Egyptian foreign minister discusses Gaza aid situation with UN official
The outcomes of Kaag’s talks with Israeli officials to ease the movement of aid trucks at the crossings were also discussed
Updated 25 June 2024
Gobran Mohamed
CAIRO: Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and the UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag discussed the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip in a phone call on Tuesday.
Kaag’s call addressed the impediments imposed by Israel on aid access, and the exacerbating gravity of the humanitarian disaster in the strip.
Shoukry was keen to know the UN official’s plans to mitigate the severity of the crisis facing Palestinian civilians in the strip.
The outcomes of Kaag’s talks with Israeli officials to ease the movement of aid trucks at the crossings were also discussed.
Both exchanged views on the process of rushing aid via the Rafah crossing in view of Israel’s destruction of the Palestinian side of it.
Shoukry reiterated Egypt’s rejection of the loot of some aid in Rafah and the Israeli side’s non-commitment to protecting it and ensuring that it reaches those who deserve it.
Both agreed to continue coordination and consultation on the humanitarian situation in the strip.
Hamas says it has sent new ‘ideas’ on halting Israel war
Israel confirmed that it was “evaluating” Hamas “comments” on a deal
“We exchanged some ideas with the mediator brothers with the aim of stopping the aggression against our Palestinian people,” said Hamas
Updated 03 July 2024
AFP
CAIRO: The Hamas militant group said Wednesday it has sent new “ideas” to Qatari mediators aimed at ending the nearly nine-month Gaza war with Israel.
Israel confirmed that it was “evaluating” Hamas “comments” on a deal to see its hostages in the Palestinian territory freed and would reply.
With the death toll from nearly nine months of war mounting and conditions worsening daily for Gazans, both sides are under increased international pressure to agree a ceasefire.
Israel says there can be no halt to hostilities until Hamas releases all of its hostages.
Qatar, working with the United States, has been leading the mediation.
“We exchanged some ideas with the mediator brothers with the aim of stopping the aggression against our Palestinian people,” a Hamas statement said.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Mossad intelligence service confirmed the new approach.
“The hostages deal mediators have conveyed to the negotiating team Hamas’s remarks on the outline of the hostages deal. Israel is evaluating the remarks and will convey its reply to the mediators,” said an Israeli statement.
According to a source with knowledge of the talks, “the Qataris, in coordination with the United States, have been engaging with Hamas and Israel over the past weeks in an attempt to bridge the remaining gaps.”
UN notes optimism over Yemeni prisoner swap discussions
The Houthis had agreed to trade Qahtan for 50 of their militants captured by the Yemeni government.
The current round of prisoner exchange discussions between the Yemeni government and the Houthis began in Muscat on Sunday
Updated 57 min 57 sec ago
Saeed Al-Batati
AL-MUKALLA: The UN’s Yemen envoy, Hans Grundberg, said on Wednesday that the ongoing prisoner exchange between the Yemeni government and the Houthis in Muscat had made progress toward an agreement that would liberate prisoners of war, including Houthi-held Yemeni politician Mohammed Qahtan.
This happened as a Yemeni government spokesperson said that the Houthis had agreed to trade Qahtan for 50 of their militants captured by the Yemeni government.
Mayy El-Sheikh, director of strategic communications and public information at Grundberg’s office, described the atmosphere of the talks between the two sides as “positive and constructive,” noting that the envoy’s office, which sponsors the talks, is building on progress to push for a deal in Yemen that would see all prisoners of war released.
“The parties have reached an understanding about arrangements to release conflict-related detainees that includes Mohamed Qahtan,” she told Arab News, adding: “The office of the UN special envoy stresses the importance of finalizing this understanding responsibly to achieve tangible results toward releasing conflict-related detainees in accordance with the ‘all for all’ principle.”
The Houthis agreed to trade politician Mohammed Qahtan for 50 of their inmates. (Supplied)
The current round of prisoner exchange discussions between the Yemeni government and the Houthis began in Muscat on Sunday, with officials from both sides expressing hope that a deal could be reached to free all prisoners.
Two prior successful prisoner exchange discussions between the two sides resulted in the release of 1,800 prisoners and journalists held by the Houthis.
Majed Fadhail, a spokeswoman for the government delegation, told Arab News on Wednesday that he is optimistic about the discussions’ outcome after the Houthis agreed to trade Qahtan for 50 of their inmates.
“The agreement and understanding around Qahtan is very positive and we are optimistic. I am hopeful that the discussions regarding the specifics and during the exchange of names and other matters will continue with the same level of positivity,” Fadhail said.
