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Normalization between Syria and Türkiye … Putin’s Gift to Erdogan

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan meet on the sidelines of the 6th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA), in Astana, Kazakhstan October 13, 2022. (Reuters)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan meet on the sidelines of the 6th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA), in Astana, Kazakhstan October 13, 2022. (Reuters)
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Normalization between Syria and Türkiye … Putin’s Gift to Erdogan

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan meet on the sidelines of the 6th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA), in Astana, Kazakhstan October 13, 2022. (Reuters)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan meet on the sidelines of the 6th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA), in Astana, Kazakhstan October 13, 2022. (Reuters)

The Russian-sponsored Syrian-Turkish military meeting that was held in Moscow on Wednesday is the latest effort to achieve rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus.

It will likely culminate in a “gift” to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin: a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ahead of Turkish elections in 2023.

However, are the normalization efforts serious or simply cosmetic?

Background

Relations between Ankara and Damascus shifted in summer 2011, months after the eruption of the Syrian anti-regime protests. Türkiye became a safe haven and supporter of the opposition against Damascus.

Syria transformed into an arena of violence, chaos and division. It also became a backer of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) that is opposed to Ankara.

Russia intervened in the conflict in the regime’s favor in 2015. Soon, it had troops deployed in Syria, effectively becoming Türkiye’s neighbor. Ankara would then discover the extent of NATO’s support to it, forcing it to cooperate with Moscow to impose a new reality in Syria.

A year later, Türkiye would prioritize preventing the formation of a Kurdish entity on its southern borders. It therefore reached a series of settlements and agreements with Russia that put an end to Kurdish ambitions. It succeeded in gaining control of pockets of regions in Syria, estimated at over 20,000 square kilometers, roughly twice the size of Lebanon.

Putin pushed for rapprochement between Erdogan and Assad with the launch of the Astana talks between Russia, Iran and Türkiye in 2017 and the development of the “hostile cooperation” between Ankara and Moscow.

In early 2020, Moscow succeeded in hosting an open meeting between Syria’s national security chief Ali Mamlouk and Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan. Mamlouk demanded that Türkiye pull out from Syrian regions and reopen the Aleppo-Latakia highway. Fidan wanted deeper cooperation against the YPG.

Putin succeeded in bringing them together, but failed in reaching a major breakthrough.

New attempt

Erdogan has repeatedly been threatening to wage a new military offensive in Syria. He also has his eyes set on the upcoming elections and growing Turkish opposition to Syrian refugees in Türkiye. Notably, Türkiye and Russia have seen their cooperation deepen in wake of the war on Ukraine.

With all of the above, Putin has been paving the way for a meeting between Erdogan and Assad before the summer.

The first step he took was have a secret meeting take place between Mamlouk and Fidan in Moscow in July 2022.

The Syrian official demanded that his country’s sovereignty be respected. He demanded a timetable for Türkiye’s withdrawal from Syrian regions and called on it to cease its support to opposition factions and “terrorists”. He urged Türkiye to reopen the Aleppo-Latakia and Bab al-Hawa-Idlib highways, to take measures against western sanctions and back Syria’s reconstruction.

For his part, Fidan demanded cooperation with Damascus against the YPG and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). He demanded the establishment of a security zone that excludes these groups 23 kilometers deep into Syria and the establishment of safe zones that can take in a million returning refugees. He also urged cooperation in the Constitutional Committee and resolving the Syrian crisis through United Nations Security Council resolution 2254.

Mamlouk and Fidan failed to reach an agreement and the meeting ended without a breakthrough.

Normalization or not?

In recent months Erdogan wasn’t wondering whether he will meet with Assad or not, but rather when he will meet him. He has repeatedly declared that he is ready to meet with him, listing various reasons, such as resolving differences with the majority of countries in the region before the Turkish elections.

Assad, however, is in no rush to hold a meeting that would favor his rival, whose country he views as an occupying nation.

As Türkiye and Russia intensify their cooperation in Ukraine, the Turkish elections draw near and the Syrian economic crisis deepens, Putin has pushed more and more for normalization and for a meeting to be held between him, Erdogan and Assad. The meeting would be seen as a gift to his “frenemy” and a boost for him to win the elections.

To that end, Russia has proposed holding a series of meetings that include tripartite security talks, meetings between the ministers of defense attended by intelligence officials, and a meeting between the Russian, Turkish and Syrian foreign ministers that will be capped by a summit between Putin, Erdogan and Assad.

Russia is trying to offer magical remedies to bridge the divide between Türkiye and Syria. It is offering a series of military, security and political meetings, as well as amendments to the 1998 Adana agreement between Ankara and Damascus that addresses cooperation against the PKK and the possibility of a Turkish incursion 5 kilometers deep into Syria.

The amendments would merge the Adana and 2019 Sochi agreements to include the deployment of Russian-Turkish patrols, the withdrawal of the YPG 30 kilometers away from the Turkish border and the deployment of Syrian border guards along the border with Türkiye.

Politically, Russia is proposing that a joint statement be issued with main clauses that underscore a “commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria”, “rejection of separatist agendas” and return of refugees.

Türkiye is home to some 3.7 million Syrian refugees. The issue has been one of the main headlines of the Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections. Erdogan wants to take away this card from his rivals, which is why he is pursuing rapprochement and agreement with Damascus. Ultimately, however, the return of two million refugees back to their homeland is a hard ask.

Assad wants the withdrawal of thousands of Turkish soldiers from Syria, an end to “occupations” and a halt to military and political support to the Syrian opposition. It would be difficult to envisage an alliance with Ankara against the Kurds and meeting with Erdogan before a step is taken towards fulfilling these demands.

