Israeli strikes terrorize Lebanese in southern border towns
Strikes described as some of the most intense operations since the mobilization of the southern front around a year ago
The escalation coincided with the arrival in Beirut of EU’s Josep Borrell Fontelles
Updated 12 September 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI
BEIRUT: An Israeli combat drone on Wednesday targeted a motorcycle in the border town of Mays Al-Jabal, killing its rider, a Hezbollah member, and wounding another.
Hostilities between the Israeli army and Hezbollah intensified after the attack.
Throughout Tuesday night, the border area witnessed reciprocated strikes, which residents described as some of the most intense operations since the mobilization of the southern front around a year ago.
The escalation coincided with the arrival in Beirut of Josep Borrell Fontelles, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy.
The border situation is expected to be high on the agenda during his meetings with Lebanese officials.
At dawn, Israeli warplanes carried out more than 15 airstrikes that targeted the forested area and orchards between the outskirts of the towns of Zibqin and Qlaileh, creating a belt of fire.
Video footage revealed the screams of children inside houses and the prayers of the elderly amid the earth-shattering explosions nearby.
Israeli warplanes also raided the outskirts of the towns of Yater and Rashaya Al-Fakhar, the orchards and valleys near the towns of Qlaileh, Zibqin, Al-Ḥaniyya, Majdal Zoun and Tayr Harfa, and the outskirts of the towns of Deir Seryan and Zawtar Al-Charkieh. The warplanes also carried out a raid on Naqoura.
Two Israeli drones exploded in the park of the village of Maroun Al-Ras, causing damages to facilities.
The Israeli army spokesman announced that it “targeted in four different areas in southern Lebanon about 30 Hezbollah rocket launchers and military structures that posed a threat to the citizens of Israel.” Their forces also targeted the Dhayra area in southern Lebanon with artillery shells.
The missile attacks raised questions about why Israel has been targeting the valleys daily for about two weeks.
Political analyst Ali Amin told Arab News that “despite the Israeli army facing challenges in its conflict with Hezbollah, it appears to be preparing for a prolonged war. It (the Israeli army) previously revealed the mobilization of the Mountain Brigade and plans to sever the eastern and western (mountain) ranges from southern Lebanon.”
Al-Amin, a resident of the border area, said: “The forested areas that have been bombed for two weeks are known to be off-limits to ordinary people and contain Hezbollah military bases, making it almost impossible to move around in them.
“Israel, following the severance of technological communication between the party’s (Hezbollah) members and its leadership, is actively working to fragment the southern region and place it under constant surveillance.”
He said that an increased level of shelling in forests and valleys, along with the failure to protect civilians in targeting Hezbollah, signaled a heightened risk.
It underscored, he added, the necessity of not assuming that Israel would refrain from targeting civilians in its bombardment of the south.
“This escalation may represent a new phase in the war, which is nearing its first anniversary.”
On Aug. 25, Israel targeted forested areas and valleys in the regions of Iqlim Al-Tuffah, Kunin, Zawtar, Rachaf, Deir Siriane, Chamaa, Rihan, Kfar Melki, Beit Yahoun, Ain Qana, Zebqin, Hadatha, and other villages, coinciding with Hezbollah’s response to the assassination of its military leader, Fuad Shukr.
At that time, it claimed to have “thwarted Hezbollah’s retaliation by bombing 6,000 rocket launchers in southern Lebanon.”
On Aug. 30, similar Israeli attacks were recorded on Majdal Zun, Al-Jabeen, Sheheen, Alma Al-Shaab, Hamoul, Wadi Hassan, and Naqoura.
On Sept. 4, Israeli aircraft launched 14 raids on launch pads in Al-Jabeen, Zawtar El-Charkieh, and Ramya.
On Sept. 6 and 7, Israeli warplanes carried out more than 20 raids on forested areas in Srifa, Froun, Al-Ghandouriya, Yater, Qabrikha, and Ainata.
