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Exclusive - Improvement in Prices in Aden Falls Below Expectations

Yemenis shop at a market in Aden. (AFP file photo)
Yemenis shop at a market in Aden. (AFP file photo)
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Exclusive - Improvement in Prices in Aden Falls Below Expectations

Yemenis shop at a market in Aden. (AFP file photo)
Yemenis shop at a market in Aden. (AFP file photo)

Workers at a restaurant in the temporary Yemeni capital, Aden, said that a meal for four, consisting of a roasted chicken and a side of rice and vegetables, was selling for 5,000 rials ($9 dollars). The good news does not end here, but businesses predicted that these prices are set to drop 30 percent if the currency continued to recover and if business owners lowered their prices.

Prices in Yemen had skyrocketed in recent months, with a meager meal of beans selling for $29 at one point.

In the al-Mansoura market in Yemen, Khaled bin Abdullah, a vegetable vendor, said that the prices in the temporary capital had improved slightly after other vegetable and fruit sellers had lowered the prices of their products, especially the imported ones.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “A drop is being witnessed, even though it is not good enough.”

Despite the less than satisfactory improvement in the economic situation, he said that a greater number of customers were buying fruits and vegetables.

“At one point, one kilogram of apples cost 2,000 rials and now it stands at 1,300,” he added.

The drop in prices is credited to legitimate government efforts over the past few weeks. It is also credited to the Saudi deposit in the Central Bank.

Prior to these efforts, the dollar traded at 800 rials and prices rose to more than 300 percent in some instances, prompting public outcry. Last week, the dollar traded at 530 to 550 rials on the black market and exchange offices. The Central Bank later adjusted the figure to 520 rials to the dollar.

Despite this slight improvement, the people believed that market prices still do not reflect the currency recovery.

Some goods, such as wheat, rice, oil and dairy, witnessed a 10 to 15 percent drop in prices, but they still have not returned to their original prices before the collapse of the rial.

A youth, Mohammed Mahmoud, told Asharq Al-Awsat: “We are monitoring the government’s efforts and hope to witness tangible results.”

“We are waiting to see whether it will strictly monitor the black market traders,” he added.

Moreover, he said that as the rial collapsed, vendors demanded that transactions, whether in dollars or rials, be carried out in hard currencies. They have now, however, returned to using rials.

He hoped that the exchange rate would be fixed and that prices would improve.

A supermarket owner in Aden, Abdulrahman Shehab acknowledged that he was still selling his products at higher prices, explaining that he had purchased them when costs were still high.

“We communicated with wholesale traders and they pledged that they will resolve this issue,” he revealed.

Yemenis believe that successfully controlling the drop in prices can only be possible amid strict auditing by the concerned state agencies.

The only way those exploiting the crisis can be contained is through the state imposing the rule of law, said one local.

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Campus Gaza Rallies May Subside, but Experts See Possible ‘Hot Summer of Protest’

Protesters stand and link arms during a demonstration in support of Palestinians, at the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, US May 7, 2024. (Reuters)
Protesters stand and link arms during a demonstration in support of Palestinians, at the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, US May 7, 2024. (Reuters)
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Campus Gaza Rallies May Subside, but Experts See Possible ‘Hot Summer of Protest’

Protesters stand and link arms during a demonstration in support of Palestinians, at the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, US May 7, 2024. (Reuters)
Protesters stand and link arms during a demonstration in support of Palestinians, at the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, US May 7, 2024. (Reuters)

About a dozen students arrested by police clearing a sit-in at a Denver college campus emerged from detainment to cheers from fellow pro-Palestinian protesters, several waving yellow court summons like tiny victory flags and imploring fellow demonstrators not to let their energy fade.

Just how much staying power the student demonstrations over the war in Gaza that have sprung up in Denver and at dozens of universities across the United States will have is a key question for protesters, school administrators and police, with graduation ceremonies being held, summer break coming and high-profile encampments dismantled.

The student protesters passionately say they will continue until administrators meet demands that include permanent ceasefire in Gaza, university divestment from arms suppliers and other companies profiting from the war, and amnesty for students and faculty members who have been disciplined or fired for protesting.

