Challenges Face Normalization of Turkish-French Ties Despite Macron, Erdogan Exchanging Letters

French President Emmanuel Macron, EPA
French President Emmanuel Macron, EPA
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Challenges Face Normalization of Turkish-French Ties Despite Macron, Erdogan Exchanging Letters

French President Emmanuel Macron, EPA
French President Emmanuel Macron, EPA

Day after day, Turkey’s desire for warmer ties with France become more and more evident. This comes a few months after tensions having escalated between the Turkish and French navy in the Mediterranean Sea.

On June 10, Turkish warships had flashed their radar lights three times at the French warship Courbet in the eastern Mediterranean.

Today, the raging war of words between French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has simmered down with the two leaders resuming the exchange of friendly diplomatic letters.

Erdogan wrote a New Year message to Macron, expressing condolences for several attacks in France last year, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by local media.

Macron sent back a “very positive” letter this week, starting with the greeting “Dear Tayyip” and saying he was open to a meeting, Cavusoglu said.

Both Erdogan and Cavusoglu have been very open about Ankara’s desire to turn a new page, resolve differences, and expand cooperation.

Erdogan has reached out to Germany’s Chancellor and the President of the European Commission to stress Turkey's renewed desire for rapprochement with Europe.

Cavusoglu was sent to Lisbon, which took over the presidency of the European Union from Germany, to clear the way.

Turkey’s leader and top diplomat had also held meetings with all 27 EU nations ambassadors in Ankara to convey their country’s wish to get its relations with Europe back on track so that Turkey can “receive its rightful place in the European family.”

Cavusoglu, for his part, phone called his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian and agreed on a “road map” to normalize relations between Paris and Ankara.

Speaking about Macron’s latest letter to Erdogan, the foreign minister said the French leader’s response proposed collaboration over “bilateral consultations, terrorism, regional issues such as Syria and Libya, and a partnership on education.”

The two leaders exchanging letters signals the resumption of dialogue between their countries.

Erdogan, according to Cavusoglu, would like to meet Macron in person, but first the two leaders are expected to talk soon via videoconference.

More so, the letter exchange between Erdogan and macron represents a stark change for both sides, considering the personal attacks they levied on each other throughout the last year.

Turkish officials would like to improve their ties with France due to the incoming Biden administration in the US, which is expected to have friendlier relations with Paris.



French Parliament Calls for Commemorating Assassination of Algerians 63 Years Ago in Paris

A number of Algerians were arrested in Puteaux, west of Paris, during the protests of October 17, 1967 (AFP)
A number of Algerians were arrested in Puteaux, west of Paris, during the protests of October 17, 1967 (AFP)
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French Parliament Calls for Commemorating Assassination of Algerians 63 Years Ago in Paris

A number of Algerians were arrested in Puteaux, west of Paris, during the protests of October 17, 1967 (AFP)
A number of Algerians were arrested in Puteaux, west of Paris, during the protests of October 17, 1967 (AFP)

Sixty-three years ago, 30,000 Algerians who came to demonstrate peacefully in Paris were subjected to violent repression, leaving many people dead and injured.

Historians say “at least dozens” of people were killed as a result of police violence. The French Parliament is scheduled to discuss, on Thursday, a draft resolution supported by President Emmanuel Macron’s party, demanding that the government allocate a day to commemorate this massacre.

On Oct. 17, 1967, six months before the Evian Accords established Algeria’s independence from France, the “French-Algerian Muslims,” as they were called at the time, flocked from poor neighborhoods in the suburbs and popular neighborhoods in Paris, where they lived.

At the invitation of the French branch of the National Liberation Front, an Algerian political party, they defied a ban imposed by police director Maurice Papon, who was later convicted in 1998 of complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in the deportation of Jews between 1942 and 1944.

These demonstrators faced the most fatal repression in Western Europe since 1945, according to historian Emmanuel Blanchard. On that day, the police arrested about 12,000 demonstrators. Bodies with multiple bullet wounds or signs of beating were recovered from the Seine River in the following days. In 1988, an advisor to the Prime Minister’s Office during the Algerian War estimated that police “attacks” had killed about 100 people, while a government report in 1998 counted 48 deaths.

In a declassified archive, published by the French website Mediapart in 2022, a memorandum from a high-ranking official, who worked as an advisor to Charles de Gaulle, dated October 28, 1961, states that there were 54 dead. The toll presented by historians over the years ranged between 30 and more than 200 deceased.

Blanchard recalls that as soon as the first demonstrators began arriving at Neuilly Bridge, west of Paris, security forces fatally shot a quiet crowd, which included families. The violence of police officers increased when they heard radio messages published by the police falsely announcing that officers had been shot dead. Shooting operations also occurred in several places in the capital.

These violations were not recognized until 2012, when then-French President François Hollande, commemorated for the first time the “memory of the victims of the bloody repression” to which they were subjected while they were demonstrating for the “right to independence.” In 2021, Emmanuel Macron spoke of “unforgiveable crimes” committed “under the authority of Maurice Papon.”


783 Million People Face Chronic Hunger, While World Wastes 19% Of Its Food, UN Says

A person picks through trash for reusable items as a fire rages at the Bhalswa landfill in New Delhi, April 27, 2022. (AP)
A person picks through trash for reusable items as a fire rages at the Bhalswa landfill in New Delhi, April 27, 2022. (AP)
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783 Million People Face Chronic Hunger, While World Wastes 19% Of Its Food, UN Says

A person picks through trash for reusable items as a fire rages at the Bhalswa landfill in New Delhi, April 27, 2022. (AP)
A person picks through trash for reusable items as a fire rages at the Bhalswa landfill in New Delhi, April 27, 2022. (AP)

The world wasted an estimated 19% of the food produced globally in 2022, or about 1.05 billion metric tons, according to a new United Nations report.

The UN Environment Program's Food Waste Index Report, published Wednesday, tracks the progress of countries to halve food waste by 2030.

The UN said the number of countries reporting for the index nearly doubled from the first report in 2021. The 2021 report estimated that 17% of the food produced globally in 2019, or 931 million metric tons (1.03 billion tons), was wasted, but authors warned against direct comparisons because of the lack of sufficient data from many countries.

The report is co-authored by UNEP and Waste and Resources Action Program (WRAP), an international charity.

Researchers analyzed country data on households, food service and retailers. They found that each person wastes about 79 kilograms (about 174 pounds) of food annually, equal to at least 1 billion meals wasted worldwide daily.

Most of the waste — 60% — came in households. About 28% came from food service, or restaurants, with about 12% from retailers.

"It is a travesty," said co-author Clementine O’Connor, the focal point for food waste at UNEP. "It doesn’t make any sense, and it is a complicated problem, but through collaboration and systemic action, it is one that can be tackled."

The report comes at a time when 783 million people around the world face chronic hunger and many places facing deepening food crises. The Israel-Hamas war and violence in Haiti have worsened the crisis, with experts saying that famine is imminent in northern Gaza and approaching in Haiti.

Food waste is also a global concern because of the environmental toll of production, including the land and water required to raise crops and animals and the greenhouse gas emissions it produces, including methane, a powerful gas that has accounted for about 30 percent of global warming since pre-industrial times.

Food loss and waste generates 8 to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. If it were a country, it would rank third after China and the US.

Fadila Jumare, a Nigeria-based project associate at Busara Center for Behavioral Economics who has studied prevention of food waste in Kenya and Nigeria, said the problem further disadvantages many people who are already food insecure and cannot afford healthy diets.

"For humanity, food waste means that less food is available to the poorest population," said Jumare, who wasn't involved in the report.

Brian Roe, a food waste researcher at Ohio State University who wasn't involved with the report, said the index is important to tackling food waste.