The Israeli army’s radio confirmed on Wednesday that “the military targeted Hezbollah positions and the air force destroyed approximately 25 rocket launch sites.”
The Hezbollah member killed was Hani Ezzeddine, born in 2001, from the town of Deir Qanoun En Nahr in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah targeted “a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of Al-Raheb site with missile weapons,” as well as “the site of Rweizat Al-Qarn and the Zabdine barracks in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms.” It confirmed that there were casualties.
Hezbollah said that it successfully struck a “bunker where enemy soldiers were positioned at the Al-Matala site using appropriate weaponry.”
The Israeli military operations on Tuesday advanced deep into the southern region and the western Bekaa, reaching more than 30 km, into some of the targeted towns from the border.
Israel’s halt to food and aid deliveries worsens Gaza conditions
Israel last week blocked the entry of goods into the territory in a standoff over a truce that has halted fighting for the past seven weeks
Underscoring the fragility of the ceasefire, an Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinians in the Bureij camp in central Gaza Strip, medics said
Updated 36 min 24 sec ago
Reuters
CAIRO: Israel’s suspension of goods entering Gaza is taking a toll on the Palestinian enclave, with some bakeries closing and food prices rising, while a cut in the electricity supply could deprive people of clean water, Palestinian officials said.
The suspension, which Israel said was aimed at pressuring militant group Hamas in ceasefire talks, applies to food, medicine and fuel imports.
The UN Palestinian refugees agency UNRWA said the decision to halt humanitarian aid threatens the lives of civilians exhausted by 17 months of “brutal” war. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people were dependent on aid, it said.
Hamas describes the measure as “collective punishment” and insisted it will not be pushed into making concessions.
A youth pushes a bicycle loaded with filled-up water containers outside the Southern Gaza Desalination plant, which stopped working after Israeli after cut off electricity supply to the Gaza Strip, in Deir el-Balah in the centre of the Palestinian territory on March 10, 2025. (AFP)
Abdel-Nasser Al-Ajrami, head of the Gaza bakers’ union, told Reuters that six out of the 22 bakeries still able to operate in the enclave had already shut after they ran out of cooking gas.
“The remaining bakeries may close down in a week or so should they run out of diesel or flour, unless the crossing is reopened to allow the goods to flow,” he said.
The bakeries were already unable to meet the needs of the people, he said.
Israel last week blocked the entry of goods into the territory in a standoff over a truce that has halted fighting for the past seven weeks. The move has led to a hike in prices of essential foods as well as of fuel, forcing many to ration their meals.
Displaced from her destroyed house and living in a tent in Khan Younis, 40-year-old Ghada Al-Rakab said she is struggling to secure basic needs. The mother of six bakes some goods for her family and neighbors, sometimes renting out a clay makeshift oven.
“What kind of life are we living? No electricity, no water, no life, we don’t even live a proper life. What else is left there in life? May God take us and give us rest,” Al-Rakab said.
’ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH RISKS’
Israel’s onslaught on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians since October 2023, according to Gaza health officials, left most of its people destitute and razed much of the territory to the ground.
The war was triggered by a Hamas-led cross-border raid into southern Israel in which militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
In Israel’s latest punitive measure, Energy Minister Eli Cohen said on Sunday he had instructed the Israel Electric Corporation not to sell electricity to Gaza in what he described as a means of pressure on Hamas to free hostages.
Israel already cut power supply to Gaza at the war’s start but this move would affect a wastewater treatment plant currently supplied with power, according to the Israeli electricity company.
The Palestinian Water Authority said the decision suspended operations at a water desalination plant that produced 18,000 cubic meters of water per day for the population in central and southern areas of Gaza Strip.
Mohammad Thabet, the spokesperson of the Gaza power distribution plant, told Reuters the decision will deprive people in those areas of clean and healthy water.
“The decision is catastrophic, municipalities now will be obliged to let sewage water stream into the sea, which may result in environmental and health risks that go beyond the boundaries of Gaza,” Thabet said.