Academics who study protest movements and the history of civil disobedience say it's difficult to maintain the people-power energy on campus if most of the people are gone. But they also point out that university demonstrations are just one tactic in the wider pro-Palestinian movement that has existed for decades, and that this summer will provide many opportunities for the energy that started on campuses to migrate to the streets.

Signs spelling the word "Divest" hang among white flags symbolizing each child killed in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza, at a protest encampment at the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, US, May 10, 2024. (Reuters)

EVOLVE OR FADE AWAY

Dana Fisher is a professor at American University in Washington, DC, and author of several books on activism and grassroots movements who has seen some of her own students among protesters on her campus.

She noted the college movement spread organically across the country as a response to police called onto campus at Columbia University on April 18, when more than 100 people were arrested. Since those arrests, at least 2,600 demonstrators have been detained at more than 100 protests in 39 states and Washington, DC, according to The Appeal, a nonprofit news organization.

"I don't see enough organizational infrastructure to sustain a bunch of young people who are involved in a movement when they are not on campus," Fisher said. "Either the movement has to evolve substantially or it can't continue."

Following the initial arrests at Columbia, students there occupied a classroom building, an escalation of the protest that led to even more arrests. Similarly in Denver, police on April 26 arrested 45 people at an encampment protest at the Auraria campus – which serves the University of Colorado-Denver, Metropolitan State University and the Community College of Denver.

Then on May 8, Auraria protesters staged a short-lived sit-in inside the Aerospace and Engineering Sciences building, developed in part with a $1 million gift from arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Students in Denver say the movement's spread from the coasts to the heartland and to smaller universities shows it has staying power. Student protests also have flared outside the US.

"We're keeping our protests up and our encampment going until our demands are met, however long that takes," said Steph, a 21-year-old student on the Auraria campus who declined to give their full name for fear of reprisals. "We'll be here through summer break and into next fall if needed."

Fisher, the academic, said the police response to protests has helped ignite a sense of activism in a new generation of students. She thinks the current campus demonstrations foreshadow a "long, hot summer of protest" about many issues, and that the Republican national convention in July and the Democratic national convention in August will be ripe targets for massive protest.

"The stakes have gotten much higher, and that's very much due to the way that police have responded in a much more aggressive and repressive way than they did even back in the 1960s," Fisher said, referring to student-led protests against the Vietnam War.

"And then you just plop right down in the middle of all that the presidential election?" she said. "It's a crazy recipe for one hell of a fall."

Tents are set up at an encampment in support of Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, at the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, US, May 10, 2024. (Reuters)

AFTER GRADUATION, A GHOST TOWN

Michael Heaney, an American lecturer in politics at the University of Glasgow in Scotland whose research and books have focused on US protest movements said the campus demonstrations are just one tactic in the wider movement to support Palestinians, an ongoing effort that goes back decades.

Heaney said that the geographical diffusion of the university encampments to places like Denver is an opportunity to bring the message of the wider movement to places where it may not have been before.

Heaney added that "protests for any movement are episodic" and pointed to the various manifestations of the African-American Civil Rights movement in the US, going back 200 years. Just because one moment of protest ends does not foretell its overall demise.

He said pro-Palestinian protests in American cities this summer could grow if Israel's offensive in Gaza continues, and that such demonstrations would have been stoked by the widespread university activism.

On Denver's Auraria campus, while students were cleared from the classroom building, about 75 tents remain on a grassy quad, where protesters say they serve 200 meals each day in a mess hall tent. One of the student protest organizers, Jacob, 22, said he's convinced the facts on the ground in Gaza are what will sustain the encampment.

"After graduation it may be a ghost town on this campus - but we'll still be here," he said. "We're not going anywhere."