"The key takeaway is that reducing the amount of food that is wasted is an avenue that can lead to many desirable outcomes — resource conservation, fewer environmental damages, greater food security, and more land for uses other than as landfills and food production," said Roe, who wasn’t involved in the report.

The report showed notable growth in coverage of food waste in low- and middle-income countries, the authors said. But it may fall to wealthier nations to lead in international cooperation and policy development to reduce food waste, they said.

The report said many governments, regional and industry groups are using public-private partnerships to reduce food waste and its contributions to climate and water stress. Governments and municipalities collaborate with businesses in the food supply chain, whereby businesses commit to measure food waste.

The report said food redistribution — including donating surplus food to food banks and charities — is significant in tackling food waste among retailers.

One group doing that is Food Banking Kenya, a nonprofit that gets surplus food from farms, markets, supermarkets and packing houses and redistributes it to schoolchildren and vulnerable populations. Food waste is an increasing concern in Kenya, where an estimated 4.45 million metric tons (about 4.9 million tons) of food is wasted every year.

"We positively impact the society by providing nutritious food and also positively impact the environment by reducing the emission of harmful gases," said John Mukuhi, the group's co-founder and executive director.

The report’s authors said they found that the differences in per capita household food waste between high-income and lower-income countries were surprisingly small.

Richard Swannel, a co-author and director of Impact Growth at WRAP, said that shows food waste "is not a rich world problem. It's a global problem."

"The data is really clear on this point: that here is a problem right around the world and one that we could all tackle tomorrow to save ourselves money and reduce environmental impact," he said.


Struggling for a Can of Food: Starving Gazans Scramble for Aid Drops 

Humanitarian aid is airdropped to Palestinians over Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Monday, March 25, 2024. (AP)
Humanitarian aid is airdropped to Palestinians over Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Monday, March 25, 2024. (AP)
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Struggling for a Can of Food: Starving Gazans Scramble for Aid Drops 

Humanitarian aid is airdropped to Palestinians over Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Monday, March 25, 2024. (AP)
Humanitarian aid is airdropped to Palestinians over Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Monday, March 25, 2024. (AP)

A military plane banked over the war-ravaged ruins of Gaza City dropping dozens of black parachutes carrying food aid.

On the ground, where almost no building within sight was still standing, hungry men and boys raced towards the beach where most of the aid seemed to have landed.

Dozens of them jostled intensely to get to the food, with scrums forming up and down the rubble-strewn dunes.

"People are dying just to get a can of tuna," said Mohamad al-Sabaawi, carrying an almost empty bag on his shoulder, a young boy beside him.

"The situation is tragic, as if we are in a famine. What can we do? They mock us by giving us a small can of tuna."

Aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies required to meet basic humanitarian needs have arrived in Gaza since October, while the UN has warned of famine in the north of the territory by May without urgent intervention.

The aid entering the Gaza Strip by land is far below pre-war levels, at around 150 vehicles a day compared to at least 500 before the war, according to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

With Gazans increasingly desperate, foreign governments have turned to airdrops, in particular in the hard-to-reach northern parts of the territory including Gaza City.

The United States, France and Jordan are among several countries conducting airdrops to people living within the ruins of what was the besieged territory's biggest city.

But the aircrews themselves told AFP that the drops were insufficient.

US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Anderson noted earlier this month that what they were able to deliver was only a "drop in the bucket" of what was needed.

The air operation has also been marred by deaths. Five people on the ground were killed by one drop and 10 others injured after parachutes malfunctioned, according to a medic in Gaza.

Calls have mounted for Israel to allow in more aid overland, while Israel has blamed the UN and UNRWA for not distributing aid in Gaza.

"Palestinians in Gaza desperately need what has been promised -- a flood of aid. Not trickles. Not drops," UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Sunday after visiting Gaza's southern border crossing with Egypt at Rafah.

"Looking at Gaza, it almost appears that the four horsemen of war, famine, conquest and death are galloping across it," he added.

The war was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel launched a retaliatory bombardment and invasion of Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas that has killed at least 32,333 people, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Returning home in Gaza City with little to keep his family going, another Palestinian man said their situation was miserable.

"We are the people of Gaza, waiting for aid drops, willing to die to get a can of beans -- which we then share among 18 people," he said.


Things to Know about the Turkish Local Elections That Will Gauge Erdogan’s Popularity 

Turkish President and leader of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a speech during a campaign rally ahead of nationwide municipality elections, in Istanbul, Türkiye, Sunday, March 24, 2024. (AP)
Turkish President and leader of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a speech during a campaign rally ahead of nationwide municipality elections, in Istanbul, Türkiye, Sunday, March 24, 2024. (AP)
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Things to Know about the Turkish Local Elections That Will Gauge Erdogan’s Popularity 

Turkish President and leader of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a speech during a campaign rally ahead of nationwide municipality elections, in Istanbul, Türkiye, Sunday, March 24, 2024. (AP)
Turkish President and leader of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a speech during a campaign rally ahead of nationwide municipality elections, in Istanbul, Türkiye, Sunday, March 24, 2024. (AP)

On Sunday, millions of voters in Türkiye head to the polls to elect mayors and administrators in local elections which will gauge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s popularity as his ruling party tries to win back key cities it lost five years ago.

A victory for Erdogan’s party might spur the Turkish leader into pursuing constitutional changes that could allow him to rule beyond his current term’s limit.

Meanwhile, retaining the key cities’ municipalities would help invigorate Türkiye’s opposition, left fractured and demoralized following a defeat in last year’s presidential election.

Here’s a deeper look at what’s at stake and what the results could hold for Türkiye’s future.

THE BATTLE FOR ISTANBUL In the last local elections held in 2019, a united opposition won the municipalities of the capital Ankara and the commercial hub of Istanbul, ending the ruling party’s 25-year hold over the cities.

The loss of Istanbul especially was a major blow to Erdogan, who began his political career as mayor of the metropolis of nearly 16 million in 1994.

Erdogan has named Murat Kurum, a 47-year-old former urbanization and environment minister, to run against incumbent mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu — a popular politician from the center-left Republican People’s Party, or CHP. Imamoglu has been touted as a possible presidential candidate to challenge Erdogan.

This time around, however, Imamoglu, 52, is running in the local elections without the support of Türkiye’s main pro-Kurdish party or the nationalist IYI Party who are fielding their own candidates.

Meanwhile, a new religious-conservative party, the New Welfare Party, or YRP, has also thrown its hat into the ring. Appealing to conservative and religious voters who have been disillusioned with Erdogan’s handling of the economy, it is expected to steal some votes from Erdogan’s candidates.

Opinion polls point to a neck-and-neck race between Imamoglu and Kurum who have both promised infrastructure projects to render buildings earthquake-proof and to ease the city’s chronic traffic congestion.

The opposition is widely expected to maintain its hold on Ankara where the incumbent mayor Mansur Yavas, who has also been named as a future presidential candidate, remains popular.

ERDOGAN SEEKS TO CONSOLIDATE POWER Leaving nothing to chance, Erdogan, who has been in power as prime minister and then as president for more than two decades, has been holding election rallies across the country, campaigning on behalf of candidates running for mayor.

Analysts say winning back Istanbul and Ankara and achieving a strong showing in the ballots would stiffen Erdogan’s resolve to introduce a new constitution that could allow him to rule beyond 2028 when his current term ends. The current constitution sets a two-term limit on the presidency. Erdogan, 70, ran for a third term last year, citing a technicality, because the country switched to a presidential system in 2018 and his first term was held under the previous system.

Erdogan and his allies don’t currently have sufficient seats in parliament to enact a new constitution, but another electoral triumph may sway some conservative opposition parliamentarians to switch sides, analysts say.

