UN Envoy Urges Restraint over Yemen, Region ‘Increasingly Precarious’https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/4787396-un-envoy-urges-restraint-over-yemen-region-%E2%80%98increasingly-precarious%E2%80%99
UN Envoy Urges Restraint over Yemen, Region ‘Increasingly Precarious’
14 June 2022, US, New York: Hans Grundberg, UN envoy, speaks at a meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation in Yemen. (UN Photo/dpa)
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UN Envoy Urges Restraint over Yemen, Region ‘Increasingly Precarious’
14 June 2022, US, New York: Hans Grundberg, UN envoy, speaks at a meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation in Yemen. (UN Photo/dpa)
The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, on Saturday urged maximum restraint by all parties involved in Yemen and warned of an increasingly uncertain situation in the region.
The envoy "notes with serious concern the increasingly precarious regional context, and its adverse impact on peace efforts in Yemen and stability and security in the region," he said in a statement.
He reiterated the Secretary-General’s call for all involved to avoid actions that would worsen the situation in Yemen, escalate the threat to maritime trade routes, or further fuel regional tensions at this critical time.
He stressed the need to protect Yemeni civilians, and to safeguard the progress of peace efforts since the truce of April 2022.
This includes the recent commitments by the parties in December 2023 and the ongoing discussions around a UN Roadmap that would operationalize a nationwide ceasefire, resume an inclusive political process under UN auspices, and address key priorities for the benefit of the Yemeni people.
He urged "all involved to exercise maximum restraint and to prioritize diplomatic channels over military options," calling for de-escalation
Palestinians Mark ‘Nakba’ Anniversary as Thousands Flee Gaza’s Rafah https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5018181-palestinians-mark-%E2%80%98nakba%E2%80%99-anniversary-thousands-flee-gaza%E2%80%99s-rafah%C2%A0
14 May 2024, Palestinian Territories, Deir al-Balah: A displaced Palestinian woman from the city of Rafah fleeing the fighting stands in a building destroyed by Israeli warplanes, in light of the continuing violent fighting between Israel and Hamas. (dpa)
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Palestinians Mark ‘Nakba’ Anniversary as Thousands Flee Gaza’s Rafah
14 May 2024, Palestinian Territories, Deir al-Balah: A displaced Palestinian woman from the city of Rafah fleeing the fighting stands in a building destroyed by Israeli warplanes, in light of the continuing violent fighting between Israel and Hamas. (dpa)
Tens of thousands of civilians fled the southern Gaza city of Rafah ahead of a threatened Israeli ground offensive, as Palestinians on Wednesday mark the anniversary of their "Nakba" or "catastrophe" of 1948.
During the war that accompanied Israel's creation, around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes and many took refuge in what would later become the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Wednesday's commemoration of the "Nakba" comes as multiple battles between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters across the Gaza Strip force waves of Palestinian mass displacement.
Nearly 450,000 Palestinians have been displaced from Rafah since May 6, and around 100,000 from northern Gaza, UN agencies said.
That means around a quarter of Gaza's population of 2.4 million people have been displaced again in about one week.
UN chief Antonio Guterres repeated his call for a humanitarian ceasefire to allow more aid into the besieged territory.
"I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and for the release of all hostages. I call for the Rafah crossing to be re-opened immediately and for the unimpeded humanitarian access throughout Gaza," he posted Tuesday on social media site X.
The war and siege have triggered a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with the UN repeatedly lamenting aid restrictions as famine stalks the north.
Since Israeli troops moved into eastern Rafah, the aid crossing point from Egypt has remained closed and the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing lacks "safe and logistically viable access", a UN report said late Monday.
Qatar, which has been mediating peace talks, said Gazans "have not received any aid" since May 9.
A smoke plume rises during Israeli bombardment in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 14, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
- Attack on aid convoy -
Israeli police on Tuesday said they had opened an investigation after right-wing activists stopped and ransacked at least seven Gaza-bound aid trucks coming from Jordan, leaving food spilt on the road.
One of the activists, Hana Giat, said that with hostages still held by Hamas, "no humanitarian aid should go in before our hostages are out, safe in their homes".
Both the United States, which called it "a total outrage", and Britain, said they would raise concerns about the incident with Israel's government.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on Israeli authorities to stop the attacks and hold those responsible to account.