Moscow has set the process of normalization between Damascus and Ankara in motion, with all its security, military and political demands, with the final goal being a summit between Putin, Erdogan and Assad.

Normalization will be the chief pursuit of 2023 with its anticipated impact on normalization between Arab countries and Damascus and how far the US will allow it to go ahead.

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Features

US Sales of Palestinian Keffiyehs Soar, Even as Wearers Targeted

Izzat Hirbawi shows different keffiyeh fabric colorss in a textile factory in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 24,2023. (Reuters)
Izzat Hirbawi shows different keffiyeh fabric colorss in a textile factory in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 24,2023. (Reuters)
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US Sales of Palestinian Keffiyehs Soar, Even as Wearers Targeted

Izzat Hirbawi shows different keffiyeh fabric colorss in a textile factory in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 24,2023. (Reuters)
Izzat Hirbawi shows different keffiyeh fabric colorss in a textile factory in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 24,2023. (Reuters)

A growing number of Americans are donning the keffiyeh, the distinctive patterned scarf that's closely linked with Palestinians, to demand a ceasefire to Israel's attacks on Gaza or to signal their support for Palestinians.

Sales of the scarves have jumped since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, US distributors say, even as keffiyehs have been forcibly removed by security forces at some protests and wearers report being targeted for verbal and physical abuse.

"It was like a light switch. All of a sudden, we had hundreds of people on the website simultaneously and buying whatever they could," said Azar Aghayev, the US distributor for Hirbawi, which opened in 1961 and is the only manufacturer of keffiyehs left in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

"In two days, the stock that we had was just gone, and not just gone, it was oversold."

Hirbawi, which has patented its brand, sells scarves internationally via its US and German websites and on Amazon. All 40 variations on the US website, which include many in bright colors as well as the traditional black and white, are sold out, Aghayev said.

Unit sales of keffiyeh scarves have risen 75% in the 56 days between Oct. 7 and Dec. 2 on Amazon.com compared with the previous 56 days, data from e-commerce analytics firm Jungle Scout showed. Searches for "Palestinian scarf for women" rose by 159% in the three months to Dec. 4 compared with the previous three months; searches for "military scarf shemagh,keffiyeh palestine" and "keffiyeh" rose 333%, 75%, and 68%, respectively.

The keffiyeh, with its fishing net pattern, is common throughout the Arab world, with roots dating as far back as 3100 BC. It first came to symbolize Palestinian resistance during the 1936 Arab Revolt against British rule and later became the signature head gear of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat.

While Hirbawi is the best-known manufacturer, others include small artisans and global copycats; luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton sold a version in 2021.

US supporters of the Palestinians and Israel have faced threats and attacks since the Middle East conflict began, with Jewish Americans seeing an increase in antisemitism and Muslim Americans an uptick in Islamaphobia.

Hazami Barmada, 38, a former United Nations official who lives in Virginia, wore one recently as she protested outside the White House and in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood in support of a ceasefire in Gaza.

Donning the scarf felt like a "superpower," she said, reconnecting her with her Palestinian heritage and offering a symbolic link to children in Gaza. But she believes it also attracts verbal abuse. "I'm taking a calculated risk," said Barmada.

Security target, Vermont shooting

At New York City's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting in November, one attendee who wore a keffiyeh had it yanked off by a security officer - a moment captured in a Reuters photograph.

The security officer approached protesters at the front of the crowd who had a banner, a Palestinian flag, and one wearing a keffiyeh, and grabbed all three items, taking the keffiyeh from around the neck of the protester, photographer Eduardo Munnoz said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has documented several instances of people targeted for wearing a keffiyeh, from a father assaulted on a Brooklyn playground to a Harvard graduate student who was told she was wearing a "terrorist" scarf.

In the most serious incident, three college students of Palestinian descent - two wearing keffiyehs - were shot in Burlington, Vermont, while taking a walk last month. Hisham Awartani, 20, is paralyzed from the chest down. Authorities have charged a suspect with attempted murder in the shootings and are investigating whether it was a hate-motivated crime.

Tamara Tamimi, the mother of one of the students, Kinnan Abdalhamid, told CBS News last week that she believed they would not have been targeted if they had not been "dressed the way that they were and speaking Arabic."

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a group at the center of US campus activism since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. has been encouraging students to “wear your keffiyeh” in solidarity with the students shot in Vermont in the week after the incident.

Still, in Houston, Texas, SJP member Anna Rajagopal said she and other members had not worn their keffiyeh outside spaces they considered friendly to Arabs and Muslims since October, after people waving Israeli flags surrounded a cafe they were in, screaming insults.

"Myself and a friend have been cognizant of taking off our keffiyehs after leaving Palestinian, Arab spaces to be safe," said Rajagopal, 23, a freelance writer who graduated from Rice University in May and is also a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, a group that advocates for Palestinian independence.

Demand is unabated, though, sellers say. "If we could stock 20,000 keffiyehs, we would have sold them," said Morgan Totah, founder of Handmade Palestine, a group based in the Palestinian city of Ramallah that sells local artisans' wares online.

