KHAN YUNIS: “It smells like death,” said Maha Thaer, a mother of four, as she returned to the devastated southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Sunday, after Israeli troops withdrew.
“We don’t have a city anymore — only rubble. There is absolutely nothing left. I could not stop myself crying as I walked through the streets,” the 38-year-old told AFP.
“All the streets have been bulldozed. And the smell... I watched people digging and bringing out the bodies,” said Thaer, whose home was partially destroyed.
Soon after the Israeli army said its troops were pulling out, people began to emerge into the devastated landscape — the residents of Khan Yunis returning to find what remained of their homes.
Nearly 400,000 people lived in Khan Yunis and its environs before October 7. Much of the area is now in ruins after months of bombardment and heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants.
A straggle of men and boys riding donkey carts, bicycles and the odd pickup truck headed north out of Rafah in the far south of the Gaza Strip, where more than 1.5 million Palestinians had taken refuge from the relentless Israeli ground invasion and bombardment.
They passed the burned-out shell of the Al-Salam hospital, with almost all of the buildings around it razed to the ground.
Thaer, from the upmarket Hamad City district in the west of Khan Yunis, said she was “very shocked and sad.”
“There were no walls or windows. Most of the towers were completely blown up,” she said.
Thaer said she would move back into her badly damaged apartment, “even though it is not suitable for living, but it is better than tents.”
Her neighbors suffered a greater misfortune. “They found their homes destroyed and they don’t know where they will go,” she said.
Other Gazans carried a mattress on their heads in the hope they would still have four walls to put it in.
One of those who left Rafah on Sunday climbed on the top of a heap of rubble in Khan Yunis which once had been a home.
With everything around him in ruins, AFP photographs showed the man standing among smashed concrete and corrugated iron roofing.
Not a single structure within sight appeared untouched by the war.
Other images showed large swathes of the city flattened.
The Israeli army told AFP that it had pulled its 98th division of ground troops out of the southern city on Sunday to “recuperate,” with one official telling the Israeli media it had killed thousands of Hamas fighters there.
“There’s no need for us to remain... We did everything we could there,” an army official told Haaretz newspaper.
The Gaza war broke out on October 7 with an attack by Hamas militants that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, Israeli figures show.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,175 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
‘It smells like death’: Gazans return to devastated Khan Yunis
https://arab.news/6pyqk
‘It smells like death’: Gazans return to devastated Khan Yunis
- “We don’t have a city anymore — only rubble," Palestinian mother says
Trump to pull nearly 1,660 Afghan refugees from flights, say US official, advocate
- Group includes unaccompanied minors awaiting reunification with their families in the US as well as Afghans at risk of Taliban retribution
- Nearly 200,000 Afghans brought to US by former President Joe Biden’s administration since the chaotic US troop withdrawal from Kabul
WASHINGTON: Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the US government to resettle in the US, including family members of active-duty US military personnel, are having their flights canceled under President Donald Trump’s order suspending US refugee programs, a US official and a leading refugee resettlement advocate said on Monday.
The group includes unaccompanied minors awaiting reunification with their families in the US as well as Afghans at risk of Taliban retribution because they fought for the former US-backed Afghan government, said Shawn VanDiver, head of the #AfghanEvac coalition of US veterans and advocacy groups and the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The US decision also leaves in limbo thousands of other Afghans who have been approved for resettlement as refugees in the US but have not yet been assigned flights from Afghanistan or from neighboring Pakistan, they said.
Trump made an immigration crackdown a major promise of his victorious 2024 election campaign, leaving the fate of US refugee programs up in the air.
The White House and the State Department, which oversees US refugee programs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Afghans and advocates are panicking,” said VanDiver. “I’ve had to recharge my phone four times already today because so many are calling me.
“We warned them that this was going to happen, but they did it anyway. We hope they will reconsider,” he said of contacts with Trump’s transition team.
VanDiver’s organization is the main coalition that has been working with the US government to evacuate and resettle Afghans in the US since the Taliban seized Kabul as the last US forces left Afghanistan in August 2021 after two decades of war.
Nearly 200,000 Afghans have been brought to the US by former President Joe Biden’s administration since the chaotic US troop withdrawal from Kabul.
One of the dozens of executive orders Trump is expected to sign after being sworn in for a second term on Monday suspended US refugee programs for at least four months.
