homes carved into a mountainside appeared to be missing. A mosque’s minaret had collapsed.
“It’s a catastrophe,’’ said villager Salah Ancheu, 28. “We don’t know what the future is. The aid remains insufficient.”
Residents swept the rubble off the main unpaved road into town and people cheered when trucks full of soldiers arrived. But they pleaded for more help.
“There aren’t ambulances, there aren’t police, at least for right now,” Ancheu said.
Those left homeless — or fearing more aftershocks — slept outside Saturday, in the streets of the ancient city of Marrakech or under makeshift canopies in Atlas Mountain towns like Moulay Brahim, among the hardest-hit. The worst destruction was in small, rural communities that are hard for rescuers to reach because the roads that snake up the mountainous terrain were covered by fallen rocks.
Those areas were shaken anew Sunday by a magnitude 3.9 aftershock, according to the US Geological Survey. It wasn’t immediately clear if it caused more damage or casualties, but it was likely strong enough to rattle nerves in areas where damage has left buildings unstable and residents feared aftershocks.
Friday’s earthquake toppled buildings not strong enough to withstand such a mighty temblor, trapping people in the rubble and sending others fleeing in terror. A total of 2,012 people were confirmed dead and at least 2,059 more people were injured — 1,404 of them critically, the Interior Ministry reported Saturday.
Flags were lowered across Morocco, as King Mohammed VI ordered three days of national mourning starting Sunday. The army mobilized specialized search and rescue teams, and the king ordered water, food rations and shelters to be provided to those who lost their homes.
He also called for mosques to hold prayers Sunday for the victims, many of whom were buried Saturday amid the frenzy of rescue work nearby.
But Morocco has not made an international appeal for help like Turkiye did in the hours following a massive quake earlier this year, according to aid groups.
Aid offers poured in from around the world and the UN said it had a team in Morocco coordinating international support. About 100 teams made up of a total of 3,500 rescuers are registered with a UN platform and ready to deploy in Morocco when asked, Rescuers Without Borders said. Germany had a team of more than 50 rescuers waiting near Cologne-Bonn Airport but sent them home, news agency dpa reported.
In a sign Morocco may be prepared to accept more assistance, a Spanish search and rescue team arrived in Marrakech and was headed to the rural Talat N’Yaaqoub, according to Spain’s Emergency Military Unit. Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said in a radio interview that Moroccan authorities asked for help. Another rescue team from Nice, France, also was on its way.
In France, which has many ties to Morocco and said four of its citizens died in the quake, towns and cities have offered more than 2 million euros ($2.1 million) in aid. Popular performers are collecting donations.
The epicenter of Friday’s quake was near the town of Ighil in Al Haouz Province, about 70 kilometers (44 miles) south of Marrakech. The region is known for scenic villages and valleys tucked in the High Atlas Mountains.
Devastation gripped each town along the High Atlas’ steep and winding switchbacks, with homes folding in on themselves and people crying as boys and helmet-clad police carried the dead through the streets.
”I was asleep when the earthquake struck. I could not escape because the roof fell on me. I was trapped. I was saved by my neighbors who cleared the rubble with their bare hands,” said Fatna Bechar in Moulay Brahim. “Now, I am living with them in their house because mine was completely destroyed.”
There was little time for mourning as survivors tried to salvage anything from damaged homes.
Khadija Fairouje’s face was puffy from crying as she joined relatives and neighbors hauling possessions down rock-strewn streets. She had lost her daughter and three grandsons aged 4 to 11 when their home collapsed while they were sleeping less than 48 hours earlier.
“Nothing’s left. Everything fell,” said her sister, Hafida Fairouje.
Rescuers backed by soldiers and police searched for victims in collapsed homes in the remote town of Adassil, near the epicenter. Military vehicles brought in bulldozers and other equipment to clear roads of rocks that crumbled off mountainsides, the state news agency MAP reported. Ambulances took dozens of wounded from the village of Tikht, population 800, to Mohammed VI University Hospital in Marrakech.
In Marrakech, where authorities were assessing the damage, large chunks were missing from a crenelated roof, and warped metal, crumbled concrete and dust were all that remained of a building cordoned off by police tape.
Tourists and residents lined up to donate desperately needed blood. Jalila Guerina said she ran to help when she learned of the need because of her duty as a Moroccan citizen.
“I did not even think about it twice,” she told The Associated Press, “especially in the conditions where people are dying, especially at this moment when they are needing help, any help.”
In the market, stray cats clambered over piles of stones and wooden bars, but shoppers were scarce at stalls set up under parasols by food and souvenir vendors.
The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 when it hit at 11:11 p.m., lasting several seconds, the USGS said. A magnitude 4.9 aftershock hit 19 minutes later, it said. The collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates occurred at a relatively shallow depth, which makes a quake more dangerous.
It was the strongest earthquake to hit the North African country in more than 120 years, according to the USGS, which has records dating to 1900, but it was not the deadliest. In 1960, a magnitude 5.8 temblor struck near the Moroccan city of Agadir, killing at least 12,000. That quake prompted Morocco to change construction rules, but many buildings, especially rural homes, are not built to withstand such tremors.
In 2004, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake near the Mediterranean coastal city of Al Hoceima left more than 600 dead.
Friday’s quake was felt as far away as Portugal and Algeria, according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere and Algeria’s Civil Defense agency.


