KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: The night a blast struck his family’s home in the Gaza Strip, Ahmed Al-Naouq was more than 2,000 miles away but he still jolted awake, consumed with inexplicable panic.
He reached for his cellphone to find that a friend had written – and then deleted – a message. Al-Naouq called him from London. The words that spilled from the other end of the line landed like world-shattering blows: Airstrike. Everyone killed.
Four nights later, Ammar Al-Butta was startled from sleep in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis when the wall of his bedroom collapsed over him. A missile had pierced his top-floor apartment and exploded one floor below.
He lurched over the rubble, shining the light of his cellphone into the wreckage, calling out to his 16 relatives.
“Anyone there?” he cried. There was only silence.
Entire generations of Palestinian families in the besieged Gaza Strip – from great-grandparents to infants only weeks old – have been killed in airstrikes in the Israel-Hamas war, in which the Israeli army says it aims to root out the militant group from the densely populated coastal territory.
Attacks are occurring at a scale never seen in years of Israel-Hamas conflict, hitting residential areas, schools, hospitals, mosques and churches, even striking areas in southern Gaza where Israeli forces ordered civilians to flee.
Israel says the goal of the war is to destroy Hamas following the militant group’s deadly Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel that killed at least 1,200 people, and it maintains that the attacks target militant operatives and infrastructure.
It blames the high death toll – more than 11,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry – on Hamas, saying the group endangers civilians by operating among the population and in tunnels underneath civilian areas. Israel says the death toll includes Hamas fighters.
But the scope of the destruction and loss of life in Gaza, with entire families wiped out in a single strike, has raised troubling questions about Israeli military tactics.
GENERATIONS LOST
It would take many hours of horror and mayhem before the truth would settle like the ash from the Oct. 20 explosion that leveled Al-Naouq’s family’s home: 21 relatives killed.
They included his 75-year-old father, two brothers, three sisters and their 13 children.
“I can’t believe this actually happened,” Al-Naouq, a graduate student in London, told The Associated Press. “Because if I calculate what it means, I will be destroyed.”
His father, Nasri, had recently told him that his sister Aya’s home was destroyed in northern Gaza and she was staying with them in the central city of Deir Al-Balah, south of the area Israel had ordered Palestinians to leave.
A home can be rebuilt, Al-Naouq recalled replying, all that matters is that she and the children are alive.
But just hours later, they were all dead: Wala’a, the most accomplished of the Al-Naouq children with a degree in engineering, and her four children; Alaa and her five children; Aya, known for her wry sense of humor, and her three children; older brother Muhammed; and younger brother Mahmoud, who was preparing to travel to Australia for graduate studies when the war broke out.
Nine of the 21 are still under the rubble; dire fuel shortages prevented civil defense crews from digging them out.
Identifying the dead was another traumatizing endeavor; many bodies were unrecognizable, most were in pieces.
Al-Naouq’s sister, Doaa, who was not in the house at the time of the strike, told him she couldn’t bear the smell of the rotting flesh of their loved ones under the rubble. Someone showed her body parts retrieved from the site and told her it was one of their sisters.
There were two survivors: Shimaa, Al-Naouq’s sister-in-law, and Omar, his 3-year-old nephew. His 11-year-old niece, Malaka, was taken to Al-Aqsa hospital with severe burns but died after doctors gave her ICU bed to another patient with a better chance of survival, his sister Doaa said.
Doctors have to make extraordinarily difficult triage decisions, and severely wounded patients are being left to die because of shortages of beds, medical supplies and fuel, said Dr. Mohammed Qandeel, in Nasser Hospital, Gaza’s second-largest.
“We leave most as we don’t have ventilators or beds,” he said of patients in need of intensive care with complicated blast wounds. “We’ve reached full collapse.”
COMPETING CLAIMS
Israel doesn’t say how it chooses targets in densely populated Gaza. But Israeli officials say many strikes on homes are based on intelligence assessments that wanted Hamas operatives are inside. Though it gives few details, Israel says every airstrike is reviewed by legal experts to ensure they comply with international law.
Many Gaza families deny any Hamas targets were operating from their homes.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says a majority of Palestinians killed have been minors and women, about 4,500 and 2,200 respectively. At least 304 families have lost at least 10 relatives; about 31 families have lost over 30, according to a Nov. 6 health ministry report. That number is likely higher now as intense Israeli bombardment has continued.
Among the families with the highest number of casualties, many have been children.