All the aid supplies being distributed by the Palestine Red Crescent are dwindling and it is having to ration what remains, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies said.
“If it is possible to find the basics like eggs and chicken, the prices have rocketed and are out of reach for the majority of people in Gaza,” IFRC spokesperson Tommaso Della Longa said.
It is also concerned that a lack of medical supplies and medicines may impact the treatment of patients.
MEDIATORS TRY TO SALVAGE TRUCE
Fighting in Gaza has been halted since January 19 under a truce, and Hamas has exchanged 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
But the truce’s initial 42-day stage has expired and Hamas and Israel remain far apart on broader issues including the postwar governance of Gaza and the future of Hamas itself.
Underscoring the fragility of the ceasefire, an Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinians in the Bureij camp in central Gaza Strip, medics said.
The Israeli military said the air force struck three individuals in Nuseirat, central Gaza, who were accused of trying to plant explosives. It also said soldiers shot at several militants in Gaza City who were also allegedly attempting to plant explosives.
Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, and the US are trying to salvage the ceasefire deal. They held talks with Hamas leaders and are set to receive Israeli negotiators in Doha on Monday.
Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua told Reuters on Monday the group was committed to the original phased agreement and expected mediators to “compel” Israel to begin talks on implementing the second stage. Phase two is intended to focus on agreements on the release of remaining hostages and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Israel demands Hamas free the remaining hostages without beginning phase two negotiations.
How long can Israel’s policy of deliberate nuclear ambiguity hold?
Qatar’s call at IAEA for nuclear-free Middle East puts renewed pressure on Israel’s not-so-secret nuclear-weapons program
Regional tensions, shifting alliances raise fresh questions about Israel’s undeclared warhead stockpile and limits of deterrence
Updated 12 min 32 sec ago
Jonathan Gornall
LONDON: It was a moment that almost no one in the international community saw coming. On Saturday, during a routine meeting of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Qatar’s ambassador to Austria delivered a surprise statement that added a dramatic new dimension to the ongoing Gaza peace talks in Doha.
The State of Qatar, Jassim Yacoub Al-Hammadi announced, was calling for “intensified international efforts” to bring all Israeli nuclear facilities “under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and for Israel to join the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as a non-nuclear state.”
The move, in the words of the director of the globally respected and independent Stockholm International Peace Institute (SIPRI), which has kept tabs on the world’s nuclear weapons and the states that possess them since 1966, “came out of a clear blue sky.”
There was no immediate response from Israel. But it seems certain that the Israeli delegation that was en route to Doha on Monday for a fresh round of talks, was taken surprise by a diplomatic ambush seemingly designed to introduce another bargaining chip into the negotiations.
Israel has never formally admitted possessing nuclear weapons, but its nuclear capability has been an open secret for decades.
According to SIPRI’s latest assessment, published last year in its 2024 Yearbook, by the start of last year nine states possessed approximately 12,121 nuclear weapons, of which more than 9,500 were considered available for immediate use — and Israel was most definitely one of those nine states.
Israel’s estimated stockpile of 90 warheads is not large, certainly not when compared with Russia’s 4,380 and America’s 3,708. If SIPRI’s carefully researched assessment is correct, only North Korea, with 50 warheads, has fewer nuclear weapons than Israel.
SIPRI’s assessment is that Israel has about 90 warheads, capable of being delivered anywhere within a maximum radius of 4,500 km by its F-15 and F-16I aircraft, its 50 land-based Jericho II and III missiles, and by about 20 Popeye Turbo cruise missiles launched from submarines.
But the size of Israel’s stockpile is irrelevant when set against the damage it could do, especially when its only likely target is Iran, which currently lacks the ability to retaliate — or to strike first — with nuclear weapons.
SIPRI concedes that, when it comes to Israel’s stockpile, “all figures are approximate and some are based on assessments by the authors.” Israel, it adds, “continues to maintain its longstanding policy of nuclear ambiguity, leaving significant uncertainty about the number and characteristics of its nuclear weapons.”