Features

A Decade after Mandela's Death, His Pro-Palestinian Legacy Lives On

Former South African president Nelson Mandela (R) and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (L) address the media after holding talks on the crisis in the Middle East May 3, 2001. JN/WS/ File Photo
Former South African president Nelson Mandela (R) and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (L) address the media after holding talks on the crisis in the Middle East May 3, 2001. JN/WS/ File Photo
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A Decade after Mandela's Death, His Pro-Palestinian Legacy Lives On

Former South African president Nelson Mandela (R) and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (L) address the media after holding talks on the crisis in the Middle East May 3, 2001. JN/WS/ File Photo
Former South African president Nelson Mandela (R) and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (L) address the media after holding talks on the crisis in the Middle East May 3, 2001. JN/WS/ File Photo

Days after his release from 27 years in prison in February 1990, anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela gave Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a bear hug, symbolizing his embrace of a cause his country's governing ANC party continues to champion.
It was a gesture as controversial then as South Africa's support for the Palestinian cause is today, but Mandela brushed off criticism.
Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization had been an unwavering supporter of Mandela's struggle against white minority rule and many South Africans saw parallels between it and the Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation.
"We were fortunate that with their support, we were able to achieve our freedom ... My grandfather ... said our freedom is incomplete without the Palestinian struggle," his grandson Mandla Mandela recalled in an interview ahead of the 10th commemoration of Mandela's death.
From Dec. 3 to 5 Mandla Mandela, who is also an ANC lawmaker, hosted a solidarity conference in Johannesburg for the Palestinians.
It was attended by members of Hamas, an organization Israel has vowed to annihilate in retaliation for its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw around 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israeli bombing of Gaza since then has killed more than 15,500 people, according to Gaza's Hamas-run government, and displaced more than three-quarters of the Strip's 2.3 million population.
Last month, the ruling ANC backed a motion in South Africa's parliament to suspend diplomatic ties with Israel until it agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza.
"LAND ANNEXED"
"Palestinians still do not enjoy fully their freedom on their land. And instead their land has been annexed more and more, something that we also faced in South Africa," said the ANC's deputy chair of international relations, Obed Bapela.
Israel has disputed the comparison with apartheid as a lie motivated by antisemitism, but many South Africans follow Mandela's lead.
"That's something that he (Mandela) never compromised on and nor should we," poet and author Lebogang Mashile told Reuters.
Some in South Africa's Jewish community criticize the ANC's stance, pointing out that Mandela himself eventually tried to build bridges with Israel.
Historian and author of "Jewish Memories of Mandela", David Saks, noted that Mandela was the only South African president to have visited Israel since 1994 - albeit only after he left office - and that "he received a rapturous welcome from the Israeli public," addressing then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak and then-President Ezer Weisman as "my friends".
"He pointed the way which things should have gone (diplomatically with Israel), but (they) didn’t go that way," Saks said.

Features

Volunteer Divers Guard Oman’s ‘Unique’ Coral Reefs

A picture shows coral reefs at Oman's Daymaniyat islands on October 4, 2023. (AFP)
A picture shows coral reefs at Oman's Daymaniyat islands on October 4, 2023. (AFP)
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Volunteer Divers Guard Oman’s ‘Unique’ Coral Reefs

A picture shows coral reefs at Oman's Daymaniyat islands on October 4, 2023. (AFP)
A picture shows coral reefs at Oman's Daymaniyat islands on October 4, 2023. (AFP)

On a sailing boat anchored off Oman's pristine Daymaniyat Islands, volunteer divers pull on wetsuits, check their scuba tanks and then take turns plunging into the clear turquoise water.

They are diving for a reason: to remove the massive fishing nets damaging an unusually resilient coral reef system that is seen as more likely than most to survive rising sea temperatures.

The clean-up is one example of how divers and Omani authorities are joining forces to protect the reefs -- which are critical for marine wildlife -- from man-made damage.

"Coral reefs are a refuge for marine habitat and wildlife," said Hammoud al-Nayri of Oman's environmental authority, as he watched the divers.

"To protect marine ecosystems, we must first preserve coral reefs," said the 45-year-old who oversees the Daymaniyat Islands, Oman's only marine reserve.

Most shallow-water corals, battered and bleached white by repeated marine heatwaves, are "unlikely to last the century", the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said last year.

Global warming, as well as dynamite fishing and pollution, wiped out a startling 14 percent of the world's reefs between 2009 and 2018, according to the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.

But Oman's relatively cooler waters provide a rare refuge for its reefs, which are among the least studied in the world.

"Oman's reefs are actually considered to be relatively less vulnerable than some regions," said John Burt, associate professor of biology at New York University Abu Dhabi.

"This is largely due to the influence of the monsoon," the marine expert explained.

"During peak summer temperatures, when we would expect to see bleaching related to marine heatwaves in most regions, the Indian Ocean monsoon picks up in southern Oman, cooling water temperatures dramatically."

'Huge environmental treasure'

Oman's reefs may be resilient to warming sea temperatures, but they are not immune.

The sultanate saw its last major bleaching event in the summer of 2021, when sea temperatures were particularly warm, said Burt.

Cyclones, which are becoming more frequent due to climate change, are also a major threat.

Between 2005 and 2010, more than half of corals in Oman were lost because of Super-Cyclone Gonu in 2007, Cyclone Phet in 2010, as well as a large-scale algal bloom in 2008-2009, Burt said.

"We have had over a decade of recovery in the intervening years which has allowed coral to come back to these reefs," Burt said.

To protect the reefs from fishing nets and coral-killing starfish, Hasan Farsi dives in Daymaniyat every week to inspect for damage.

The son of a fisherman, he records the GPS coordinates of damaged coral areas and sends them to the environment ministry to register them as clean-up targets.

He then joins the dozens of volunteers who dive down to remove the sunken nets and crown-of-thorns starfish, which prey on the reefs.

Coral reefs are "a huge environmental treasure", Farsi said from a sailing boat, with extracted nets piled up behind him.

"The coral reefs, because of wrong practices by fishermen, are deteriorating year by year," said the 52-year-old diving instructor.

