Women, children trapped at church in Sudan’s capital endure hunger, bombardment

Priest Jacob, nuns and the refugees pose for a photos at “Dar Mariam” a Catholic church and school compound in Al-SHajjara district, where they took shelter, in Khartoum in this undated handout picture. (Reuters)
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Updated 03 July 2024
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Women, children trapped at church in Sudan’s capital endure hunger, bombardment

  • Around 80 people are taking refuge inside the Dar Mariam mission, a Catholic church and school compound in Khartoum’s Al-SHajjara district
  • The roof of the main building has been damaged by shells, and parts of the nuns’ quarters have been set ablaze

KHARTOUM: Trapped in a Catholic mission sheltering dozens of women and children from the war raging on the streets of Khartoum, Father Jacob Thelekkadan punched new holes in his belt as the supplies of food dwindled and he grew thinner.
Around 80 people are taking refuge inside the Dar Mariam mission, a Catholic church and school compound in Khartoum’s Al-SHajjara district, caught in the crossfire between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to accounts by the priest and seven other people at the mission.
The roof of the main building has been damaged by shells, and parts of the nuns’ quarters have been set ablaze. Holes caused by stray bullets mark the mission’s walls.
As food has grown scarce, the nuns have boiled tree leaves for the children to eat and many of the adults have skipped meals.
A Red Cross effort to rescue them in December ended with two dead and seven others wounded, including three of charity’s staff, after gunmen opened fire on the convoy, forcing it to turn back before it could reach the mission. The warring sides traded blame for the attack.
Thelekkadan said he and the nuns had refused offers from the army to ferry them out across the river permanently, leaving the families behind.
“When the road is safe, we will be the first to leave, but with the people,” said Thelekkadan, a 69-year-old Indian national.
Many of the inhabitants of Sudan’s capital fled after the conflict erupted in April last year, enveloping Khartoum and its sister cities of Bahri and Omdurman along the Nile, and quickly spreading to other parts of the country.
At the start of the war, the RSF occupied strategic sites and residential neighborhoods in Khartoum, positioning snipers on high-rise buildings. The army, lacking effective ground forces, responded with heavy artillery and air strikes.
The Dar Mariam mission became a safe haven for those lacking the money to flee or without anywhere to go.
Photos shared with Reuters by Thelekkadan show parts of the mission’s buildings littered with debris, walls heavily damaged by bullets or shelling, and rooms and corridors blackened by smoke.
“Our food situation became very bad,” said Thelekkadan. “We’re all very weak.”
Extreme hunger has spread across Sudan in areas worst affected by the conflict, prompting famine warnings for areas including in Khartoum.

10 MILLION DISPLACED
Some families took shelter at the mission in June last year, hoping for protection from its concrete roof. But the area soon became cut off as the RSF pressed to capture the strategic Armored Corps camp about 2 km away, one of several military bases it was targeting, Thelekkadan said.
Al-SHajjara district has come under heavy attack by the RSF. Those living nearby with the money to do so have registered with the military to be taken across the Nile; some have been waiting for months.
But a nighttime evacuation by boat across the White Nile is considered too risky for the children at the mission, Thelekkadan said.
Sudan’s war has created the world’s biggest internal displacement crisis and has driven nearly 10 million people to seek shelter inside or outside the country, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Reuters has documented how the fighting has triggered ethnically-charged killings in the western region of Darfur and led to the spread of deadly hunger.
The war has also caused unprecedented destruction in the capital, which was sheltered from modern Sudan’s previous conflicts. Both warring factions have impeded the delivery of humanitarian relief, aid workers say, leaving civilians dependent on charity provided by groups of neighborhood volunteers, among others.
An RSF media official said the paramilitary had tried to allow for the evacuation of the families by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), but the army had thwarted the effort and was using them as human shields.
An army spokesman said the families had been trapped by the war, and that troops from the Armored Corps had done their duty by protecting and helping them, in line with army practice in other conflict-hit areas.
Numbers have fluctuated, but since March about 30 women along with 50 children aged 2-15 have stayed at the mission, according to Thelekkadan. His account was confirmed by two of the nuns, an administrator and four women sheltering at the mission, two other priests who have kept in touch with Dar Mariam, and an army intelligence officer responsible for churches in Khartoum.
Those staying at the mission are mostly Christian refugees from South Sudan and Ethiopia, who set up tents made from plastic sheeting around the compound’s buildings, which include a church, a school and a residence.
When fighting starts nearby, they take cover inside the residence. Some poor Sudanese Muslim families have also sought temporary shelter at the mission.