That ambiguity extends to Israel’s only official stated position on nuclear weapons, which it has repeated since the 1960s, that it “won’t be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.”
That, says SIPRI, is simply dissembling. Israeli policymakers, it says, “have previously interpreted ‘introduce nuclear weapons’ as publicly declaring, testing or actually using the nuclear capability, which Israel says it has not yet done.”
That, of course, raises the question of whether Israel’s nuclear weapons are home-grown or not. If not, the obvious supplier would be America.
But in 1979 reports emerged that a US satellite had detected the telltale double flash of a nuclear detonation over the Indian Ocean, roughly midway between Africa and Antarctica, raising the possibility that Israel had collaborated in a nuclear test with the apartheid-era South African government.
“Israel's nuclear capacity has always been a really quite strange phenomenon of Middle Eastern geopolitics,” said Dan Smith, Director of SIPRI.
“All five of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, each of which has nuclear weapons, are referred to in the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as the nuclear weapon states and so are bound by the Treaty.
“Outside of the treaty, Israel, Pakistan and India never signed up for it, and North Korea did sign up for it, but then withdrew before developing its nuclear weapons.
“So, the three states that are nuclear armed, but not part of the NPT, all make explicit that they have nuclear weapons, and of course this is the point of a deterrent.
“The idea is, ‘You may not know exactly what hell I will rain down upon you, but you know I will rain down hell.’
“But Israel has come up with something different. It’s clear that they do have nuclear weapons, but they have never formally acknowledged it and in Israel it is not talked about.”
Israel has never formally admitted possessing nuclear weapons, but its nuclear capability has been an open secret for decades. (AFP)
Israel has always taken extreme steps to protect its nuclear secrets.
“Israelis are scared,” said Ahron Bregman, a senior teaching fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London’s Institute of Middle East Studies, who served in the Israeli army for six years in the 1980s.
“Even if you believe it is a good idea to restrict Israel’s behavior and make sure it doesn’t do anything stupid, you are scared to act because you know they will abduct you and put you in jail. Israel is very tough on those who reveal its secrets.”
This was precisely the fate that befell Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli nuclear technician and peace activist, in 1986.
After Vanunu revealed details of Israel’s nuclear weapons program to a British newspaper, he was ensnared in the UK by a female Mossad agent posing as an American tourist. She persuaded him to accompany her to Rome, where he was kidnapped by other Mossad agents and spirited back to Israel on board an Israeli navy ship.
Vanunu was charged with treason and sentenced to 18 years in prison, much of which he spent in solitary confinement. Released in April 2004, he remains under a series of strictly enforced restrictions, which prevent him from leaving Israel or even speaking to any foreigner.
Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli nuclear technician and peace activist who revealed details of Israel’s nuclear weapons program to a British newspaper in 1986, was charged with treason and sentenced to 18 years in prison. (AFP)
“We all believe that Israel has a nuclear capability,” said Bregman. “The fact that it found it necessary to catch Vanunu and put him in jail, and continues to impose strict limitations on him, just proves that it has probably got it.”
In its annual report last June, SIPRI reported that Israel was upgrading its plutonium-production reactor at Dimona, and modernizing its nuclear arsenal.
Smith thinks that, in seeking to bring Israel’s nuclear capability into the open and have it subjected to international scrutiny, Qatar is pursuing an agenda backed by the wider region.
“Israel’s nuclear monopoly has always been a huge irritant in geopolitics in the region for every other power, and at the 2010 Non-Proliferation Review Conference (held at UN headquarters in New York) the state parties agreed on the notion of a Middle East nuclear-weapons-free zone.
“For the Arab states, that was a major issue. For the US and some of the Europeans it was just something to agree to in order to keep everybody happy. Nobody really seriously expected they were going to force Israel to give up the nuclear weapons that it hasn’t formally acknowledged.