"I'm outraged by the repeated & still unchecked attacks perpetrated by Israeli extremists on aid convoys on their way to Gaza, including from Jordan. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are starving," Borrell posted on X late Tuesday.
The bloodiest-ever Gaza war erupted after Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Gunmen also seized about 250 hostages, 128 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 36 the military says are dead.
Israel's relentless bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza have since killed at least 35,173 people, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Clashes have rocked densely crowded Rafah but also flared again in northern and central Gaza months after troops and tanks first entered those areas.
At least five people were killed, including a woman and her child, and several others wounded, in two Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on Tuesday night, according to Gaza's civil defense agency.
Israel last week defied a chorus of warnings -- including from top ally Washington which paused a shipment of bombs -- and sent troops and tanks into the east of Rafah to pursue militants.
- 'No clarity on how to stop war' -
Battles and heavy Israeli bombardments have been reported around Rafah as well as in Gaza City and Jabalia refugee camp in the north, and Nuseirat camp in the center.
At Gaza City's Al-Ahli hospital, the wounded and the dead arrived.
A shirtless man, his chest smeared with blood, lay on a hard cot hooked up to a monitor. Outside, several men carried a shrouded corpse and placed it in the shade of a tree blooming red flowers.
Despite threatening to withhold some arms over concerns of a Rafah assault, US President Joe Biden's administration informed Congress on Tuesday of a $1 billion weapons package for Israel, official sources told AFP.
US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel earlier Tuesday said that while Washington backed military pressure on Hamas, it was not the only way to "fully defeat" the militants.
Patel reiterated Washington's position that, without a political plan for Gaza's future, militants "will keep coming back and Israel will continue to remain under threat", leading to "this continued cycle of violence".
Momentum had been building in truce negotiations, mediator Qatar's prime minister said on Tuesday, but "what happened with Rafah has set us backward".
Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said that "right now we are on a status of almost a stalemate".
Egypt and the United States have also been mediating.
"There is no clarity how to stop the war from the Israeli side. I don't think that they are considering this as an option," Sheikh Mohammed said.
On the eve of the "Nakba" commemoration, thousands of people took part in an annual march that took them through the ruins of villages that Palestinians were expelled from during the 1948 war that led to Israel's creation.
Eyes glistening with tears, Abdul Rahman al-Sabah, 88, recalled how members of the Haganah, a Zionist paramilitary group, forced his family from al-Kassayer and "blew up our village".
UN Launches Probe into First International Staff Killed by Unidentified Strike in Rafah https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5018136-un-launches-probe-first-international-staff-killed-unidentified-strike-rafah%C2%A0
Smoke billows during Israeli strikes in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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UN Launches Probe into First International Staff Killed by Unidentified Strike in Rafah
Smoke billows during Israeli strikes in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
The United Nations has launched an investigation into an unidentified strike on a UN car in Rafah on Monday that killed its first international staff in Gaza since Oct. 7, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary General said.
The staff member, a retired Indian Army officer named Waibhav Anil Kale, was working with the UN Department of Safety and Security and was on route to the European Hospital in Rafah along with a colleague, who was also injured in the attack.
Israel has been moving deeper into Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than a million people had sought shelter, and its forces pounded the enclave's north on Tuesday in some of the fiercest attacks in months.
Israel's international allies and aid groups have repeatedly warned against a ground incursion into Rafah, where many Palestinians fled, and Israel says four Hamas battalions are holed up. Israel says it must root out the remaining fighters.
In a statement on Monday after Kale's death, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres reiterated an "urgent appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and for the release of all hostages," saying the conflict in Gaza was continuing to take a heavy toll "not only on civilians, but also on humanitarian workers".
Palestinian health authorities say Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza since Oct. 7 has killed more than 35,000 people and driven most of the enclave's 2.3 million people from their homes.
His deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Tuesday the UN has established a fact-finding panel to determine the responsibility for the attack.
"It’s very early in the investigation, and details of the incident are still being verified with the Israeli Defense Force," he said.
There are 71 international UN staff members in Gaza currently, he said.
In its only comment on the matter yet, India's mission to the UN confirmed Kale's identity on Tuesday, saying it was "deeply saddened" by his loss.