"Without clean-up campaigns, they would be destroyed completely."

Reefs database

Farsi is not alone in his effort.

Jenan Al Asfoor, a diver and trainer, is a central figure in Oman's coral reef conservation.

The 40-year-old heads Reef Check Oman, which is part of the global Reef Check Foundation.

It was established in 2017 with the aim of building a full database of the country's coral reefs, monitoring their health, identifying their main threats, and working with authorities on protection policies.

Over the years, the organization has conducted several surveys across the country.

"During these surveys, we noticed that we didn't record much bleaching happening... most of the reefs we have surveyed look healthy and in good condition," Asfoor said.

"The uniqueness of corals here, is that while other countries are suffering from high sea temperatures during summer, usually in Oman, we have a cool water temperature all around the year due to the cold water currents travelling from the south of Oman during the monsoon season."

According to Asfoor, Oman's coral reefs have also adapted to high salinity in Oman's northern seas.

"We have a very unique ecosystem happening here, which is not found often anywhere else around the world," she said.

"Our goal in Reef Check Oman is to continue protecting it for generations to come."

Features

Palestinians Lose Jobs as Israeli Firms Seek Foreign Replacements

Israel has sent back thousands of Palestinians to the besieged Gaza Strip - Reuters Photo
Israel has sent back thousands of Palestinians to the besieged Gaza Strip - Reuters Photo
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Palestinians Lose Jobs as Israeli Firms Seek Foreign Replacements

Israel has sent back thousands of Palestinians to the besieged Gaza Strip - Reuters Photo
Israel has sent back thousands of Palestinians to the besieged Gaza Strip - Reuters Photo

When Taha Amin-Ismail Khalifeh dialled into a conference call with his Israeli employer last month, the Palestinian hotel worker expected a briefing on how the Israel-Hamas war was affecting business. Instead, he and 40 others were laid off.

Khalifeh, who lives in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, had worked as a housekeeper in the hotel in East Jerusalem for more than 20 years.

About 160,000 Palestinians from the West Bank who were working in Israel and in Jewish settlements have lost or are at risk of losing their jobs because of the closure of border crossings from the West Bank into Israel and settlements, and restrictions on their access to Israel's job market, according to the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO).

Israel has also sent back thousands of Palestinians to the besieged Gaza Strip, Reuters report said.

It had previously issued 18,000 permits allowing Gazans to cross into Israel and the West Bank to take jobs in sectors like agriculture or construction that had salaries up to 10 times what a worker could earn in the blockaded enclave.

Many of the Palestinians worked as day laborers in Israel, or in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and have been unable to travel to their jobs due to the closure of border crossings since Hamas's Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel.

Like many of them, Khalifeh had mixed feelings about working for an Israeli business, but it was his best option for a reliable pay cheque. Unemployment is running at about 46% in Gaza and 13% in the West Bank, and wages are much lower.

"There is nothing that would provide us with a living except working in Israel," Khalifeh told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. "We have no other choice."

Now jobless for more than a month, he fears he may never be able to return as Israeli businesses urge the government to plug the labor gap left by the Palestinian workers from nations including India and Sri Lanka.

Israeli farms, buildings sites and hotels are among the sectors struggling with a shortage of workers since the war erupted, and some foreign migrant laborers have left, fearing for their safety.

The Israel Builders Association (ACB) has asked the government to seek to recruit at least 60,000 foreign laborers to fill the gap left by the Palestinians, Shay Pauzner, the ACB's deputy director-general, said in emailed comments.

Sri Lanka, desperate for dollars and remittances, plans to send 10,000 workers for the Israeli construction industry, part of a wider contingent of 20,000 workers also including farm laborers, a government minister told Reuters last month.

Israel's Foreign Ministry, the Population and Immigration Authority and COGAT, the government agency that oversees entry permits, did not respond to requests for comment.

- FRAGILE ECONOMY

Efforts to bring in replacements from overseas have raised fears that Palestinian workers' long-term employment prospects could be jeopardized, regardless of what happens in the current conflict.

"This is dangerous issue," Saeed Omran, head of media at the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions, said by phone, though he added that it would take time for tens of thousands of foreigners to be hired.

"How are they going to get them so fast?" he said.

The long-term loss of Israeli jobs would deal another blow to the fragile Palestinian economy, which is dependent on foreign aid and vulnerable to Israeli travel restrictions in the West Bank.

According to the ILO, the Palestinian job losses since the start of the war equate to a daily income loss of $16 million. That raises concerns about how Palestinians will live and work in the months and years to come, especially in Gaza, said Miriam Marmur, the public advocacy director at Gisha, an Israeli nonprofit which campaigns for freedom of movement of Palestinians.

"It's hard to imagine that workers from Gaza will be given access to jobs. What's going to be the humanitarian and economic reality in the Strip? What's the situation of the Palestinian economy going to be coming out of this?" Marmur said.

For low-paid workers, the loss of income is already causing financial pain.

Construction worker Muthana Jamal Hassan, 33, who lives in the West Bank city of Jenin, had just finished a painting job in Tel Aviv when the war broke out.

He earned $140 a week and was his family's main breadwinner, but has had no income since the war began, and said he will soon be forced to get into debt to cover his family's basic needs.

Because of the border closures, he said he can not safely cross the border and fears being shot at or detained by Israeli security forces if he tries to do so.

"We used to work to eat and drink, not to buy villas and cars," he said by phone from his home. "We were living in a certain way and now it was taken away from us overnight."