Earlier this month, Erdogan said Sunday’s election would be his last according to the constitution. Critics see his comments as a ploy to win sympathy votes of supporters reeling from a cost-of-living crisis, as well as a strategy to push for the constitutional amendments.

THE OPPOSITION HOPES TO BOUNCE BACK A six-party opposition alliance, led by the CHP, has disintegrated following a devastating election defeat last year. The alliance’s supporters were left demoralized after it failed to unseat Erdogan despite the economic turmoil and the fallout from a catastrophic earthquake.

The CHP’s ability to hold onto the major cities it took five years ago would help revitalize the party and allow it to present itself as an alternative to Erdogan’s ruling party. Losing Ankara and Istanbul to Erdogan’s party could, on the other hand, end Yavas and Imamoglu’s presidential aspirations.

The CHP went for a leadership change soon after the electoral defeat, but it remains to be seen whether the party’s new chairman, 49-year-old pharmacist Ozgur Ozel, can excite supporters.

UNFAIR CAMPAIGNING As in previous elections, Erdogan has been using the advantages of being in office, often availing himself of state resources while campaigning. Some 90% of Türkiye’s media is in the hands of the government or its supporters, according to media watchdog groups, promoting the ruling party and its allies’ campaigns while denying the opposition the same opportunity.

State broadcaster TRT devoted 32 hours of airtime to the ruling party in the first 40 days of campaigning compared with 25 minutes devoted to the challengers, according to the opposition.

During campaigning, Erdogan has issued thinly veiled warnings to voters to support ruling party-backed candidates if they want to receive governmental services. He increased the minimum wage by 49% to bring some relief to households, despite his government’s efforts to control high inflation.

The Turkish leader has also continued to showcase his country’s success in the defense industry during his campaign rallies. A prototype of Türkiye’s homegrown fighter jet, KAAN, performed its maiden flight last month, in what critics believe was timed ahead of the elections.

KURDISH VOTES Kurdish voters make up an estimated 10% of the electorate in Istanbul and the way they cast their vote could be decisive in the mayoral race

Türkiye’s pro-Kurdish party — now known as the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM — opted to support Imamoglu in the 2019 municipal elections, helping him win. This time, however, the party is fielding its own candidates, in a move that could lure votes away from Imamoglu.

Still, some observers say, the party deliberately named two low-profile candidates in tacit support of the current mayor. The Kurdish party traditionally has male and female figures share leadership positions.

Meanwhile, the DEM Party is expected to win many of the municipalities in Türkiye’s predominantly Kurdish-populated southeastern regions. The question remains whether the party would be allowed to retain them. In previous years, Erdogan’s government removed the elected mayors from office for alleged links to Kurdish militants and replaced them with state-appointed trustees.

During a rally in the mostly Kurdish city of Hakkari on March 15, Erdogan urged voters not to vote for individuals he said would transfer municipal funds to the “terrorist organization,” in reference to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.


10 Years On, Migrants Continue to Lose Lives in Search of a Better One

FILE - This Feb. 27, file photo, 2023 shows part of the debris of a wrecked migrant boat washed ashore after it capsized in the early morning of Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023, at a short distance from the shore in Steccato di Cutro, in the Italian southern tip, killing at least 94 people. (AP Photo/Luigi Navarra, File)
FILE - This Feb. 27, file photo, 2023 shows part of the debris of a wrecked migrant boat washed ashore after it capsized in the early morning of Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023, at a short distance from the shore in Steccato di Cutro, in the Italian southern tip, killing at least 94 people. (AP Photo/Luigi Navarra, File)
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10 Years On, Migrants Continue to Lose Lives in Search of a Better One

FILE - This Feb. 27, file photo, 2023 shows part of the debris of a wrecked migrant boat washed ashore after it capsized in the early morning of Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023, at a short distance from the shore in Steccato di Cutro, in the Italian southern tip, killing at least 94 people. (AP Photo/Luigi Navarra, File)
FILE - This Feb. 27, file photo, 2023 shows part of the debris of a wrecked migrant boat washed ashore after it capsized in the early morning of Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023, at a short distance from the shore in Steccato di Cutro, in the Italian southern tip, killing at least 94 people. (AP Photo/Luigi Navarra, File)

More than a decade ago, the death of 600 migrants and refugees in two Mediterranean shipwrecks near Italian shores shocked the world and prompted the UN migration agency to start recording the number of people who died or went missing as they fled conflict, persecution or poverty to other countries.
Governments around the world have repeatedly pledged to save migrants' lives and fight smugglers while tightening borders. Yet 10 years on, a report by the International Organization for Migration's Missing Migrants Project published Tuesday shows the world is no safer for people on the move.
On the contrary, migrant deaths have soared.
Since tracking began in 2014, more than 63,000 have died or are missing and presumed dead, according to the Missing Migrants Project, with 2023 the deadliest year yet.
“The figures are quite alarming,” Jorge Galindo, a spokesperson at IOM's Global Data Institute, told The Associated Press. "We see that 10 years on, people continue to lose their lives in search of a better one.”
The report says the deaths are "likely only a fraction of the actual number of lives lost worldwide” because of the difficulty in obtaining and verifying information. For example, on the Atlantic route from Africa's west coast to Spain's Canary Islands, entire boats have reportedly vanished in what are known as “invisible shipwrecks.” Similarly, countless deaths in the Sahara desert are believed to go unreported.
Even when deaths are recorded, more than two-thirds of the victims remain unidentified. That can be due to lack of information and resources, or simply because identifying dead migrants is not considered a priority.
Experts have called the growing number of unidentified migrants around the world a crisis comparable to mass casualties seen in wartime.
Behind each nameless death is a family facing “the psychological, social, economic and legal impacts of unresolved disappearances,” a painful phenomenon known as “ambiguous loss,” the report says.
“Governments need to work together with civil society to make sure that the families that are left behind, not knowing the whereabouts of their loved ones, can have better access to the remains of people who have died,” Galindo said.
Of the victims whose nationalities were known to IOM, one in three died while fleeing countries in conflict.
Nearly 60% of the deaths recorded by the IOM in the last decade were related to drowning. The Mediterranean Sea is the world's largest migrant grave with more than 28,000 deaths recorded in the last decade. Thousands of drownings have also been recorded on the US-Mexico border, in the Atlantic Ocean, in the Gulf of Aden and increasingly in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea where desperate Rohingya refugees are embarking on overcrowded boats.
“Search and rescue capacities to assist migrants at sea must be strengthened, in line with international law and the principle of humanity,” the report says.
Currently on the Mediterranean "the large majority of search and rescue is done by nongovernmental organizations,” Galindo said.
When the Missing Migrants Project began in 2014, European sentiment was more sympathetic to the plight of migrants, and the Italian government had launched “Mare Nostrum,” a major search-and-rescue mission that saved thousands of lives.
But the solidarity didn't last, and European search and rescue missions were progressively cut back after fears that they would encourage smugglers to launch even more people on cheaper and deadlier boats. That's when NGOs stepped in.
Their help has not always been welcomed. In Italy and Greece, they have faced increasing bureaucratic and legal obstacles.
Following the 2015-2016 migration crisis, the European Union began outsourcing border control and sea rescues to North African countries to “save lives” while also keeping migrants from reaching European shores.
The controversial partnerships have been criticized by human rights advocates, particularly the one with Libya. EU-trained and funded Libyan coast guards have been linked to human traffickers exploiting migrants who are intercepted and brought back to squalid detention centers. A UN-backed group of experts has found that the abuses committed against migrants on the Mediterranean and in Libya may amount to crimes against humanity.
Despite the rise of border walls and heightened surveillance worldwide, smugglers always seem to find lucrative alternatives, leading migrants and refugees on longer and more perilous routes.
“There’s an absence of safe migration options,” Galindo said. "And this needs to change.”