Israel, which launched its Gaza operation after an attack on Oct. 7 by Hamas-led gunmen who killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, according to its tallies, has ordered civilians to evacuate parts of Rafah.
The main United Nations aid agency in Gaza, UNRWA estimates some 450,000 people have fled the city since May 6. More than a million civilians had sought refuge there.
HRW Warns of Imminent Threat to Displaced Iraqis in Sinjarhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5018071-hrw-warns-imminent-threat-displaced-iraqis-sinjar
HRW Warns of Imminent Threat to Displaced Iraqis in Sinjar
A view of the Chamishko refugee camp in Iraq, August 3, 2014. (Getty Images)
The Iraqi Migration Ministry rejected on Tuesday a Human Rights Watch report that warned against violating the rights of displaced residents from the Sinjar district if authorities plan the closure of camps in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region by next July 30.
Despite the liberation of the region from ISIS nine years ago, many Sinjar residents still live in displacement camps in Kurdistan or in diaspora countries.
On Tuesday, spokesperson of the Migration Ministry Ali Abbas Jahangir told Asharq Al-Awsat the HRW report “may be inaccurate” because the Iraqi government has linked its decision to close IDP camps in Kurdistan to three basic options that are based on international standards.
Three options
Listing the three options, Jahangir said the IDPs could either return to Sinjar, relocate to other cities under federal control, or remain in the Kurdistan Region but outside the camps.
There are 23 camps in Iraq, mostly located across Kurdistan. The camps currently host about 30,000 families or more than 150,000 people, including 25,000 families from Sinjar, according to the spokesperson.
Jahangir said the Ministry’s role is to implement the decisions of the Iraqi government, and therefore, is not concerned with ensuring services and infrastructure in the areas where the displaced people should return.
He added: “We have more than 22,000 families returning to Sinjar and we have more than 5,000 applications for return submitted.”
Jahangir said the Ministry announced a package of aid and incentives for returnees, including a one-time payment of 4 million Iraqi dinars (about $2,600) per family, social security benefits, and interest-free small business loans.
The HRW had warned on Monday that the planned closure of displaced people’s camps in Kurdistan by a July 30 deadline will imperil the rights of many camp residents from Sinjar.
Sinjar remains unsafe and lacks adequate social services to ensure the economic, social, and cultural rights of thousands of displaced people who may soon be forced to return, the organization said.
Security and political sources agree that Iraq has not been able to extend its full authority in Sinjar. They said the security of the province is still run by a group of official forces, in addition to Arab and Kurdish armed factions, including the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Voluntary return
Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “Many Sinjaris have been living in camps since 2014 and they deserve to be able to go home, but returns need to be safe and voluntary.”
She warned that given the lack of services, infrastructure, and safety in the district, the government risks making an already bad situation worse.
“Nobody wants to live in an IDP camp forever, but closing these camps when home isn’t safe is not a sustainable solution to displacement,” Sanbar said.
Although the HRW report noted the package of aid and incentives offered by the Iraqi government to encourage returnees, it found in a 2023 report that the main barriers to Sinjaris’ return were the government’s failure to provide compensation for the loss of their property and livelihoods, delayed reconstruction, an unstable security situation, and lack of justice and accountability for crimes and abuses against them.
UN-Sponsored International Peace Conference to Address Palestinian Cause in Bahrainhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5018066-un-sponsored-international-peace-conference-address-palestinian-cause-bahrain
UN-Sponsored International Peace Conference to Address Palestinian Cause in Bahrain
Arab foreign ministers met in Manama on Tuesday in preparation for the summit. (dpa)
The Permanent Representative of Palestine to the League of Arab States said that leaders at the Arab Summit in Bahrain on Thursday will call for an international peace conference to resolve the Palestinian cause, under the auspices of the United Nations.
Ambassador Muhannad Al-Aklouk revealed that the Bahraini Minister of Foreign Affairs confirmed, during his speech at the meeting of Arab foreign ministers, that the summit will adopt a set of Arab initiatives, including “holding an international peace conference to resolve the Palestinian issue, under the auspices of (the United Nations), on the territory of Bahrain.”
Al-Aklouk added that Palestine welcomes and supports the initiative, and considers it a response to the peace plan previously presented by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2018.