Gaza civil defense says 19 killed in Israeli strikes

Updated 11 sec ago
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Gaza civil defense says 19 killed in Israeli strikes

GAZA STRIP: Rescuers in Gaza said on Saturday that at least 19 people, including eight children, were killed in Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory.
According to the civil defense agency, an air strike at dawn on the house of the Al-Ghoul family in Gaza City killed 11 people, seven of them children.
“The home, which housed several displaced people, was completely destroyed,” said civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal.
“It was a two-story building and several people are still under the rubble,” he added, saying Israeli drones had “also fired on ambulance staff.”
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately comment on the strike.
AFP images from the neighborhood of Shujaiya, in the east of Gaza City, showed residents combing through smoking rubble and bodies lined up on the ground, covered in white sheets.
“A huge explosion woke us up. Everything was shaking,” said witness Ahmed Mussa.
“I was surprised to see (the strike) was on the house of our neighbors, the Al-Ghoul family. It was home to children, women. There wasn’t anyone wanted or who posed a threat.”
Elsewhere, the civil defense agency said five security officers, tasked with accompanying aid convoys, were killed by an Israeli strike as they were driving in a car in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
Bassal accused Israel of having “deliberately targeted” them in order to “affect the humanitarian supply chain and increase the suffering” of the population.
The army has not yet responded to the accusations.
Local rescuers also said three members of the same family, including a child, were killed when their house was bombed in Khan Yunis.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,717 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

Damascus Airport to resume international flights starting January 7

Updated 47 sec ago
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Damascus Airport to resume international flights starting January 7

  • International aid planes and foreign diplomatic delegations have already been landing in Syria

DAMASCUS: Syria said on Saturday the country’s main airport in Damascus would resume international flights starting next week after such commercial trips were halted following last month’s ouster of president Bashar Assad.

“We announce we will start receiving international flights to and from Damascus International Airport from” Tuesday, state news agency SANA said, quoting Ashhad Al-Salibi, who heads the General Authority of Civil Aviation and Air Transport.

“We reassure Arab and international airlines that we have begun the phase of rehabilitating the Aleppo and Damascus airports with our partners’ help, so that they can welcome flights from all over the world,” he said.

International aid planes and foreign diplomatic delegations have already been landing in Syria. Domestic flights have also resumed.

On Thursday, Qatar Airways announced it will resume flights to the Syrian capital after nearly 13 years, starting with three weekly flights on Tuesday.

A Qatari official told AFP last month that Doha had offered the new Syrian authorities help in resuming operations at Damascus airport.

On December 18, the first flight since Islamist-led rebels ousted Assad on December 8 took off from Damascus airport to Aleppo in the country’s north, AFP journalists saw.