The new White House website said that Trump “is suspending refugee resettlement, after communities were forced to house large and unsustainable populations of migrants, straining community safety and resources.”
“We know this means that unaccompanied children, (Afghan) partner forces who trained, fought and died or were injured alongside our troops, and families of active-duty US service members are going to be stuck,” said VanDiver.
VanDiver and the US official said that the Afghans approved to resettle as refugees in the US were being removed from the manifests of flights they were due to take from Kabul between now and April.
Minority Democrats on the House Foreign Relations Committee blasted the move, saying in a post on X that “this is what abandonment looks like. Leaving vetted, verified Afghan Allies at the mercy of the Taliban is shameful.”
They include nearly 200 family members of Afghan-American active-duty US service personnel born in the US or of Afghans who came to the US, joined the military and became naturalized citizens, they said.
Those being removed from flights also include an unknown number of Afghans who fought for the former US-backed Kabul government and some 200 unaccompanied children of Afghan refugees or Afghan parents whose children were brought alone to the United States during the US withdrawal, said VanDiver and the US official.
An unknown number of Afghans who qualified for refugee status because they worked for US contractors or US-affiliated organizations also are in the group, they said.
TikTok gets reprieve with Trump order but with twist
- Trump suggested that the US should be a half owner of TikTok’s US business in return for keeping the app alive
- Short video service used by 170 million Americans was briefly taken offline for US users on Saturday
But Trump suggested that the US should be a half owner of TikTok’s US business in return for keeping the app alive.
The short video service used by 170 million Americans was briefly taken offline for US users on Saturday, hours before a law that said it must be sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance on national security grounds took effect on Sunday. US officials had said that under ByteDance, there was a risk of Americans’ data being misused.
TikTok restored access on Sunday and thanked Trump for providing assurances to TikTok and its business partners that they would not face hefty fines to keep the app running. The app and website were operational on Monday, but TikTok was still not available for download in the Apple and Google app stores.
Trump’s order, signed hours after he was inaugurated on Monday, directs the attorney general to not enforce the law “to permit my administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course of action with respect to TikTok.”
The executive order capped 48 hours of legal maneuvering and political intrigue that left millions of TikTokkers saddened and then elated over the rapidly changing fate of their app.
The debate over TikTok also comes at a tense moment in US-China relations. Trump has said he intends to place tariffs on China but has also indicated he hopes to have more direct contact with China’s leader.
While signing the executive order Monday evening, Trump said that he “could see” the US government taking a 50 percent stake in TikTok and as part of that stake, the US could police the site.
Trump added that if a deal isn’t approved by China, “there’s no value. So if we create that value, why aren’t we entitled to like half?” He said the company could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Trump did not formally invoke the 90-day delay allowed under the statute, which can only be issued if ByteDance had binding agreements to divest the app within 90 days. He suggested a joint venture as a possibility instead.
It would be unprecedented for the US government to demand an equity stake in a major company in exchange for approving its continued use.
Trump’s comments did not address whether ByteDance or other Chinese entities would be allowed to hold a stake in TikTok or if the deal would address US national security concerns about US user data.
The order directs the Justice Department to issue letters to companies like Apple, Alphabet’s Google and Oracle that supply services to TikTok “stating that there has been no violation of the statute and that there is no liability for any conduct that occurred during the above-specified period.” It is still unclear if Trump’s order will be enough for the companies to restore the app to stores in the United States.
“Frankly, we have no choice. We have to save it,” Trump said at a rally on Sunday ahead of his inauguration.
That announcement came as China indicated for the first time it would be open to a transaction keeping TikTok operating in the US
When asked about the app’s restoration and Trump’s desire for a deal, China’s foreign ministry told a regular news briefing on Monday that it believed companies should “decide independently” about their operations and deals.
Pakistan hopes for ‘enduring’ partnership with US under new Trump administration
- In recent years, Washington and Islamabad’s ties deteriorated over the latter’s alleged support of the Taliban in their 2021 takeover of Kabul
- Tensions rose further when ex-PM Imran Khan accused Washington of orchestrating his ouster through a parliamentary vote, a charge the US denies
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that he looked forward to working with United States (US) President Donald Trump for an “enduring” Pakistan-US partnership, shortly after the latter was sworn in as the 47th US president.
Pakistan and the US collaborated during the Cold War and in the fight against Al-Qaeda after 9/11, yet their relationship was also tested by divergent priorities on various issues. In recent years, Washington and Islamabad’s ties deteriorated as the former suspected the latter of supporting the Taliban in their 2021 takeover of Kabul, allegations which Islamabad rejected.