Iran Gives Türkiye Green Light in Iraq without Guarantees 

An Iraqi soldier is seen in Sinjar three years after its liberation from ISIS. (AP file photo)
An Iraqi soldier is seen in Sinjar three years after its liberation from ISIS. (AP file photo)
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Iran Gives Türkiye Green Light in Iraq without Guarantees 

An Iraqi soldier is seen in Sinjar three years after its liberation from ISIS. (AP file photo)
An Iraqi soldier is seen in Sinjar three years after its liberation from ISIS. (AP file photo)

The pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq has become a partner in a crucial deal between Baghdad and Ankara - with Iran’s blessing - to eliminate the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Iraqi and Turkish sources said the recent deal goes beyond military operations against the PKK to cover comprehensive arrangements related to the shape of the Middle East after the war in Gaza is over.

A Turkish official told Asharq Al-Awsat that part of “Ankara’s plan” was to prepare for changes that will happen after the war and its determination to have “zero security problems in the region, especially in Iraq.” The “blood fraternity” between the PKK and Shiite factions in the town of Sinjar may however prove to be an obstacle in Türkiye's new plan.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke last week of an understanding reached between his country and “an official institution funded by the Iraqi state” over Sinjar.

It seems Türkiye is throwing its major political and military weight in Iraq and is seeking broader relations to end the chronic tensions along its southern border. Internal balances in Baghdad and the PKK’s rising power in Sinjar could undermine the plan.

Iraqi sources agreed that the “comprehensive Turkish activity” is part of the post-war arrangements for the region, and this demands the “elimination of sources of tension.”

What happened?

On March 13, Turkish FM Fidan met with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein in Baghdad. Security officials, including PMF leader Faleh al-Fayyad and National Security Adviser Qasim al-Araji were present at the meeting.

A government statement said Iraq deems the presence of the PKK on its territory as a “violation of the constitution.” Türkiye praised the statement, speaking of forming a 40-km deep buffer zone to eliminate the PKK, which it deems as terrorist. The zone would stretch from the Sulaymaniyah region, pass through Sinjar and reach the Syrian border.

That night, Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler did not return to Ankara with Fidan. He stayed behind and spent the night at the Iraqi border at the headquarters of Turkish forces deployed in Hakkari.

Türkiye’s zero hour

According to two sources in Baghdad and Erbil, Ankara has for years been receiving Iraqi complaints that it has been “too patient” in its fight against the PKK that ultimately has not been successful. It has repeatedly been asked what is holding it back from launching a “final military operation to rid everyone of this headache.” It seems it has finally been convinced to take decisive action.

Iraqi sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that before Fidan traveled to Baghdad, Iraq was informed of the Turkish plan, including Iran’s blessing of the new situation regarding the PKK.

“Everything, including zero hour, was ready” when the official consultations began, revealed another Iraqi source. He described the plan as “unprecedented” between the countries, adding that the PMF will be involved in some regions to provide support.

It remains unclear why Iran has agreed to eliminating the PKK in Iraq, especially since the party’s activity has since 2016 been connected to pro-Iran factions along Tehran’s strategic route that stretches to Damascus and Beirut.

The Iraqi sources said the agreement includes Turkish mediation with the Americans on easing tensions with Tehran in Iraq and securing a greater Iranian role in regional trade with Turkish guarantees. It also includes securing Iran’s assistance to Baghdad in overcoming crises, such as the export of oil and the “flawed” situation in the Kurdistan Region and Kirkuk.

Comprehensive changes

An Iraqi diplomat said the political aspects of the deal prepare for the “comprehensive changes that are expected to happen after the war in Gaza is over.” A Turkish aide had confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that Ankara had prepared a file about the post-war situation that covers countries in the region.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the Turkish official said the Turkish foreign ministry and security agencies had drafted a plan some five months ago, covering Ankara’s options in the post-war phase and how to deal with the expected changes. “Iraq and Syria are part of this picture,” he revealed.

Former Nineveh Governor, Sunni politician Atheel al-Nujayfi told Asharq Al-Awsat: “All countries in the region are aware that the battle in Gaza has a post-war phase. Changes will be made to the strategies of major powers in the region.”

These changes demand preemptive steps that either prepare for a greater role in the future or prevent any plans that could affect the national security of these countries. He said Türkiye is very active in making strategic calculations to develop its interests.

However, a Turkish diplomatic source denied that the Turkish military operations in Iraq are directly tied to the situation in Gaza. He predicted that the operations may kick off in June.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to travel to Baghdad in April. He is set to sign an agreement for the establishment of a joint operations command center and a buffer zone, “which will effectively mean we have reached zero hour,” said Turkish sources.

An Iraqi official from the pro-Iran Coordination Framework said Ankara wants to turn the PKK’s zones of influence into a “zone of secure partnership” with Iraq and Iran. The Turks have shown “clear keenness for the concerned regional players in this file to reach the post-war phase with zero tensions.”

This may explain why Türkiye is throwing such weight in Iraq. “Türkiye needs to prevent the ball of fire from rolling towards it amid such instability in the region,” said al-Nujayfi. This is why it is urging Iraq and Syria to “carry out direct and strong measures with it to prevent the PKK from turning into a greater crisis.”

Meanwhile, Iraqi sources said Tehran has given its blessing to the Turks to act in Iraq. An Iraqi politician said this was reflected with the notable presence of the PMF at the official consultations that took place between the two countries. The possibility of an armed confrontation taking place against the PKK in Sinjar remains unresolved, revealed the sources.

Türkiye’s military plan calls for a broad military operation in mountainous regions in the Kurdistan Region, while Baghdad provides intelligence support, maps and information and monitors the border.

Sulaymaniyah and Sinjar, however, lie on the outskirts of the Turkish buffer zone and intersect with Iranian interests, demanding that Ankara take different political and security arrangements over them.

A Kurdish source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Turks were trying to neutralize the PKK in Sulaymaniyah by forging a new relationship with Bafel Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), including exploring opportunities for partnership with him and resolving differences with the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Erbil.

Al-Nujayfi said it would be difficult for the leaderships of the PUK, including Talabani, to put themselves in a confrontation with agreements reached between major countries in the region. So, there can be no doubt that the agreements were blessed by Iran and approved by Iraq, Türkiye and the official authority in Kurdistan.

Sinjar hurdle

The situation in Sinjar, however, remains an obstacle in the regional plans. The situation there will be handled by the PMF, according to the Turkish agreement.

Al-Nujayfi told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Shiite factions’ influence is limited to Sinjar and doesn’t extend to the rest of the Kurdish regions.

The situation in Sinjar is different, however. Located on the Turkish-Syrian border, its population is predominantly Yazidi and it boasts several armed groups. Even the Iraqi army acts like one of the factions there, said a local official in the town.

He compared Sinjar to Beirut during the Lebanese civil war where frontlines are at a close distance from one another and armed groups that represent regional and local interests are always on alert.

An alliance has grown over the years between the PMF and PKK and they formed a “blood fraternity” during the battles against the ISIS extremist group, said a member of a Shiite faction.

It remains unclear how the PMF will neutralize PKK fighters after the recent years of partnership on the ground.

Information about the nature of this alliance has varied. Two leading members of Shiite factions told Asharq Al-Awsat that the PMF provides safe locations for PKK leaderships in Sinjar, Nineveh and other regions in return for logistic and military services.

Three sources on the ground, including the leader of a powerful faction in Baghdad, said the situation goes “much more beyond this because the decision to form an alliance between the PMF and PKK was taken by Iran.”

“The PKK is very powerful. All the Iraqi security agencies don’t have an accurate imagining of the power of the party and its weapons,” they revealed, adding that the Iraqi military, during the term of former Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, twice confronted the PKK in Sinjar and it came out defeated both times.