Features

Wary of Wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Old Foes Türkiye and Greece Test a Friendship Initiative

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis leave after speaking to the press following their meeting in Athens during Erdogan's official visit to Greece, Dec. 7, 2023. (AFP Photo)
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis leave after speaking to the press following their meeting in Athens during Erdogan's official visit to Greece, Dec. 7, 2023. (AFP Photo)
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Wary of Wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Old Foes Türkiye and Greece Test a Friendship Initiative

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis leave after speaking to the press following their meeting in Athens during Erdogan's official visit to Greece, Dec. 7, 2023. (AFP Photo)
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis leave after speaking to the press following their meeting in Athens during Erdogan's official visit to Greece, Dec. 7, 2023. (AFP Photo)

Old foes Türkiye and Greece will test a five-month-old friendship initiative Monday when Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visits Ankara.
The two NATO members, which share decades of mutual animosity, a tense border and disputed waters, agreed to sideline disputes last December. Instead, they’re focusing on trade and energy, repairing cultural ties and a long list of other items placed on the so-called positive agenda, The Associated Press said.
Here’s a look at what the two sides hope to achieve and the disputes that have plagued ties in the past:
FOCUSING ON A POSITIVE AGENDA Mitsotakis is to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Monday as part of efforts to improve ties following the solidarity Athens showed Ankara after a devastating earthquake hit southern Türkiye last year.
The two leaders have sharp differences over the Israeli-Hamas war, but are keen to hold back further instability in the eastern Mediterranean as conflict also continues to rage in Ukraine.
“We always approach our discussions with Türkiye with confidence and with no illusions that Turkish positions will not change from one moment to the next,” Mitsotakis said last week, commenting on the visit. “Nevertheless, I think it’s imperative that when we disagree, the channels of communication should always be open."
“We should disagree without tension and without this always causing an escalation on the ground," he added.
Ioannis Grigoriadis, a professor of political science at Ankara’s Bilkent University, said the two leaders would look for ways “to expand the positive agenda and look for topics where the two sides can seek win-win solutions,” such as in trade, tourism and migration.
EASY VISAS FOR TURKISH TOURISTS Erdogan visited Athens in early December, and the two countries have since maintained regular high-level contacts to promote a variety of fence-mending initiatives, including educational exchanges and tourism.
Turkish citizens this summer are able to visit 10 Greek islands using on-the-spot visas, skipping a more cumbersome procedure needed to enter Europe’s common travel area zone, known as the Schengen area.
“This generates a great opportunity for improving the economic relations between the two sides, but also to bring the two stable societies closer — for Greeks and Turks to realize that they have more things in common than they think,” Grigoriadis said.
A HISTORY OF DISPUTES Disagreements have brought Athens and Ankara close to war on several occasions over the past five decades, mostly over maritime borders and the rights to explore for resources in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean seas.
The two countries are also locked in a dispute over Cyprus, which was divided in 1974 when Türkiye invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Only Türkiye recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence in the island’s northern third.
The dispute over the exploration of energy resources resulted in a naval standoff in 2020 and a vow by Erdogan to halt talks with the Mitsotakis government. But the two men met three times last year following a thaw in relations and a broader effort by Erdogan to re-engage with Western countries.
The foreign ministers of the two countries, Hakan Fidan of Türkiye and George Gerapetritis of Greece, are set to join the talks Monday and hold a separate meeting.
RECENT DISAGREEMENTS Just weeks before Mitsotakis’ visit, Erdogan announced the opening of a former Byzantine-era church in Istanbul as a mosque, drawing criticism from Greece and the Greek Orthodox church. Like Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia, the Chora had operated as a museum for decades before it was converted into a mosque.
Türkiye, meanwhile, has criticized recently announced plans by Greece to declare areas in the Ionian and Aegean seas as “marine parks” to conserve aquatic life. Türkiye objects to the one-sided declaration in the Aegean, where some areas remain under dispute, and has labeled the move as “a step that sabotages the normalization process.”
Grigoriadis said Türkiye and Greece could focus on restoring derelict Ottoman monuments in Greece and Greek Orthodox monuments in Türkiye. “That would be an opportunity” for improved ties, he said.

Features

Cocaine Trade ... A Threat to West Africa

In this photo released by The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, shows officials burning seized drugs in Niamey, Niger, Monday, June 26, 2023. (UNODC via AP)
In this photo released by The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, shows officials burning seized drugs in Niamey, Niger, Monday, June 26, 2023. (UNODC via AP)
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Cocaine Trade ... A Threat to West Africa

In this photo released by The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, shows officials burning seized drugs in Niamey, Niger, Monday, June 26, 2023. (UNODC via AP)
In this photo released by The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, shows officials burning seized drugs in Niamey, Niger, Monday, June 26, 2023. (UNODC via AP)

The volume of drugs transiting through West African countries, from Latin America to European markets, has significantly increased in the last decade, a recent UN report revealed.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said authorities in West African countries seized an average of 13 kg per year in the period 2015–2020. The quantity increased to more than 100 times in 2022 with 1,466 kg of seized cocaine.