In press statements on the sidelines of the meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Manama, on Tuesday, the permanent representative of Palestine to the Arab League said that the conference aims to launch a serious political process with a specific time limit, leading to ending the occupation on the basis of international references for the peace process, including the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
“The Bahrain summit is expected to adopt the term genocide to describe the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, which claimed thousands of lives and caused the destruction of infrastructure,” he remarked.
Al-Aklouk went on to say that other measures are expected to be announced during the summit, including “calling on the Security Council to adopt a resolution under Chapter Seven of the (United Nations) Charter to oblige Israel to commit to a ceasefire,” stressing that Chapter Seven “includes imposing sanctions if the decisions are not implemented.”
“The Arab Summit is scheduled to consider the invasion of the city of Rafah as an attack on Arab national security,” he stated, pointing to the threats to Egypt’s security.
Austin Reiterates US Commitment to Egypt’s, Middle East Securityhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5018061-austin-reiterates-us-commitment-egypt%E2%80%99s-middle-east-security
File photo: US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a meeting with Canadian Defense Minister William Blair at the Pentagon on May 13, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew ANGERER / AFP)
Austin Reiterates US Commitment to Egypt’s, Middle East Security
File photo: US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a meeting with Canadian Defense Minister William Blair at the Pentagon on May 13, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew ANGERER / AFP)
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin reiterated to his Egyptian counterpart the US commitment to the Middle East and Egyptian security in the face of regional threats.
A statement released by the US Department of Defense on Tuesday said that Austin “spoke with Egypt's Minister of Defense, General Mohamed Zaki, today to discuss regional challenges and our deep bilateral security cooperation".
“Secretary Austin reiterated US commitment to the Middle East and Egyptian security in the face of regional threats and expressed appreciation for Egypt's leadership in preventing the spread of the current conflict and in providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza", added the statement.
UNICEF: Failure to Open Gaza Border Crossings Will lead to 'Tragedy'https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5017901-unicef-failure-open-gaza-border-crossings-will-lead-tragedy
UNICEF: Failure to Open Gaza Border Crossings Will lead to 'Tragedy'
People gather at UNRWA school in Jabalia, Gaza Strip, on May 14, 2024 (AFP)
UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Adele Khodr said in a statement on Tuesday that Gaza border crossings must be swiftly opened, and humanitarian organizations allowed to safely move and provide critical life-saving assistance upon which all children in Gaza depend.
"Failure to do so will lead to a tragedy even greater than what we have already witnessed – an outcome we must urgently work to avoid," she stressed.
“After over seven months of conflict, with tens of thousands of lives lost and countless appeals for ceasefire, the violence persists. It is crucial that weapons go silent and children’s rights are respected. The children of Gaza, who have endured unimaginable horrors, deserve an immediate ceasefire and a chance for a peaceful future."
She also said that the escalation of hostilities in Rafah and throughout the Gaza Strip has deepened the suffering of hundreds of thousands of children, who have endured an unrelenting nightmare for the past 218 days.
"We cannot accept their plight being live streamed as collateral damage in a conflict they never chose."
“Last week, a long-feared military operation began in Rafah, displacing over 448,000 people to unsafe areas like Al-Mawasi and Deir al Balah. Meanwhile, heavy bombardment and ground operations have spread to northern Gaza, leaving a trail of destruction in areas such as Jabaliya refugee camp and Beit Lahia. At least 64,000 people there have been forced to flee their devastated homes."
Khodr affirmed that since the start of the most recent escalation, UNICEF has been facing increased challenges to transport any assistance into the Gaza Strip.
“I’m also very concerned about water infrastructure and access to clean water and sanitation across Gaza. In the north, vital wells have suffered great damage, while in Rafah at least eight facilities are down, impacting around 300,000 people, many of them children who will likely revert to contaminated water and become seriously ill. When water fails, children suffer the most"
Israel Army Says Civilian Killed In Rocket Fire From Lebanonhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5017891-israel-army-says-civilian-killed-rocket-fire-lebanon
Israel Army Says Civilian Killed In Rocket Fire From Lebanon
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the frontier - AP Photo
Israel's army said rockets fired from Lebanon on Tuesday killed a civilian and wounded five soldiers on the Israeli side of the border.
"On the northern border, a civilian was killed today from an anti-tank missile that hit Adamit," a kibbutz community on the border with Lebanon, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing.