The Al-Astal family lost 89 relatives, 18 of them children under the age of 10, including three babies not yet a year old, according to an Oct. 26 ministry report. The Hassouna family had 74 killed, including 22 children ranging in age from 1 to 10 years old, it said. The Najjars lost 65 relatives: Nine were under 10 years old and 13 were under 4.
Ammar Al-Butta says his relatives were all civilians with no links to Hamas.
The Saqallah family, his cousins known for their sweet shops in Gaza City, had taken shelter with Al-Butta’s family in their four-story house in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, heeding Israeli evacuation orders.
The family arrived with trays of confections for their hosts. Joking with his cousins in the family’s living room was a rare moment of respite in the fog of war and displacement, the 29-year-old teacher said.
One cousin, Ahmed Saqallah, 42, spoke of rebuilding his family’s bomb-damaged home and looked forward to fixing the plumbing and painting.
“Simple, sweet dreams,” Al-Butta said.
Ten days later all 16 Saqallahs, from 69-year-old Nadia to baby Asaad, not yet a year old, were killed in the Oct. 24 pre-dawn attack.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
A question left by Al-Naouq in his family’s WhatsApp group the night the blast leveled their home – “Tell me, how are you guys?” – remains unanswered.
The distance has made the devastating news all the more surreal. Observing London’s peaceful nights, where sounds of mirth resonate from restaurants and bars, Al-Naouq imagines the airstrikes lighting Gaza’s skies, the screams of panicked residents. His family, lying lifeless under the rubble.
He has no idea where his relatives’ bodies are buried. There was no space in the hospital morgue to keep them. They could be in a mass grave, but Al-Naouq has no way of knowing.
Al-Butta said the Saqallah family was buried in his family grave in Khan Younis. The entire neighborhood mourned when they were interred. “Our eyes are dry,” he said. “There are no tears left.”
In the chaos of the war, taking account of the dead is a rushed, heart-rending process.
It begins with relatives scribbling the names of the dead and missing. They dig into the rubble with their hands, calling out for survivors. Hospitals later issue death certificates.
Grieving relatives, who maintain no one in their households had links to Hamas, ask: Why them?
“Why would they kill children and an old man?” asked Al-Naouq. “What is the military justification for bombing my house? They were all civilians.”
“I wish, one day, I can meet the one who pulled the trigger. I want to ask him: Why did you do it?”
Their families wiped out by Israeli airstrikes, grieving Palestinians in Gaza ask why
https://arab.news/vznaq
Their families wiped out by Israeli airstrikes, grieving Palestinians in Gaza ask why
- Attacks are occurring at a scale never seen in years of Israel-Hamas conflict
US air force looks to upgrade Cyprus air base as humanitarian staging post for the Middle East
- Cyprus, which is only 184 km from the Lebanese capital, has served as a transit point for the repatriation of foreign nationals fleeing conflict in the Mideast
- The Cyprus government agreed to the air base upgrade assessment following the recent deployment of a US Marine contingent at the base
NICOSIA, Cyprus: Experts from the US Air Force are looking at ways to upgrade Cyprus’ premier air base for use as a humanitarian staging post in future operations in the Middle East, a Cypriot official told The Associated Press Thursday.
Cyprus, which is only 184 kilometers (114 miles) from the Lebanese capital, Beirut, has acted as a transit point for the repatriation of foreign nationals fleeing conflict in the Middle East and beyond on numerous occasions in the past. It has also served as a transit point for humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Experts from the 435th Contingency Response Group based out of Ramstein, Germany, will spend the next few days at Andreas Papandreou Air Force Base to assess the upgrade needed to accommodate a wide array of US air assets and other forces.
A key priority is to ensure air traffic safety in and around the base, which abuts the island’s second-largest civilian airport, the official said. The base’s location makes it easy to transfer evacuees onto civilian aircraft at the adjacent airport for their trip home.
The official spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to speak publicly about the details of the experts’ visit.
Air traffic safety would need to be enhanced through new high-tech installations, including state-of-the-art radar, to ensure the independent operation of civilian and military aircraft at safe distances.
“The Americans are very specific on safety issues and want to make some upgrades to further improve the base’s safety,” the official said.
Other essential upgrades include expanding both the base itself and the runway to accommodate more transport and fighter aircraft. Hardened shelters to protect those air assets are also envisioned.
The Cyprus government agreed to the air base upgrade assessment following the recent deployment of a US Marine contingent at the base. The Marines, who were equipped with V-22 Osprey tiltrotor military transport and cargo aircraft, were on stand-by in the event of a swift evacuation of US citizens from nearby Lebanon during Israel’s strikes against Hezbollah targets late last year.