Moreover, they claimed that the PKK had set up a network of tunnels in Sinjar, especially the mountainous regions. Local journalists told Asharq Al-Awsat that they had previously spotted trucks transporting diggers from Sinjar to the areas where the tunnels are located.

Locals in Sinjar and members of Shiite factions did not answer question from Asharq Al-Awsat about the tunnels.

Expert force

A prominent politician from Nineveh described the PKK as an “expert force in deployment, mobilization and consolidating control, so it would be difficult to predict how the PMF can eliminate the party or help Türkiye neutralize it.”

Al-Nujayfi said the PKK will become a problem for Iraq that will weigh on local affairs so it will need Türkiye’s help in tackling this “internal crisis.” The PKK will eventually realize that “it is nothing more than a pawn and negotiations card. When it no longer serves a role, everyone will cooperate to eliminate it,” he added.

The question remains: How will the PMF neutralize the PKK fighters?

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in a recent television interview that there was a need to “confront the PKK gunmen as long as they were harming the people of Sinjar.” He added, however, that he doesn’t know how the cooperation with Türkiye against this party will take place, referring to whether the fighters will be expelled or contained.

A Shiite politician said: “The Iranian green light is not decisive.” Speaking on condition of anonymity, he added that Tehran stands before a “good deal with Türkiye, but it won’t sign a blank check and jeopardize its armed influence in Iraq.”

“Iran is observing and everything may change according to how developments unfold. All we know now is that a limited settlement is in place in Sinjar,” he remarked.

Other sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the PMF would deploy local PKK members among Shiite factions, ending the visible presence of the party. Such a move would guarantee total control over Sinjar at the expense of Kurdish forces that are loyal to the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

What does this mean? The PMF will view the Turkish agreement as a way to strengthen its influence in a strategic area to Iraq, Iran and Türkiye. In theory, the military operation will lead to the expulsion of the PKK fighters to the mountainous regions of Kurdistan. It will also merge the Turkish buffer zone with the Iranian zone where Iranian factions are deployed near Syria. Political and diplomatic aides in Baghdad said everything should go according to plan “unless Tehran comes up with an unexpected card at a decisive moment.”


Syrians Missing, Dying From Torture in Militant-run Prisons

Accusations of torture have increased since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a crackdown on 'agents' of the Syrian regime - AFP
Accusations of torture have increased since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a crackdown on 'agents' of the Syrian regime - AFP
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Syrians Missing, Dying From Torture in Militant-run Prisons

Accusations of torture have increased since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a crackdown on 'agents' of the Syrian regime - AFP
Accusations of torture have increased since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a crackdown on 'agents' of the Syrian regime - AFP

Ahmed al-Hakim's 27-year-old brother was tortured to death in prison in Syria's militant-run northwest, sparking rare protests amid accusations from residents and activists of rights violations in the opposition bastion.

"We protested and rose up against the Assad regime in order to be rid of injustice," said Hakim, 30, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Now "we find ourselves ruled with the same methods," he told AFP, crouched near his brother Abdel-Kader's grave, flowers and plants placed in the freshly turned soil.

Syria's 13-year-old conflict, sparked by Assad's brutal repression of anti-government protests, has drawn in foreign armies and militants and killed more than 500,000 people.

Around half of Idlib province and parts of neighboring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces are controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an alliance of extremist factions led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

Accusations of torture and other rights violations have increased since last year when HTS launched a crackdown on suspected "agents" for Damascus or foreign governments.

Security forces from the group have detained hundreds of civilians, fighters and even prominent HTS members, providing no information to families, said residents and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
Abdel-Kader's death triggered rare protests in Idlib province -- home to some three million people, many displaced from government-held areas -- in recent weeks and calls for the release of detainees, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

The war monitor said demonstrations are taking place daily in towns and villages, most recently on Sunday evening, when protesters chanted slogans against HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

Jolani has said the protesters' demands were "mostly justified", and announced changes including the restructuring of the security force running the prisons.

HTS's media office told AFP the group was "seriously examining" the protesters' demands and would "tighten security bodies' work (and) improve prison infrastructure... to deal with any dysfunction".

Hakim, an accountant originally from Aleppo province, said his brother participated in anti-government protests before becoming a fighter and was part of the small HTS-aligned Jaish al-Ahrar group.

He said the faction told Abdel-Kader to report to HTS, considered a terrorist organization by several Western countries, on suspicions of collaborating with the government.

Abdel-Kader handed himself in on March 16 last year "on the understanding that he would be out... in a week at most", Hakim said.

After detaining him for several months and then saying he was "in good health", HTS stonewalled the family's requests for information, according to Hakim.

Months later, a factional contact and a former fighter told the family Abdel-Kader had died due to torture.

Jaish al-Ahrar only notified them formally on February 22 that Abdel-Kader was dead.

The family found his grave was "new but the date of death written on it was around 20 days after his arrest", a distraught Hakim said.

Former detainees told Hakim his brother was "beaten with piping until he lost consciousness, and tied up by his hands for days without food or water".

Abdel-Kader denied any wrongdoing "so they increased the torture until they killed him", they told Hakim.

One former detainee said Abdel-Kader was tortured so severely that "he couldn't walk because his feet were swollen and filled with pus".

The day he died, the guards "tortured him for six hours" and after he was returned to the cell he "kept vomiting", Hakim was told.

The grim treatment echoes torture that rights groups have reported in Syrian government-run prisons, particularly since 2011, with tens of thousands of people forcibly disappeared and arbitrarily detained.

Amnesty International in 2017 accused authorities of committing secret mass hangings in the notorious Saydnaya facility.

The Observatory said HTS this month released 420 prisoners in an amnesty aimed at quelling the discontent in the northwest.

But it made no difference for Noha al-Atrash, 30, whose husband Ahmed Majluba has been detained since December 2022, accused alternately of theft and belonging to an extremist group.

"He has been arrested five times... there is no proven reason for his detention," she said from her home in Idlib city as her two young children held photos of their father, 38.

Majluba, a laborer, was shot in the leg "during a previous period" in HTS detention, Atrash said.

"I go to the protests, I make posters with pictures of my husband on them, and I take the kids," said Atrash who was covered head-to-toe in a niqab.

She and her children were themselves detained for around 20 days after she hounded authorities for information.

During one prison visit, she saw her husband's hand was broken and "his face was swollen from beatings", she said.

"They've asked us to pay $3,000 to have him released," Atrash said, but added that she doesn't have the money.

"I have no choice but to protest... I won't give up as long as they have my husband," she said defiantly.
The UN's independent commission of inquiry on Syria said recently it had "reasonable grounds to believe" HTS members had committed "acts that may amount to the war crimes of torture and cruel treatment and unlawful deprivation of liberty".

Bassam Alahmad from the Paris-based Syrians for Truth and Justice said people were "fed up with HTS violations" such as "arbitrary arrests and torture".

He urged families and rights groups to gather independent, credible evidence for potential future investigations.

In a camp near the Turkish border, Amina al-Hamam, 70, said her son Ghazwan Hassun was detained by HTS in 2019 on suspicion of "informing for the regime".

"Some people tell us he's dead, others say he's alive," the distressed elderly woman said, sitting with her son's children, aged five and nine.
Days before being detained, Hassun, a defector from the Syrian police, had published a video criticizing HTS, his family said.

During Hamam's only visit -- eight months after he was detained -- Hassun told her guards used a torture method notorious across Syria where the victim has their hands tied behind their back and is suspended from them for hours.

The family has heard nothing since about the 39-year-old but has vowed to keep fighting.

"I cry for him night and day," said Hamam.

"We fled from injustice, but here we have seen worse."


