ROME: Just before breaking the Ramadan fast on Sunday evening, Hasan Zaheda played basketball with his son in the tiny courtyard of the basement-level apartment on Rome’s outskirts where the refugee family is rebuilding their lives.
They have no pictures from their native Syria – they fled Damascus at the height of the civil war with only one change of clothes, diapers and milk for their toddler. But there is a framed photo of little Riad meeting Pope Francis, who brought them and two other Muslim families back with him to Italy from refugee camps in the Greek island of Lesbos almost a decade ago.
“He’s a gift from paradise,” Zaheda said Sunday, chuckling. “Pope Francis, a gift from our God, that God sent us to save us.”
As the Zahedas began to observe the holy month of Ramadan, Francis, 88, entered his third week of battling pneumonia in a hospital not far away. The least they can do, the family said, is to be close to him in prayer night and day.
“We look for his health bulletin every day,” said the mother, Nour Essa, 39, after recalling meeting the pontiff suddenly in Lesbos. “What shocked me the most is that the father of the church was a modest man, who didn’t have prejudices, open toward other ethnicities and religion.”
The family journeyed on the pope’s plane – one of the most visible moments of advocacy for migrants that marked Francis’ papacy. The Zahedas remember how kindly Francis patted Riad’s head as he passed down the aisle to speak with journalists.
But “miraculous” as it appeared to them, it was only the beginning of a new life in Italy to which they’re still adjusting.
Essa, a biologist, and Zaheda, an architect who worked as a civil servant in Damascus, decided to leave Syria in 2015 after he was drafted into the military. They sold their house to pay for a smuggler, walking through the night trying not to make a sound in the desert and at one point riding for ten hours in different trucks.
After scrambling to get through Daesh-controlled territory, they made it into Turkiye and then had three failed attempts to reach the Greek islands by boat before arriving in Lesbos in early 2016.
“I always thank God that my son was so small, and that he has no memory of all these things,” Essa said as Riad watched a Syrian soap opera in the cramped living room with his grandfather, who fled about a year after them. On the walls, Hasan’s haunting paintings of white faces against swirling black and red tell of the parents’ all-too-vivid memories.
After more than one month in a Lesbos camp, the family was approached for an interview by a stranger – Daniela Pompei, the head of migration and integration for the Catholic charity Sant’Egidio.
She had been tasked with finding families with appropriate paperwork that Francis could bring back to Rome with him, and asked them to make a decision on the spot. They accepted, and the charity, with Vatican funds, eventually brought more than 300 refugees from Greece and 150 from another papal trip to Cyprus in 2021.
Sant’Egidio’s goal was to spare migrants longer journeys by sea across different routes in the Mediterranean, which have killed tens of thousands of asylum-seekers willing to “die for hope” over the years, Pompei said.
But the real test has been integration, from processing their asylum cases to learning Italian to school and job placement. Initiatives like the pope’s make all the difference because they signal to the refugees that their new communities are willing to welcome them, despite faith differences.
“The pope has long appealed to open parishes, to welcome at least one family in each parish, to push us Catholics too to counter what he called, with a very strong term in Lampedusa, ‘the globalization of indifference,’” Pompei said.
In the characteristic Roman accent they’ve acquired, the Zaheda parents told of their challenges – having to reenroll in university so their degrees can be recognized, helping their families come to Europe, taking care of their son.
Working or studying 12 hours a day, they rarely have time to socialize with other Syrian families and the migrants who comprise most of their neighbors in the modest brick-faced apartment buildings as well as most of Riad’s classmates.
His best friend is from Ecuador, and Riad plans to study Spanish in middle school. He’s joined a local basketball team, and pictures from the court line his bedroom, where a large Syrian flag hangs by his bunkbed. He likes to read The Little Prince in English, but his Arabic is tentative, even though he spends most afternoons with his grandfather, who loves to sketch local churches.
For Sunday’s iftar – the meal breaking the day’s fast – the family topped a little table with yogurt-and-chickpea tisiyeh salad and take-out pizza in typical Roman flavors like zucchini flowers and anchovies.