On Tuesday, Fadhail said that Yemeni government representatives refused to address other prisoner-related issues unless the Houthis agreed to free Qahtan.
The Houthis kidnapped Qahtan in early 2015, preventing him from seeing or contacting his family. They have refused all attempts to have him released.
The breakthrough in prisoner exchange discussions in Muscat came a day after the Houthis rejected UN pleas to release scores of UN and foreign personnel abducted by the militia during their last campaign.
On Tuesday, Abdelaziz bin Habtour, prime minister of the Houthi government, told Peter Hawkins, the acting UN humanitarian coordinator and UNICEF representative in Yemen, that they would only release abducted UN staffers who were not involved in spying for the US or Israel, defying a previous call from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the “immediate and unconditional release” of all UN employees.
Last month, the Houthis claimed to have broken a “major American and Israel” espionage network made up mostly of Yemeni individuals working for Western embassies, UN agencies, and other international organizations.
The Houthis also detained around 50 Yemeni UN workers and other international organizations, in a crackdown that drew widespread international criticism.
At the same time, the Sanaa Center For Strategic Studies, a Yemeni think tank, urged the international community on Tuesday to take stronger and more coordinated efforts to compel the Houthis to free the workers and stop harassing Yemenis working with international organizations.
In an essay published on its website, the center cautioned that ignoring the Houthis’ assault on Yemeni aid workers would encourage them to continue their campaign, arrest more individuals, and use them as a bargaining chip.
“But without a comprehensive, coordinated response to ensure all detainees are released unharmed, the detentions will drag on for at least some, if not all, of those jailed. In reality, silence will put their lives in even more danger,” the center said.
It added: “Worse, it could encourage the Houthis to detain even more people as they seek to extract political and financial gain by negotiating terms with each of the organizations separately, or with the international community more broadly … The only way to avert that eventuality is a united stance in which the impacted organizations speak with one voice.”
Tensions rise as Turkiye talks normalization with Syria
The events re-opened the debate on refugees and over Ankara’s ties with its war-torn neighbor
Both Syrian President Bashar Assad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently signaled a willingness to mend their fractured relations
Updated 52 min 14 sec ago
MENEKSE TOKYAY
ANKARA: Tensions continue to rise amid Turkiye’s normalization efforts with Syria after attacks were carried out on Syrian refugees in the country and Turkish flags were targeted in northern Syria.
The events re-opened the debate on refugees and over Ankara’s ties with its war-torn neighbor.
Both Syrian President Bashar Assad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently signaled a willingness to mend their fractured relations.
This comes after Turkiye reopened the Abu Al-Zandeen crossing near Al-Bab, establishing commercial connections between Turkish-controlled zones and regime-held areas in eastern Aleppo. Additionally, efforts are underway to widen the Hajjez Al-Shatt highway in Turkish-held Azaz, linking Aleppo to the Turkish border city of Gaziantep.
Turkiye also controls a buffer zone in northern Syria. However, the normalization efforts and the reopening of trade routes have ignited tensions in northern Syria.
BACKGROUND
Turkiye hosts about 3.1 million Syrian refugees, according to official data, and one motivation behind Ankara’s renewed dialogue with Damascus is the potential facilitation of refugee repatriation.
In recent days, anger has boiled over, with attacks targeting Turkish flags and trucks. Many Syrians in Turkish-controlled zones are demanding the withdrawal of Turkish forces, exacerbating the already volatile situation.
Reports indicate that Turkish-trained forces have even been filmed shooting at Turkish armored vehicles, prompting Turkiye to deploy additional troops to the region to maintain control.
The unrest is not confined to northern Syria. In Turkiye, tensions flared after a Syrian national allegedly harassed a Syrian child, sparking overnight violence in several cities, beginning in Kayseri. People were heard shouting: “We don’t want any more Syrians,” and “we don’t want any more foreigners.”
Turkish authorities detained 474 people for attacking Syrian-owned vehicles and shops. Simultaneously, approximately 79,000 social media accounts on X were identified for inciting violence.
Turkiye hosts about 3.1 million Syrian refugees, according to official data, and one motivation behind Ankara’s renewed dialogue with Damascus is the potential facilitation of refugee repatriation.
However, under dire economic conditions, with inflation in Turkiye running at 75 percent, Syrian refugees are often scapegoated and targeted by locals. In 2021, several refugees were targeted in Ankara after two Turkish citizens were allegedly stabbed by a Syrian.