Deputy government spokesman Yannis Antoniou told the state broadcaster Thursday that any use of the base by the forces of the US or other nations would require prior Cyprus government approval. He insisted the air base would not act as a forward base for military strike operations against targets in the region.
“We’ve shown interest in working with (US Forces) because we consider this to serve the vital interests of the Cyprus Republic,” Antoniou said, adding that in their report, the USAF experts will offer an estimate of the upgrade costs and which percentage of those the US government would be willing to cover.
Bilateral relations between European Union member Cyprus and the US, especially in terms of military cooperation, have grown significantly over the last few years following a pledge by Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides to affirm the ethnically divided country’s “clear Western orientation.”
A manifestation of those ties was last week’s directive by former President Joe Biden that allows Cyprus to buy arms from the US government and get surplus American military equipment.
The Cypriot government noted the development as a tangible acknowledgment of Cyprus’ reliability as a US partner in the region.
US Secretary of State Rubio backs ‘inclusive’ transition in Syria in call with Turkiye
- Rubio’s comments signal a consistency with his predecessor Antony Blinken, who used similar language as he called on Syria’s new leaders to protect minority rights and not pose a threat to neighboring countries
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for an inclusive transition in Syria after the fall of leader Bashar Assad, in a call with powerbroker Turkiye, the State Department said Thursday.
Rubio’s comments signal a consistency with his predecessor Antony Blinken, who on a trip to the region last month used similar language as he called on Syria’s new leaders to protect minority rights and not pose a threat to neighboring countries.
In a call with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan that took place Wednesday, Rubio “highlighted the need for an inclusive transition in Syria,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
Rubio also called for “ensuring that the new government prevents Syria from becoming a source for international terrorism, and denying foreign malign actors the opportunity to exploit Syria’s transition for their own objectives,” she said.
Assad, allied with Iran and Russia, had ruthlessly crushed an uprising that erupted in 2011 but was swiftly deposed last month in a lightning raid by Turkish-backed rebels formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
Turkish-backed fighters have been battling Kurdish forces in Syria, who allied with the United States in the battle against the Daesh (IS) extremist group but who Ankara associates with Kurdish militants at home.
Smog chokes Baghdad as oil-fired factories belch out smoke
In winter, a thick smog frequently envelops the city of nine million people as the fumes belched out by its many oil-fired factories are trapped by a layer of cold air.
The stench of sulfur permeates some districts, where brick and asphalt factories run on heavy fuel oil, taking advantage of generous state subsidies in the world’s sixth biggest oil producer.
In a bid to tackle the worsening air quality, authorities recently shut down dozens of oil-fired factories and instructed others to phase out their use of heavy fuel oil.
“Every time I went to the doctor he told me to stop smoking. But I don’t smoke,” Zubaidi told AFP.
When his doctor finally realized that Zubaidi lived just meters from the Dora power plant in south Baghdad, he told him its emissions were the likely cause of his asthma.
Power plants and refineries spew thick grey smoke over several areas of Baghdad.
“We can’t go up to our roofs because of the fumes,” Zubaidi said.
“We appealed to the prime minister, the government and parliament. Lawmakers have come to see us but to no avail,” the 53-year-old complained.
He is not the only victim of air pollution. Many of his neighbors suffer from chronic asthma or allergies, he said.
Waste incineration and the proliferation of private generators in the face of patchy mains supply also contribute significantly to Baghdad’s air pollution.
In 2023, the air monitoring site IQAir ranked Iraq as the sixth most polluted country in terms of air quality.
Levels of the cancer-causing PM2.5 pollutants, microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs, are seven to 10 times the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline values.
IQAir warned that exposure to PM2.5 “leads to and exacerbates numerous health conditions, including but not limited to asthma, cancer, stroke and lung disease.”
It found that air pollution levels in Baghdad were “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”
According to the US embassy, air quality in the capital frequently enters the red zone, leading to “health effects,” particularly for vulnerable groups.
In October, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani ordered a committee to investigate the causes of the “odorous sulfur emissions” so that they can be stopped.
Environment ministry spokesperson Amir Ali attributed the pollution to “industrial activities near the capital” — particularly the brickworks and asphalt plants in the Nahrawan industrial zone in southeast Baghdad.
There lie “the largest number of factories responsible for the emissions,” he said.
Ali also blamed private generators and refineries, including in Dora.
The pollution was exacerbated by “weather conditions, shifts in temperature, the direction of the wind, and increased humidity,” his ministry said.
