ATHENS: International aid organization Doctors Without Borders said Wednesday it had suspended its activities at a refugee ‘hotspot’ on the Greek island of Lesbos, citing “unfair and inhumane” conditions.
The move came a day after the UN refugee agency UNHCR said it had suspended some activities in Greece, saying reception centers had become “detention facilities.”
“We took the extremely difficult decision to end our activities in Moria (on Lesbos) because continuing to work inside would make us complicit in a system we consider to be both unfair and inhumane,” said Marie Elisabeth Ingres, the head of the medical organization’s mission in Greece.
The group, known by its French acronym MSF, said its decision followed a deal struck last week between EU states and Turkey to force migrants and asylum seekers to return from Greek islands to Turkey.
“We will not allow our assistance to be instrumentalized for a mass expulsion operation and we refuse to be part of a system that has no regard for the humanitarian or protection needs of asylum seekers and migrants,” said Ingres.
She said MSF had closed “all activities” linked to its operation at the Moria camp on Lesbos, including transportation of refugees to sanitation and medical facilities.
MSF, which has been working at Moria since July, said it would continue to run its transit center in Mantamados some 30 kilometers (20 miles) further north, where new arrivals receive first assistance, as well as sea rescue activities.
“MSF will also continue to run mobile clinics on the island of Lesbos for those outside of the hotspot location,” the group said.
The EU and Ankara struck a deal on Friday aiming to cut off the sea crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands that enabled 850,000 people to pour into Europe last year, many of them fleeing the brutal war in Syria.
The agreement went into effect early Sunday.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR said Tuesday it would not be party to the deal nor be involved in returns or detention, noting Greece “does not have sufficient capacity on the islands for assessing asylum claims, nor the proper conditions to accommodate people decently and safely pending an examination of their cases.”
The UN agency said 934 refugees and migrants had landed on Lesbos alone since the accord took effect, stretching aid organizations to the limit.
MSF pulling out of Lesbos migrant hotspot
MSF pulling out of Lesbos migrant hotspot
Fresh air strike hits Sanaa, say Houthis
- Strikes came in response to series of Houthi attacks on Israel
- No immediate comment from Israel, the US or Britain
SANAA: An air strike hit Yemen’s capital on Friday, a day after deadly Israeli raids, according to the Iran-backed Houthis who blamed the US and Britain for the latest attack.
A Houthi statement cited “US-British aggression” for the new attack, as witnesses also reported the blast.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, the United States or Britain.
“I heard the blast. My house shook,” one resident of the Houthi-held capital Sanaa told AFP.
The attack followed Thursday’s Israeli raids on infrastructure including Sanaa’s international airport that left six people dead.
The strikes came in response to a series of Houthi attacks on Israel.
The Houthis have also been firing on the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden shipping route for months, prompting a series of reprisal strikes by US and British forces.
Turkiye to allow pro-Kurdish party to visit jailed militant leader
- Militant leader Ocalan is serving life sentence in prison on the island of Imrali
- Pro-Kurdish DEM Party meeting is the first such visit in nearly a decade
ANKARA: Turkiye has decided to allow parliament’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party to hold face-to-face talks with militant leader Abdullah Ocalan on his island prison, the party said on Friday, setting up the first such visit in nearly a decade.
DEM requested the visit last month, soon after a key ally of President Tayyip Erdogan expanded on a proposal to end the 40-year-old conflict between the state and Ocalan’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Ocalan has been serving a life sentence in a prison on the island of Imrali, south of Istanbul, since his capture 25 years ago.
Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, made the call a month after suggesting that Ocalan announce an end to the insurgency in exchange for the possibility of his release.
Erdogan described Bahceli’s initial proposal as a “historic window of opportunity.” After the latest call last month, Erdogan said he was in complete agreement with Bahceli on every issue and that they were acting in harmony and coordination.
“To be frank, the picture before us does not allow us to be very hopeful,” Erdogan said in parliament. “Despite all these difficulties, we are considering what can be done with a long-range perspective that focuses not only on today but also on the future.”
Bahceli regularly condemns pro-Kurdish politicians as tools of the PKK, which they deny.
DEM’s predecessor party was involved in peace talks between Ankara and Ocalan a decade ago, last meeting him in April 2015. The peace process and a ceasefire collapsed soon after, unleashing the most deadly phase of the conflict.
DEM MPs Sirri Sureyya Onder and Pervin Buldan, who both met Ocalan as part of peace talks at the time, will travel to Imrali island on Saturday or Sunday, depending on weather conditions, the party said.
Turkiye and its Western allies designate the PKK a terrorist group. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the fighting, which in the past was focused in the mainly Kurdish southeast but is now centered on northern Iraq, where the PKK is based.
