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Blocked by Israel for Years, Palestinian Mail Finally Arrives

Palestinian postal workers go through sacks of previously undelivered mail. (AFP)
Palestinian postal workers go through sacks of previously undelivered mail. (AFP)
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Blocked by Israel for Years, Palestinian Mail Finally Arrives

Palestinian postal workers go through sacks of previously undelivered mail. (AFP)
Palestinian postal workers go through sacks of previously undelivered mail. (AFP)

Palestinian postal service employees are working overtime to sort through some 10 tons of letters and packages blocked by Israel for up to eight years, Palestinian officials said Tuesday.

The parcels, dating from between 2010 and this year, had been prevented by Israel from entering the West Bank via Jordan but were released in a one-time deal, the officials said.

The goods range from simple letters to medicine and even wheelchairs for the disabled, AFP journalists found at the sorting center in the occupied West Bank city of Jericho.

Palestinian Telecommunications Minister Allam Mousa accused Israel in a statement of having blocked the delivery and of delaying the implementation of an agreement on postal services.

Israeli authorities confirmed the packages had been transferred and said an agreement was in the works, but did not comment in detail.

Ramadan Ghazawi, an official at the sorting center in Jericho, said he understood some items had been blocked for security reasons, while others were barred on administrative grounds.

"A few days ago Israel allowed more than 10 tons of postal parcels that were stuck in Jordan," he told AFP.

He said it would take his staff another two weeks to sort through all the parcels and get them delivered to their recipients.

Israel controls all entrances and exits to the West Bank and can prevent goods passing through as it sees fit.

Palestinian officials say such control cripples their economy and freedom of movement.

In the sorting center, hundreds of bags were piled on top of each other as workers picked through them in the stifling summer heat.

Ghazawi said that the parcels and letters, mostly the former, had been sent from all over the world.

Many were goods ordered online by Palestinians that never arrived.

A note attached to a wheelchair said it was sent from Turkey in 2015 and meant to be delivered to the Gaza Strip.

COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body responsible for civilian coordination in the Palestinian territories, said the release was part of confidence building measures after the two sides agreed on a postal entry deal "about a year ago".

It said while the deal had not yet gone into force for future deliveries, it had "allowed a one-time transfer of approximately ten and a half tons of mail that had been held in Jordan".

Some of the transferred goods had been broken, and Ghazawi said that to avoid complaints they were delivering them along with a statement saying Israeli authorities had delivered them in this condition.

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Tunisia's Sandy Beaches Eaten away by Coastal Erosion

A man looks on as a digger spreads sand on a beach in the tourist town of Hammamet as authorities fight to protect the coast from rising sea levels and erosion. FETHI BELAID / AFP
A man looks on as a digger spreads sand on a beach in the tourist town of Hammamet as authorities fight to protect the coast from rising sea levels and erosion. FETHI BELAID / AFP
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Tunisia's Sandy Beaches Eaten away by Coastal Erosion

A man looks on as a digger spreads sand on a beach in the tourist town of Hammamet as authorities fight to protect the coast from rising sea levels and erosion. FETHI BELAID / AFP
A man looks on as a digger spreads sand on a beach in the tourist town of Hammamet as authorities fight to protect the coast from rising sea levels and erosion. FETHI BELAID / AFP

In Tunisia's seaside town of Hammamet, bulldozers diligently shovel sand from a nearby desert onto a popular beach in an attempt to stop it from disappearing due to erosion.
"This beach is the postcard image of Hammamet," said environmentalist Chiheb Ben Fredj peering nostalgically at the town's iconic Yasmine beach.
"It has been seared in our minds since our childhood," he added, as laborers worked to restore the central Tunisian waterfront to its former sandy glory, reported Agence France Presse.
Like many other coastal areas in North Africa, severe erosion has led to many of Hammamet's sandy beaches vanishing in recent years, taking a toll on the holiday hotspot about 65 kilometers (40 miles) east of the capital Tunis.
Coastlines across the world are in a constant natural flux, with the seas claiming and depositing sediment.
But human activity, including coastal property development and offshore sand mining, significantly accelerates beach erosion.
Among other impacts, construction and coastal defenses in one area can stop sediment from traveling along a coastline, leaving existing beaches deprived of new material.
Studies have also shown the impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures and sea levels, exacerbate the phenomenon.
Tourism draw
In the Mediterranean, where the British National Oceanography Centre says sea levels have risen at a higher rate over the past 20 years than the entirety of the 20th century, shorelines are changing rapidly.
The sea is also warming 20 percent faster than the rest of the world, according to the United Nations.
Tunisia's coastline has been a major asset for the Mediterranean country with a struggling economy, as it aims to host some 10 million tourists this year.
Tourism accounts for up to 14 percent of the country's GDP, providing tens of thousands of jobs in a country where unemployment tops 16 percent and 40 percent among young people.
Tunisia has already lost more than 90 kilometers of beaches to erosion, according to official figures from last year.
Of the country's 570 kilometers of sandy beaches suitable for swimming, 190 kilometers are at imminent risk of disappearing, according to Tunisian reports.
A majority of the beaches most affected by erosion are located near cities.
Tunisia's environmental groups, as well as the government's Coastal Protection and Development Agency (APAL), blame the rapid erosion mostly on human activity and construction on the coast, which they say is further aggravated by climate change.
"Construction projects have not been designed to respect coastal dynamics," an APAL official told AFP.
'Not sustainable'
To save the Hammamet beach, one of Tunisia's worst-affected according to the World Bank, authorities last month began trucking in around 750 lorry loads filled with sand from the inland desert province of Kairouan, about 110 kilometers away.
APAL, which operates under the environment ministry, was in a race against time to refill the beach before the peak of tourist season.
But while the rebuilding of beaches, known as beach nourishment, may be a quick fix, "it's not a sustainable solution", said Ben Fredj.
"This sand may not last long," added the secretary general of the Environmental Education Association.
"It can be swallowed in a few days in the event of a storm", he said, as was the case in the summer of 2023.
The process can also prove expensive.
Coastal authorities estimated the cost of restoring sand to three beaches in Hammamet, Monastir and Sfax at 3.9 million Tunisian dinars ($1.25 million).
But for locals, restoring their priceless seafront is worth the money.
The Yasmine beach "is a showcase for Hammamet," said Narjess Bouasker, who runs the town's Menara hotel and leads the regional hotel federation.
"We must take back our beach that the sea has swallowed," she said, calling for a balance between safeguarding the landscape, cherished by locals and foreign visitors alike, and fighting coastal erosion.
"For us, the priority is not to touch the beauty of the city," she said.
Bouasker said she has seen increasing awareness among authorities, but refilling beaches with sand is still a gamble.
"We don't know how the sea will react", she added.