In December, authorities announced the closure of 111 brickworks “due to emissions” that breach environmental standards, along with 57 asphalt plants in the Nahrawan industrial zone.
The industry ministry has also instructed brickworks to phase out their use of heavy fuel oil within 18 months and replace it with liquefied natural gas.
The government has banned waste incineration inside and outside landfills and has said it will improve “fuel quality at Dora refinery and address gas emissions and wastewater discharges.”
Iraq is one of the world’s largest oil producers, and sales of crude oil account for 90 percent of state revenues, so its transition to renewable fuels remains a distant goal.
Environmental activist Husam Sobhi urged authorities to keep up their efforts to phase out heavy fuel oil.
“It is difficult for a country like Iraq to let go of oil but we can use better quality oil than heavy fuel oil,” Sobhi said.
He also called on planning authorities to put a stop to the city’s sprawl into the surrounding countryside.
“Baghdad is in dire need of a green belt which would serve as a lung for the city to breathe,” he said.
’Living in a cage’: West Bank checkpoints proliferate after Gaza truce
- According to the Palestinian Wall Resistance Commission, 146 iron gates were erected around the West Bank after the Gaza war began
TAYBEH, Palestinian Territories: Father Bashar Basiel moved freely in and out of his parish in the occupied West Bank until Israeli troops installed gates at the entrance of his village Taybeh overnight, just hours after a ceasefire began in Gaza.
“We woke up and we were surprised to see that we have the iron gates in our entrance of Taybeh, on the roads that are going to Jericho, to Jerusalem, to Nablus,” said Basiel, a Catholic priest in the Christian village north of Ramallah.
All over the West Bank, commuters have been finding that their journey to work takes much longer since the Gaza ceasefire started.
“We have not lived such a difficult situation (in terms of movement) since the Second Intifada,” Basiel told AFP in reference to a Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.
He said he was used to the checkpoints, which are dotted along the separation barrier that cuts through much of the West Bank and at the entrances to Palestinian towns and cities.
But while waiting times got longer in the aftermath of the October 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war, now it has become almost impossible to move between cities and villages in the West Bank.
Left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israeli authorities ordered the military to operate dozens of checkpoints around the West Bank during the first 42 days of the ceasefire.
According to the Palestinian Wall Resistance Commission, 146 iron gates were erected around the West Bank after the Gaza war began, 17 of them in January alone, bringing the total number of roadblocks in the Palestinian territory to 898.
“Checkpoints are still checkpoints, but the difference now is that they’ve enclosed us with gates. That’s the big change,” said Anas Ahmad, who found himself stuck in traffic for hours on his way home after a usually open road near the university town of Birzeit was closed.
Hundreds of drivers were left idling on the road out of the city as they waited for the Israeli soldiers to allow them through.
The orange metal gates Ahmad was referring to are a lighter version of full checkpoints, which usually feature a gate and concrete shelters for soldiers checking drivers’ IDs or searching their vehicles.
“The moment the truce was signed, everything changed 180 degrees. The Israeli government is making the Palestinian people pay the price,” said Ahmad, a policeman who works in Ramallah.
Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani did not comment on whether there had been an increase in the number of checkpoints but said the military used them to arrest wanted Palestinian militants.
“We make sure that the terrorists do not get away but the civilians have a chance to get out or go wherever they want and have their freedom of movement,” he said in a media briefing on Wednesday.
Basiel said that now, when the gates are closed, “I have to wait, or I have to take another way” into Taybeh, a quiet village known for its brewery.
He said that on Monday people waited in their cars from 4:00 p.m. to 2:00 am while each vehicle entering the village was meticulously checked.
Another Ramallah area resident, who preferred not to be named for security reasons, compared his new environment to that of a caged animal.
“It’s like rabbits living in a cage. In the morning they can go out, do things, then in the evening they have to go home to the cage,” he said.
Shadi Zahod, a government employee who commutes daily between Salfit and Ramallah, felt similarly constrained.
“It’s as if they’re sending us a message: stay trapped in your town, don’t go anywhere,” he told AFP.
“Since the truce, we’ve been paying the price in every Palestinian city,” he said, as his wait at a checkpoint in Birzeit dragged into a third hour.
Before approving the Gaza ceasefire, Israel’s security cabinet reportedly added to its war goals the “strengthening of security” in the West Bank.
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said in a statement on Tuesday that Israel “is merely shifting its focus from Gaza to other areas it controls in the West Bank.”
A 2019 academic paper by Jerusalem’s Applied Research Institute estimated that at the time Palestinians lost 60 million work hours per year to restrictions.