- FOREIGN WORKERS

Israeli efforts to recruit foreign workers to replace Palestinians have drawn criticism from trade unionists in India, with the Construction Workers Federation of India calling the push "immoral", pointing to the death toll in Israel's bombardment and ground invasion of Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Palestinian health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations say more than 15,000 Gazans have been confirmed killed.

Referring to the ACB's request for foreign laborers to be hired, a spokesperson for Israeli migrant rights labor group Kav LaOved said the mass recruitment of foreign workers at short notice during wartime might threaten their rights.

"They want to bring in so many people without being prepared," said spokesperson Assia Ladizhinskaya.

"We need Israel to enforce (workers') rights to check if they're being recruited normally, if the employer can communicate with them with translators, and do checks in the fields and the construction sites to see if the workers are being treated well," Ladizhinskaya added.

The group has been helping dozens of workers recover unpaid wages by contacting their employers, and has urged the Israeli government to let laid-off Palestinians withdraw funds from their pensions to help them cope with the earnings loss.

Construction worker Ahmad Mohammad Abu Sbay used to be paid 3,800 shekels ($1,023) per month, which he said was just enough to cover the family's needs, but he has not worked since the war began.

"I don't know how I'm going to feed my family," the 37-year-old father-of-four said by phone from his home in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

"I feel the mental pressure every minute and every hour."

Features

Far From Violence, Gaza Wounded Find Care at Cairo Hospital

A Palestinian boy receives medical care at Nasser Institute hospital in Cairo, on December 3, 2023, after he was evacuated to Egypt following his injuries sustained amid fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
A Palestinian boy receives medical care at Nasser Institute hospital in Cairo, on December 3, 2023, after he was evacuated to Egypt following his injuries sustained amid fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
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Far From Violence, Gaza Wounded Find Care at Cairo Hospital

A Palestinian boy receives medical care at Nasser Institute hospital in Cairo, on December 3, 2023, after he was evacuated to Egypt following his injuries sustained amid fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
A Palestinian boy receives medical care at Nasser Institute hospital in Cairo, on December 3, 2023, after he was evacuated to Egypt following his injuries sustained amid fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)

Ilham Majid was praying when bombs fell on her Gaza house, and her husband only found her hours later under the rubble, alive but seriously wounded.

She was one of the luckier ones -- 17 other family members, including two of her children, were killed in that fateful October 31 raid in the Jabalia refugee camp of northern Gaza, where Israel has been fighting Hamas militants following deadly attacks earlier that month.

Now, like several other Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, Majid is receiving medical treatment in Egypt.

"All of a sudden I felt the house crumbling. Three stories collapsed on top of me," the 42-year-old recalled from her hospital bed at Cairo's Nasser Hospital.

"I got shrapnel all over my body. My liver was hit, my leg, ribs and my jaw are all broken. I cannot walk."

Majid said her husband found her trapped under the rubble of the house by chance four-and-a-half hours later, thanks to one of her fingers that was sticking out.

"I almost could not breathe -- almost dead," she said, AFP reported.

Her 15-year-old daughter was killed in the bombardment, and 10 days later the body of her 17-year-old son was pulled from under the debris. It was already rotting.

Ever since the tragedy that ripped apart her family -- 50 relatives were staying at the house when it was hit -- Majid has been looking at pictures of her son on her cell phone.

Since early October, several Palestinians wounded in Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip, and some suffering various illnesses, have been authorized to leave the besieged territory and travel to Egypt for medical care.

More than 15,500 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza since fighting began on October 7, according to Gaza health ministry.

Israel unleashed an air and ground campaign against the densely-populated territory with the aim of destroying Hamas, after the militants broke through Gaza's militarized border into Israel.

The war on Gaza has devastated swathes of the coastal territory, levelled entire neighbourhoods and destroyed much of the infrastructure, including hospitals.

Even before fighting resumed on Friday after a week-long pause during which Hamas released hostages in exchange for prisoners held by Israel, Gaza's health system was on its knees with hospitals resembling a "horror movie", according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Now it is "catastrophic", the UN agency has said.

Currently, only 18 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are even minimally to partially functional, with the three main hospitals in the north barely operative, Richard Peeperkorn, WHO's representative in the Palestinian territories, told reporters in Geneva via video-link from Gaza on Friday.

The United Nations says not a single hospital in northern Gaza can carry out surgeries after several were attacked by Israel, while those in the south are overwhelmed by the number of casualties they receive daily.

At Cairo's Nasser Hospital, patients such as Majid are trying to slowly regain their strength far away from the violence and chaos consuming Gaza.

Yussef, 13, lay in a bed staring into the distance, his face puffy.

Dried blood stained his right leg which was held together with metal rods.

"He was in a complete state of shock when I found him," said his older brother, under the rubble of their four-storey home in the Shati refugee camp.

In another hospital room further down the corridor, Lubna al-Shafei, 36, said she was being treated for a "neck wound".

"On October 23, our house in the centre of Gaza City was destroyed. My son was killed and my husband was wounded," she said.

Last week the Egyptian health ministry announced the launch of an initiative aimed at providing medical care for 1,000 children wounded in Gaza.

Already 28 premature babies who were trapped at Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest which was besieged and ultimately raided by Israeli forces, have been taken to Egypt.

The United Arab Emirates and Tunisia have also taken in Palestinians wounded in Gaza, namely children in need of medical care.

France and Italy have sent ships to Egypt to serve as hospitals for wounded civilians from Gaza.

