Endangered gazelles find Libyan ‘safe haven’

Volunteers are preparing to release three of the eight rhim gazelles — wrapped in protective blankets — on Farwa Island. (AFP)
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Updated 28 July 2024
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Endangered gazelles find Libyan ‘safe haven’

  • Gazella leptoceros has been classified in the IUCN’s “Red List of Threatened Species” since 2016

FARWA: Cocooned in white bags and nestled in the arms of volunteers, eight young rhim gazelles — an endangered species native to North Africa — have been transferred to an uninhabited Libyan island.
Environmentalist hope their new home on Farwa Island, near Tunisia, will be a haven for the vulnerable animals.
Also known as Gazella leptoceros or simply rhim, the slender-horned gazelle lives in desert areas in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt.
However, its population has declined significantly as it is a prized target for hunters.
According to an International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, assessment in 2016, there were only between 300 to 600 mature rhims in the North African wild. Environmentalists “wanted to relocate the wild animals in Farwa,” a 13-km-long sandbar, as part of the gazelles’ conservation efforts, said Mohammed Al-Rabti, one of the volunteers. Rabti added that the first group of rhims was released a few weeks ago, “followed by eight individuals, including one male and seven females,” on July 18.

BACKGROUND

Activists have long warned that coastal erosion and rising water levels are among the Farwa island’s climate-driven threats.

The young gazelles took off frolicking as soon as they were released before promptly disappearing behind the island’s wild bushes.
The animal with long, slender horns is small, nimble, and well-adapted to desert life.
It has a pale coat that enables better survival by blending into sandy landscapes.
The coloring is less effective against hunters, which for a while have been the gazelles’ major predators.
Equipped with binoculars, automatic rifles, and powerful four-wheel drive vehicles, some go after the animals merely as a hobby.
Others hunt them for a price going as high as 5,000 Libyan dinars ($1,000) per carcass.
Gazella leptoceros has been classified in the IUCN’s “Red List of Threatened Species” since 2016.
With no official census from Libya, little has been done to preserve their lives.
However, that could be set to change with the work of numerous NGOs and activists.
Farwa, though not their natural habitat, seems to have suited the first group of gazelles released on the island, said Youssef Gandouz, an environmental activist.
They have been “monitored with binoculars and drones and are doing very well,” said Gandouz.
The island is also home to the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), which has become its symbol and is a staging post for flamingos and other migratory birds traveling over Africa to rest before flying across the Mediterranean to Europe.
While it remains uninhabited today, Farwa was once home to Amazigh tribes before they left for neighboring areas inland.
The island appears picture-postcard idyllic, with scattered date palms on white sandy beaches and ringed by the sparkling Mediterranean.
Slain Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi dreamed of building a luxury seaside resort with “floating” villas and a golf course.
Once famed for its exceptional wildlife, it faces many threats today, including illegal fishing and pollution.
“Many associations and universities ... are making significant efforts to protect the biodiversity and plant cover” of Farwa, said Jamal Ftess, a reserve manager for the island.
Besides wildlife, environmentalists have also been working to preserve the island’s scarce flora.
Local associations like Bessida have been planting vegetation resistant to wind and sea sprays requiring little water. They say this can help provide animal food and protect against erosion.
Gandouz, helping volunteers to move some of the plants, said it was the second transplantation effort on Farwa.
“The vegetation on Farwa is sufficient” for the survival of rhim gazelles, said Ftess, and Gandouz added the narrow island “is now a haven where turtles and migratory birds can nest and feed.”
But activists have long warned that coastal erosion and rising water levels are among the island’s climate-driven threats.
Ftess said a study conducted by a Libyan university found that “between 1961 and 2006, Farwa’s coastline lost 1.6 meters per year, and between 2006 and 2020, erosion reached two meters per year.”
“We need the help of the authorities to preserve it,” he said.

 


Israel’s attorney general tells Netanyahu to reexamine extremist security minister’s role

Updated 8 sec ago
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Israel’s attorney general tells Netanyahu to reexamine extremist security minister’s role

  • National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir criticized for interfering in police matters

JERUSALEM, Nov 14 : Israel’s Attorney General told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reevaluate the tenure of his far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, citing his apparent interference in police matters, Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Thursday.
The news channel published a copy of a letter written by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in which she described instances of “illegitimate interventions” in which Ben-Gvir, who is tasked with setting general policy, gave operational instructions that threaten the police’s apolitical status.
“The concern is that the government’s silence will be interpreted as support for the minister’s behavior,” the letter said.
Officials at the Justice Ministry could not be reached for comment and there was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office.
Ben-Gvir, who heads a small ultra-nationalist party in Netanyahu’s coalition, wrote on social media after the letter was published: “The attempted coup by (the Attorney General) has begun. The only dismissal that needs to happen is that of the Attorney General.”


Israeli forces demolish Palestinian Al-Bustan community center in Jerusalem

Updated 56 min 41 sec ago
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Israeli forces demolish Palestinian Al-Bustan community center in Jerusalem

  • Al-Bustan Association functioned as a primary community center in which Silwan’s youth and families ran cultural and social activities

LONDON: Israeli forces demolished the office of the Palestinian Al-Bustan Association in occupied East Jerusalem’s neighborhood of Silwan, whose residents are under threat of Israeli eviction orders. 

