When Fathima Rikaza left Gaza in November, it was to bring her children to safety and wait to return to her Palestinian husband’s homeland. She can only pray now that they will see their father again.
Rikaza married Abdul Lateef 14 years ago, when he came to Sri Lanka to study English. After living eight years in her native Colombo, they moved with their children to Gaza to visit his family.
Her husband had a fruit shop and they decided to stay.
“I opted to settle down,” she told Arab News. “Life was good.”
Then, in October, daily Israeli airstrikes deprived them of any sense of safety and peace.
“Israelis turned Palestine into hell for us. We have practically lost everything,” she said.
“Every minute anything could happen. We have kept an emergency backpack ready. It contained two dresses and a praying mat. And even at night we slept fully dressed, to run away anytime.”
A month later, she and her four children were among the few thousand people with foreign passports who were evacuated from Gaza.
Rikaza’s husband stayed behind with his ailing mother and disabled sister.
“My husband’s family lost 50 people. We did not know what would happen in the next minute,” she said.
“It became difficult to stay there, so my husband asked me to go to the Rafah border and contact our Sri Lankan embassy, and they helped us.”
They now live in Colombo with her sister.
In Sri Lanka, her children can at least sleep, and she will be able to fulfill the promise she gave her husband that she would send them back to school.
Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza for the past three months has destroyed not only 70 percent of its homes, but also most of the enclave’s educational, healthcare, water, and electrical infrastructure.
At least 22,600 people have been killed by the assault and nearly 60,000 wounded. Most are women and children.
Rikaza is thinking about them all the time.
“I pray for the Palestinians,” she said.
“They are loving, always ready to help. They made me feel at home. Even in those difficult times, they cared more to save me and my children than to protect their own life.”
She talks to her husband about twice a week, worrying in between if the phone will ring.
“We would have led a happier life with my husband ... We are all happy to hear his voice when we get a call from him,” she said.
“Had it not been for the children, I would have gone back to be with my husband and die with him.”
‘Israelis turned Palestine into hell’: Sri Lankan evacuees fear for family in Gaza
https://arab.news/jzmva
‘Israelis turned Palestine into hell’: Sri Lankan evacuees fear for family in Gaza
- Fathima Rikaza and her children were evacuated from Gaza in November
- Her husband’s family has lost 50 members since the beginning of Israel’s onslaught
Ukraine fires UK Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia, a day after using US ATACMS
- Biden let Ukraine use ATACMS two months before he leaves office
- US closes embassy out of "abundance of caution" after airstrike scare
KYIV: Ukraine fired a volley of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia on Wednesday, the latest new Western weapon it has been permitted to use on Russian targets a day after it fired US ATACMS missiles.
The strikes were widely reported by Russian war correspondents on Telegram and confirmed by an official on condition of anonymity.
Moscow has said the use of Western weapons to strike into Russian territory far from the border would be a major escalation in the conflict. Kyiv says it needs the capability to defend itself by hitting Russian rear bases used to support Moscow’s invasion, which entered its thousandth day this week.
Russian war correspondent accounts on Telegram posted footage they said included the sound of the missiles striking in Kursk region. At least 14 huge explosions can be heard, most of them preceded by the sharp whistle of what sounds like an incoming missile. The footage, shot in a residential area, showed black smoke rising in the distance.
The pro-Russian Two Majors Telegram channel said Ukraine had fired up to 12 Storm Shadows into the Kursk region, and carried pictures of pieces of missile with the name Storm Shadow clearly visible.
A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his office would not be commenting on reports or operational matters.
Britain had previously allowed Ukraine to use Storm Shadows within Ukrainian territory. The Kyiv government has been pressing Western partners for permission to use such weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia, and obtained the all-clear from US President Joe Biden to use the ATACMS this week, two months before Biden leaves office.
Biden’s successor, President-elect Donald Trump, has said he will end the war, without saying how. The warring sides have interpreted this as likely to involve a push for peace talks — not known to have been held since the war’s earliest months — and are trying to seize a strong position before negotiations.
The Storm Shadows have a range in excess of 250 km (155 miles) and would give Ukraine the ability to hit targets far deeper into Russia than before.
Kyiv says Moscow, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, has previously taken advantage of limits on its use of weapons, particularly to strike Ukrainian cities from the air with heavy guided bombs.
Western countries say the arrival of more than 10,000 North Korean troops to fight for Russia in recent weeks was an escalation that merited a response.
The first use of the US ATACMS on Tuesday, fired at a Russian arsenal in the Bryansk region, prompted firm words from Moscow, which announced a change to its nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for the use of atomic weapons. Washington has said it sees no need to adjust its own nuclear posture and accused Moscow of resorting to irresponsible rhetoric.
Military analysts have said the longer range missiles are unlikely to give Ukraine a decisive edge in the war but could help it strengthen its position, especially in the battle for a sliver of land inside Russia’s Kursk region it seized in August.
