التصنيف: estaql

The refugee agency for Palestinians has said that aid work is at a breaking point as the Israeli siege cuts off access to fuel.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees has said that it will be forced to suspend aid work in the Gaza Strip within 48 hours, as an Israeli siege strains access to much-needed fuel.

In a social media post on Monday, Thomas White, the Gaza chief for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said that fuel has not been allowed into Gaza for more than a month, as humanitarian conditions reach critical levels.

“The humanitarian operation in Gaza will grind to a halt in the next 48 hours as no fuel is allowed to enter Gaza,” White wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

As Israel continues to hammer Gaza with air strikes amid a ground offensive on the territory, a siege cutting off access to food, electricity, and fuel has overwhelmed organisations trying to assist those displaced and wounded by the fighting.

Palestinian authorities have said that Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least 11,240 people, including more than 4,600 children, since fighting began on October 7 when the Palestinian armed group Hamas carried out an attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.

The UN said on Monday that 101 workers in Gaza have been killed since the beginning of the fighting.

In Gaza, where the health system is being stretched to the breaking point, the collapse of medical and communications services has stymied casualty updates since November 10.

Palestinian doctors have pleaded that hospitals are running out of fuel, leaving them unable to save patients, including newborn children in incubators, as electricity generators stop working.

Israeli forces have closed in around al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, with medical workers and at least 650 patients trapped inside. Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said that 32 patients died in the last three days due to a shortage of power.

Israel says the hospital sits atop a complex of tunnels used by Hamas, an accusation the group denies.

“The tanks are in front of the hospital. We are under full blockade. It’s a totally civilian area. Only hospital facility, hospital patients, doctors and other civilians stay in the hospital. Someone should stop this,” Dr Ahmed El Mokhallalati, a surgeon, told the news outlet Reuters.

He added that Israel had bombed water tanks, water wells, and water pumps for the hospital and that those remaining were “barely surviving”.

Officials have also warned that the conditions created by the bombing and the siege could lead to the outbreak of disease, with access to clean water severely restricted.

“This morning two of our main water distribution contractors ceased working – they simply ran out of fuel – which will deny 200,000 people potable water,” White said.

Mansour Shouman, a displaced Palestinian who fled northern Gaza and sought refuge at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, told Al Jazeera that the conditions at the site were “primitive”.

“Let’s leave aside the food and the water, electricity, fuel. There is no safety, there is no security,” he said. “We were told, ‘Go to the south, you’ll be safe there.’ However, every day I’m hearing more ambulances come to the hospital. I’m seeing more people take their loved ones to the graveyard.”

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

Even as Palestinians in the West Bank protest against Israel’s war on Gaza, they’re facing increasing attacks themselves.

Ramallah, occupied West Bank – The Qalandia checkpoint wasn’t busy. There were just a few cars trying to cross into the occupied West Bank from Jerusalem.

It was November 1, and Palestinian groups had called a “day of rage” to protest Israel’s relentless bombing of the Gaza Strip. The previous day, Israeli bombs had devastated Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. The camp would take another hit on November 1 and then again a few days later.

In Ramallah, rubbish containers blocked some streets. Shops, restaurants and cafes were closed while street vendors were selling bananas to protesters. A large banner in Al-Manara Square read in English and Arabic, “We are not numbers,” alongside photos of some of the more than 4,000 Palestinian children who have been killed in the bombing.

About 200 people gathered to march, most of them teenagers. Some were covering their faces, others carrying posters with graphic pictures of the children killed in Gaza.

A 38-year-old-man attended the protest with his wife and young son. “We have been relying on the international community for 25 to 30 years, and things are only getting tougher,” he told Al Jazeera, expressing a sentiment that many Palestinians share about the lack of a unified and effective response from the international community to stop the attacks against Gaza.

Like many others attending the rally, he blamed the Palestinian Authority for not doing enough to defend Palestinian interests during the war. He put his son on his shoulders and walked on.

Another protester, a 35-year-old woman from Bethlehem, said she had been unable to return to her town because of the tightening of the checkpoints. But most of all, she said, she fears the settlers who have surrounded her hometown.

“Netanyahu has given thousands of weapons to the settlers. They do what they want,” she said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has personally handed out weapons to settlers in the West Bank and has said he has acquired 10,000 assault rifles to distribute.

When asked about how she thinks the war might end, the woman said: “Palestinians need the right to their land. Palestinians need to be free.”

Some of the young protesters at the rally shouted slogans threatening violence against Israel. A slim, bespectacled man in his 70s who was passing by muttered: “They are radicalizing.” He said he disapproves of violence as a means of resistance.