More worrying, however, is the relationship between drug trafficking networks and terrorist groups in the Sahel region of Africa and the way cocaine trade has become the largest source of funding for terrorism. It has even replaced kidnapping western nationals for ransom.

UNODC’s report raises the alarm about the dangers of drug trafficking in West Africa. It says the conflict-ridden Sahel and sub-Saharan region is becoming an influential route for drug trafficking to European countries.

Network of Routes

While cocaine trafficking routes across African countries are varied and fragmented, reports suggest that the majority is being transported by sea via the coasts of Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal, then trafficked overland from Mali and the Niger then onwards to North African countries as Algeria, Libya and Morocco. The cocaine is then transported across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Also, as drug trafficking networks developed and grew, they began using cargo planes to transport cocaine from countries in South America to the Sahara, and then to the Sahara.

One of the most notorious mega-smuggling operations was uncovered in 2009 when a Boeing 727 aircraft took off from Venezuela allegedly carrying between seven and 11 tons of cocaine.

Smuggling Continues

While chaos engulfs the Sahel and West African countries, drug trafficking networks continue to grow and expand.

In mid-April, Senegal's customs authorities have intercepted a record-breaking haul of cocaine. Over a ton of the illicit drug was confiscated from a truck near the border with Mali.

It was concealed in packets and stashed in bags, and was found in a lorry in a small town of Kidira.

Valued at $146 million, this haul marks the largest inland seizure of cocaine in Senegal.

Also, the Senegalese Customs in 2022 reported seizing 300 kg of cocaine, valued at almost €37 million, from a refrigerated truck in Kidira, Senegal, on the border with Mali.

But the largest shipment was seized in November 2023, when the Senegalese navy has confiscated nearly three tons of cocaine from a ship off the coast of Senegal, marking one of the country’s biggest drug hauls.

In Mauritania, security authorities seized last July a ship carrying 1.2 tons of cocaine, marking the largest seizure of cocaine in the country’s history.

On 18 June 2023, Mauritania seized 2.3 tons of cocaine hidden in a ship intercepted off the country’s coast. Several Mauritanians and people of other nationalities were arrested.

According to UNODC, from an average of 13 kg per year in the period 2015–2020, the quantity of cocaine seized in the Sahel countries increased to 41 kg in 2021 and 1,466 kg in 2022 with the bulk reported by Burkina Faso, Mali and the Niger.

The report said drug seizures have become very common in the Sahel and West Africa, where cocaine is the most commonly seized drug.

It noted that the region has become a “focal point” for smuggling networks to transport drugs to European and Asian markets.

Also, the UN report points to other risks facing the Sahel region, saying it is not just a transit area, but has become a consumer market as well.

Local Market!

In its report, UNODC also revealed that the Sahel region has transitioned from a transit route for illegal drugs headed to Europe from South America to a booming illegal drug market with a troubling rise in domestic users.

Francois Patuel, Head of the Research Unit at UNODC, said the production of cocaine is becoming more and more local in the Sahel region. He said in 2020, law enforcement in the Niger reported the dismantlement of two clandestine drug laboratories producing crack cocaine destined for the local market.

“We've had reports of rising crack cocaine consumption in Agadez, Niger driven by payment in kind,” said Lucia Bird, director of the West Africa Observatory of illicit economies at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. “Smaller traffickers get paid in drugs and offload it onto local markets because they don't have the contacts in more lucrative consumption destinations.”

Spread of Drug Addiction

Fatou Sow Sarr, ECOWAS commissioner of human development and social affairs, said in a policy brief that “the heaviest burden of drug use is shouldered by the age group 10 to 29, thus investing more in mental health among young people is essential to protecting our children and youths against the use of illicit drugs.”

A report said cannabis is the leading cause of treatment for substance use disorder and dominates the list of drug seizures in the region. The amount of cannabis seized increased from 139 tons in 2020 to 631 tons in 2021 to 892 tons in 2022.