The army said in a statement that "several anti-tank missile launches were identified from Lebanon", and that one soldier was moderately wounded and four others were lightly hurt, AFP reported.
According to media reports, the person killed was a man who had been visiting the village.
Hagari meanwhile said "during the day, we've attacked dozens of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon".
Israel and Hamas-ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire following the Palestinian group's October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked war in Gaza.
On Monday, Israel's army said missiles fired from Lebanon had wounded four Israeli soldiers.
UN Official Calls For Syria Support Ahead of Donor Conferencehttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5017881-un-official-calls-syria-support-ahead-donor-conference
UN Official Calls For Syria Support Ahead of Donor Conference
Children seen at Al-Hol camp - AAWSAT
A UN humanitarian official visiting northwest Syria on Tuesday urged the international community to fund crucial aid programs in the war-torn country ahead of an upcoming pledging conference in Brussels.
The Idlib region, Syria's last main bastion of armed opposition, hosts about three million people, many of whom are displaced from other parts of the country.
Existing financing "is clearly not enough to meet the needs of the most vulnerable people", said David Carden, UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, from Murin in Idlib province.
Aid groups have warned of donor fatigue after 13 years of war in Syria, with the international community now focused on conflicts elsewhere.
Syria's humanitarian response plan for 2024 requires more than $4 billion but is only six percent funded, Carden told AFP.
Insufficient resources are also impacting the UN's ability to truck aid across the border from Turkey and support those who need it in the county's northwest.
Ahead of the Brussels conference later this month, Carden said that "we need continued support for the Syria program".
We need to do everything we can to ensure that the people in Syria can get back on their feet and start reliving their lives," he said.
"After 13 years of conflict people are tired of handouts."
Janne Suvanto of the World Food Program, who was part of the delegation visiting Idlib, said "the food security situation in northwest Syria is very bad".
"There are over 600,000 people who are severely food insecure," he told AFP.
About 90 percent of Syrians live in poverty, according to the United Nations.
Civil war erupted in Syria after President Bashar al-Assad crushed peaceful anti-government protests in 2011.
The conflict has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions after spiralling into a devastating war involving foreign armies, militias and militants.
Egypt Strongly Condemns Israel’s Allegations about Rafah Crossinghttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5017516-egypt-strongly-condemns-israel%E2%80%99s-allegations-about-rafah-crossing
18 March 2023, Egypt, Cairo: Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry speaks during a press conference at Tahrir Palace. (dpa)
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Egypt Strongly Condemns Israel’s Allegations about Rafah Crossing
18 March 2023, Egypt, Cairo: Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry speaks during a press conference at Tahrir Palace. (dpa)
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry strongly condemned on Tuesday Israel's attempt to blame Egypt for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Shoukry added in a statement that Israel's seizure of the Rafah border crossing from Gaza into Egypt as well as its military operations in the area were the main reasons for aid being unable to enter Gaza.
Shoukry stressed that his country "categorically rejects" Israel’s policy of "twisting facts and shirking responsibility".
"Israel alone is responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe the Palestinians are facing in Gaza," he stated.
"Israel must assume its legal responsibilities as an occupying power and allow the entry of aid through land crossings under its control," he demanded.
Earlier, Israel said it was up to Egypt to reopen the Rafah Crossing and allow humanitarian relief into the Gaza Strip.
"The key to preventing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza is now in the hands of our Egyptian friends," Israel's Foreign Affairs Minister Katz said in comments circulated to reporters.
Katz said he had spoken with his British and German counterparts about "the need to persuade Egypt to reopen the Rafah crossing", adding he would also speak with Italy's foreign minister later on Tuesday.
The Palestinian group Hamas, which has been running Gaza, will not "control the Rafah crossing", Katz said, citing security concerns over which Israel "will not compromise".
Egypt has consistently said the crossing has remained open from its side throughout the conflict that began between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7.
Cairo has been one of the mediators in stalled ceasefire talks, but its relationship with Israel has come under strain since Israeli forces seized the Rafah Crossing on May 7.
The United Nations and other international aid agencies said the closing of two crossings into southern Gaza - Rafah and Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom - had virtually cut the enclave off from outside aid.
The UN had already warned, prior to the closing of the two crossings, that Gaza is on the brink of famine.