A day after the protest near Yasser Arafat’s mausoleum in Ramallah, a 29-year-old man with bright green eyes and a defiant stare was working in a coffee shop while chatting with some patrons. Palestinian Authority officials, he said, “just sit on their chairs and do nothing”.

“They [the settlers] are armed. We are not. Where is the resistance?” he asked. He pulled out his mobile phone to show videos of the body of a Palestinian teenager killed that day.

On the morning of November 2, the Israeli military raided the town of Qalqilya near Ramallah, killing two Palestinians. One of them was 14-year-old Ayhem Mahmud al-Shafi.

Since October 7, at least 183 Palestinians, including 44 children, have died in the West Bank in attacks by Israeli forces or settlers. More than 11,200 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, and about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel on October 7.

Ayham’s body was carried through the streets of Ramallah by hundreds of mourners. Shopkeepers closed their businesses as the mourners passed through the streets, chanting revolutionary songs about martyrs and the liberation of Palestine.

Some of the mourners urged onlookers to join the procession. On the sidewalks, a few women were crying. Others recorded the procession with their mobile phones.

As the body passed through Al-Amara Square, the procession stopped for a moment: Ayhem’s father, mother, uncle and a neighbour kissed him goodbye. To them, and to hundreds of mourners, Ayhem was not a number.

The unexpected return of former United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron to British politics during Israel’s war in Gaza and pro-Palestinian protests in Britain has sparked questions over the implications for the UK’s policies towards the Middle East.

Cameron, now foreign secretary, has previously called the Gaza Strip “a prison camp” and advocated for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, but he has also been a staunch backer of Israel. On October 9, as Israel announced a “total” blockade on Gaza and pummelled the enclave in retaliation for a surprise attack two days earlier by the armed Palestinian group Hamas, the 57-year-old made his pronouncement in favour of the Jewish state.

“I stand in complete solidarity with Israel at this most challenging time and fully back the Prime Minister and UK Government in their unequivocal and steadfast support,” he said on X, including the blue and white Israeli flag in his post.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Israel following the despicable acts of terror brought upon them over the weekend, and my heart goes out to all those who have so cruelly been taken against their will, and their families. Their worry and heartache is simply… pic.twitter.com/yFkRIorHjs

— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) October 9, 2023

Hundreds of thousands of protesters have marched in London in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza over the weekend as a small number of far-right groups staged counterprotests.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sacked Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Monday after she drew anger for accusing police of being too lenient with pro-Palestinian protesters and making comments described as “inflammatory”.

He replaced Braverman with Foreign Secretary James Cleverly before announcing Cameron as Cleverly’s surprise replacement.

Ben Whitham, professor of international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (SOAS), said that while Cameron was expected to strike “a more conciliatory tone”, he would not be favourable to Palestinians in the conflict.

“Certainly, like any senior Conservative politicians, he is broadly going to side with Israel and its alleged right to carry out the offensive in Gaza,” he told Al Jazeera.

Whitham said Cameron’s appointment was also aimed at “healing some of the divisions within the Conservative Party”.

“He is seen as having strong ties to strategic economic partners in the Middle East,” including an ongoing personal relationship with Saudi Arabia’s leadership, Whitman said.

‘Prison camp’

During his tenure as prime minister from 2010 to 2016, Cameron criticised Israel’s “illegal” settlements in the occupied West Bank and the blockade of the Gaza Strip. “Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp,” he said on a visit to Turkey in 2010.

However, as Palestinians in Gaza benefitted from a fleeting ceasefire that temporarily halted one of the deadliest bombardments in the enclave in 2014, his party rejected calls from coalition members to re-examine arms export licenses to Israel should the fighting resume.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz cited the episode among the reasons why Cameron was the most pro-Israeli British prime minister ever, snatching the honorific title from “ardent” supporters like Gordon Brown and Tony Blair and “unabashed admirers of the Zionist endeavour” of the calibre of Margaret Thatcher and Harold Wilson.

“In many ways, he sees the Middle East very similarly to Netanyahu,” Haaretz said, referring to current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also held office from 2009 to 2021. Since last month, Netanyahu has repeatedly refused a ceasefire in Gaza and has promised to wipe Hamas “off the face of the earth” in an aerial and ground offensive that has killed more than 11,200 Palestinians.

During the 50 days of hostilities lasting from July 8 to August 26, 2014, 2,251 Palestinians were killed. Sayeeda Warsi, a senior minister in Britain’s Foreign Office and Britain’s first Muslim to serve in the cabinet, resigned as the ceasefire collapsed and accused Cameron’s government of taking a “morally indefensible” approach to the conflict.