According to N’guessan Badou Roger, a treatment, research and epidemiological officer from Côte d’Ivoire, “cannabis dominates West Africa statistics because it grows easily in the climatic condition, has a mode of consumption that is not restrictive smoking, and is more accessible and less expensive than other drugs.”

In Senegal, the most abused drug in 2021 was cocaine, which accounted for more than 60% of the people seeking treatment. In Côte d’Ivoire, nearly 80% of people seeking drug treatment were addicted to cocaine or crack, while more than 46% of the people in treatment in Nigeria used cocaine.

Drugs: Source for Financing Terrorism through Sahel Region

The UNODC report said terrorist groups are now more involved in the drug trafficking market to finance their activities.

It noted that both al-Qaeda and ISIS are involved in transporting shipments of drugs, including cocaine and cannabis gum.

“Drug trafficking in the Sahel undermines stability and development in the region. Armed groups are directly involved in trafficking,” Patuel said.

“They use drug money to sustain their operations and to buy weapons while competing over trafficking routes. Finally drug trafficking fuels corruption and money laundering which undermines the rule of law and the development of resilient economies,” he added.

Features

Biden’s Israel Weapons Pause Won’t Dent Gaza Protests, Organizers Say

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest as they take part in the "Biden: stop supporting genocide!" rally in New York City, US, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest as they take part in the "Biden: stop supporting genocide!" rally in New York City, US, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Biden’s Israel Weapons Pause Won’t Dent Gaza Protests, Organizers Say

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest as they take part in the "Biden: stop supporting genocide!" rally in New York City, US, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest as they take part in the "Biden: stop supporting genocide!" rally in New York City, US, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)

US President Joe Biden's decision to pause shipments of thousands of bombs to Israel over the US ally's attacks on Rafah won praise from some critical Democrats, but won't stop protests about Gaza that have dogged his reelection effort, strategists and organizers say.

Biden's decision last week marks the first time he has withheld US military aid from Israel since the country began attacking Gaza seven months ago, pursuing Hamas gunmen. Republicans and some Democrats have accused Biden of putting the security of the US's closest ally in the region at risk.

It is also too little, too late, to satisfy the left-leaning coalition of young voters and people of color who have led the protests against Israel's attacks, many say.

Pro-Palestinian protests have swept college campuses across the country, followed Biden at private events and pushed Democrats in key battleground states to vote "uncommitted" to signal their unhappiness as deaths in Israeli-occupied Gaza climbed to 35,000.

"We welcome Biden's words and this gesture toward taking responsibility for US complicity in these crimes," said Stephanie Fox, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, a group whose members are involved with protests around the country, including on college campuses.

"If his words are to mean anything, rather than a one-off pause, this needs to be the start of a sea change in US policy," Fox said.

Protesters are seeking suspension of military aid to Israel, a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and for universities to divest from companies that support Israel's actions in Gaza. Israel is retaliating for Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200.

"I think Biden's comments yesterday moves the needle... but what we don't know is if it's a PR move to try to placate some of his opponents on this issue or if it's real because he has also said his support for Israel is ironclad," said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK, another group whose members have been participating in protests all over the country.

"We will continue protesting," Benjamin said.

Biden has called for a temporary ceasefire and said he supports an eventual two-state solution. While he has been increasingly critical of the Israeli government, billions more in weapons shipments remain in the pipeline.

On Friday, Israeli troops took their ground war with Palestinian fighters into city of Rafah, as the United Nations warned that aid for the devastated Gaza Strip could grind to a halt in days.

ISRAEL IS A TOP ISSUE FOR SMALL GROUP Stanley Greenberg, a veteran pollster who has worked for top US Democrats and Israelis, held a focus group on Wednesday with voters under 45 years old, and Gaza was one of the top issues raised after rising prices.

"It was top of mind for them," he said about Gaza. Asked whether "the US has gone too far in support of Israel, a plurality say yes."

Some pollsters and the Biden reelection campaign believe the issue only resonates for a small group of people. "It's very important to some people, but they're in the minority in the electorate," said Patrick Murray, director of the Polling Institute at Monmouth University.