Palestinian health ministry says one dead in Israel West Bank raid

Updated 04 January 2025
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Palestinian health ministry says one dead in Israel West Bank raid

  • Israeli raids refugee camp, with the military saying it had opened fire at ‘terrorists’
  • Israel has occupied the West Bank since conquering it in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: The health ministry in the occupied West Bank said one person was killed and nine injured in an Israeli raid on a refugee camp, with the Israeli military saying Saturday it had opened fire at “terrorists.”
An 18-year-old man, Muhammad Medhat Amin Amer, “was killed by bullets from the (Israeli) occupation in the Balata camp” in the territory’s north, the Palestinian health ministry said in a late-night statement, adding that nine people were injured, “four of whom are in critical condition.”
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, the raid began on Friday night and triggered violent clashes.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli troops entered the camp from the Awarta checkpoint and “deployed snipers on the rooftops of surrounding buildings.”
In a statement on Saturday, the Israeli military said that during the “counterterrorism” operation, “terrorists placed explosives in the area in order to harm (military) soldiers, hurled explosives, molotov cocktails, and rocks and shot fireworks at the forces.”
“The forces fired toward the terrorists in order to remove the threat. Hits were identified,” the statement said.
Violence in the West Bank has intensified since war broke out in the Gaza Strip after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Since then, at least 815 Palestinians have been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah.
In the same period, Palestinian attacks in the West Bank have killed at least 25 Israelis, according to official Israeli figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since conquering it in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.


Fragile Israel-Hezbollah truce holding so far, despite violations

Updated 04 January 2025
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Fragile Israel-Hezbollah truce holding so far, despite violations

  • The deal struck on Nov. 27 to halt the war required Hezbollah to immediately lay down its arms in southern Lebanon
  • It gave Israel 60 days to withdraw its forces there and hand over control to the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers

