التصنيف: estaql

Idlib, Syria – In a small house in northwestern Syria, Muhammad Haninun is glued to his mobile phone, following the latest Israeli attacks taking place in Gaza.

For more than a month, he has watched videos of the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip and the displacement of civilians trying to escape the bombing. All the while, the events bring back clear memories of what he endured 75 years ago.

The 80-year-old cannot help but think about the similarities between what he is seeing in Gaza and what he experienced when he and his family were displaced during the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, in 1948 when Israel was created and more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly uprooted from their land and thousands were killed.

“The Palestinian tragedy is happening again,” Haninun said. “The people in Gaza are facing war without receiving any help the same as we did before.”

‘A cracked record’

Since October 7, when the armed wing of the Palestinian group Hamas, breached the separation wall that surrounds Gaza and attacked southern Israel, Western countries, led by the United States, hastened to condemn the movement that has been running the besieged Gaza Strip since 2006.

The condemnation was followed by Western financial and military support for Israel, which has been relentlessly bombing Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, for 35 days. Since October 7, at least 10,812 Palestinians, including 4,412 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel.

Similarly, during the first half of the 20th century, Britain provided military support in the form of protection and weapons to Zionists, encouraged Jewish immigration from Europe to Palestine and allowed them to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes as they built a new state for themselves.

In November 1948, Israelis used aircraft to bomb the northern village of Tarshiha in the countryside of Acre, destroying three houses – including Haninun’s family home – and killing seven of his relatives.

“Before that, we had evacuated our homes several times for two or three days and returned. We did not take anything,” he recalled. “We thought we would return, especially since we were not able to recover the dead from under the rubble.”

But they never could.

Haninun, then five years old, and four members of his family were forced to move between seven cities in Lebanon and Syria before they were allowed to stay in a refugee camp in Aleppo, a “tragic” setting with a small room for each family, no kitchen, bathroom or running water and shared toilets.

He remembers Arab radio stations and governments promising Palestinians a quick return – after seven days, then after seven weeks, then after seven months, until more than seven decades had passed.

“This cracked record has been playing since 1948, when people were fleeing from one village to another, only to face massacres afterwards, because the enemy viewed ‘others’ as animals, and killing them just like killing cattle – and this logic is still the same today.”

Haninun moved to the Syrian capital, Damascus, to study history. After this, he worked as a teacher in Aleppo, living in the camp there, until the Syrian war forced him to flee to Idlib in 2014. But what he still longs for is the chance, one day, to return to Palestine – and to his roots.

“There is still hope,” Haninun said. “If I die before I return to Palestine, I will tell my children and grandchildren that you have a right to that land and we are its true owners.”

Strengthening the Palestinian cause

On Thursday, the Ain Jalut Scouts and the Syrian Private Scouts marched through downtown Idlib, just one of the many activities held in the area over the past few weeks in support of Gaza.

Ayman Muhammad, 40, a displaced Palestinian residing in the northwestern Syrian city and the scout leader of the Ain Jalut group, told Al Jazeera that the injustice that Palestinians have endured for 75 years is the motivation for staging protests as well as fundraising and providing support via social media.

Israel’s war on Gaza has strengthened the Palestinian cause, Muhammad believes. “Today, the West and the East, from one end to the other, stand with the Palestinian people against the aggression.”

During October, major cities around the world witnessed demonstrations with hundreds of thousands of people participating to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and freedom for Palestine.

Palestinians in Idlib cannot stand by and watch, Muhammad said. Despite the difficult economic and security conditions in Idlib, he added, members of the Palestinian community and Syrian supporters here have managed to collect about $400,000 in donations for Gaza.

Syrian activists also participated in demonstrations in support of Palestine despite bombing by government forces and Russian warplanes targeting gatherings in the country’s last rebel stronghold. 

For Palestinians in northern Syria who are living through Syria’s war, the Syrian revolution and the Palestinian cause are now inseparable, Muhammad believes. “Victory will come for both causes because the right will not be lost as long as we demand it,” he said.

An escaped lion was filmed prowling the streets of an Italian seaside town for several hours after escaping from a circus.

Videos showed the big cat walking through dark and deserted streets of Ladispoli, near Rome, on Saturday evening.