Gaza’s Hungry Eat Wild Plant with No Aid Relief in Sight

Displaced Palestinian man Wael Al-Attar eats Khobiza, a wild leafy vegetable, with his family as they break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan, at a school where they shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, March 22, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinian man Wael Al-Attar eats Khobiza, a wild leafy vegetable, with his family as they break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan, at a school where they shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, March 22, 2024. (Reuters)
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Gaza’s Hungry Eat Wild Plant with No Aid Relief in Sight

Displaced Palestinian man Wael Al-Attar eats Khobiza, a wild leafy vegetable, with his family as they break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan, at a school where they shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, March 22, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinian man Wael Al-Attar eats Khobiza, a wild leafy vegetable, with his family as they break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan, at a school where they shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, March 22, 2024. (Reuters)

As the UN Security Council demands an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and concerns grow that famine may take hold, the territory's hungry civilians are foraging for a wild green plant called Khobiza for lack of anything else to eat.

It is another reminder of the suffering in the Palestinian enclave during the five months of war that followed the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, when Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The assault triggered a fierce response from Israel which launched air strikes and shelling in Gaza that have killed over 32,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave's health authorities - the worst conflict between Israel and Hamas, an armed group that runs the territory.

"All our lives -- even through (previous) wars -- we have not eaten Khobiza," said Palestinian woman Maryam Al-Attar.

"My daughters tell me, 'We want to eat bread, mother.' My heart breaks for them."

"I can't find a piece of bread for them. I go and gather some Khobiza. We have found Khobiza for now, but in the future, where will we get it from? Khobiza will run out. Where do we turn?"

Palestinians are suffering at a time when they should be observing the fasting holy month of Ramadan, like millions of other Muslims around the world who enjoy large dinners with their extended families and watch special television shows.

"We have been consumed by hunger. We have nothing to eat. We crave vegetables, fish, and meat. We fast with empty stomachs. We can no longer fast. We are dizzy from hunger. There is nothing to help the body resist," said Umm Mohamed.

Famine is imminent and likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave by July, the world's hunger watchdog, known as the Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification (IPC), said on March 18.

Fears that Kobiza will only provide temporary relief are growing at a time when uncertainty about aid delivery is deepening, and as mediators seek to narrow gaps between Israel and Hamas over terms for a ceasefire and release of hostages.

On Monday, an Israeli government spokesperson said Israel will stop working with the UN Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip, by far the largest relief body in Gaza, accusing the aid agency of perpetuating conflict.

Israel alleged in January that 12 of UNRWA's 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7 attack. The Israeli accusations led several donor countries to suspend funding.

UNRWA fired some staff members, saying it acted in order to protect the agency's ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, and an independent internal UN investigation was launched.


Destruction, Lawlessness and Red Tape Hobble Gaza Aid

FILE PHOTO: Trucks are parked at the Nitzana Crossing, in Nitzana, Israel, January 30, 2024. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Trucks are parked at the Nitzana Crossing, in Nitzana, Israel, January 30, 2024. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini/File Photo
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Destruction, Lawlessness and Red Tape Hobble Gaza Aid

FILE PHOTO: Trucks are parked at the Nitzana Crossing, in Nitzana, Israel, January 30, 2024. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Trucks are parked at the Nitzana Crossing, in Nitzana, Israel, January 30, 2024. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini/File Photo

In mid-March, a line of trucks stretched for 3 kilometers along a desert road near a crossing point from Israel into the Gaza Strip. On the same day, another line of trucks, some 1.5 kilometers long, sometimes two or three across, was backed up near a crossing from Egypt into Gaza.

The trucks were filled with aid, much of it food, for the more than 2 million Palestinians in the war-ravaged enclave. About 50 kilometers from Gaza, more aid trucks – some 2,400 in total – were sitting idle this month in the Egyptian city of Al Arish, according to an Egyptian Red Crescent official.

These motionless food-filled trucks, the main lifeline for Gazans, are at the heart of the escalating humanitarian crisis gripping the enclave. More than five months into Israel’s war with Hamas, a report by a global authority on food security has warned that famine is imminent in parts of Gaza, as more than three-quarters of the population have been forced from their homes and swathes of the territory are in ruins.

Galvanized by reports and images of starving children, the international community, led by the United States, has been pressuring Israel to facilitate the transfer of more aid into Gaza. Washington has airdropped food into the Mediterranean enclave and recently announced it would build a pier off the Gaza coast to help ferry in more aid.

UN officials have accused Israel of blocking humanitarian supplies to Gaza. The European Union’s foreign policy chief alleged Israel was using starvation as a “weapon of war.” And aid agency officials say Israeli red tape is slowing the flow of trucks carrying food supplies.

Israeli officials reject these accusations and say they have increased aid access to Gaza. Israel isn’t responsible for delays in aid getting into Gaza, they say, and the delivery of aid once inside the territory is the responsibility of the UN and humanitarian agencies. Israel has also accused Hamas of stealing aid.

Reuters interviewed more than two dozen people, including humanitarian workers, Israeli military officials and truck drivers, in tracing the tortuous route that aid takes into Gaza in an effort to identify the chokepoints and reasons for delays of supplies. Reuters also reviewed UN and Israeli military statistics on aid shipments, as well as satellite images of the border crossing areas, which revealed the long lines of trucks.

Before the aid shipments enter Gaza, they undergo a series of Israeli checks, and a shipment approved at one stage of the process can later be rejected, according to 18 aid workers and UN officials involved in the aid effort. At one crossing from Israel into Gaza, goods are twice loaded off trucks and then reloaded onto other trucks that then carry the aid to warehouses in Gaza. The aid delivery process can also be complicated by competing international demands, with some countries wanting their contributions to be prioritized.
Aid that does make it into Gaza can be ransacked by desperate civilians, sometimes fall prey to armed gangs, or get held up by Israeli army checkpoints. Half the warehouses storing aid in Gaza are no longer operational after having been hit in the fighting.

“It’s upsetting watching these aid trucks go nowhere and vast humanitarian supplies sit in warehouses when you think about what’s happening, right now, to the people who need them,” said Paolo Pezzati, an Oxfam worker who recently visited the queue of aid trucks near the Egypt-Gaza border.

Before the war began, an average of 200 trucks carrying aid entered Gaza each day, according to UN figures. A further 300 trucks laden with commercial imports, including food, agricultural supplies and industrial materials, also entered each day via Israel. Since the start of the war, an average of around 100 trucks have entered Gaza daily, according to a review of UN and Israeli military statistics on aid shipments.

While the trucks struggle to get into Gaza, the need for aid has risen dramatically, both because of the vast number of displaced people and the devastation of key infrastructure in Israel’s assault. This includes the destruction of bakeries, markets, and farmland whose crops met some of Gaza’s food needs.

“Previous wars weren’t like this,” said Alaa al-Atar, a municipal official, referring to conflicts in Gaza. “There wasn’t the destruction of all sources of subsistence – homes, farmland, infrastructure. There’s nothing left to survive on, just aid,” said Atar, who was displaced from the north to the south of Gaza early in the war.

To meet its minimum needs, aid agencies and UN officials say Gaza currently requires 500 to 600 trucks a day, including humanitarian aid and the commercial supplies that were coming in before the war. That’s about four times the number of trucks getting in now.

In March there has been an uptick, with an average of 150 trucks entering Gaza each day.

Some deliveries are being made by international air drops and via sea, but they aren't making up for shortfalls on the land routes. In the first three weeks of March, the equivalent of some 50 truckloads of aid was airdropped and brought in by sea, a Reuters tally based on Israeli military statistics showed.

The recent food security report, known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), found that a lack of aid means almost all households in Gaza are skipping meals every day and adults are cutting back on meals so their children can eat. The situation is particularly dire in northern Gaza, it said, where in nearly two-thirds of households, “people went entire days and nights without eating at least 10 times in the last 30 days.”