As Riad packed his backpack for the school week, his parents said their future hinges on the little boy – for whom they will likely stay in Italy, instead of joining relatives in France or returning to a Syria they probably couldn’t recognize.
“I always wish that he can build his future, that he can build a position as the son of an undocumented migrant who arrived in Italy and who wanted to leave his mark in a new country,” Zaheda said.
Syrian refugee family that Pope Francis brought to Rome prays for him as they build new life
https://arab.news/g8yff
Syrian refugee family that Pope Francis brought to Rome prays for him as they build new life
- Nearly a decade after Pope Francis plucked them from a refugee camp in Greece, a Syrian couple and their child have carved out a quiet life in suburban Rome
- While they observe Ramadan, they’re praying for the hospitalized pope, whom they refer to as a gift from heaven – and a leader who showed the world migrants aren’t to be feared
What the latest figures reveal about the state of the world’s refugees
- The vast majority of the world’s displaced remain in poorer countries, challenging the narrative of a crisis centered on wealthy nations
- Humanitarian agencies warn of deep funding gaps that place support for those displaced by conflict, disaster and economic collapse at risk
LONDON: There are not many people who would consider starting over at the age of 103. But for father, grandfather and great-grandfather Jassim, who has spent the past decade in exile in Lebanon with his family, the dramatic end of the Syrian civil war meant he could finally return home.
And in May, Jassim did just that.
In 2013, after their hometown in Syria’s Homs Governorate was caught in the crossfire of the country’s bitter civil war, Jassim and the surviving members of his family fled.
Not all of them would make the journey to relative safety and a makeshift tent camp near Baalbek in eastern Lebanon. During one period of intense fighting three of his children were killed when a shell fell near the family’s house.
For Jassim, holding the memory of their loss deep in his heart, the return last month to the town of Al-Qusayr after 12 years as refugees in another country was achingly poignant.
“You raise your children to see them grow and bring life to your home,” he said, speaking through a translator for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. “Now they are gone.”
As the family discovered when they arrived back in Al-Qusayr last month, the home in which they had been raised was also gone.
“It was a bittersweet moment,” Jassim said. “I was happy to return to the place where I was born and raised but devastated to see my home reduced to rubble.”
Although they are back in their own country, the future for Jassim’s family remains uncertain. With luck they are on the cusp of a fresh start, but for Jassim returning to the land of his birth has a more final meaning.
“I came back to die in Syria,” he said.
UNHCR says about 550,000 Syrian refugees returned home between December and the end of May, along with a further 1.3 million displaced within the country. This is one of the brighter spots in UNHCR’s 2025 Global Trends report, published in the lead-up to World Refugee Day on June 20.
Overall, the report, which contains the latest statistics on refugees, asylum-seekers, the internally displaced and stateless people worldwide, makes for predictably gloomy reading.
As of the end of 2024, it found that 123.2 million people — about one in 67 globally — were forcibly displaced “as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order.” This figure includes 5.9 million Palestinian refugees.
Of the 123.2 million, 42.7 million are refugees seeking sanctuary in a foreign country, and of these about 6.6 million are from countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
Unsurprisingly, the largest number of refugees in the region under the UNHCR’s mandate in 2024 were from Syria — accounting for 5.9 million. But other numbers, although smaller, serve as a reminder of conflicts currently overshadowed by events in Syria and Gaza.
More than 300,000 Iraqi refugees were registered in 2024, along with 51,348 from Yemen, 23,736 from Egypt, 17,235 from Libya and 10,609 from Morocco.
Amid the devastation in Gaza since October 2023, and rising settler violence in the occupied West Bank, nearly as many Palestinians have fled as refugees in 2024 — 43,712 — as have been killed in Gaza.
Globally, there is a glimmer of hope. In the second half of 2024 the rate of forced displacement slowed and, says UNHCR, “operational data and initial estimates for 2025 indicate that global forced displacement may begin to fall during 2025.”
Indeed, the agency estimates that by the end of April 2025 the total number of forcibly displaced people — a term that includes people displaced within their own country and those seeking refuge in another state — had fallen by 1 percent to 122.1 million.