Features

Yemeni Antiquities: Ongoing Hemorrhage through Global Auctions

Yemeni Antiquities: Ongoing Hemorrhage through Global Auctions
Yemeni Antiquities: Ongoing Hemorrhage through Global Auctions
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Yemeni Antiquities: Ongoing Hemorrhage through Global Auctions

Yemeni Antiquities: Ongoing Hemorrhage through Global Auctions
Yemeni Antiquities: Ongoing Hemorrhage through Global Auctions

A Yemeni archaeology expert has revealed that several Yemeni artifacts have been put up for public auctions in Western countries over the past two weeks.

Abdullah Mohsen, a Yemeni specialist in tracking and monitoring smuggled antiquities, has confirmed that a range of artifacts was put up for sale in international auctions on Nov. 15-27.

Among the showcased items were a bronze high-relief dating back to the 5th century BCE, a rare female figurine with inscriptions in cursive script, and a rare 1st-century BCE artifact.

Additionally, a collection of artifacts, sculptures, and antiquities estimated to be around 5,000 years old was featured.

According to Mohsen, an “archaeological tomb” was also relocated from Al-Jawf governorate to Shabwa governorate, and subsequently, it was flown to France.

Mohsen emphasized that this incident serves as a genuine illustration of the ease with which antiquities can be smuggled out of Yemen.

This reinforces speculations around the sale of these artifacts occuring wholesale from their discovery sites rather than through retail transactions.

Mohsen, through a series of Facebook posts, sheds light on the sale of a rare headstone in Toronto, Canada, on Nov. 17.

In the posts, Mohsen explains that the artifact dates back to the prehistoric period and is part of Yemen’s antiquities from Saba or Qataban.

The headstone was presented for sale in an auction after being acquired from an exhibition in New York on May 15, 2008, for approximately $40,000.

This revelation comes at a time when multiple sources confirm the ongoing looting and random excavation in several archaeological sites scattered across Houthi-run areas in Yemen.

These activities are driven by gangs and antiquities mafias supported by key Houthi leaders.

Nearly 12 out of 20 museums, as reported by a former official from the General Authority for Antiquities and Museums in Sanaa, have fallen victim to systematic looting, destruction, and devastation orchestrated by Houthis.

Features

Makeshift Bakery Turns Out Scarce Bread in Gaza City

Makeshift bread ovens like this one in the central Gaza Strip have proliferated across the territory as Israel's punishing air and ground offensive has forced bakeries to close - AFP
Makeshift bread ovens like this one in the central Gaza Strip have proliferated across the territory as Israel's punishing air and ground offensive has forced bakeries to close - AFP
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Makeshift Bakery Turns Out Scarce Bread in Gaza City

Makeshift bread ovens like this one in the central Gaza Strip have proliferated across the territory as Israel's punishing air and ground offensive has forced bakeries to close - AFP
Makeshift bread ovens like this one in the central Gaza Strip have proliferated across the territory as Israel's punishing air and ground offensive has forced bakeries to close - AFP

With a metal box for an oven, planks of wood for fuel and a folded strip of cardboard for a makeshift potholder, a baker on a Gaza City street turned out tray after steaming tray of flat bread on Saturday.

A staple food before the war, bread has become rarer and rarer in the Gaza Strip, with bakeries shut across the heavily bombed north and flour in short supply after mills and storage warehouses were damaged in fighting between Israel and Hamas.

To Abu Abdullah Muhaysa, the volunteer who came up with the idea to bake bread for remaining residents of the devastated city, the improvised kitchen is a "response to the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip".

"We crafted this by hand with iron sheets to provide bread for people and their children, to help them survive and fulfil their needs after all basic necessities were cut off," he told AFP.

Patrons are asked to pay just a token amount to cover the cost of gathering firewood.

"Our efforts and manpower are solely dedicated to the sake of God and our community," Muhaysa said.

Since Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel sparked an Israeli pledge to crush the Palestinian militant group, a humanitarian disaster has been unfolding in Gaza.

The World Food Program has warned that the population faces a "high risk of famine", and only a trickle of aid has made it into the territory.

Earlier this month, one of Gaza's last grain warehouses was hit by Israeli strikes, and at least two of its five flour mills have been damaged.

Azmi Abu Assira was among those who turned out for bread in Gaza City on Saturday, the second day of renewed Israeli bombardment after a week-long truce fell apart.

"We were compelled to come here as there are no bakeries available," he said, adding that the price of a 20-kilogramme (44-pound) bag of flour had shot up to between 300 and 400 shekels (between $80 and $100).

"The people are suffering, as you can see," he added, calling for "a ceasefire to relieve us from the hardship".

Muhaysa, for his part, urged the international community "not to apply double standards, but to grant Palestinians their right to a normal life".

"We seek attention for our cause so that Palestinian children can smile like children everywhere else in the world," he said.

Features

Nowhere to Go, Say Gazans in South under Israeli Bombardment

Palestinians inspect the damage in the rubble of a building destroyed during Israeli bombardment in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, on December 2, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the damage in the rubble of a building destroyed during Israeli bombardment in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, on December 2, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
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Nowhere to Go, Say Gazans in South under Israeli Bombardment

Palestinians inspect the damage in the rubble of a building destroyed during Israeli bombardment in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, on December 2, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the damage in the rubble of a building destroyed during Israeli bombardment in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, on December 2, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)

Under aerial bombardment from Israel, people sheltering in the south of the Gaza Strip after fleeing their homes earlier in the war said on Saturday they had nowhere safe to go now.

The city of Khan Younis is the focus of Israeli air strikes and artillery fire after fighting resumed on Friday following the collapse of a week-long truce. Its population has swelled in recent weeks as several hundred thousand people from the northern Gaza Strip have fled south.