Israel launched its current Gaza offensive following an attack on Oct. 7 by Hamas-led gunmen who rampaged through Israeli communities near the enclave, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The Palestinian death toll in the war has now surpassed 35,000, according to Gaza health officials.
Palestinians in Israel Demand Refugee Return on ‘Nakba’ Anniversaryhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5017496-palestinians-israel-demand-refugee-return-%E2%80%98nakba%E2%80%99-anniversary
People take part in a march in support of the Palestinian people ahead of the Nakba day at the Kasayir village, in Haifa, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. (AP)
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Palestinians in Israel Demand Refugee Return on ‘Nakba’ Anniversary
People take part in a march in support of the Palestinian people ahead of the Nakba day at the Kasayir village, in Haifa, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. (AP)
Thousands of flag-waving Palestinians marched in northern Israel on Tuesday to commemorate the flight and forced flight of Palestinians during the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation, and to demand the right of refugees to return.
Many of the about 3,000 people also called for an end to the war in Gaza as they took part in the march near the city of Haifa marking the "Nakba", or "catastrophe", when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven out during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation.
Many held up Palestinian flags and wore keffiyeh head scarves during the annual Return March, a rare Palestinian demonstration permitted to go ahead in Israel as the war in the Gaza Strip rages on.
Many clutched water bottles, and some pushed strollers, as they marched along a dirt path. One person held aloft half a watermelon, which became a Palestinian symbol after Israeli bans on the flag because of its red, green and black colors. Others called for Palestinians to be freed from Israeli occupation.
"This is part of our liberation," said Fidaa Shehadeh, coordinator of the Women Against Weapons Coalition and former member of the Lydd Municipality Council. "It's not only about ending the occupation but also about allowing all refugees the ability to return to the homeland."
Some 700,000 Palestinians left or were forced to flee their homes during the 1948 war. Shehadeh said her family was forcibly displaced from the coastal village of Majdal Asqalan, with some fleeing to the city of Lydd in what became Israel and others to Gaza. She considered herself an internally displaced person.
She said "refugees remain refugees" 76 years later.
Shehadeh said her uncles and aunts in Gaza, whom she said she was last able to visit in 2008 with Israeli approval, are now displaced again as they try to escape Israel's bombardment.
They do not know if or when they will be able to return to their homes, she said.
Shehadeh said she travels to the West Bank almost weekly to top up e-SIMs for her Gaza relatives so that they can remain in contact.
"Sometimes we wait for days to receive a 'good morning' message, that's how we know whoever sent it is still alive," she said.
Over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza war, Gaza health officials say. Israel began its offensive in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas, after the Oct. 7 raid led by gunmen from the group in which 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 253 abducted, according to Israeli tallies.
Palestinians living in Israel hold Palestinian flags as they take part in the annual Return March to mark the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, the "catastrophe" of their mass dispossession in the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, near Haifa, in northern Israel, May 14, 2024. (Reuters)
ARABS IN ISRAEL
Arabs make up about a fifth of Israel's population. They hold Israeli citizenship while many identify with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
Every year, participants of the march, among them descendants of Palestinians who were internally displaced during the 1948 war, visit a different village that was destroyed or depopulated by Zionist militias.
Israel rejects the Palestinian right of return as a demographic threat to a country it describes as the nation-state of the Jewish people. It has said Palestinian refugees must settle in their host countries or in a future Palestinian state.
Kareem Ali, 12, held a sign reading "My grandparents lived in Kasayir" as he marched beside his father, Hamdan, referring to one of the villages being remembered this year. The family now resides in Shefa'amr in northern Israel.
For many years, Hamdan's father, a farmer, would pass by the depopulated village and pick figs from a tree that remained, Hamdan said.
"Our memory is our power," he said.
Some Arab citizens say they have experienced increased hostility during the Gaza war, with hundreds facing criminal proceedings, disciplinary hearings and expulsions from universities or jobs, Haifa-based rights group Adalah says.
Israeli police have said they are combating incitement to violence.
BADIL, a Bethlehem-based organization advocating for refugee rights, estimated that by the end of 2021 some 65% of 14 million Palestinians globally were forcibly displaced persons, including refugees and citizens of Israel who were internally displaced.
Some 5.9 million people are registered with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). Most people in Gaza are refugees.
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