But whether that trend continues depends very much on several factors, said Tarik Argaz, spokesperson for UNHCR’s regional bureau for the Middle East and North Africa in Amman, Jordan.
There are, Argaz told Arab News, undoubtedly “signs of hope in the report, particularly in the area of solutions. But during the remainder of 2025, much will depend on the dynamics in key situations.
“While we should keep hopes high, we have to be very careful in interpreting the trends in the international scene,” including “whether the situation in South Sudan does not deteriorate further, and whether conditions for return improve, in particular in Afghanistan and Syria.”
In 2024, about 9.8 million forcibly displaced people worldwide were able to return home, including 1.6 million refugees — the highest number for more than two decades — and 8.2 million internally displaced people — the second highest total yet recorded.
However, Argaz said, “it must be acknowledged that many of these returns were under duress or in adverse conditions to countries like Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Ukraine, which remain fragile.”
For Syrians in particular, “there is uncertainty and significant risks, especially for minority groups. Syrians in the country and those returning from abroad need support with shelter, access to basic services such as water, sanitation, employment and legal assistance, among other things,” he said.
“The economic conditions remain dire, while the security situation remains fragile in many parts of the country.”
And while Jassim and his family are pleased to be back in Syria, UNHCR is concerned that not all Syrian refugees are returning entirely of their own free will.
“UNHCR is supporting those who are choosing to return,” Argaz said. “But returns should be safe, voluntary and dignified. We continue to call on states not to forcibly return Syrians to any part of Syria and to continue allowing civilians fleeing Syria access to territory and to seek asylum.”
The Global Trends report also highlights the burden placed on host countries by refugees.
IN NUMBERS
• 550,000 Syrian refugees returned home between December and the end of May.
• 6.6 million people forcibly displaced from MENA countries as of December 2024.
Source: UNHCR
Relative to the size of its population, Lebanon was hosting the largest number of refugees of any country in the world in 2024, accounting for one in eight of the population.
Lebanon’s already complex situation was further complicated in September 2024 when the war between Israel and Hezbollah displaced nearly a million people within the country.
By the end of April, there were still 90,000 people internally displaced in Lebanon. But between September and October last year the conflict led to an estimated 557,000 people fleeing Lebanon for Syria — of whom over 60 percent were Syrians who had originally sought sanctuary in Lebanon.
The issue of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa has become a delicate matter in Europe, with right-wing parties winning votes over the issue and centrist governments taking anti-migrant stances to assuage increasingly angry voters.
“But contrary to perceptions in the global North,” Argaz said, “60 percent of forcibly displaced people stay within their own country, as internally displaced people. Of those who leave as refugees, 67 percent go to neighboring countries — low and middle-income countries host 73 percent of the world’s refugees.”
For example, at the end of 2024, almost 80 percent of the 6.1 million Syrian refugees and asylum-seekers were hosted by neighboring countries — 2.9 million in Turkiye, 755,000 in Lebanon, 611,000 in Jordan, 304,000 in Iraq and 134,000 in Egypt.
The situation in Sudan and South Sudan is particularly perilous. Sudan’s two million refugees, although scattered across dozens of countries, from Algeria to Zimbabwe, are concentrated mainly in Chad, South Sudan and Libya, with tens of thousands each in countries including Egypt, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia and Uganda, with sizable numbers in the UK and France.
Despite offering refuge to almost half a million refugees from Sudan, 2.29 million South Sudanese are seeking sanctuary elsewhere — in Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and, in a reflection of the internecine nature of the violence in the region, Sudan.
For all the world’s refugees and internally displaced, UNHCR is the lifeline on which they depend, both for support while displaced and upon returning to shattered lives and homes. But with donor nations slashing funds, this work is under threat.
“Severe cuts in global funding announced this year have caused upheaval across the humanitarian sector, putting millions of lives at risk,” Argaz said.
“We call for continuing funding of UNHCR programs that save lives, assist refugees and IDPs returning home and reinforce basic infrastructure and social services in host communities as an essential investment in regional and global security.
“In addition, more responsibility sharing from the rest of the world with the countries that host the bulk of refugees is crucial and needed.”