Warsi said at the time that the government’s response to the events in Gaza was one of the factors behind the radicalisation of British Muslims, which could have consequences for years to come, citing early evidence from the Home Office.

Yet, the member of the House of Lords appeared to have buried the hatchet as she welcomed Cameron back on Monday. “If ever there was a time for balanced, thoughtful, compassionate leadership it is now. Your country needs you,” Warsi said on X.

According to Whitham, the former prime minister’s personal ties with Saudi Arabia have played a decisive role in his political reinstatement. Cameron was among a handful of leaders, including former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and former US presidential senior adviser Jared Kushner, to travel to Saudi Arabia in 2019 for the “Davos in the Desert” summit.

“We have [a pillar] in British foreign policy in the Middle East that is becoming more important in the post-Brexit context, which is … that these foreign strategic allies outside of Europe, like Saudi Arabia, are really important,” Whitham said.

“Maintaining good relations with these partners comes above everything else,” he added. “And Cameron is seen very much as a continuity candidate in this respect.”

Military involvement in the Middle East

Cameron has been a supporter of using Britain’s “military prowess” to defeat groups regarded as “terrorists” in the Middle East. In 2014, as ISIL (ISIS) sought to establish a “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, he warned that the West faced having an “extremist” state on the borders of the Mediterranean if ISIL succeeded in its goals.

His government agreed to extend air strikes into Syria from Iraq, where he voted in favour of an invasion when it was put to the British Parliament in March 2003.

“Probably the most controversial foreign policy decisions during Cameron’s time as prime minister was the decision to use extrajudicial killings in Syria, which inaugurated a programme of drone strikes that continues to this day,” Whitham said.

Since his resignation in 2016 after his unsuccessful bid for Britain to remain in the European Union, Cameron’s Middle East policy has been reviewed and found to have had a lasting impact for the region.

In 2011 when Britain and France intervened in Libya, Cameron’s government said the operation was aimed at protecting civilians under fire from longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi. But the Foreign Affairs Committee later analysed the decision and found it had relied on flawed intelligence and hastened the North African country’s political and economic collapse.

The parliamentary report concluded that Cameron had a “decisive” role in the decision to intervene and must bear the responsibility for Britain’s role in the crisis in Libya.

Much like former US President Barack Obama, Cameron opened the path to the use of lethal force in parts of the Middle East, Whitham said. “Cameron has demonstrated that he’s quite keen on military intervention in the region,” he said.

“I wouldn’t want to speculate on whether he will join the chorus of pro-Israel voices and potentially frame Hamas as an extension of ISIS. That will be down to the line Sunak takes and Cameron will have to toe that line.”

NewsFeed

These Muslim shopkeepers in India are no longer stocking Israeli and US products in support of the people of Palestine, and it’s started a movement amongst the local community.

Aine Davis, 39, sentenced to eight years for firearms possession and fundraising for ‘terrorism’.

A British man who joined ISIL (ISIS) in Syria has been jailed for “terrorism” offences.

Aine Davis, 39, was sentenced on Monday to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to firearms possession and fundraising for “terrorism”, London’s Metropolitan Police said.

“Davis arranged for a large sum of money to be smuggled from the UK to fund the terrorist activities of Daesh – a group he had travelled to Syria to join,” Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, said in a statement.

“It has been nearly 10 years since Davis committed these crimes and I hope this case sends a message that we will relentlessly pursue and seek to prosecute anyone involved in terrorism both in the UK and abroad, no matter how much time has passed.”

ISIL gained notoriety for its gruesome methods and its recruits from around the world, including many Western countries.

Davis has been linked by captives to the ISIL cell known as the “Beatles” because of its members’ English accents.

The cell helped guard foreign prisoners in Syria and allegedly kidnapped foreign journalists and aid workers, beheading some hostages from the United States.

Davis, who was deported to the United Kingdom after being convicted of ISIL membership in Turkey, has consistently denied any involvement with the cell.

Two other members of the English-speaking cadre, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, have been given life sentences in the United States.

Speaking at London’s Old Bailey court on Monday, Judge Mark Lucraft sentenced Davis to serve six years for firearms possession and two years for terror funding.

“It is clear you have been with fighters in Syria and that you were not there for lawful purposes,” Lucraft said to Davis.

“I make it clear I am sentencing you for the offences on the indictment and for nothing else,” he added.

Davis’s lawyer Mark Summers apologised to the Syrian people on behalf of his client, saying his presence and that of the groups he associated with had “caused more harm than good” in the country.