With tension higher over the use of the missiles, the United States shut its embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday morning “out of an abundance of caution” due to what it called the threat of a significant air attack.
Later, after an air raid siren in the early afternoon jangled nerves in the capital. Ukraine’s military spy agency ultimately said the threat was fake and accused Russia of trying to sow panic by circulating online messages about a looming missile and drone attack.
“The enemy, unable to subdue Ukrainians by force, resorts to measures of intimidation and psychological pressure on society. We ask you to be vigilant and steadfast,” it said.
A US government source said the embassy closure was “related to ongoing threats of air attacks.” The Italian and Greek embassies said they too had closed their doors. The French embassy remained open but urged its citizens to be cautious.
The Kremlin said it had no comment.
Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said in an interview published on Wednesday that Moscow would retaliate against NATO countries that facilitate long-range Ukrainian missile strikes against Russian territory.
The war is at a volatile juncture, with nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory in Russian hands, North Korean troops deployed in Russia’s Kursk region and doubts over the future of Western aid under Trump, whose nominees for administration posts include skeptics of support for Kyiv.
On Sunday, Russia staged a missile and drone strike on Ukraine’s national power grid that killed seven people and renewed fears over the durability of the hobbled energy network.
Under-fire Spain minister defends state agencies’ role in floods
- Doubting state agencies was “deeply unfair and deeply dangerous,” Ribera told parliament
- “I would like to thank the work and dedication of the public servants who issued the information as was their duty“
MADRID: Spain’s under-fire ecological transition minister, a candidate for a top European Commission post, on Wednesday said questioning the role of state agencies during the country’s devastating floods was “dangerous.”
The state weather and environment services have faced intense scrutiny over their response to the October 29 disaster that wreaked widespread destruction and killed 227 people.
The European Parliament has blocked Teresa Ribera’s appointment to an influential EU commission role encompassing environment and competition, with opponents accusing her of neglecting her duties during the floods.
Regions are in charge of disaster management in Spain’s decentralized political system, but the hardest-hit Valencia region’s conservative leader Carlos Mazon said he received “insufficient, inaccurate and late” information.
Doubting state agencies was “deeply unfair and deeply dangerous,” Ribera told parliament, in a veiled retort to the conservative opposition.
“I would like to thank the work and dedication of the public servants who issued the information as was their duty,” she added.
Mazon defended his handling of the catastrophe last week, citing an “information blackout” and criticizing a government agency responsible for monitoring river levels.
But Ribera said “there was never an information blackout” and enumerated a lengthy list of warnings issued by public bodies to the regional authorities.
Although the national weather agency issued the highest red alert in the morning of October 29, Valencia residents in many cases only received telephone warnings when water was already gushing through towns.
The socialist-led central government has argued Mazon bore responsibility for the late issuing of the emergency alert.
“Having all the necessary information is of little use if the one who must respond does not know how,” Ribera added.
The right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP) has accused the government of abandoning the Valencia region before and after the floods for political gain.
Anger has coursed through Spain over the authorities’ perceived mishandling of the country’s deadliest floods in decades and the ensuing political polarization has spilled over at EU level.
The conservative EPP parliamentary group to which the PP belongs refused to approve Spain’s nomination for the commission until she reported to the Spanish parliament.
“The European Commission does not deserve to come into existence with a candidate under suspicion,” PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo wrote on X.
The Socialists and Democrats group have complained that the Spanish right was trying to make Ribera “the scapegoat” for its own failure to manage the floods in Valencia.
By doing so, it was “pushing the entire European Union to the brink in the most irresponsible way,” it said.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday said his party always backed PP candidates for the commission and urged “reciprocity” from them.
Spain will legalize hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants in the next 3 years
- The policy aims to expand the aging country’s workforce and allow foreigners living in Spain without proper documentation to obtain work permits and residency
- Spain has largely remained open to receiving migrants even as other European nations seek to tighten their borders to illegal crossings and asylum seekers
MADRID: Spain will legalize about 300,000 undocumented migrants a year, starting next May and through 2027, the country’s migration minister said Wednesday.
The policy aims to expand the aging country’s workforce and allow foreigners living in Spain without proper documentation to obtain work permits and residency. Spain has largely remained open to receiving migrants even as other European nations seek to tighten their borders to illegal crossings and asylum seekers.
Spain needs around 250,000 registered foreign workers a year to maintain its welfare state, Migration Minister Elma Saiz said in an interview on Wednesday. She contended that the legalization policy is not aimed solely at “cultural wealth and respect for human rights, it’s also prosperity.”
“Today, we can say Spain is a better country,” Saiz told national broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has often described his government’s migration policies as a means to combat the country’s low birthrate. In August, Sánchez visited three West African nations in an effort to tackle irregular migration to Spain’s Canary Islands.