In December, UNHCR announced it had secured a record $1.5 billion in early funding from several countries for 2025. But, as Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, said at the time, “generous as it is, humanitarian funding is not keeping pace with the growing needs.”
The funding commitment of $1.5 billion represents only 15 percent of the estimated $10.248 billion UNHCR says it will need for the whole of 2025. Of that total, the single largest proportions, $2.167 and $2.122 billion respectively, will be spent on projects in East Africa and in the Middle East and North Africa.
Turkiye detains prominent journalist for allegedly threatening Erdogan
- Altayli posted a video on Friday referencing an unnamed poll showing 70 percent of Turks opposed Erdogan ruling for life
- Istanbul prosecutor’s office said the comments from Altayli “contained threats” against Erdogan
ANKARA: Turkish authorities detained prominent independent journalist Fatih Altayli on Saturday over social media comments allegedly threatening President Tayyip Erdogan, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office said.
Altayli, who has more than 1.51 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, posted a video on Friday referencing an unnamed poll showing 70 percent of Turks opposed Erdogan ruling for life, saying this would “never be allowed” by the Turkish people.
Altayli also referenced past Ottoman rulers in his comments, saying people had “drowned,” “killed,” or “assassinated them in the past.” His comments drew backlash from an Erdogan aide, Oktay Saral, who said on X that Altayli’s “water was boiling.”
In a statement, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office said the comments from Altayli “contained threats” against Erdogan, and said an investigation has been launched against him. Legal representation for Altayli could not immediately be reached for comment.
Altayli’s detention comes amid a series of detentions of opposition figures in recent months, including the arrest in March of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu who is Erdogan’s main political rival.
The main opposition CHP says the detentions and arrests of its members, along with other opposition members and journalists or media personalities, is a politicized move by the government to muzzle dissent and eliminate electoral challenges to Erdogan.
The government denies these claims, saying the judiciary and Turkiye’s courts are independent.
Turkish authorities have in the past carried out widespread detentions and arrests against opposition politicians, namely pro-Kurdish local authorities. More than 150 people jailed so far over what Erdogan’s government says is a ring of corruption that the CHP denies.
Ex-bodyguard of slain Hezbollah leader killed in Israeli strike in Iran
- His former bodyguard Hussein Khalil was killed in Iran
- An Iraqi border guard officer said Khalil and a member of an Iraqi armed group were killed by “an Israeli drone strike“
BEIRUT: A former bodyguard for Hassan Nasrallah, the slain leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, was killed Saturday in an Israeli strike in Iran, an official from the Tehran-backed militant group said.
For more than a week, Israel has been carrying out waves of air attacks on Iranian targets in the foes’ worst confrontation in history.
Israel assassinated Nasrallah in a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 27 last year, during a war that left Hezbollah severely weakened.
His former bodyguard Hussein Khalil — commonly known as Abu Ali, and nicknamed Nasrallah’s “shield” — was killed in Iran near the Iraqi border, the Hezbollah official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
An Iraqi border guard officer told AFP that Khalil and a member of an Iraqi armed group were killed by “an Israeli drone strike” after crossing into the neighboring country.
The Iraqi group, the Sayyed Al-Shuhada Brigades, said that the commander of its security unit, Haider Al-Moussawi, was killed in the “Zionist attack,” along with Khalil and his son Mahdi.
The former bodyguard had appeared alongside Nasrallah for years during the leader’s rare public appearances.
The two men also shared family ties, with one of Khalil’s sons married to a granddaughter of Nasrallah.
During Nasrallah’s funeral in February, Khalil stood atop the vehicle carrying the slain leader’s body.
The funeral drew a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people, the first mass event organized by Hezbollah since the end of its war with Israel.
Separately, five children were wounded in Iraq on Saturday by fallen debris from a missile near the town of Dujail in the northern province of Salaheddin, security and medical sources told AFP on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media.
The children sustained moderate and minor injuries, a medical source said.
A security source in the area confirmed the children were wounded by “a fallen fragment from a missile.”
The origin of the missile was not clear.
