Lebanon Receives First UN Aid Plane since Israel's War

Staff unload a medical aid shipment at the Beirut International Airport - AFP
Staff unload a medical aid shipment at the Beirut International Airport - AFP
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Lebanon Receives First UN Aid Plane since Israel's War

Staff unload a medical aid shipment at the Beirut International Airport - AFP
Staff unload a medical aid shipment at the Beirut International Airport - AFP

A delivery of medical supplies from the United Nations reached Lebanon on Friday, a first since last week's Israeli war on Lebanon, said a UN agency and a Lebanese minister.

"An airlift... landed in Beirut earlier this morning with 30 metric tonnes of trauma and surgical supplies, enough to treat tens of thousands people," the World Health Organization's regional director Hanan Balkhy said on social media platform X.

"More flights are arriving later today and tomorrow, carrying trauma supplies, cholera supplies and mental health supplies," she added, AFP reported.

Rapidly escalating Israeli strikes since September 23 on Lebanon have killed more than 1,100 people in and wounded hundreds more, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Lebanese authorities said the violence has also displaced more than one million people from their homes in the tiny Mediterranean country, already mired in economic and political crises.

Health Minister Firass Abiad was at the Beirut airport on Friday to receive the aid organized by the World Health Organization and UN refugee agency UNHCR and funded by the United Arab Emirates.

"We are receiving the first shipment out of many," he said.

The shipment included "many trauma kits that will be crucial to support the hospitals as they receive the casualties from the Israeli attacks on Lebanon," he added.



Türkiye Says It Believes Kurdish Fighters Will Be Forced Out of All Syrian Territory

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler takes part in a NATO Defense Ministers' meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 12, 2023. (Reuters)
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler takes part in a NATO Defense Ministers' meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 12, 2023. (Reuters)
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Türkiye Says It Believes Kurdish Fighters Will Be Forced Out of All Syrian Territory

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler takes part in a NATO Defense Ministers' meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 12, 2023. (Reuters)
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler takes part in a NATO Defense Ministers' meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 12, 2023. (Reuters)

Türkiye believes Syria's new rulers, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) armed group which Ankara backs, will drive Kurdish YPG fighters from all territory they occupy in northeastern Syria, Defense Minister Yasar Guler said on Sunday.

Türkiye regards the Syrian YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought an insurgency against the Turkish state for 40 years and are deemed terrorists by Ankara, Washington, and the European Union.

The YPG spearheads an alliance, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is backed by the United States and controls territory in northeastern Syria. Since the fall of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, Türkiye and Syrian groups it backs have fought against the SDF, seizing the city of Manbij.

"We believe that the new leadership in Syria and the Syrian National Army, which is an important part of its army, along with the Syrian people, will free all territories occupied by terrorist organizations," Guler said during a visit to Turkish troops on the Syrian border with military commanders.

"We will also take every necessary measure with the same determination until all terrorist elements beyond our borders are cleared," he said in a video released by his ministry.

Ankara has demanded the Syrian Kurdish fighters disband, and has called on Washington to withdraw its support. The US military acknowledged last week it has 2,000 troops on the ground in Syria, twice as many as it had said previously.

On Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Türkiye would do "whatever it takes" to ensure its security if Syria's new administration was unable to address its concerns.