Some are camping in tents, others in schools. Some are sleeping in stairwells or outside the few hospitals operating in the city. A World Health Organization official said on Friday that one of the hospitals was "like a horror movie" as hundreds of wounded children and adults waited for treatment.

Abu Wael Nasrallah, 80, scoffed at the Israeli army's latest order to move further south to Rafah, bordering Egypt. Children were injured in Israeli strikes in the town on Friday.

The message was delivered via leaflets dropped from the sky over several districts in Khan Younis.

"This is nonsense," Nasrallah told Reuters. He had heeded Israeli evacuation orders and moved from the northern Gaza Strip earlier in the war that broke out on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants crossed into Israel and killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

Some 193 Palestinians had been killed since the truce expired, the Gaza health ministry said on Saturday, adding to the death toll of more than 15,000 Gazans announced by Palestinian health authorities.

Israel says it is making efforts to prevent civilian casualties as the fighting moves south. Addressing reporters in Tel Aviv on Saturday, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said humanitarian groups were informed of what he described the "safer areas".

"We've not asked the whole population of the south to relocate, we've not even asked the whole population of Khan Younis to relocate. But those neighborhoods, those specific areas where we know there is going to be heavy combat, we've asked people there to relocate," Mark Regev said.

'Night of horror'

Nasrallah said he and his family would stay put because they had already lost everything.

"There is nothing left to fear. Our homes are gone, our property is gone, our money is gone, our sons have been killed, some are handicapped. What is left to cry for?"

A mother of four, who gave her name as Samira, said she had fled south from Gaza City with her children after Israel began bombing there last month. They now shelter with friends in a home west of Khan Younis.

She said Friday night had been one of the most terrifying since she arrived: "A night of horror."

She and other residents said they feared the intensity of the bombing in Khan Younis and the nearby city of Deir al-Balah meant Israel's ground invasion of the south was imminent.

Another man, who gave his name as Yamen, said he and his wife and six children had fled the north weeks ago and were sleeping in a school.

"Where to after Deir al Abalah, after Khan Younis?" he said. "I don't know where to take my family."

The UN estimates that up to 1.8 million people in the Gaza Strip - or nearly 80% of the population - have been forced to flee during Israel's devastating bombing campaign.

Israel has sworn to annihilate Gaza-based Hamas in response to the Oct. 7 attack.

Features

A World Away from the West Bank, Vermont Shooting Victims Face New Grief and Fear

In this Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023, photo provided by family attorney Abed Ayoub, three college students, from the left, Tahseen Ali Ahmad, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Hisham Awartani, stand together for a photograph. (Rich Price via AP, File)
In this Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023, photo provided by family attorney Abed Ayoub, three college students, from the left, Tahseen Ali Ahmad, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Hisham Awartani, stand together for a photograph. (Rich Price via AP, File)
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A World Away from the West Bank, Vermont Shooting Victims Face New Grief and Fear

In this Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023, photo provided by family attorney Abed Ayoub, three college students, from the left, Tahseen Ali Ahmad, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Hisham Awartani, stand together for a photograph. (Rich Price via AP, File)
In this Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023, photo provided by family attorney Abed Ayoub, three college students, from the left, Tahseen Ali Ahmad, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Hisham Awartani, stand together for a photograph. (Rich Price via AP, File)

Nearly a week after three college students of Palestinian descent were shot and seriously wounded while taking an evening walk, relatives of two of the victims have arrived in Vermont from the war-torn West Bank, grappling with a new reality that has shattered their lives and a place they thought was a safe haven.

Elizabeth Price and her husband Ali Awartani flew in Wednesday just as their son, Hisham Awartani, underwent surgery. After the Israel-Hamas war erupted in early October, they decided it would be safer for Hisham to stay in the United States instead of coming home for the holidays.

Now they don't know if he will ever walk again.

"When my nephew came to this country to pursue his studies and when he came to stay with me for Thanksgiving in Burlington, Vermont, it never occurred to me that he may be victim to this type of violence," Awartani's uncle Rich Price said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday. "And so, I feel a sense of shame, I feel a sense of outrage, and it’s been a really difficult awakening to the fact that even here — even in this country, even in this town — that many of the risks that exist for my nephew and his friends in Palestine exist for them here."

Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, all aged 20 and attending colleges in the eastern US, were visiting Price and his family for the holiday break. The three have been friends since first grade at Ramallah Friends School, a private school in the West Bank. While they were out for a walk Saturday evening after a family birthday party, a man approached them and shot them without saying a word, they told police.

The young men were speaking in a mix of English and Arabic and two of them were also wearing the black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh scarves when they were shot, Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said.

Abdalhamid ran when the man started shooting and jumped over a fence. He hid in a backyard for a minute shaking, fearing the man was after him and that his friends were dead, before going to a house that had lights on and urging them to call 911, he told the AP on Friday. He learned at the University of Vermont Medical Center that his friends were alive but more seriously injured and asked to be placed in the intensive care room with them, he said.

"Palestinians in general and in the US are suffering from hate. I don't think any race or ethnicity should be targeted like that," Abdalhamid said in the hotel where he’s staying with his mother, Tamara Tamimi, after being released from the hospital earlier in the week.

Tamimi arrived in Vermont Wednesday from Jerusalem. After she and her husband got the 3 a.m. phone call that her son and his two friends were shot, she said she was relieved to talk to Kinnan from the emergency room — that he was alive. But she later fell apart, she said.

"I remember the overwhelming feeling was enough. It's just enough. It's enough pain for Palestinians. We're already grieving. We're already carrying so much grief," she said.

She said her son has been upset about what's happening in Gaza. "We've all been in so much pain and to have this happen, I really just fell apart and started throwing things around with so much anger saying, 'There's nowhere safe for us. There's nowhere safe for Palestinians. Where are we supposed to go?'"