Since Israel launched its unprecedented attack on Iran last week, Iranian missiles and drones have been crossing paths with Israeli warplanes in the skies over Iraq, forcing Iraq to close its airspace to commercial traffic.
Israeli-backed group seeks at least $30m from US for aid distribution in Gaza
- The foundation says it has provided millions of meals in southern Gaza since late May to Palestinians
- The effort has seen near-daily fatal shootings of Palestinians trying to reach the distribution sites
WASHINGTON: A US-led group has asked the Trump administration to step in with an initial $30 million so it can continue its much scrutinized and Israeli-backed aid distribution in Gaza, according to three US officials and the organization’s application for the money.
That application, obtained by The Associated Press, also offers some of the first financial details about the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and its work in the territory.
The foundation says it has provided millions of meals in southern Gaza since late May to Palestinians as Israel’s blockade and military campaign have driven the Gaza to the brink of famine.
But the effort has seen near-daily fatal shootings of Palestinians trying to reach the distribution sites. Major humanitarian groups also accuse the foundation of cooperating with Israel’s objectives in the 20-month-old war against Hamas in a way that violates humanitarian principles.
The group’s funding application was submitted to the US Agency for International Development, according to the US officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The application was being processed this week as potentially one of the agency’s last acts before the Republican administration absorbs USAID into the State Department as part of deep cuts in foreign assistance.
Two of the officials said they were told the administration has decided to award the money. They said the processing was moving forward with little of the review and auditing normally required before Washington makes foreign assistance grants to an organization.
In a letter submitted Thursday as part of the application, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation secretary Loik Henderson said his organization “was grateful for the opportunity to partner with you to sustain and scale life-saving operations in Gaza.”
Neither the State Department nor Henderson immediately responded to requests for comment Saturday.
Israel says the foundation is the linchpin of a new aid system to wrest control from the United Nations, which Israel alleges has been infiltrated by Hamas, and other humanitarian groups. The foundation’s use of fixed sites in southern Gaza is in line with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to use aid to concentrate the territory’s more than 2 million people in the south, freeing Israel to fight Hamas elsewhere.
Aid workers fear it’s a step toward another of Netanyahu’s public goals, removing Palestinians from Gaza in “voluntary” migrations that aid groups and human rights organizations say would amount to coerced departures.
The UN and many leading nonprofit groups accuse the foundation of stepping into aid distribution with little transparency or humanitarian experience, and, crucially, without a commitment to the principles of neutrality and operational independence in war zones.
Since the organization started operations, several hundred Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded in near-daily shootings as they tried to reach aid sites, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Witnesses say Israeli troops regularly fire heavy barrages toward the crowds in an attempt to control them.
The Israeli military has denied firing on civilians. It says it fired warning shots in several instance, and fired directly at a few “suspects” who ignored warnings and approached its forces.
It’s unclear who is funding the new operation in Gaza. No donor has come forward. The State Department said this past week that the United States is not funding it.
In documents supporting its application, the group said it received nearly $119 million for May operations from “other government donors,” but gives no details. It expects $38 million from those unspecific government donors for June, in addition to the hoped-for $30 million from the United States.
The application shows no funding from private philanthropy or any other source.
Gaza’s starvation crisis fuels deadly race for survival
- Palestinians say they are forced into a competition to feed their families
KHAN YOUNIS: Each day, Palestinians in Gaza run a deadly gauntlet in hopes of getting food. Israeli troops open barrages of gunfire toward crowds crossing military zones to get to the aid, they say, and knife-wielding thieves wait to ambush those who succeed. Palestinians say lawlessness is growing as they are forced into a competition to feed their families.
A lucky few manage to secure some packets of lentils, a jar of Nutella, or a bag of flour.
Many return empty-handed and must attempt the ordeal again the next day.
“This is not aid. It’s humiliation. It’s death,” said Jamil Atili, his face shining with sweat as he made his way back last week from a food center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed private contractor.
He had suffered a knife cut across his cheek amid the scramble for food and said a contractor guard pepper-sprayed him in the face. Still, he emerged with nothing for his 13 family members.