The campaign’s message is that Biden is experienced in diplomatic matters and going to make tough and necessary decisions regardless of the polls, according to a person familiar with their thinking.

Americans' support for military aid to Israel has dropped in recent months, as has young voter support for Biden, polls show. He has struggled with tepid approval for most of his term in a sharply divided country.

Biden's margin of victory in some key battleground states was slim, and it would not take much of a slip in support from many such voters who backed him in 2020 to throw his reelection bid into question, analysts say.

Waleed Shahid, a Democratic adviser to the national "uncommitted" movement asking voters to pick another candidate in state primaries, called Biden's comment a "small step forward" and said it shows the US has leverage in its dealings with Israel.

Shahid, however, said "until actions are taken to stop the arms sales for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's war, a lot of Biden's base, a lot of the Democratic Party is going to continue to be fractured on this issue."

Other groups urged Biden to act more decisively in confronting Israel instead of looking for a middle ground if he wants to put the Democratic coalition back together.

Features

The Biden-Netanyahu Relationship is Strained Like Never Before. Can the Two Leaders Move Forward?

Then-Vice President Joe Biden (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands while giving joint statements at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, March 9, 2016. (Debbie Hill/AFP via Getty Images via JTA)
Then-Vice President Joe Biden (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands while giving joint statements at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, March 9, 2016. (Debbie Hill/AFP via Getty Images via JTA)
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The Biden-Netanyahu Relationship is Strained Like Never Before. Can the Two Leaders Move Forward?

Then-Vice President Joe Biden (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands while giving joint statements at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, March 9, 2016. (Debbie Hill/AFP via Getty Images via JTA)
Then-Vice President Joe Biden (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands while giving joint statements at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, March 9, 2016. (Debbie Hill/AFP via Getty Images via JTA)