Mayor Alessandro Grando warned residents to stay at home while police and circus staff sought to catch the animal.

In a Facebook post, more than five hours after his original message raised the alarm, Mr Grando said the lion had been “sedated and captured”.

“Now he will be taken in hand by the circus staff,” he wrote, thanking emergency services and volunteers who helped bring the beast, reportedly named Kimba, to heel.

“I hope that this episode can stir some consciences and that we can finally put an end to the exploitation of animals in circuses,” the mayor added.

He further stated that he had not authorised the presence of a circus with lions in the town, but said he did not have the power to prevent it.

تظاهر نحو 300 ألف متظاهر في العاصمة البريطانية لندن في مسيرة مؤيدة للفلسطينيين وتجديد المطالبة بوقف لإطلاق النار في غزة، فيما انتشرت الشرطة لمنع وقوع صدامات مع مظاهرة مضادة.

وقد انطلقت المظاهرة التي ينظمها “ائتلاف أوقفوا الحرب” تحت شعار “المسيرة الوطنية من أجل فلسطين”، بعد التوقف دقيقتي صمت تكريما لقتلى الحروب البريطانيين في يوم “ذكرى الهدنة” أمام نصب القبر الفارغ التذكاري بوسط لندن الساعة 11,00 ت غ.

وقال متحدث باسم الشرطة إن التقديرات تشير إلى أن نحو 300 ألف شخص شاركوا في التظاهرة. ورفع المتظاهرون أعلاما فلسطينية ولافتات تطالب ب”وقف قصف غزة” بينما هتفوا “أوقفوا إطلاق النار الآن” و”الحرية لفلسطين”، بعد أكثر من شهر على هجوم غير مسبوق لحركة حماس على إسرائيل قُتل فيه أكثر من 1200 شخص واحتجز نحو 240 آخرين رهائن، وفق إسرائيل.

وترد إسرائيل بحملة عسكرية أودت بأكثر من 11,000 شخص في غزة، وفق وزارة الصحة التابعة لحركة حماس في القطاع الساحلي.

ومع انطلاق المسيرة، هتف المتظاهرون “الحرية لفلسطين” و”وقف إطلاق النار الآن”. وقال شيراز بوبرا (41 عاما) الذي جاء من ليستر بوسط بريطانيا لوكالة فرانس برس “انسوا الموقف السياسي، انسوا كل شيء آخر، لا يمكنك أن تقف مكتوف اليدين بينما يُقتل الناس”، مضيفا أنه سيشارك كل أسبوع حتى يتم وقف إطلاق النار.

   وقال غافين سيرلي (58 عاما) من هاستينغز في جنوب بريطانيا، إنه جاء “لإظهار التضامن مع الفلسطينيين، بينما يحدث ظلم كبير”. وأضاف القس الكاثوليكي الأب جون ماكغوان “أتعاطف مع الفلسطينيين لأن أرضهم محتلة ومحتلهم يمكن أن يكون قاسيا”، معربا عن أمله في التوصل إلى حل الدولتين.

اعتقالات وصدامات 

وكانت قد اعتقلت شرطة مدينة لندن ما مجموعه 100 شخص في مسيرات سابقة مؤيدة للفلسطينيين، بتهم بينها تأييد حركة حماس المصنفة في بريطانيا على قوائم الإرهاب، وعلى خلفية جرائم كراهية.

غير أن مسيرة السبت أثارت قلقا لتزامنها مع “يوم الهدنة” الذي يحيي انتهاء الحرب العالمية الأولى في 1918، وعلى وقع انتقادات وجهت للشرطة لعدم حظرها التظاهرة.

ونُصبت حواجز معدنية في محيط المناطق التي تتضمن النصب الأكثر أهمية، وحُددت منطقة حظر فيما مُنحت الشرطة صلاحيات لاعتقال أي متظاهر يحاول التجمع هناك.

وأمام نصب القبر الفارغ في وايتهول، وقف آلاف الأشخاص منحني الرأس وقد وضعوا دبوس زهرة الخشخاش، رمز المناسبة خلال مراسم مهيبة فيما أقيمت مراسم في أنحاء البلاد.

