Second Aid Convoy Enters Gaza

Egyptian Red Crescent members and volunteers gather next to a truck carrying humanitarian aid as it drives through the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer
Egyptian Red Crescent members and volunteers gather next to a truck carrying humanitarian aid as it drives through the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer
TT

Second Aid Convoy Enters Gaza

Egyptian Red Crescent members and volunteers gather next to a truck carrying humanitarian aid as it drives through the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer
Egyptian Red Crescent members and volunteers gather next to a truck carrying humanitarian aid as it drives through the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer

A convoy of 19 trucks bringing aid to besieged Palestinians crossed into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing on Sunday, Egypt’s state-run media reported.

A total of around 19 trucks in the convoy carrying medical and food supplies had been inspected by UNRWA, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, sources said.

The delivery would be the second shipment into the territory in the past two days.

Residents of Gaza have been under an Israeli blockade that cut off food, water, medicine and electricity since Hamas rampaged through southern Israel on Oct. 7.

The more than 2 million residents of the territory have been struggling under Israeli airstrikes and with dwindling resources since then.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said it will run out of fuel in Gaza in three days.

“Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries. Without fuel, aid will not reach many civilians in desperate need. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance,” Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner General, said in a statement Sunday.

A first delivery of aid that was allowed to cross into Gaza from Egypt on Saturday did not include any fuel.

"Without fuel, we will fail the people of Gaza whose needs are growing by the hour, under our watch. This cannot and should not happen,” Lazzarini said.

He called on “all parties and those with influence” to allow fuel into Gaza immediately, while ensuring that it is only used for humanitarian purposes.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said some of the water pipelines in Gaza have been restored, but “there are a couple of other pipelines” that Israel should restore.

He told NBC News in an interview that the US has concern about the spread of disease caused by the consumption of dirty water.



100 Million Captagon Pills Destroyed in Damascus

Members of the security forces with Syria's new government inspect a warehouse that used to hide pills of Captagon, a brand name of the psychostimulant drug Fenethylline, inside children's toys, hookahs, house doors and plastic insulation, during a raid in Latakia on January 19, 2025. (Photo by AAREF WATAD / AFP)
Members of the security forces with Syria's new government inspect a warehouse that used to hide pills of Captagon, a brand name of the psychostimulant drug Fenethylline, inside children's toys, hookahs, house doors and plastic insulation, during a raid in Latakia on January 19, 2025. (Photo by AAREF WATAD / AFP)
TT

100 Million Captagon Pills Destroyed in Damascus

Members of the security forces with Syria's new government inspect a warehouse that used to hide pills of Captagon, a brand name of the psychostimulant drug Fenethylline, inside children's toys, hookahs, house doors and plastic insulation, during a raid in Latakia on January 19, 2025. (Photo by AAREF WATAD / AFP)
Members of the security forces with Syria's new government inspect a warehouse that used to hide pills of Captagon, a brand name of the psychostimulant drug Fenethylline, inside children's toys, hookahs, house doors and plastic insulation, during a raid in Latakia on January 19, 2025. (Photo by AAREF WATAD / AFP)

Syrian security forces destroyed seized drugs Sunday including around 100 million pills of the amphetamine-like stimulant captagon -- whose production and trafficking flourished under ousted president Bashar al-Assad, an official told AFP.

“We destroyed large quantities of narcotic pills,” said official Badr Youssef, including “about 100 million captagon pills and 10 to 15 tons of hashish” as well as raw materials used to produce captagon.

He spoke from the Damascus headquarters of the defunct Fourth Division where the drugs were seized. The Fourth Division was controlled by Assad's brother, Maher.

Earlier, the official SANA news agency said: “the anti-narcotics department of the (interior) ministry is destroying narcotic substances seized at the headquarters of the Fourth Division.”

An AFP photographer saw security personnel in a Fourth Division warehouse load dozens of bags filled with pills and other drugs into trucks, before taking them to a field to be burned.

Over the past decade, the regime of Assad, ousted last month by opposition factions, has been accused of being the principal purveyor of Captagon, which flooded markets across the Middle East.

Revenues from Captagon sales sustained the old regime for much of the 13-year conflict. A 2022 AFP investigation found that Syria under Assad had become a narco state, with the $10-billion captagon industry dwarfing all other exports.

On Saturday, SANA reported that authorities had seized “a huge warehouse belonging to the former regime” in the coastal city of Latakia.

It said the factory “specialized in packing captagon pills into children's toys and furniture.”

On Sunday, an AFP photographer visited the warehouse near the port and saw security personnel dismantling children's bicycles that contained the small white pills.

Captagon pills had also been hidden inside objects such as doors, shisha water pipes and car parts, he reported.

Abu Rayyan, a security official in Latakia, said that “about 50 to 60 million captagon pills” had been seized that “belonged to the Fourth Division.”

“This is the largest such warehouse in the area,” he said.

Abu Rayyan said the drugs had been packed for export from Latakia “to neighboring countries,” and that they would be destroyed.