WAITING FOR EVACUATION
The bombardments in November shredded an image of the Virgin Mary at the compound’s entrance, ripped through the second floor of the main building, and set the roof on fire. Several people were lightly injured.
RSF snipers had the entrance to Dar Mariam in their sights. A boy from the neighborhood was killed when mortar shrapnel sliced into his head after he had helped carve out an exit at the back of the compound to avoid sniper fire, Thelekkadan said.
The mission’s residents had been trying to survive “a lot of shooting and bombing,” sister Miriam, one of the nuns, told Reuters in a video call.
“We got used to it and we are not afraid. God is protecting us, but we are waiting for evacuation,” she said.
Thelekkadan and the nuns turned their most secure room into a shelter to try to protect the children from the crossfire. They attempted to distract the children from the violence raging around them, creating a space to use bicycles in the yard and encouraging them to play video games.
“We tried to not make them feel like they are in a prison,” Thelekkadan said.
In early January, the mission was caught in the crossfire again and rooms in the nuns’ residence were set ablaze.
Food has been a challenge. By September, cash was running low, and collecting supplies from local markets became nearly impossible due to clashes.
The children have often received meagre servings of porridge, lentils and beans. But stocks dwindled.
Since February, troops stationed at the Armored Corps camp have delivered some airdropped provisions to Dar Mariam, including sugar and fuel for generators used to draw water from wells, Thelekkadan said.
The army also provided a Starlink connection, allowing those at the mission to use their phones again. They flew the priest and an administrator twice to Port Sudan, a Red Sea city to which army and government offices have relocated, to meet church officials and collect some cash and supplies.
Sister Celestine, another of the nuns, said she is still gripped by fear each time bombardments shake the area.
“I would like to be out of here,” she said. “I want to get out and write a book about everything that happened.”
The fighting has shown little sign of abating.
“These past four days have become very trying for all of us in Dar Mariam and people around as explosions, bombings, gunfire etc have become more intense and frequent!” Thelekkadan said in a message on June 19. “Please do continue to pray for us.”


Israel says to end ‘administrative detention’ for West Bank settlers

Updated 58 min 15 sec ago
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Israel says to end ‘administrative detention’ for West Bank settlers

  • Practice allows for detainees to be held for long periods without being charged or appear in court
  • The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said in August that 3,432 Palestinians were held in administrative detention

JERUSALEM: Israeli authorities will stop holding Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank under administrative detention, or incarceration without trial, the defense ministry announced Friday.
The practice allows for detainees to be held for long periods without being charged or appear in court, and is often used against Palestinians who Israel deems security threats.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said it was “inappropriate” for Israel to employ administrative detention against settlers who “face severe Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions.”
But, according to settlement watchdog Peace Now, it is one of only few effective tools that Israeli authorities to prevent settler attacks against Palestinians, which have surged in the West Bank over the past year.
Katz said in a statement issued by his office that prosecution or “other preventive measures” would be used to deal with criminal acts in the West Bank.
B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group, said authorities use administrative detention “extensively and routinely” to hold thousands of Palestinians for lengthy periods of time.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said in August that 3,432 Palestinians were held in administrative detention.
Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Friday that eight settlers were held under the same practice in November.
Yonatan Mizrahi, director of settlement watch for Peace Now, said that although administrative detention was mostly used in the West Bank to detain Palestinians, it was one of the few effective tools for temporarily removing the threat of settler violence through detention.
“The cancelation of administrative detention orders for settlers alone is a cynical... move that whitewashes and normalizes escalating Jewish terrorism under the cover of war,” the group said in a statement, referring to a spike in settler attacks throughout the Israel-Hamas conflict over the past 13 months.
Western governments, including Israel’s ally and military backer the United States, have recently imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers and settler organizations over ties to violence against Palestinians.
On Monday, US authorities announced sanctions against Amana, a movement that backs settlement development, and others who have “ties to violent actors in the West Bank.”
“Amana is a key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement and maintains ties to various persons previously sanctioned by the US government and its partners for perpetrating violence in the West Bank,” the US Treasury said.
Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the West Bank — which Israel has occupied since 1967 — is home to three million Palestinians as well as about 490,000 Israelis living in settlements that are illegal under international law.


UK would arrest Netanyahu over ICC warrant: Senior politician 

Updated 22 November 2024
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UK would arrest Netanyahu over ICC warrant: Senior politician 

  • Emily Thornberry: Britain has ‘obligation under Rome Convention’ to arrest Israeli PM if he enters country 
  • Court: ‘Reasonable grounds to believe’ Netanyahu responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity in Gaza

LONDON: The UK will arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he enters the country, a senior British politician has said.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu on Thursday for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, alongside his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, pertaining to the Gaza war.