هذا، وشهدت المظاهرة صدامات محدودة قرب النصب، عندما حاول متظاهرون من مسيرة مضادة كان العديد منهم يرتدون اللون الأسود ووجوههم ملثمة وآخرون يلوحون بالعلم البريطاني، اختراق طوق الشرطة. 

 وقالت الشرطة لاحقا إنها ألقت القبض على 82 متظاهرا يقومون باحتجاج مضاد من أجل “منع الإخلال بالسلم”، مشيرة إلى أنهم “حاولوا الوصول إلى مسيرة الاحتجاج الرئيسية”. وأضافت “سنواصل اتخاذ الإجراءات لتجنب الفوضى التي من المحتمل أن تحدث إذا حدث ذلك”.

   وذكر رئيس العمليات في شرطة لندن لورانس تايلور أن التظاهرة المضادة ستتضمن على الأرجح مشجعين لكرة القدم من مثيري الشعب، وأن “من المرجح” أن تستخدم الشرطة القوة في مرحلة ما ضد “جيوب من المواجهات”.

ورُشق عناصر الشرطة بمقذوفات في الحي الصيني (تشاينا تاون)، وفق ما أعلنت شرطة مدينة لندن على منصة إكس.

وكانت قد ذكرت وسائل إعلام بريطانية إن رئيس مجموعة “رابطة الدفاع الانكليزية” اليمينية المتطرفة تومي روبنسون، كان من المشاركين في المظاهرة المضادة.

مظاهرة “لا تنم عن الاحترام”…

ومن جانبه، انتقد رئيس الوزراء ريشي سوناك المظاهرة، ووصفها بأنها لا تنم عن الاحترام وسط مخاوف من أنها قد تثير أعمال عنف في يوم الهدنة.

ويذكر أن بريطانيا احتفلت السبت بيوم الهدنة الذي انتهت فيه الحرب العالمية الأولى، تكريما لذكرى قدامى المحاربين.

وتعتبر “المسيرة الوطنية من أجل فلسطين” هي الرابعة التي تشهدها لندن منذ بدء التصعيد غير المسبوق بين حماس وإسرائيل في السابع من تشرين الأول/ أكتوبر، لكن وزراء قالوا إنه يجب إلغاؤها بسبب تزامنها مع يوم الهدنة.

وكانت قد أفادت الشرطة أنها ستنشر ما يقرب من ألفين من أفراد الأمن، وتعهدت باتخاذ إجراءات صارمة ضد أي اضطرابات يسببها المشاركون في المسيرة أو احتجاج مضاد من قبل جماعات يمينية معارضة وقدامى المحاربين.

وقال لورانس تايلور نائب مساعد مفوض الشرطة والمسؤول المكلف بمتابعة المسيرات “أعتقد أنه إذا اجتمعت المجموعات (المختلفة) معا، فستحدث اضطرابات خطيرة”.

وأضاف للصحافيين “عملية الشرطة في مطلع هذا الأسبوع ضخمة”، وتابع أنها ستكون “صعبة ومفعمة بالتوتر”.

وقال منظمو حملة التضامن مع فلسطين إن مسيرة السبت ستبتعد عن النصب التذكاري للحرب بالقرب من مكتب سوناك في شارع داونينج، وستختتم عند السفارة الأمريكية على بعد حوالي ثلاثة كيلومترات.

وقالت الشرطة إنها ستفرض منطقة حظر حول المناطق المرتبطة بأحداث الذكرى، في حين تم نشر حراسة غير مسبوقة من الشرطة على مدار 24 ساعة في النصب التذكاري منذ الخميس.

“مسيرات كراهية”

رغم أن المسيرات السابقة لحملة التضامن مع فلسطين كانت سلمية بشكل عام، فإنه تم اعتقال أكثر من مئة شخص بسبب جرائم بما في ذلك إظهار الدعم لحماس، التي تصنفها بريطانيا منظمة إرهابية، أو حمل لافتات تحمل شعارات مسيئة.

وأثارت وزيرة الداخلية سويلا برافرمان، الوزيرة المسؤولة عن الشرطة، جدلا بعد وصف الاحتجاجات بأنها “مسيرات كراهية”.

وتعرض رئيس الوزراء لضغوط من أعضاء مجلس العموم في حزبه لإقالتها بعد أن اتهمت الشرطة بازدواجية المعايير بشأن كيفية تعاملهم مع “الغوغاء المؤيدين للفلسطينيين”.