Tensions rose further in 2022 when former Pakistan premier Imran Khan accused the Biden administration of orchestrating his ouster via a parliamentary vote, a charge the US denied. Since Khan’s ouster in 2022, Sharif’s government has made frequent efforts to repair the damaged relations.
“Over the years, our two great countries have worked together closely to pursue peace and prosperity in the region and beyond for our peoples & we shall continue to do so in the future,” Sharif said on X, extending his best wishes to Trump for a successful second term in office.
“I look forward to working with him to strengthen the enduring Pakistan-US partnership.”
Differences have also emerged between both countries over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program. Late last year, US Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer said nuclear-armed Pakistan’s development of long-range ballistic missiles could potentially target the US.
The statement came after the US said it was imposing new sanctions related to Pakistan’s missile program, including on the state-owned defense agency that oversees the program. The Foreign Office in Islamabad said at the time that Pakistan’s strategic capabilities were solely meant to defend its sovereignty, dismissing the US allegations as “devoid of rationality.”
On Monday, Shafqat Ali Khan, a Pakistani Foreign Office spokesperson, said Pakistan sought to “solidify” its relations with the US, which were marked by multi-layered cooperation in economy, trade, people-to-people connections, security and counter-terrorism.
“Pakistan-US relations have a very long history, and the relations remain rich and dense, and we would continue to work with the new administration to further solidify and strengthen this vital relationship,” Shafqat told Arab News.
“We seek to further strengthen these ties by ensuring the continued positive growth of bilateral relations.”
But many foreign affairs experts believe the new US administration will continue viewing Pakistan through the “China-India lens.”
“The biggest challenge for Pakistan is that the Trump administration will continue its previous policies of looking at Pakistan through the China-India lens,” Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, a professor at Quaid-e-Azam University’s School of Politics and International Relations, told Arab News.
“Now, the biggest challenge for us is how to convince the Americans that though we will be not a part of the American policies to contain China, but at the same time, we could be a part of Americans’ policies in addressing the non-traditional security challenges and on Afghanistan.”
Senator Sherry Rehman, who has previously served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, said every transition offers opportunities for a reset, and Pakistan needed to state its own goals for a broader bilateral path to widen its relationship with the US from a highly “securitized” lens to a more robust economic and commercial one.
“Islamabad should make a clear agenda with defined milestones for consistent engagement over better terms of trade, not just wait for Washington to respond to regional headwinds, in which Pakistan finds itself seeking balance against an Indian arms race in South Asia,” she told Arab News.
Dr. Salma Malik, another foreign affairs expert, said if the US adopts policies directed against China, every action or policy decision it takes will have a “direct or indirect impact on Pakistan.”
“Therefore, it is important not to overreact or panic, instead, we should cautiously approach developments, assess opportunities, and respond accordingly,” she said.
Trump signs executive order withdrawing from the World Health Organization
- He said the WHO had failed to act independently from the ‘inappropriate political influence of WHO member states’
NEW YORK: The United States will exit the World Health Organization, President Donald Trump said on Monday, saying the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.
Trump said the WHO had failed to act independently from the “inappropriate political influence of WHO member states” and required “unfairly onerous payments” from the US that are disproportionate to the sums provided by other, larger countries, such as China.
“World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore,” Trump said at the signing.
The move means the US will leave the United Nations health agency in 12 months’ time and stop all financial contributions to its work. The United States is by far the WHO’s biggest financial backer, contributing around 18 percent of its overall funding. WHO’s most recent two-year budget, for 2024-2025, was $6.8 billion.
Trump’s withdrawal from the WHO is not unexpected. He took steps to quit the body in 2020, during his first term as president, accusing the WHO of aiding China’s efforts to “mislead the world” about the origins of COVID.
WHO vigorously denies the allegation and says it continues to press Beijing to share data to determine whether COVID emerged from human contact with infected animals or due to research into similar viruses in a domestic laboratory.
Trump expresses doubt over Gaza ceasefire deal
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump expressed skepticism about the Gaza ceasefire deal on Monday when asked if he was confident that all three phases of the agreement would be implemented.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office as he signed executive orders, Trump said the densely-populated Palestinian enclave looked like “a massive demolition site” and that it had to be rebuilt in a different way.