The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Culture condemned on Thursday the demolition of Al-Bustan by Israeli bulldozers and a military police force. 

The ministry said that “(Israeli) occupation’s arrogant practices against cultural and community institutions in Palestine, and specifically in Jerusalem, are targeting the Palestinian identity, in an attempt to obliterate it.” 

Founded in 2004, the Al-Bustan Association functioned as a primary community center in which Silwan’s youth and families ran cultural and social activities alongside hosting meetings for diplomatic delegations and Western journalists who came to learn about controversial Israeli policies in the area. 

Al-Bustan said in a statement that it served 1,500 people in Silwan, most of them children, who enrolled in educational, cultural and artistic workshops. In addition to the Al-Bustan office, Israeli forces also demolished a home in the neighborhood belonging to the Al-Qadi family. 

Located less than a mile from Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem’s southern ancient wall, Silwan has a population of 65,000 Palestinians, some of them under threat of Israeli eviction orders.  

In past years, Israeli authorities have been carrying out archaeological digging under Palestinian homes in Silwan, resulting in damage to these buildings, in search of the three-millennial “City of David.” 


Israeli strike kills 12 after hitting civil defense center in Lebanon’s Baalbek, governor tells Reuters

Updated 14 November 2024
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Israeli strike kills 12 after hitting civil defense center in Lebanon’s Baalbek, governor tells Reuters

  • Eight others, including five women, were also killed and 27 wounded in another Israeli attack

CAIRO: An Israeli strike killed 12 people after it hit a civil defense center in Lebanon’s city of Baalbek on Thursday, the regional governor told Reuters adding that rescue operations were ongoing.
Eight others, including five women, were also killed and 27 wounded in another Israeli attack on the Lebanese city, health ministry reported on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Lebanese civil defense official Samir Chakia said: “The Civil Defense Center in Baalbek has been targeted, five Civil Defense rescuers were killed.”
Bachir Khodr the regional governor said more than 20 rescuers had been at the facility at the time of the strike.


‘A symbol of resilience’ — workers in Iraq complete reconstruction of famous Mosul minaret

Updated 14 November 2024
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‘A symbol of resilience’ — workers in Iraq complete reconstruction of famous Mosul minaret

  • Workers complete reconstruction of 12th-century minaret of Al-Nuri Mosque
  • Tower and mosque were blown by Daesh extremists in 2017

High above the narrow streets and low-rise buildings of Mosul’s old city, beaming workers hoist an Iraqi flag into the sky atop one of the nation’s most famous symbols of resilience.

Perched precariously on scaffolding in high-vis jackets and hard hats, the workers celebrate a milestone in Iraq’s recovery from the traumatic destruction and bloodshed that once engulfed the city.

On Wednesday, the workers placed the last brick that marked the completed reconstruction of the 12th-century minaret of Al-Nuri Mosque. The landmark was destroyed by Daesh in June 2017 shortly before Iraqi forces drove the extremist group from the city.

Known as Al-Hadba, or “the hunchback,” the 45-meter-tall minaret, which famously leant to one side, dominated the Mosul skyline for centuries. The tower has been painstakingly rebuilt as part of a UNESCO project, matching the traditional stone and brick masonry and incorporating the famous lean.

“Today UNESCO celebrates a landmark achievement,” the UN cultural agency’s Iraq office said. “The completion of the shaft of the Al-Hadba Minaret marks a new milestone in the revival of the city, with and for the people of Mosul. 

“UNESCO is grateful for the incredible teamwork that made this vision a reality. Together, we’ve created a powerful symbol of resilience, a true testament to international cooperation. Thank you to everyone involved in this journey.”

The restoration of the mosque is part of UNESCO’s Revive the Spirit of Mosul project, which includes the rebuilding of two churches and other historic sites. The UAE donated $50 million to the project and UNESCO said that the overall Al-Nuri Mosque complex restoration will be finished by the end of the year.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay celebrated the completion of the minaret by posting “We did it!” on social media site X.

She thanked donors, national and local authorities in Iraq and the experts and professionals, “many of whom are Moslawis,” who worked to rebuild the minaret.

“Can’t wait to return to Mosul to celebrate the full completion of our work,” she said.

The Al-Nuri mosque was built in the second half of the 12th century by the Seljuk ruler Nur Al-Din. 

After Daesh seized control of large parts of Iraq in 2014, the group’s leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, declared the establishment of its so-called caliphate from inside the mosque.

Three years later, the extremists detonated explosives to destroy the mosque and minaret as Iraqi forces battled to expel them from the city. Thousands of civilians were killed in the fighting and much of Mosul was left in ruins.


US hands Lebanon draft truce proposal -two political sources

Updated 14 November 2024
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US hands Lebanon draft truce proposal -two political sources

  • The US has sought to broker a ceasefire that would end hostilities between its ally Israel and Hezbollah

BEIRUT: The US ambassador to Lebanon submitted a draft truce proposal to Lebanon’s speaker of parliament Nabih Berri on Thursday to halt fighting between armed group Hezbollah and Israel, two political sources told Reuters, without revealing details.
The US has sought to broker a ceasefire that would end hostilities between its ally Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, but efforts have yet to yield a result. Israel launched a stepped-up air and ground campaign in late September after cross-border clashes in parallel with the Gaza war.