Ahmad’s parents are expected to arrive in Vermont on Saturday.

Carmen Abdelhadi, the middle school librarian at the Ramallah Friends School, remembers meeting the three as fourth graders. When she heard about the shooting, she and others in their community were shocked and "outraged" because "we know them."

"Whenever I read something about them, I cry. It could have happened to any of our sons. My son is wearing the same scarf," she said. "It’s devastating. It’s devastating on top of everything that we are going through."

Awartani, she recalled, could always be found with a book while Abdalhamid "didn’t have a bad bone" in his body and was loved by everyone, she said. And Ahmad, she said, was the sensible one who found a love of poetry early on and went on to show an aptitude in science and tech.

"I see my son in every one of them," Abdelhadi said.

Awartani suffered a spinal injury in the shooting. A bullet that is still lodged in his spine is unlikely to be removed and he is currently paralyzed from the chest down, Rich Price said. "We don't know what the long-term prognosis is," he said.

Still, Awartani's uncle said he has the will and resilience for the recovery.

"He was concerned for his friends, who were with him, their well-being and recovery. And he was also deeply concerned that so much attention was being brought to him and he's thinking about the thousands of people that are dead, the now 80 percent of Gazans who have been displaced from their homes," Price said, wearing a keffiyeh in solidarity with the three young men. "There are dozens of Hishams that are in the list of the dead in Gaza, and he's saying, 'I'm the Hisham that you know. What about the Hishams you don't know?'"

The shooting last weekend came as threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities have increased across the US in the weeks since the war began.

The suspected gunman, Jason J. Eaton, 48, was arrested Sunday at his apartment, where he answered the door with his hands raised and told federal agents he had been waiting for them. Eaton has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder and is currently being held without bail.

Authorities are investigating the shooting as a possible a hate crime.

Features

Gaza Truce Is Not Enough, Say Residents of Bombed-Out Neighborhood

Palestinian children walk among the houses destroyed in Israeli strikes during the conflict, amid the temporary truce between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, at Khan Younis refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 29, 2023. (Reuters)
Palestinian children walk among the houses destroyed in Israeli strikes during the conflict, amid the temporary truce between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, at Khan Younis refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 29, 2023. (Reuters)
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Gaza Truce Is Not Enough, Say Residents of Bombed-Out Neighborhood

Palestinian children walk among the houses destroyed in Israeli strikes during the conflict, amid the temporary truce between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, at Khan Younis refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 29, 2023. (Reuters)
Palestinian children walk among the houses destroyed in Israeli strikes during the conflict, amid the temporary truce between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, at Khan Younis refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 29, 2023. (Reuters)

Returning home to find their neighborhood wrecked by bombs, residents of Abu Ta'imah on the outskirts of Gaza's Khan Younis said the Palestinian territory needed a permanent ceasefire, not just an extension of the truce between Israel and Hamas.

Local people fled the area on the eastern edge of the city at the start of the war and did not return until the truce, which was in its sixth day on Wednesday.

"We were shocked to see this destruction. We were shocked to see our homes, our streets, our lands, our yards and everything demolished," said Gihad Nabil, who was recently married and had been living in Abu Ta'imah with his wife.

Standing on a roof with a view of ruined buildings and mounds of rubble as far as the eye could see, he said the area had been home to about 5,000 or 6,000 people before the war. He asked where they would go.

"My house is completely destroyed. My brother's home, my uncle's my neighbor's, all of them destroyed. We don't need this truce, we need a complete ceasefire," he said, likening what he was seeing to an earthquake zone.

As Nabil and another man sat on the roof, talking and smoking a shisha pipe, a group of children down below sat around a small fire built on a pile of rubble and warmed up bread, which they shared.

Three of the children climbed onto the carcass of a car whose pockmarked blue metalwork looked like crumpled paper and posed for a Reuters camera, framed by twisted cables and jagged chunks of concrete.

Militants from Hamas, the group that runs Gaza, triggered the war on Oct. 7 when they rampaged through southern Israel, killing 1,200 people including babies and children and taking 240 hostages of all ages, according to Israel's tally.

Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched an assault on Gaza that has killed more than 15,000 people, four in 10 of them children, according to health officials there.

Gone in a moment

The war has displaced 80% of Gazans from their homes, according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who on Wednesday described the situation as an epic humanitarian catastrophe.

Abdelrahman Abu Ta'imah, a member of the clan that gave the area its name, searched through his bombed-out apartment, pulling clothes and a pink mattress from the debris.

"I have been struggling and working for 30 years in this country," he said, adding that even before the war life was hard because of the blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel and Egypt since 2007, when Hamas took control of the enclave.

"Money doesn't come easy, then all of a sudden, all the work and effort of 30 years disappeared in a moment. One rocket makes all this go away. Why is that?" he asked.

From the start of its attack, Israel told Palestinians living in northern Gaza to move to the southern part of the strip, which includes Khan Younis and its environs.

However, Israeli forces have also pounded the south, though less intensively than the north. Israel says it targets Hamas infrastructure, and accuses Hamas of putting civilians in harm's way by using them as human shields.

Diplomatic efforts were underway on Wednesday to prolong the truce, which has allowed more aid trucks to enter Gaza and some Israeli and foreign hostages to be released, as well as some Palestinian detainees to be freed from Israeli prisons.

But Abu Ta'imah said a short truce was not enough and he longed for a permanent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Ever since we were born, we've been enduring wars and destruction. Every time we rebuild, there comes a fiercer war than the one before," he said.