“But Qatar, I think, is now expressing that urge to bring Israel into the framework of a non-nuclear Middle East.”
This is, he believes, likely to be a serious attempt to introduce the issue of Israel’s nuclear arsenal into the Gaza talks.
Plans to expand Israel’s desert city of Dimona, known as the cradle of the national nuclear program, are stoking fears among nearby Bedouin villagers for their traditional way of life. (AFP)
“I take Qatari foreign policy very seriously,” he said. “I don’t think that they are into gestures or grandstanding. They take seriously the idea which has been written into the Qatari constitution that they are a state with a mission to try to spread peace in their region and in the world.
“The shaky ceasefire in Gaza was a product of a huge amount of effort by Qatar, among others. It’s not the first time they have been able to play that kind of role, so they strongly see themselves in this kind of mediating, bridge-building role.
“I don’t know what their assessment is, how they calculate this as being a good time to launch this initiative. But I take it seriously because it’s them.”
Israel is believed to have twice come close to wielding, and perhaps actually using, its nuclear weaponry.
In 2017 a claim emerged that, on the eve of the Arab-Israeli war in 1967, Israel had been on the cusp of unleashing a “demonstration” nuclear blast designed to intimidate its enemies in the event that it appeared it might lose the war and be overrun.
The plan was revealed in interviews with retired general Itzhak Yaakov, conducted by Avner Cohen, an Israeli American historian and leading scholar of Israel’s nuclear history, and published only after Yaakov’s death.
Israel is believed to have twice come close to wielding, and perhaps actually using, its nuclear weaponry. (AFP)
It was not the last time Israel reportedly came close to bringing nuclear disaster to the region. In 2003 Cohen revealed that during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when it appeared that Israeli forces were about to be overrun, then Prime Minister Golda Meir had authorized the use of nuclear bombs and missiles as a last-stand defense.
This doomsday plan, codenamed Samson, was named after the biblical strongman who, while captured by the Philistines, pulled down their temple’s pillars, killing himself and his enemies. And the shadow of an Israeli-triggered nuclear calamity continues to haunt the region.
In its 2024 report SIPRI noted that in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 “several Israeli policymakers and commentators — including a minister who was later suspended from the cabinet — suggested that Israel should use nuclear weapons against Hamas fighters in Gaza.”
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a coalition of non-governmental organisations in 100 countries that promotes implementation of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, welcomed Qatar’s initiative.
Qatar called for “intensified international efforts” to bring all Israeli nuclear facilities “under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and for Israel to join the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as a non-nuclear state.” (AFP)
“As Israel’s nuclear arsenal is an open secret, it is long past time that its nuclear facilities are subject to international safeguards,” said Susi Snyder, ICAN’s Program Coordinator.
“Joining the NPT should be a first step followed by Israel and other countries in the region joining the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the proposed Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction.
“Eliminating Israel’s nuclear weapons and ensuring that no other state in the Middle East ever acquires such weapons will be vital for the long-term security of all people in the region.
“Without disarmament, true peace will remain elusive.”
’Got cash?’ Tunisians grapple with new restrictions on cheques
Consumers are under even more pressure during the current Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan
Once a crucial pillar of Tunisia’s economic and social stability, the middle class made up around 60 percent of the population before the country’s 2011 revolution
Updated 11 March 2025
AFP
TUNIS: Olfa Meriah stands, frustrated, before a smartphone shop near the capital Tunis. How can she buy a phone in instalments, she wonders, when a new banking reform has made split payments nearly impossible?
In Tunisia, where the average monthly salary hovers just around 1,000 dinars ($320), people have long relied on post-dated cheques to make purchases by paying in increments over months.
Unlike many other countries where cheques are now rarely seen in the era of instant online payments, the culture of paying by cheque persists in Tunisia.
But as part of banking reforms introduced in February the government seeks to reinforce the original role of cheques as a means of immediate payment. Cheques had effectively become a form of credit often tolerated by merchants.