Emily Thornberry — Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee, and former shadow foreign secretary and shadow attorney general — told Sky News: “If Netanyahu comes to Britain, our obligation under the Rome Convention would be to arrest him under the warrant from the ICC.

“(It is) not really a question of should — we are required to, because we are members of the ICC.”

UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has refused to be drawn on whether Netanyahu would be arrested if he set foot on British soil, saying it “wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment.”

She told Sky: “We’ve always respected the importance of international law, but in the majority of the cases that they pursue, they don’t become part of the British legal process.

“What I can say is that obviously, the UK government’s position remains that we believe the focus should be on getting a ceasefire in Gaza.”

Netanyahu’s arrest warrant is the first to be issued against the premier of a major Western ally by an international court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

His office denounced the warrant as “anti-Semitic,” adding that Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions.” Israel is not an ICC member and rejects the court’s jurisdiction.

US President Joe Biden called the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant “outrageous,” adding: “Whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he plans to invite Netanyahu to visit Budapest, adding that the arrest warrant will “not be observed” by his government.

The Italian and French governments, however, have indicated that Netanyahu will be arrested if he visits either country.

The ICC said on Thursday it has “reasonable grounds to believe” that Netanyahu and Gallant “bear criminal responsibility” for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”

The court also issued a warrant for Hamas commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israel says Al-Masri, believed to have been the mastermind behind the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, was killed in Gaza earlier this year.

The ICC said it issued the warrant for his arrest because of insufficient evidence to prove his death.


Monitor raises toll in Israel strikes on Syria’s Palmyra to 92

Updated 22 November 2024
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Monitor raises toll in Israel strikes on Syria’s Palmyra to 92

  • Wednesday’s Israeli attack targeted three sites in Palmyra, with one hitting a meeting of pro-Iranian groups
  • Since civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country

BEIRUT: A Syria war monitor said on Friday that Israeli strikes on the city of Palmyra this week killed 92 pro-Iran fighters, after a United Nations representative said they were likely the deadliest to date.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday’s attack targeted three sites in Palmyra, with one hitting a meeting of pro-Iranian groups that also involved commanders from Iraq’s Al-Nujaba group and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The toll has risen to “92 dead: 61 Syrian pro-Iran fighters,” 11 of them working for Hezbollah, “and 27 foreign nationals mostly from Al-Nujaba, plus four from Hezbollah,” the Observatory said.
The Britain-based war monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, had previously reported 82 dead, while the Syria defense ministry on Wednesday said 36 people were killed.
The UN deputy special envoy to Syria, Najat Rochdi, told the Security Council on Thursday that the raid was “likely the deadliest Israeli strike in Syria to date.”
The Observatory said the strikes also targeted “a weapons depot near the industrial area” in Palmyra, a modern city adjacent to globally renowned Greco-Roman ruins.
Since civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting the army and Iran-backed groups.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in the country.
The Israeli military has intensified its strikes on targets in Syria since almost a year of hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon escalated into full-scale war in late September.


Iran Guards chief says Netanyahu ICC warrant ‘political death’ of Israel

Updated 22 November 2024
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Iran Guards chief says Netanyahu ICC warrant ‘political death’ of Israel

  • Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami calls the ICC warrant ‘a welcome move’
  • Salami adds it is a ‘great victory for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements’

TEHRAN: The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Friday described the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a former defense minister as the “end and political death” of Israel, in a speech.
“This means the end and political death of the Zionist regime, a regime that today lives in absolute political isolation in the world and its officials can no longer travel to other countries,” Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami said in the speech aired on state TV.
In the first official reaction by Iran, Salami called the ICC warrant “a welcome move” and a “great victory for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements,” both supported by the Islamic republic.
Israel and its allies criticized the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant on Thursday for Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif.
The warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were issued in response to accusations of crimes against humanity and war crimes during Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, sparked by the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The move drew angry reactions from Netanyahu, who denounced it as antisemitic and from Israel’s closest allies, including the United States, but was welcomed by rights groups including Amnesty International.
The ICC’s move theoretically limits the movement of Netanyahu, as any of the court’s 124 national members would be obliged to arrest him on their territory.
The court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan urged the body’s members to act on the warrants, and for non-members to work together in “upholding international law.”


Israel armys say ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid

Updated 22 November 2024
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Israel armys say ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid

  • Israeli military: Slain militants had ‘led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim’

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said on Friday it had “eliminated” five Hamas militants, including two commanders, in an overnight raid in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia.
In a statement, the military and the Shin Bet security agency said they had “eliminated five Hamas terrorists, including a Nukhba (commando) company commander and an additional company commander who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre” that sparked the Gaza war last year, adding that the slain militants had “led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim,” a kibbutz in southern Israel.