BEIRUT: A fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has held up for over a month, even as its terms seem unlikely to be met by the agreed-upon deadline.
The deal struck on Nov. 27 to halt the war required Hezbollah to immediately lay down its arms in southern Lebanon and gave Israel 60 days to withdraw its forces there and hand over control to the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers.
So far, Israel has withdrawn from just two of the dozens of towns it holds in southern Lebanon. And it has continued striking what it says are bases belonging to Hezbollah, which it accuses of attempting to launch rockets and move weapons before they can be confiscated and destroyed.
Hezbollah, which was severely diminished during nearly 14 months of war, has threatened to resume fighting if Israel does not fully withdraw its forces by the 60-day deadline.
Yet despite accusations from both sides about hundreds of ceasefire violations, the truce is likely to hold, analysts say. That is good news for thousands of Israeli and Lebanese families displaced by the war still waiting to return home.
“The ceasefire agreement is rather opaque and open to interpretation,” said Firas Maksad, a senior fellow with the Middle East Institute in Washington. That flexibility, he said, may give it a better chance of holding in the face of changing circumstances, including the ouster of Syria’s longtime leader, Bashar Assad, just days after the ceasefire took effect.
With Assad gone, Hezbollah lost a vital route for smuggling weapons from Iran. While that further weakened Hezbollah’s hand, Israel had already agreed to the US-brokered ceasefire.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023 – the day after Hamas launched a deadly attack into Israel that ignited the ongoing war in Gaza. Since then, Israeli air and ground assaults have killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians. At the height of the war, more than 1 million Lebanese people were displaced.
Hezbollah rockets forced some 60,000 from their homes in northern Israel, and killed 76 people in Israel, including 31 soldiers. Almost 50 Israeli soldiers were killed during operations inside Lebanon.
Here’s a look at the terms of the ceasefire and its prospects for ending hostilities over the long-term.
What does the ceasefire agreement say?
The agreement says that both Hezbollah and Israel will halt “offensive” military actions, but that they can act in self-defense, although it is not entirely clear how that term may be interpreted.
The Lebanese army is tasked with preventing Hezbollah and other militant groups from launching attacks into Israel. It is also required to dismantle Hezbollah facilities and weapons in southern Lebanon – activities that might eventually be expanded to the rest of Lebanon, although it is not explicit in the ceasefire agreement.
The United States, France, Israel, Lebanon and the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, are responsible for overseeing implementation of the agreement.
“The key question is not whether the deal will hold, but what version of it will be implemented,” Maksad, the analyst, said.
Is the ceasefire being implemented?
Hezbollah has for the most part halted its rocket and drone fire into Israel, and Israel has stopped attacking Hezbollah in most areas of Lebanon. But Israel has launched regular airstrikes on what it says are militant sites in southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa Valley.
Israeli forces have so far withdrawn from two towns in southern Lebanon – Khiam and Shamaa. They remain in some 60 others, according to the International Organization for Migration, and around 160,000 Lebanese remain displaced.
Lebanon has accused Israel of repeatedly violating the ceasefire agreement and last week submitted a complaint to the UN Security Council that says Israel launched some 816 “ground and air attacks” between the start of the ceasefire and Dec. 22, 2023.
The complaint said the attacks have hindered the Lebanese army’s efforts to deploy in the south and uphold its end of the ceasefire agreement.
Israel says Hezbollah has violated the ceasefire hundreds of times and has also complained to the Security Council. It accused Hezbollah militants of moving ammunition, attempting to attack Israeli soldiers, and preparing and launching rockets toward northern Israel, among other things.
Until it hands over control of more towns to the Lebanese army, Israeli troops have been destroying Hezbollah infrastructure, including weapons warehouses and underground tunnels. Lebanese authorities say Israel has also destroyed civilian houses and infrastructure.
What happens after the ceasefire has been in place for 60 days?
Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanese towns has been slower than anticipated because of a lack of Lebanese army troops ready to take over, according to Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesman. Lebanon disputes this, and says it is waiting for Israel to withdraw before entering the towns.
Shoshani said Israel is satisfied with the Lebanese army’s control of the areas it has already withdrawn from, and that while it would prefer a faster transfer of power, security is its most important objective.
Israel does not consider the 60-day timetable for withdrawal to be “sacred,” said Harel Chorev, an expert on Israel-Lebanon relations at Tel Aviv University who estimates that Lebanon will need to recruit and deploy thousands more troops before Israel will be ready to hand over control.
Hezbollah officials have said that if Israeli forces remain in Lebanon 60 days past the start of the ceasefire, the militant group might return to attacking them. But Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Kassem said Wednesday that, for now, the group is holding off to give the Lebanese state a chance to “take responsibility” for enforcing the agreement.
Over the final two months of the war, Hezbollah suffered major blows to its leadership, weapons and forces from a barrage of Israeli airstrikes, and a ground invasion that led to fierce battles in southern Lebanon. The fall of Assad was another big setback.
“The power imbalance suggests Israel may want to ensure greater freedom of action after the 60-day period,” Maksad, the analyst, said. And Hezbollah, in its weakened position, now has a “strong interest” in making sure the deal doesn’t fall apart altogether “despite Israeli violations,” he said.
While Hezbollah may not be in a position to return to open war with Israel, it or other groups could mount guerilla attacks using light weaponry if Israeli troops remain in southern Lebanon, said former Lebanese army Gen. Hassan Jouni. And even if Israel does withdraw all of its ground forces, Jouni said, the Israeli military could could continue to carry out sporadic airstrikes in Lebanon, much as it has done in Syria for years.


Hamas wants Gaza ceasefire deal as soon as possible, senior official says

Updated 04 January 2025
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Hamas wants Gaza ceasefire deal as soon as possible, senior official says

  • Qatar, Egypt and the US have been engaged in months of back-and-forth talks between Israel and Hamas that have failed to end Gaza war
  • The new talks will focus on agreeing on a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, senior Hamas official Basem Naim

CAIRO: Hamas said a new round of indirect talks on a Gaza ceasefire resumed in Qatar’s Doha on Friday, stressing the group’s seriousness in seeking to reach a deal as soon as possible, senior Hamas official Basem Naim said.

The new talks will focus on agreeing on a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, he added. 

Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US have been engaged in months of back-and-forth talks between Israel and Hamas that have failed to end more than a year of devastating conflict in Gaza.

A key obstacle to a deal has been Israel’s reluctance to agree to a lasting ceasefire.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had authorized Israeli negotiators to continue talks in Doha.

In December, Qatar expressed optimism that “momentum” was returning to the talks following Donald Trump’s election victory in the United States.

But a war of words then broke out with Hamas accusing Israel of setting “new conditions” while Israel accused Hamas of creating “new obstacles” to a deal.

In its Friday statement, Hamas said it reaffirmed its “seriousness, positivity and commitment to reaching an agreement as soon as possible that meets the aspirations and goals of our steadfast and resilient people.