وقال سوناك نفسه إن احتجاج السبت لا ينم عن الاحترام، لكن يجب السماح له بالمضي قدما، على الرغم من أنه قال إنه سيحمل قائد شرطة لندن المسؤولية عن حماية أحداث الذكرى.

وعبر أعضاء في مجلس العموم عن قلقهم من أن الجماعات اليمينية المتطرفة ستسعى إلى استغلال المناسبة كذريعة للعنف.

ودعا ستيفن ياكسلي لينون، الزعيم المشارك السابق لرابطة الدفاع الإنكليزية، التي نظمت مظاهرات عنيفة في كثير من الأحيان مناهضة للإسلام، أنصاره إلى التجمع في العاصمة.

توتر سياسي

   أُعلنت تعبئة أكثر من 1850 شرطيا بينهم عناصر من قوات أخرى في أنحاء بريطانيا للحفاظ على السلام. وسيُنشر 1375 عنصرا الأحد بموازاة مراسم وطنية في ذكرى يوم الهدنة، تقام عند نصب القبر الفارغ ويترأسها الملك تشارلز الثالث بحضور شخصيات من العائلة الملكية ومسؤولين سياسيين.

   ولم تُسهم وزيرة الداخلية سويلا برافرمان في تهدئة التوتر عندما اتهمت الشرطة بأنها أكثر تعاطفا مع ما يطلق عليه الاحتجاجات اليسارية مقارنة بغيرها.  ودعم الفلسطينيين سياسة قائمة منذ وقت طويل لليسار السياسي في بريطانيا.

   وبرز خلاف هذا الأسبوع بين الحكومة وشرطة مدينة لندن، ودعا وزراء إلى حظر المسيرة ما أثار مخاوف من تدخلات سياسية في عمليات الشرطة.

   وحذر سوناك قائد شرطة لندن مارك راولي من أنه سيحمله “المسؤولية” عن قراره السماح بتنظيم التظاهرة المناهضة لحرب إسرائيل وحركة حماس.

   وكان زعيم المحافظين قد اعتبر التظاهرة “استفزازية ومعيبة”، غير أن المنظمين رفضوا الدعوات لإرجائها.

   وقال راولي في وقت سابق هذا الأسبوع إن التظاهرة التي ينظمها “ائتلاف أوقفوا الحرب”، لا تبرر الطلب من الحكومة منع تنظيمها.

فرانس24/ رويترز/ أ ف ب

Medan, Indonesia – At this time of the year, it should be strawberry season in the Gaza Strip.

Instead, the fields traditionally planted with strawberries in September and harvested from November are now battlefields.

One of the most fertile regions for Palestine’s renowned strawberries is Beit Lahia, with its good climate, rich soil and high-quality water supplies.

Located in north Gaza, Beit Lahia is also the home of the Indonesian Hospital where medical volunteer from Indonesia Fikri Rofiul Haq is based with the Indonesian humanitarian organisation the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C).

“The Israeli forces have been bombing fields across the Gaza Strip and a lot of crops have died”, Haq told Al Jazeera.

“This year, there won’t be the usual produce like strawberries, even though it is the winter season,” he said.

Amid the horror of Israel’s war on Gaza, the destruction of Palestine’s strawberry harvest  may seem insignificant.

But for Haq – one of three Indonesian MER-C volunteers based at the Indonesian Hospital – the memory of Gaza’s strawberries helps him cope. Each day is now a matter of survival in the territory, where Israel is now concentrating its attacks on hospitals.

“At the beginning of the war, we were still able to get some goods from the area around the hospital, like vegetables and instant noodles, but now it is impossible to get fresh produce like onions, tomatoes and cucumbers,” he said, speaking to Al Jazeera through WhatsApp voice messages.

“At the Indonesia Hospital now, staff only get a meal once a day at lunchtime, which is provided by [the neighbouring] Al-Shifa Hospital. For breakfast and dinner, staff eat biscuits or dates,” he said.

Conditions at both the Indonesian and Al-Shifa hospitals, as well as other hospitals in Gaza, have seriously deteriorated since Al Jazeera last spoke to Haq on Friday.