But for Basiel, the worst impact is an inability to plan even a day ahead.
“The worst thing that we are facing now, is that we don’t have any vision for the near future, even tomorrow.”
‘Killed, maimed, frozen to death’: UN Security Council meets to discuss plight of Gaza’s kids
- UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher tells council members of urgent need for donations to meet $4bn funding target for 2025
- The growing struggles of civilians in the West Bank must also not be ignored, he adds
NEW YORK CITY: The UN’s humanitarian chief on Thursday called for urgent action to protect children in Gaza and ensure their well-being amid the fragile ceasefire and ongoing humanitarian crisis in the territory.
Speaking during a meeting of the Security Council to discuss “the plight of children in the Gaza Strip,” Tom Fletcher emphasized the scale of suffering among Palestinian youngsters there as he urged the international community to ensure the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas holds, and to scale up deliveries of humanitarian aid.
Fletcher said the ceasefire deal, brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the US, has brought a temporary reprieve for civilians, and is allowing Israeli hostages and detained Palestinians to be reunited with their families.
The truce has also enabled a surge in the amount of life-saving humanitarian assistance entering Gaza, providing a glimmer of hope for the millions of residents suffering as a result of the conflict.
“We can save more lives if all parties continue to honor the deal,” Fletcher said, thanking the mediators for their tireless efforts to facilitate the agreement and address the operational challenges in its implementation.
The 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza have taken a profound toll on the children in the territory, the suffering of whom reached catastrophic proportions during that time, he added.
Fletcher painted a harrowing picture of the devastating effects of the conflict on the children of Gaza. Thousands lost their lives, an estimated 17,000 have been left without their families, and many more were injured or are suffering from malnutrition and psychological trauma.
He gave examples of the cruel conditions under which young people have been forced to lived, cited instances of unborn children perishing with their mothers, and detailed the desperate plight of more than 150,000 pregnant women and new mothers who are in urgent need of healthcare.
“The children of Gaza have been killed, starved, maimed, orphaned and separated from their families,” Fletcher said as he condemned the violence and deprivation. “A generation has been traumatized.”
Aside from the physical harm, children have endured deep psychological scars, with UNICEF estimating that 1 million youngsters are in need of mental health support for anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts.
“Many have faced sexual violence,” Fletcher said. “Girls, who have endured the additional indignity of no access to menstrual care, have been left exposed and vulnerable.”
The war has had devastating effects on education as well, with schools destroyed and many children denied access to learning, he added.
But despite the overwhelming challenges, the international humanitarian community has made significant strides in the days since the ceasefire came into effect on Sunday, Fletcher said.
He highlighted the increased flow of aid into Gaza, including food, medical supplies and fuel, which has enabled critical services to resume or continue operating.
With the UN Relief and Works Agency at the forefront of the efforts, humanitarian agencies have scaled up their operations, delivering emergency shelter to protect people from the winter weather, food and life-saving medical care.
“We are getting supplies to designated emergency shelters and distribution centers across the Gaza Strip,” Fletcher said.
“We are delivering food parcels, distributing fuel to ensure that healthcare and water systems can function, and reopening bakeries to help meet basic nutritional needs.”
While these efforts are vital, Fletcher stressed that they will only be able continue with sustained funding and unimpeded access.
He appealed to UN member states to help replenish humanitarian stockpiles and called for greater involvement of the private sector to meet the needs of the 2 million residents of Gaza.
Fletcher stressed the urgent need for donations to help meet the $4.07 billion target of the UN’s 2025 Flash Appeal, to help address the needs of 3 million people in Gaza and the West Bank. Almost 90 percent of the total is needed for the humanitarian response in Gaza alone.
But while much of the international attention has focused on the Strip, Fletcher also warned the Security Council about the deteriorating situation in the West Bank, where violence and displacement have reached unprecedented levels since October 2023.
He described attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages, and ongoing military operations, particularly in Jenin, that have displaced thousands and caused significant damage to infrastructure.
“The situation in the West Bank must not be ignored,” Fletcher said. “We need to ensure that humanitarian aid and protection reach those in need, and that international law is respected.”
He once again urged council members to ensure the ceasefire holds, and that the flow of aid continues to those in need, in both Gaza and the West Bank. He called for the protection of Palestinian civilians, the release of all hostages and detainees, and unimpeded access for humanitarian workers.
“The children of Gaza are not collateral damage,” Fletcher said. “They are as deserving as children everywhere of security, education and hope. We must be there for them now, when they need us most.”