Growing regional instability and changing political dynamics are seen as factors behind the bid to end the conflict with the PKK. The chances of success are unclear as Ankara has given no clues on what it may entail.
Since the fall of Bashar Assad in Syria this month, Ankara has repeatedly insisted that the Kurdish YPG militia, which it sees as an extension of the PKK, must disband, asserting that the group has no place in Syria’s future.
The YPG is the main component of the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
In a Reuters interview last week, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi acknowledged the presence of PKK fighters in Syria for the first time, saying they had helped fight Daesh and would return home if a total ceasefire was agreed with Turkiye, a core demand from Ankara.
Authorities in Turkiye have continued to crack down on alleged PKK activities. Last month, the government replaced five pro-Kurdish mayors in southeastern cities for suspected PKK ties, in a move that drew criticism from DEM and others.
Jordan leads Arab condemnation of Gaza hospital burning by Israeli forces
- Actions of troops are a ‘heinous war crime’ and ‘blatant violation of international law and humanitarian law,’ Jordanian Foreign Ministry says
- Qatar calls it a ‘dangerous escalation’ with potentially ‘dire consequences for the security and stability of the region’
LONDON: Jordan has described the actions of Israeli forces in clearing and burning one of the last hospitals that was still operating in northern Gaza as a “heinous war crime.”
Troops stormed the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia on Friday, forcing staff and patients from the building and setting fire to it.
Sufian Al-Qudah, a spokesperson for Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the attack was a “blatant violation of international law and humanitarian law. Israel is also held accountable for the safety of the hospital’s patients and medical staff.”
Jordan categorically rejects the “systematic targeting of medical personnel and facilities,” he added, and this was an attempt to destroy facilities “essential to the survival of the people in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Al-Qudah urged the international community to put pressure on Israel to halt its attacks on civilians in Gaza.
The UAE foreign ministry also said the destruction of the hospital was “deplorable.”
The ministry statement “condemned and denounced in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation forces' burning of Kamal Adwan Hospital … and the forced evacuation of patients and medical personnel.”
Qatar denounced “in the strongest terms” the attack on the hospital as a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.
The country’s Foreign Ministry said it represented a “dangerous escalation of the ongoing confrontations, which threatens dire consequences for the security and stability of the region,” and called for the protection of the “hundreds of patients, wounded individuals and medical staff” from the hospital.
UN worker seriously hurt in Israeli Yemen strike moved to Jordan, WHO says
- WHO chief Tedros was at Sanaa airport with his team when Israel attacked
ZURICH: The UN worker hurt in an Israeli air strike on Yemen’s main international airport on Thursday suffered serious injuries and has been evacuated to Jordan for further treatment, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
Israel said it had struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport, and Houthi media said at least six people had been killed.
“Attacks on civilians and humanitarians must stop, everywhere. #NotATarget,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X that showed him sitting in a plane looking across at what appeared to be the injured man.
Tedros was at the airport waiting to depart when the aerial bombardment took place that injured the man, who worked for the UN Humanitarian Air Service. A spokesperson for the WHO said the man had been seriously injured.
Tedros said he and the UN worker were now in Jordan.
The man underwent a successful surgical procedure prior to his evacuation for further treatment, Tedros said.
He had been in Yemen to negotiate the release of detained UN staff and to assess the humanitarian situation.
Jordan’s King Abdullah reaffirms support for Syria’s sovereignty, calls for Gaza ceasefire
- King in phone conversation with French president
AMMAN: King Abdullah II reaffirmed on Friday Jordan’s commitment to supporting Syria in building a free, independent, and fully sovereign state that reflected the aspirations of all its people.
In a phone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, the king emphasized the importance of Syria’s security, and stability for the Middle East region as a whole. He also reiterated Jordan’s firm stance against any violations of Syria’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, Jordan News Agency reported.
Syria faced nearly 14 years of devastating civil war before the fall of President Bashar Assad’s regime earlier this month following a swift takeover by militants led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham.
The country remains fragmented, grappling with the challenges of rebuilding amid competing political and military influences.
The discussion between King Abdullah and Macron also addressed the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.
The conflict, which erupted in the aftermath of a Hamas attack on Israeli territory on Oct. 7 last year, has led to a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, with tens of thousands of lives lost and infrastructure heavily damaged.
King Abdullah called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a strengthened humanitarian response to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians trapped there.
He also stressed the urgent need for progress toward a just and comprehensive peace in the region, underscoring the two-state solution as the basis for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
King Abdullah highlighted the importance of sustained efforts to ensure the success of the ceasefire in Lebanon.