Dr Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, warned on Saturday that hundreds of injured people as well as newborn babies needed to be urgently transported to an operational medical facility as his hospital was crumbling under the strain of a lack of fuel and medicine – as well as Israeli bombardments.

“It’s a tragedy. The dead bodies – we can’t put them in freezers as they’re not functioning so we decided to dig a pit in the vicinity of the hospital. It’s a very inhumane scene. The situation is totally out of control. Hundreds of bodies are decomposing,” Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera.

Atef al-Kahlot, the director of the Indonesian Hospital, said his facility is operating only at between 30-40 percent of capacity and he made an appeal for the world to help.

“We call on the honourable people of the world, if any of them are left, to put pressure on the occupation forces to supply the Indonesian Hospital and the rest of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip,” he said.

Before the war

Before the war, food supplies for the Indonesian Hospital were usually sourced from nearby areas, Haq said. At the start of Israel’s total blockade and attacks on Gaza, MER-C volunteers would go out to hunt for supplies in ambulances, provided by the hospital, which were considered safer than civilian vehicles.

Now the fighting has come so close to the hospital that it is too dangerous to venture outside.

Haq told Al Jazeera that he has been feeling particularly shaken lately, following an excursion about two weeks ago to source medical supplies for the hospital from civilian homes in the surrounding Al-Jalaa district, during which he thought he might die.

He and other volunteers from Indonesia were only about 20 minutes from the hospital when bombs started to fall some 200 metres (218 yards) away.

“I felt the most scared and resigned to my fate then, because we were in buildings owned by locals and, as we know, the Israeli military is destroying civilian homes,” he said.

“There was no guarantee of our safety. It made me feel extraordinary fear but, by the grace of God, we were protected.”

As a result of the trip, Haq was able to find some medical supplies for the hospital and hand out food packets to medical staff.

But since that near-miss with Israeli shells and missiles, he and the other volunteers have stayed within the hospital grounds where they sleep in the doctors’ quarters.

“The trauma we experienced was so great but, if we stay on the hospital grounds, I feel safe because the Israeli military has not directly attacked the hospital yet,” he said.

“The area around the hospital is being bombarded constantly and when that happens, I feel a very human fear,” he added.

In the past week, areas around the Indonesian and other hospitals in the Gaza Strip have been the targets of intensifying Israeli bombardments.

Israeli tanks have closed in, encircling the medical facilities where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought shelter as Israel’s bombardment flattens entire neighbourhoods in Gaza. More than 11,000 people have now been killed in the territory.

Haq recounts the Israeli bombing being so close that it made the hospital building shake and part of the roof had already collapsed.

“Usually, when there are bombings, the hospital building sways but on November 9, it felt as if the hospital was being lifted up off its foundations,” he said.

“It just made us terrified.”

Treating wounds and documenting tragedy

Haq told Al Jazeera that when the bombing starts, he and the other staff take refuge in the basement of the hospital. Their daily work schedule fluctuates according to the significant needs of staff and patients.

“Some days I work from 11am until 4pm the next day and just sleep a few hours where I can. The other day, I slept from 7am to 8am and then started again,” he said.

In 2011, MER-C organised donations to build the Indonesian Hospital, which was officially inaugurated in 2016 by Indonesia’s then-Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

MER-C staff are technically medical humanitarian volunteers. Now, one of their primary roles is to document the sick and injured who come to the hospital and monitor the attacks around the facility.

Haq and his colleagues also assist with medical treatment, particularly as the situation continues to deteriorate and doctors at the hospital are overrun with patients streaming in from surrounding areas.

“On Wednesday last week, when patients rushed to the hospital, we helped treat minor wounds because there were not enough doctors to handle all the patients,” he said.

While Indonesia has been working to evacuate some of its nationals in Gaza, Haq told Al Jazeera that he would not be one of them.

“God willing, me and the two other MER-C volunteers have decided to stay in the Gaza Strip,” he said.

“We really appreciate the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs helping to evacuate Indonesian citizens from Gaza, but that is our decision,” he said about choosing to remain in Gaza.

“We hope we can keep helping citizens of Gaza to find fuel, food and medical supplies, and treat them at the Indonesia Hospital. That is our motivation to keep going.”

Al Jazeera has been unable to contact Haq since midnight on Friday.