Following the incident in Kayseri, Erdogan condemned the anti-Syrian riots, stating: “Turkiye is not and will not be a state that abandons its friends. We will proudly wear the medal of honor of being host to Syrian refugees in their most difficult days. Just as we know how to break the corrupt hands that reach out to our flag, we also know how to break the hands that reach out to the oppressed who take refuge in our country.”
Erdogan also criticized the opposition’s “poisonous” rhetoric about refugees. “Burning people’s homes, relatives, or setting fire to the streets is unacceptable, no matter who they are,” he declared.
The president’s remarks came on the same day he met Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman Al-Saud in Ankara.
Omar Kadkoy, program coordinator at Heinrich Boll Stiftung, explained that the policy solution to the violence over the past few years had involved relocating Syrians to provinces with lower refugee populations and closing new registrations in over 1,200 neighborhoods across several cities.
A man rides a motorcycle near a burning Turkish truck during protest sagainst Turkiye in Al-Bab, northern Syrian opposition-held region of Aleppo, on July 1, 2024. (AFP)
However, Kadkoy noted that the events in Kayseri underscore the policy’s failure.
“It is becoming harder for Turks and Syrians alike to make ends meet. Under similar conditions, almost universally, a tendency to blame others emerges. The same applies in Turkiye. Therefore, implementing humane, sustainable and respecting international law and human rights migration policy under a declining purchasing power due to high inflation is rather difficult.
Kadkoy emphasized that the recent riots in northern Syria are not solely due to Turkiye’s normalization efforts.
“The recent unrest in northern Syria is not exclusive to Turkiye’s statement about normalization with Syria a few days ago. One reason is the recent opening of an internal crossing, Abu Al-Zandeen, with Turkish-Russian consensus. The crossing connects Al-Bab in eastern Aleppo, (the) Euphrates Shield Zone, with the Syrian government in western Aleppo. The step generated reaction as the opening of the crossing meant dealing politically with the Syrian government — a taboo still in the northwest. Another reason has to do with Syrians’ long-standing discontent about the overall living conditions in the area. A third reason reflects Syrians’ dissatisfaction with the Syrian opposition’s failure to produce a democratic environment. Lastly, the violence in Kayseri where Syrians were subject to collective punishment over an alleged Syrian’s crime was that final straw the set off everything.”
Turkiye remains committed to UN Security Council resolutions that advocate for the voluntary, safe, and dignified return of refugees to Syria. However, experts caution that current conditions are far from meeting these standards.
Metin Corabatir, president of the Ankara-based Research Center on Asylum and Migration, said that any repatriation could only materialize after free and fair elections and the drafting of a new constitution in Syria, as mandated by the Security Council.
“Syrians in Turkiye feel very bad and unsafe after these incidents. Even Syrians with Turkish citizenship are living under the same fear. There is a horrifying hate speech that is becoming increasingly widespread. Political parties and some respected journalists are also fueling it. If this continues to spread, refugees will have nowhere to run, and their safety will be compromised,” Corabatir told Arab News.
Corabatir argues that the solution to the refugee crisis lies not in repatriation but in clarifying the legal status of refugees as they are still registered with “temporary protection” in the country.
“The anti-Syrian sentiment has turned into racism that vilifies Arabs. At this stage, at the very least, Erdogan and Ozgur Ozel, the leader of the main opposition CHP, need to come together and resolve this issue in cooperation,” he said.
Although Ankara has received billions of dollars in funding from international donors over the past decade, primarily from the EU to provide health care, education and employment opportunities for Syrians in the country, experts note that these projects are still a drop in the ocean to ensure a sustainable local integration especially amid deteriorating economic conditions.
Corabatir called for a tripartite agreement under UN supervision to facilitate the repatriation of refugees once safe conditions are established.
Zakira Hekmat, president of the Afghan Refugees Solidarity Association in Turkiye, resides in Kayseri. “Three Afghan youngsters were recently killed in Kayseri. There has been an organized anti-refugee sentiment in the region for a long time. We have been advising our community to remain silent during these chaotic times. People have come to our neighborhood and demolished shops. For the past three days, we have stayed in our homes out of fear. Many people cannot even buy bread and water. This situation will eventually impact the Turkish economy. Syrians, despite having work permits, cannot go to the shops in the industrial zone where they are employed.”
Pro-government journalist Abdulkadir Selvi suggested on Wednesday that Erdogan may meet Assad on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Astana on 3-4 July as part of the new Turkiye-Syria rapprochement bid. However, there has been no official statement confirming any plans for such high-level backstage diplomacy.
