Syrian Activists Call for Helping Refugees at Rukban Camp

 A photo circulated by activists on the social media of  Al-Rukban camp.
A photo circulated by activists on the social media of Al-Rukban camp.
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Syrian Activists Call for Helping Refugees at Rukban Camp

 A photo circulated by activists on the social media of  Al-Rukban camp.
A photo circulated by activists on the social media of Al-Rukban camp.

Syrian humanitarian bodies and activists appealed Wednesday to the UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordination Office in Amman, the Jordanian government and international relief organizations to urgently move to deliver drinking water to Al-Rukban camp, located on the Syrian-Jordanian-Iraqi borders.

The “Save Al-Rukban Camp” hashtag went viral on social media amid the poor conditions of thousands of camp residents.

Also, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) condemned the increasing pressure on the camp’s residents to push them toward the Syrian regime’s territory.

In a statement, SNHR called on the international community to move to save their lives, including returning the drinking water supply to the previous level and continuing to deliver it.

Al-Rukban camp hosts 7,500 residents suffering from reduced drinking water to almost half. The water was coming across the Jordanian borders and was supported by UNICEF.

SNHR said the situation will worsen as the heat increases in July and August to levels that threaten the lives of the camp residents, especially women and children.

Also, a number of Syrian figures urged Jordanian King Abdullah II to intervene and support the camp’s residents after the situation there became life-threatening.

“Over the past few years, we witnessed many residents being forced to exit the camp towards the Syrian regime territory, despite the possibility of suffering great violations, including arbitrary arrest, forced disappearance, torture, and forced recruitment,” the Network said, adding that it documented many violations of that kind against returnees.



Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
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Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled.

The warning came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant more than a year into the Gaza war.

The United Nations and others have repeatedly decried humanitarian conditions, particularly in northern Gaza, where Israel said Friday it had killed two commanders involved in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.

Gaza medics said an overnight Israeli raid on the cities of Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed or missing.

Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals, told reporters all hospitals in the Palestinian territory "will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation's (Israel's) obstruction of fuel entry".

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of 80 patients, including 8 in the intensive care unit" at Kamal Adwan hospital, one of just two partly operating in northern Gaza.

Kamal Adwan director Hossam Abu Safia told AFP it was "deliberately hit by Israeli shelling for the second day" Friday and that "one doctor and some patients were injured".

Late Thursday, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, said: "The delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies, is grinding to a halt."

He said that for more than six weeks, Israeli authorities "have been banning commercial imports" while "a surge in armed looting" has hit aid convoys.

Issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the Hague-based ICC said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe they bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity including over "the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies".

At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.