A senior Hamas official said Israel is responsible for the inadequate aid flows. The “biggest threat” to the distribution of aid is Israel’s ongoing attacks in Gaza, Hamas official Bassem Naim told Reuters. “The biggest obstacle to getting the aid to the people who need it is the continued gunfire and the continued targeting of aid and those who are handling it,” he said.

WAITING IN THE DESERT

Before some of the aid begins its journey to Gaza, it is flown to Cairo or shipped by sea to Port Said, which borders Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, about 150 kms to the west of Al Arish. From there, it is trucked to the city of Al Arish, on the Mediterranean coast. Some aid is also flown directly to the Egyptian city.

Once in Cairo or Al Arish, the aid undergoes its first check. International agencies submit a detailed inventory of each shipment to the Israeli military via the UN for clearance. Israel has long banned “dual use” items that it says could be used by Hamas to make weapons.

Of 153 requests made to the Israeli authorities for goods to enter Gaza between Jan. 11 and March 15, 100 were cleared, 15 were rejected outright and another 38 were pending, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told Reuters. UN officials didn’t specify whether a request referred to a specific number of trucks or volume of aid. It takes almost a month on average to get a response, according to minutes of a meeting of aid agencies seen by Reuters.

The Israeli military says it approves almost 99% of the Gaza-bound trucks it inspects and that once the goods are inside the enclave, it is the responsibility of the international aid organizations to distribute it. The inspection process “isn’t the impediment” to aid “getting into the Gaza Strip,” said Shimon Freedman, a spokesman for COGAT, the Israeli military branch that handles aid transfers.

Diplomatic wrangling by countries donating aid can also create snarls in the delivery process. UN officials told Reuters that because aid comes not only from international agencies but also directly from individual donor countries, the process of deciding which trucks go to the front of the queue can be thorny even before they depart Al Arish.

The Egyptian Red Crescent official said donor countries “drop off aid in Al Arish or at Al Arish airport and walk away and say, ‘We gave out aid to Gaza.’” It is the Red Crescent and Egyptian authorities who then bear the responsibility of getting the aid to Gaza, he said.

From Al Arish, the trucks make the 50-kilometer journey to the Rafah crossing point on the Egypt-Gaza border.

Next stop: Israel’s truck-scanning centers.

Once they reach the Rafah crossing, some trucks are then required to drive along the Egypt-Israel border for 40 kilometers to an inspection facility on the Israeli side called Nitzana. Here the goods are physically checked by Israeli soldiers who use scanning machines and sniffer dogs, according to UN and other aid agency staff.

Some items get rejected during the physical inspection, in particular ones Israel believes could be used by Hamas and other armed groups for military purposes. Some shipments carrying dual-use items are sent back to Al Arish. The same item that is let through one day, can be rejected on another day, UN officials and aid workers said.

UN agencies say solar panels, metal tent poles, oxygen tanks, generators and water purification equipment are among the items the military has rejected.

COGAT’S Freedman said there is a publicized list of what constitutes dual-use items, but there isn’t a “blanket ban” on these goods. If Israeli authorities “understand what exactly it is necessary for, we can coordinate it,” he said. But Israel wants to be sure that goods aren’t going to be “used by Hamas for terrorist activities,” he said.

The Israeli military says it can scan a total of 44 trucks an hour at Nitzana and at a crossing from Israel into Gaza where aid trucks are inspected, at Kerem Shalom. But aid agency officials say the actual number scanned is fewer. The military declined to say how many hours Nitzana and Kerem Shalom are open each day.

Once the trucks pass inspection at Nitzana, they make the 40-kilometer journey back to Rafah, where they wait to cross into Gaza.

In late January, groups of Israelis, including friends and relatives of the more than 130 people still being held hostage by Hamas, began protesting against the delivery of aid to Gaza. Between late January and early March, the protests effectively shut down either Nitzana or Kerem Shalom for a total of 16 days, according to aid agencies.

At the Kerem Shalom crossing, goods are unloaded from the scanned trucks and reloaded onto trucks that have been vetted by the Israeli army, according to UN and aid agency workers. These “sanitized” trucks then make a 1 kilometer journey to a warehouse inside Gaza where the aid is again offloaded. The goods are then placed on trucks driven by Palestinians and taken to mostly UN-run warehouses in Rafah.

Under growing international pressure, Israel earlier this month initiated a new route for the delivery of aid directly to northern Gaza, known as the 96th gate. By March 20, COGAT said at least 86 international aid trucks had entered via the new crossing.

“There is a sufficient amount of food entering Gaza every day,” said Col. Moshe Tetro, a COGAT official overseeing Gaza.

The new route was initiated “as part of a pilot in order to prevent Hamas from taking over the aid,” COGAT said in a post on social media site X. Freedman, though, said he didn’t have “specific evidence” he could share about Hamas pilfering aid.

Hamas official Naim rejected the accusation that the group was stealing aid. “We have been cooperating and are cooperating with every single state and humanitarian organization so that the aid reaches people in dire need,” he said.

AN ARDUOUS JOURNEY

Once inside Gaza, the aid shipments face more challenges.
Several convoys have been attacked on the stretch of road from Kerem Shalom to Gaza warehouses by people carrying crude weapons such as axes and box-cutters, according to UN officials and truck drivers. Deeper inside Gaza, others have been swarmed by crowds of people desperate for food.

In an incident that galvanized aid efforts, more than 100 people were killed in late February when a crowd descended on an aid convoy organized by Israel.
Security for food convoys traveling the short distance from the crossing points to warehouses in Rafah also deteriorated after several strikes by the Israeli military killed at least eight policemen in Gaza, according to UN officials. Israel says all police are members of Hamas.

“Whether they’re Hamas or not I don’t know, but they were doing a job for us in terms of crowd control,” said Jamie McGoldrick, a senior UN official. “The police are less willing to do that now.”

Aid agencies mostly now negotiate their own security with local communities, McGoldrick said.

Reuters reported recently that armed and masked men from an array of clans and factions in Gaza had begun providing security to aid convoys.

Police officers in Gaza “are Hamas, they are part of the Hamas terrorist organization,” COGAT’s Freedman said. Israel doesn’t target humanitarian convoys, “we try to assist them, but Hamas is our enemy.”

Storing aid in Gaza has also become a problem. Warehouses have been damaged by the fighting and occasionally looted. Of the 43 warehouses in Gaza that were operational before the war, only 22 are now working, according to the Logistics Cluster, a UN-run logistics facilitator for aid agencies.

In mid-March, an Israeli airstrike hit a UN food distribution center in southern Gaza, killing several people. Israel said it killed a Hamas commander in the attack. Hamas said the man targeted by Israel was a member of its police force.

From the warehouses, aid is delivered to southern Gaza, where the majority of the population is now located.

Making deliveries to northern Gaza is more fraught.

Roads to the north have been bombed by Israel and there are delays as trucks are held up or denied access at Israeli army checkpoints, say UN and other aid agency officials. Aid convoys are also often looted before reaching their destination by crowds of people desperate for food, UN officials said.

UN officials told Reuters that humanitarian agencies had made 158 requests to the Israeli military to deliver aid to northern Gaza from the beginning of the war to March 14. Of those, the military denied 57, they said.

COGAT’s Freedman said some requests to move aid inside Gaza have been rejected because aid agencies didn’t coordinate sufficiently with Israel.
“They weren't able to tell us exactly where that aid was going,” he said. “And if we don't know where it's going to, we don't know it's not going to end up in the hands of Hamas.”
In southern Gaza, residents are desperately waiting for aid.
“People have nothing to eat at all, nor do they have a place to stay, or a refuge,” said Suleiman al-Jaal, a local truck driver who said he has been attacked transporting aid in Gaza. “This is not a life. No matter how much aid they bring in, it’s not enough.”