Unlike debit cards, credit cards are not widely available in the north African country.
The new law officially aims at “curbing consumer debt” and “improving the business climate” in an economy whose real GDP growth, according to the International Monetary Fund, is projected at just 1.6 percent for 2025.
But many feel it has also begun disrupting household budgets and small businesses.
Ridha Chkoundali, a university professor and economist, said the new law “could be the last straw” for consumption and economic growth.
He said the measure upsets Tunisians’ customary consumer behavior, with mainly the middle class bearing its brunt.
“Since it came out, I’ve been searching for ways to pay for a smartphone over several months without it eating away my salary,” said Meriah, 43. “But the new cheques don’t allow that.”
Once a crucial pillar of Tunisia’s economic and social stability, the middle class made up around 60 percent of the population before the country’s 2011 revolution.
Experts now estimate it has fallen by more than half to 25 percent.
Leila, the owner of the smartphone shop in the Tunis-area district of Ariana, told AFP her sales have fallen by more than half, after she started taking cash only.
“No one buys anything anymore,” said Leila, who didn’t give her last name. “We didn’t understand the law because it’s complicated and we don’t trust it. We decided not to accept cheques anymore.”
“Got cash? Welcome. If not, I’m sorry,” she summed up.
Consumers are under even more pressure during the current Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Tunisians tend to buy more during Ramadan, stocking up on food and sweets as families gather for collective meals before and after their daytime fasting.
And as Eid Al-Fitr — the holiday marking the end of Ramadan — approaches at the end of March, shopping for clothes and gifts rises.
Many merchants had already grown reluctant to deal with cheques when the previous finance law ordered harsh prison sentences for cheque kiting — the fraudulent practice of issuing cheques with non-existent funds.
Last April, judicial authorities said they were investigating more than 11,000 bad-cheque cases.
This year’s reform is meant to reduce those cases. Based on the buyer’s income and assets, it has introduced a cap on the amount that cheques can be written for.
It also allows the merchant to check if the payer has enough funds upon each transaction by scanning a QR code on their cheque.
Many feel the measure is intrusive, and the technological shift already adds a level of complexity.
Badreddine Daboussi, who owns one of Tunis’s oldest bookstores told AFP the change has crippled his sales, adding to an already waning demand for books.
“Before, customers paid with post-dated cheques, but now they can’t, and the new online tool is complicated and unreliable.”
“They just can’t buy books anymore,” he added, noting he had even considered closing up shop.
Tunisia, a country of more than 12 million people, has long suffered sporadic shortages of basic items such as milk, sugar and flour.
Its national debt has risen to around 80 percent of GDP and inflation is at six percent, according to official figures.
Hamza Meddeb, a research fellow at the Malcolm H Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, wrote in October that President Kais Saied — who rejected IMF reforms — has engaged in “economic improvization” with “heavy reliance on domestic debt.”
Chkoundali, the other analyst, warned of “another recession.”
“As consumption shrinks, the already little economic growth we have will also decline,” he said.
Unemployment is already at 16 percent nationwide, according to official figures.
Feeble consumption would help push that figure even higher, Chkoundali explained, with workers risking significant layoffs as profits dwindle.
Only 60,000 Palestinians perform Ramadan prayers at Al-Aqsa as Israel restricts entry to Jerusalem
Number of worshippers who prayed at the mosque on Monday is 20,000 lower than the figure 7 days previously
90,000 Palestinians worshipped at Al-Aqsa on Friday; in previous years, up to 200,000 people prayed there on the first Friday of the holy month
Updated 11 March 2025
Arab News
LONDON: Only 60,000 Palestinians performed the evening and Taraweeh prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on Monday, the 10th day of Ramadan, as Israeli authorities restrict entry to the occupied city.
This was 20,000 fewer than the 80,000 who performed the Taraweeh prayer at the mosque the previous Monday, according to the Jerusalem Waqf and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs Department, which is responsible for administering the site. Most of the 60,000 worshippers this week came from Jerusalem or were Palestinians living in Israel.