UN experts condemn military courts in West Bank and call on Israel to abolish them
The courts violate international law, legitimize the occupation and illegal Israeli settlements, and turn a blind eye to settler violence and criminality, they say
The system, which was established in 1967, handed the functions of police, investigators, prosecutors and judges in occupied territories to the Israeli military
NEW YORK CITY: UN experts on Wednesday denounced the lack of a mechanism for fair trials in the occupied West Bank where, they said, for 57 years judges in Israeli military courts have been providing legal cover for acts of torture and the degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees “carried out by their colleagues in the armed forces and intelligence agencies.”
Not even children are spared this “abusive” system and it makes legal defense impossible, they added.
The experts described the establishment in 1967 of a system in the occupied territories in which the functions of the police, investigators, prosecutors and judges were all vested in the Israeli military, which was given broad powers to conduct legal proceedings.
“This military system has served to control many aspects of Palestinians’ daily lives, including public health, education, and land and property law,” the experts said.
“It also criminalizes many forms of political and cultural expression, association, movement, nonviolent protest, traffic offenses and other acts that might be considered methods for opposing the occupation and its policies.”
To guarantee fair and public trials, international law stipulates that courts must be impartial and the judicial system independent of any branch of government, especially the executive and the armed forces.
Margaret Satterthwaite, special rapporteur to the UN on the independence of judges and lawyers, and Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, said: “The dual court system set up in the occupied West Bank, in violation of international law, has furthered legitimization of the occupation and illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, through a militarily enforced, draconian penal system that is only applied to Palestinians, without due process guarantees.
“This system also turns a blind eye to settler violence and criminality, allowing it to grow and remain in impunity.
“Since the beginning of the occupation, the Israeli military has either taken part in, or failed to protect Palestinians from, violent settler attacks in the occupied West Bank, including extrajudicial killings, forced displacement, property damage, destruction and unlawful appropriation, discrimination, harassment and threats.”
Public scrutiny of these legal proceedings, and access to information about the harsh treatment of Palestinians in military courts and the leniency shown to illegal settlers, is extremely limited given the heavy media censorship exercised by the Israeli military, the experts added.
Israeli military courts allow military prosecutors to request prohibition orders against Palestinian detainees, preventing them from talking to lawyers for up to 60 days. This denies detainees the right to confer with legal counsel, especially during the interrogation process, the rapporteurs said.
They warned: “When part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population, severe deprivation of physical liberty can amount to a crime against humanity.”
They also expressed concern that an order posted by the Israeli military on its website on May 29 transferred responsibility for dozens of bylaws set by the Civil Administration, the Israeli body that governs the West Bank, from the military to pro-settler officials led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Annexation is absolutely prohibited under international law, the experts said.
“We call on Israel, as the de facto occupying power, to dissolve the military court and ensure the right to fair trial in the occupied West Bank,” they added.
Special rapporteurs are part of what is known as the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council. They are independent experts who work on a voluntary basis, are not members of UN staff and are not paid for their work.
Biden’s Gaza stance has endangered US: Ex-officials
Statement signed by 12 former staffers who resigned over Gaza policy
Diplomatic, military support for Israel ‘has ensured our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population’
Updated 03 July 2024
Arab News
LONDON: The Biden administration’s policy on Gaza has endangered US national security, 12 former officials have warned.
The group, who have variously resigned over the US government’s handling of the war, added that the president’s stance has “put a target on America’s back.”
In a joint statement, the 12 — including former military and White House staff, and a Department of the Interior official who only resigned on July 2, said: “America’s diplomatic cover for, and continuous flow of arms to Israel, has ensured our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population in Gaza.”
The statement added that Washington’s stance, including continued military assistance to Israel, amounts to a “failed policy” that has threatened the safety of both Israelis and Palestinians, helped to further destabilize the region, limited free speech and damaged US credibility.
“Our nation’s political and economic interests across the region have also been significantly harmed, while US credibility has been deeply undermined worldwide at a time we need it most, when the world is characterized by a new era of strategic competition,” the statement continued.
The State Department said in April that it welcomed feedback from staff through “appropriate channels,” and that Washington had “been clear at the highest levels publicly and privately with Israel that it must abide by international humanitarian law.”
That came in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on an aid convoy in Gaza that killed seven charity workers earlier that month.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has so far killed more than 37,900 Palestinians in the enclave since Oct. 8, according to local officials.