How the Deadliest Attack on Russian Soil in Years Unfolded over the Weekend

People mourn at the Crocus City Hall concert venue following a terrorist attack in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, Russia, 24 March 2024. (EPA)
People mourn at the Crocus City Hall concert venue following a terrorist attack in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, Russia, 24 March 2024. (EPA)
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How the Deadliest Attack on Russian Soil in Years Unfolded over the Weekend

People mourn at the Crocus City Hall concert venue following a terrorist attack in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, Russia, 24 March 2024. (EPA)
People mourn at the Crocus City Hall concert venue following a terrorist attack in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, Russia, 24 March 2024. (EPA)

The auditorium at Crocus City Hall was about three-quarters full, with the crowd waiting to see Picnic, a band popular since the Soviet days of the early 1980s. But the concert was sold out in the 6,200-seat hall, so some of the audience was still likely getting food or were shedding their heavy coats in the cloakroom.

It was 7-10 minutes before the start of the show, scheduled for 8 p.m., said concertgoer Dave Primov.

Then came the popping sounds.

“Initially I thought: fireworks or something like that...” Primov told The Associated Press. “I looked at my colleague, and he also said: ‘Fireworks, probably.’”

But it wasn’t pyrotechnics. At least four khaki-clad men with automatic weapons were in the building, firing incessantly. Then they set the concert hall on fire.

It was the start of the deadliest attack on Russian soil in years that left 137 people dead and more than 180 more injured in what President Vladimir Putin called “a bloody, barbaric terrorist act.” Although he sought to tie Ukraine to it, an affiliate of the ISIS group claimed responsibility — which US intelligence officials confirmed. Kyiv denied any involvement.

Four suspects were arrested in Russia's Bryansk region. Identified in Russian media as Tajik nationals, they were charged with carrying out a terrorist act and face a life sentence. They appeared before a Moscow court on Sunday night showing signs of severe beatings.

FRIDAY NIGHT Crocus City Hall is a large entertainment and shopping complex in Krasnogorsk, a suburb on the northwestern edge of Moscow. It was built by Azerbaijan-born billionaire and property developer Aras Agalarov, who had ties to Donald Trump before he became US president. While Trump was a co-owner of the Miss Universe beauty pageant, he signed an agreement with Agalarov to hold the event at Crocus in 2013.

On Friday night, its vast hallways became a scene of slaughter as the gunmen entered and made their way to the auditorium, firing at anyone nearby, sometimes at point-blank range.

Videos taken by those in the hallways and in the auditorium showed people screaming and trying to flee as the gunmen continued firing shots. Some hid behind the dark-red seats and tried to crawl toward the exits, according to footage and accounts of survivors reported in the media.

In one video, a young man says into the camera, with gunshots ringing out, “They set the auditorium on fire. The auditorium is on fire.” For a moment, flames could be seen in a corner of the theater.

Primov and others were able to leave the auditorium before the gunmen got to it, he told AP. It took him about 25 minutes to leave the building altogether.

He described the scene as complete chaos: The panic-stricken people tried to find exits, with gunmen still roaming through it and firing; people fell and collided with each other as they ran; men broke down locked doors, hoping they led to safety.

“We don’t know what’s ahead. We don’t know what is behind this door. We don’t know what is going on outside, maybe we’re encircled (by the attackers), maybe someone is waiting there,” Primov said.

Another survivor who identified herself only as Maria, echoed Primov: "This uncertainty, where to go, what to do, it scared (us) the most as every person there had no idea what was happening.”

The musicians of Picnic never made it onstage and left the building shortly after the attack began, its representative Yury Chernyshevsky told AP by phone shortly after news of the shooting broke. Asked if the band was safe, he responded: “How much safety can there be at this point? We hope we’re safe.”

By 8:30 p.m., a massive fire raged inside the building, with thick, black smoke billowing from the roof that later collapsed. Russian media reported explosions inside, and it wasn’t clear whether they were triggered by the gunmen or were caused by the blaze.

Outside, the building was bathed in neon blue from the blinking lights of dozens of ambulances, police and firetrucks. Helicopters dumped water into the blaze.

A special force of the Russian National Guard arrived and searched for the gunmen. Authorities announced the attack resulted in deaths and injuries, without giving numbers, and said they were investigating it as a terrorist act.

Various officials – from Moscow regional Gov. Andrei Vorobyov to Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev – arrived on the scene.

Elsewhere in Russia, authorities tightened security and canceled big events scheduled for the weekend. In the second-largest city of St. Petersburg, two malls were evacuated, according to media reports.

Putin made no statements Friday night.

About 11 p.m., the Kremlin issued a terse statement saying Putin was informed “within minutes” of the shooting, was “constantly receiving” updates from government agencies, and issued the necessary orders, according to spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who did not elaborate.

SATURDAY The death toll rose overnight and throughout Saturday as more bodies were discovered at Crocus City Hall, including some found in stairwells and a restroom.

Putin, who on March 17 secured a fifth term in office in an election with no real competition, addressed the nation on Saturday afternoon.

Throughout the night, in Russia and abroad, discussions swirled about who was responsible for the brazen attack. Authorities in Ukraine, invaded by Russia more than two years ago, swiftly and vehemently denied any involvement. The denials were quickly backed by US officials, drawing a sharp reaction from Russian officials.

“On what grounds officials in Washington in the middle of a tragedy are making conclusions about someone’s non-complicity?” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an online statement. “If the US has or had reliable information about it, they should immediately pass it on to the Russian side. If they don’t, then the White House has no right to hand out absolution.”

Several hours after the attack began, an affiliate of the ISIS group claimed responsibility, but some Russian state media personalities denounced it as fake.

“So far, it looks like an attempt to create a false trail,” state TV journalist Andrei Medvedev wrote on Telegram.

On Saturday, Russian authorities sought to tie Ukraine to the attack. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, reported arresting four gunmen in the border region of Bryansk, saying they were headed for Ukraine and had unspecified “contacts on the Ukrainian side.” It didn't reveal any details of the manhunt but praised various law enforcement and security agencies for “acting in concert,” and saying that 11 people in total were arrested.

In his afternoon address, Putin called the attack “a bloody, barbaric terrorist act.”

He also reiterated the narrative, saying without evidence that “a window” was prepared for the assailants to cross into Ukraine. He stopped short, however, of blaming Kyiv for orchestrating the attack. He did not mention the claim of responsibility by the ISIS affiliate.

He also stopped short of announcing any drastic measures in the wake of the attack, such as lifting a moratorium on capital punishment, starting another wave of mobilization into the army or even escalating hostilities in Ukraine -– something Kremlin critics have suggested might be in store.

Moscow’s Department of Health said identifying the bodies of the dead will take at least two weeks.

SUNDAY Sunday was declared a day of national mourning. Events were canceled and flags were lowered to half-staff.

At the burned-out and smoldering Crocus City Hall, a steady stream of people came to lay flowers at a makeshift memorial.

Throughout the day, a heavy police presence was seen at Basmanny District Court in Moscow for the anticipated arrival of the four suspects. Russia's Investigative Committee released photos of them at its headquarters in Moscow.

Shortly before 11 p.m. — about 51 hours after the shooting began — the suspects, one by one, appeared in court for their pretrial hearings.

Bruises were visible on their faces; one had a bandaged ear; another was in a wheelchair and hospital gown. According to independent news outlet Mediazona, whose reporters attended the hearings, he was brought in from intensive care.

How he was hurt wasn't immediately clear. Unconfirmed Russian media reports suggested he was wounded during the manhunt.

The court said two of the suspects admitted guilt, though the men’s conditions raised questions about whether they did so freely.

The suspects, identified in Russian media as Tajik nationals, were charged with carrying out a terrorist act and face a life sentence.