Israeli authorities have introduced restrictive measures during Ramadan that bar thousands of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank from entering Jerusalem through Israeli military checkpoints. They announced last week that they will limit access to Al-Aqsa on the Fridays during Ramadan to men over the age of 55, women who are 50 or older, and children up to the age of 12. All of those entering the city are subject to security screening and require permits.
Last week, 90,000 Palestinians prayed at the mosque on the first Friday of Ramadan, and Israeli forces deployed 3,000 troops to the Old City. In previous years, up to 200,000 people have worshipped at the mosque on the first Friday of the holy month.
Drought-stricken Algeria plans to import one million sheep ahead of Islam’s Eid Al-Adha
Algeria’s government has traditionally played a dominant role in the economy and in the past imported livestock in small quantities to ensure affordable options for low-income citizens
Its import plan comes just ten days after neighboring Morocco’s King Mohammed VI offered his subjects a reprieve from the costly ritual
Updated 4 sec ago
AP
ALGIERS, Algeria: Algeria’s president has announced plans to import a staggering one million sheep ahead of this year’s Eid Al-Adha, the Muslim holiday during which families worldwide purchase livestock for sacrifice.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday instructed his ministers to launch plans for the massive livestock import effort to stabilize costs and meet soaring demand.
The plan is the latest in a series of measures designed to ease public frustration over rising costs and the military-backed government’s uncompromising grip on power.
It builds on previous efforts to flood markets with food staples throughout Islam’s holy month of Ramadan. Yet its scale has few parallels.
North Africa is enduring its seventh consecutive year of extreme heat and below-average rainfall. The record drought has shrunk harvests and driven up the price of animal feed needed to raise livestock, including in the northern Algerian highlands where breeders raise sheep revered by the population for their quality.
Algeria’s government has traditionally played a dominant role in the economy and in the past imported livestock in small quantities to ensure affordable options for low-income citizens. Last year, it facilitated the sale of 100,000 sheep in state-run stores, sourcing them from Argentina, Australia, Brazil and Spain.
Eid Al-Adha, which takes place this year in early June, is an annual “feast of sacrifice” in which Muslims slaughter sheep to honor a passage of the Qur’an in which the prophet Ibrahim prepared to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God, who intervened and replaced the child with a sheep.
It’s a celebrated tradition in Muslim-majority Algeria, yet also a pricey proposition. During last year’s Eid, sheep prices skyrocketed to 200,000 Algerian dinars ($1,496) in some markets — ten times the country’s minimum wage. Many Algerians have in recent years been forced to forgo the cherished tradition.
This year’s initiative aims to prevent price spikes and shortages that could put the ritual sacrifice out of reach for most Algerian families.
The Ministries of Agriculture and Trade will immediately seek international sources to meet Tebboune’s target, hoping to counteract the soaring inflation that has pushed basic goods and services — including meat — beyond the reach of many.
“Thank God, this year’s Ramadan is a blessing. The markets are well-stocked, housewives can shop without stress, without pressure. Products are available, and prices are accessible,” said Yasmine Zireg, a mother of three, on Monday.
History has shown that food prices can incite widespread political anger in North Africa and Algeria isn’t the only country taking steps ahead of Eid Al-Adha.
Its import plan comes just ten days after neighboring Morocco’s King Mohammed VI offered his subjects a reprieve from the costly ritual. The King said in a Feb. 27 letter read on state-run television, warned that the slaughter could burden low-income Moroccans and, as the highest religious authority under Moroccan law, said they could forgo it.
The move — which was widely covered in Algerian media — could harm livestock producers and put disparities between those who can afford sheep and those who can’t on stark display.
Tebboune’s intervention is also designed to make the Eid more feasible for those who otherwise couldn’t afford sheep. It’s one of several government spending policies Algeria has put in place to calm social unrest while continuing to crack down on opposition parties, journalists and people critical of the military-backed government.