The archipelago off the coast of Africa is seen by many as a step toward continental Europe with young men from Mali, Senegal, Mauritania and elsewhere embarking on dangerous sea voyages there seeking better job opportunities abroad or fleeing violence and political instability at home.
The new policy, approved Tuesday by Spain’s leftist minority coalition government, simplifies administrative procedures for short and long-term visas and provides migrants with additional labor protections. It extends a visa offered previously to job-seekers for three months to one year.
By mid-November, some 54,000 undocumented migrants had reached Spain this year by sea or land, according to the country’s Interior Ministry. The exact number of foreigners living in Spain without documentation is unclear.
Many irregular migrants make a living in Spain’s underground economy as fruit pickers, caretakers, delivery drivers, or other low-paid but essential jobs often passed over by Spaniards.
Without legal protections, they can be vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Saiz said the new policy would help prevent such abuse and “serve to combat mafias, fraud and the violation of rights.”
Spain’s economy is among the fastest-growing in the European Union this year, boosted in part by immigration and a strong rebound in tourism after the pandemic.
In 2023, Spain issued 1.3 million visas to foreigners, according to the government.
Danish military says it staying close to Chinese ship after data cable breaches
- Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 was anchored in the Kattegat strait between Denmark and Sweden on Wednesday
- “The Danish Defense can confirm that we are present in the area near the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3,” the military said
STOCKHOLM: The Danish military said on Wednesday that it was staying close to a Chinese ship currently sitting idle in Danish waters, days after two fiber-optic data telecommunication cables in the Baltic Sea were severed.
Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 was anchored in the Kattegat strait between Denmark and Sweden on Wednesday, with a Danish navy patrol ship at anchor nearby, MarineTraffic vessel tracking data showed.
“The Danish Defense can confirm that we are present in the area near the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3,” the military said in a post on social media X, adding it had no further comments.
It is quite rare for Denmark’s military to comment publicly on individual vessels traveling in Danish waters. It did not mention the cable breaches or say why it was staying with the ship.
The Chinese ship left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Nov. 15 and was in the areas where the cable damages occurred, according to traffic data, which showed other ships to have been in the areas too.
One cable running between Sweden and Lithuania
was cut
on Sunday and another one between Finland and Germany was severed less than 24 hours later on Monday.
The breaches happened in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone and Swedish prosecutors started a preliminary investigation on Tuesday on suspicion of possible sabotage.
Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin told Reuters on Tuesday that the country’s armed forces and coast guard had picked up ship movements that corresponded with the interruption of two telecoms cables in the Baltic Sea.
A Chinese government spokesperson told a daily news briefing on Wednesday that it always required its vessels to abide by relevant laws and regulations.
“We also attach great importance to the protection of seabed infrastructure and, together with the international community, we are actively promoting the construction and protection of submarine cables and other global information infrastructures,” the spokesperson said.
Russia dismissed on Wednesday any suggestion that it had been involved in damaging the two cables.
European governments accused Russia on Tuesday of escalating hybrid attacks on Ukraine’s Western allies, but stopped short of directly accusing Russia of destroying the cables.
Asked about the matter on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular news briefing: “It is quite absurd to continue to blame Russia for everything without any reason.”
Pakistan’s ex-PM Imran Khan gets bail in state gifts case, his party says
- “If the official order is received today, his family and supporters will approach the authorities for his release,” one of his party’s lawyers, Salman Safdar, told journalists
- Safdar added that, as far as he knew, Khan had been granted bail or acquitted in all the cases he faced
ISLAMABAD: A court in Pakistan granted bail to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan in a case relating to the illegal sale of state gifts, his party said on Wednesday.
Khan, 71, has been in prison since August 2023, but it was not immediately clear if the embattled politician would be released given that he faces a number of other charges too, including inciting violence against the state.
“If the official order is received today, his family and supporters will approach the authorities for his release,” one of his party’s lawyers, Salman Safdar, told journalists. Safdar added that, as far as he knew, Khan had been granted bail or acquitted in all the cases he faced.
However, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, told Geo TV Khan lacked bail in cases in which he is charged with planning riots by his supporters in the wake of his arrest in May last year.
Khan denies any wrongdoing, and alleges all the cases registered against him since he was removed from power in 2022 are politically motivated to keep him in jail.
The case in which he was granted bail on Wednesday by the Islamabad High Court is known as the Toshakhana, or state treasury case.
It has multiple versions and charges all revolving around allegations that Khan and his wife illegally procured and then sold gifts worth over 140 million rupees ($501,000) in state possession, which he received during his 2018-22 premiership.
Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were both handed a 14-year sentence on those charges, following a three-year sentence handed to him in late 2023 in another version of the same case.
Their sentences have been suspended in appeals at the high court.
The gifts included diamond jewelry and seven watches, six of them Rolexes — the most expensive being valued at 85 million rupees ($305,000).
Khan’s wife was released last month after being in the same prison as Khan for months.