I have nothing to feed my children. My heart is broken.
Jamil Atili, Gaza resident
“I have nothing to feed my children,” he said, nearly crying. “My heart is broken.”
Israel began allowing food into Gaza this past month after cutting it off completely for 10 weeks, though UN officials say it is not enough to stave off starvation.
Most of the supplies go to GHF, which operates four food distribution points inside Israeli military zones. A trickle of aid goes to the UN and humanitarian groups.
Both systems are mired in chaos.
Daily gunfire by Israeli troops toward crowds on the roads heading to the GHF centers has killed several hundred people and wounded hundreds more in the past weeks, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
At the same time, in past weeks, hungry crowds have overwhelmed most of the UN’s truck convoys and stripped away the supplies. Israeli troops have opened fire to disperse crowds waiting for trucks near military zones, witnesses say — and on Tuesday, more than 50 people were killed, according to the ministry.
“I don’t see how it can get any worse, because it is already apocalyptic. But somehow it does get worse,” said Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian affairs office.
Thousands of people must walk miles to reach the GHF centers, three of which are in the far south outside the city of Rafah. Palestinians said the danger begins when the crowds enter the Israeli military zone encompassing Rafah.
Mohammed Saqer, a father of three who risked the trip multiple times, said that when he went last week, tanks were firing over the heads of the crowds as drone announcements told everyone to move back.
It’s like it was "Squid Game,” Saqer said, referring to the dystopian thriller TV series in which contestants risk their lives to win a prize. Just raising your head might mean death, he said.
He and others crawled forward, then left the main road.
A shot rang out nearby, and they ducked, he said. They found a young man on the ground, shot in the back.
The others assumed he was dead, but Saqer felt his chest — it was still warm, and he found a pulse.
They carried him to a point where a car could pick him up.
Saqer said he stood for a moment, traumatized by the scene. Then people shouted that the site had opened.
The mad dash
Everyone broke into a crazed run, he said. He saw several people wounded on the ground. One man, bleeding from his abdomen, reached out his hand, pleading for help. No one stopped.
“Everyone is just running to get to the aid, to get there first,” Saqer said.
Omar Al-Hobi described the same scene four times when he went last week.
Twice, he returned empty-handed; once, he managed to grab a pack of lentils. On the fourth day, he was determined to secure flour for his three children and pregnant wife.
He said he and others inched their way forward under tank fire. He saw several people shot in the legs. One man fell bleeding to the ground, apparently dead, he said.
Horrified, Al-Hobi froze, unable to move, “but I remembered I have to feed my children.”
He took cover in a greenhouse, then heard the announcement that the center was open and began to run.
Avoiding thieves
At the center, food boxes are stacked on the ground in an area surrounded by fences and earthen berms. Thousands rush in to grab what they can in a frantic melee.
You have to move fast, Saqer said. Once supplies run out, some of those who came too late rob those leaving. He swiftly tore open a box and loaded the contents into a sack — juice, chickpeas, lentils, cheese, beans, flour and cooking oil.
Then he took off running. There’s only one route in and out of the center. But, knowing thieves waited outside, Saqer clambered over a berm, running the risk of being fired on by Israeli troops.
“It all depends on the soldiers’ mood. If they are in a bad mood … they will shoot at me. If not, they will let me be,” he said.
Heba Jouda said she saw a group of men beat up a boy of 12 or 13 years old and take his food as she left one of the Rafah centers.
Another time, she said, thieves attacked an older man, who hugged his sack, weeping that his children had no food.
They sliced his arm with a knife and ran off with the sack.
Al-Hobi said he was trampled in the scramble for boxes.
He managed to grab a bag of rice, a packet of macaroni.
He snagged flour — but much of it was ruined in the chaos.
At his family tent outside Khan Younis, his wife, Anwaar Saleh, said she will ration it all to make it last a week or so.
“We hope he doesn’t have to go back. His life is the most important thing,” she said.
Al-Hobi remains shaken — both by his brushes with death and the callousness that the race for food has instilled in everyone.
“No one will show you mercy these days. Everybody fends for themselves.”