President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have long managed a complicated relationship, but they're running out of space to maneuver as their views on the Gaza war diverge and their political futures hang in the balance.
Their ties have hit a low point as Biden holds up the delivery of heavy bombs to Israel — and warns that the provision of artillery and other weaponry also could be suspended if Netanyahu moves forward with a widescale operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, The Associated Press said.
Netanyahu, for his part, is brushing off Biden’s warnings and vowing to press ahead, saying, “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone.”
“If we need to, we will fight with our fingernails. But we have much more than fingernails,” he said.
Biden has long prided himself on being able to manage Netanyahu more with carrots than sticks. But the escalation of friction over the past seven months suggests that his approach may be long past its best-by date.
With both men balancing an explosive Mideast situation against their own domestic political problems, Netanyahu has grown increasingly resistant to Biden’s public charm offensives and private pleading, prompting the president's more assertive pushback in the past several weeks.
“If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem," Biden said in a CNN interview Wednesday, laying bare his growing differences with Netanyahu.
Biden aides nonetheless insist the president is unwilling to allow the US-Israel relationship to truly rupture on his watch. They cite not only the political imperative — a majority of Americans support Israel — but also Biden’s personal history with the country and his belief in its right to defend itself.
The president's aides, watching how pro-Palestinian protests have roiled his party and the college campuses that have been breeding grounds for Democratic voters, have mused for months that Biden could be the last classically pro-Israel Democrat in the White House.
Their optimism about their ability to contain Netanyahu may be falling into the same trap that has vexed a long line of American presidents who have clashed with the Israeli leader over the decades.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Thursday declined to say whether Biden informed Netanyahu of his decision to suspend shipment of 3,500 bombs when the leaders spoke earlier this week. But he said Biden has been “direct and forthright” with Netanyahu about his concerns.
Biden and Netanyahu have known each other since Biden was a young senator and Netanyahu was a senior official in Israel's embassy in Washington.
They've hit rough patches before.
There were differences over Israel building settlements in the West Bank during Barack Obama's administration when Biden was vice president. Later, Netanyahu vehemently opposed Biden's push to resurrect the Iran nuclear deal sealed by Obama and scrapped by Donald Trump. Netanyahu chafed at Biden prodding him to de-escalate tensions during Israel's bloody 11-day war with Hamas in 2021.
The leaders went more than a month earlier this year without talking as Biden's frustration with Netanyahu grew over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The relationship remained workable despite such differences between the center-left Democrat and the leader of the most far-right coalition government in Israel's history.
But with the Biden-Netanyahu relationship now coming under greater strain than ever before, it is unclear how the leaders will move forward.
Netanyahu is caught between public pressure for a hostage deal and hard-liners in his coalition who want him to expand the Rafah invasion, despite global alarm about the harm it could do to some 1.3 million Palestinians sheltering there. He's made clear that he will push forward with a Rafah operation with or without a deal for hostages.
The Israeli leader vowed to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and some 250 were captured and taken hostage. But his public standing has cratered since then, as he faces pressure to find a pathway to a truce that would bring home the remaining hostages and the remains of Israelis who have died in captivity.
He's resisted an investigation into what led to the intelligence and military failures leading up to the Hamas attack. All the while, he's still facing legal problems, including a long-running corruption trial in which he is charged with fraud and accepting bribes.
Netanyahu’s political survival may depend on the Rafah offensive. If he reaches a hostage deal that stops short of conquering Rafah, hardliners in his coalition have threatened to topple the government and trigger new elections at a time when opinion polls forecast he would lose.
“To keep his partners on board and prevent them from pre-empting an election, in which Likud will be decimated and he will be turned out of office, he needs to keep the ‘total victory’ myth alive – and that is only possible by avoiding a deal with Hamas,” wrote Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist and author of a Netanyahu biography, in the Haaretz daily.
Aviv Bushinsky, a former spokesman and chief of staff for Netanyahu, said the Israeli leader remains focused on the war’s primary goal – defeating Hamas – because of concerns about his image and legacy.
He said Netanyahu has spent his career branding himself as the “tough guy on terror.”
“He thinks this is how he will be remembered. He’s been promising for a decade to cream Hamas," Bushinsky said. “If he doesn’t, in his mind he’ll be remembered as the worst prime minister of all time.”
Biden, meanwhile, faces mounting protests from young Americans, a segment of the electorate critical to his reelection. And he's faced backlash from Muslim Americans, a key voting bloc in the battleground state of Michigan. Some have threatened to withhold their votes in November to protest his administration's handling of the war.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Biden ally who has been frustrated by the administration’s handling of the war, said Thursday Biden should go further and suspend delivery of all offensive weaponry to Israel.
“The United States does and should stand by its allies, but our allies must also stand by the values and the laws of the United States of America,” Sanders said. “We must use all of our leverage to prevent the catastrophe in Gaza from becoming even worse.”
At the same time, Biden is facing bruising criticism from Republicans, including presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee Trump, who say that his decision to hold back weapons is a betrayal of an essential Mideast ally.
“What Biden is doing with respect to Israel is disgraceful. If any Jewish person voted for Joe Biden, they should be ashamed of themselves. He’s totally abandoned Israel,” Trump told reporters on Thursday.
Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Biden's move is “simply a nod to the left flank” that is handing “a great victory to Hamas.”
Friction between the US and Israeli leaders is not without precedent.
President George H.W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s relationship was strained as the Republican administration threatened to withhold $10 billion in loan guarantees to thwart new settlement activity in the West Bank. Obama and Netanyahu's relationship was marked by mutual distrust over the Democrat's effort to reignite the Middle East peace process and forge the Iran nuclear deal.
“There were always workarounds if the heads of government really don’t get along. We may get to that,” said Elliot Abrams, a senior national security official in the George W. Bush administration. “But of course, this may be a sort of problem that solves itself in that one or both of them may be gone from office" in a matter of months.

Features

A West Bank Village Feels Helpless after Israeli Settlers Attack with Fire and Bullets

Charred homes and cars dotting this hilltop village surrounded by olive groves are a searing reminder of Palestinians’ vulnerability to rising violence from Israeli settlers. (AP video/Imad Isseid)
Charred homes and cars dotting this hilltop village surrounded by olive groves are a searing reminder of Palestinians’ vulnerability to rising violence from Israeli settlers. (AP video/Imad Isseid)
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A West Bank Village Feels Helpless after Israeli Settlers Attack with Fire and Bullets

Charred homes and cars dotting this hilltop village surrounded by olive groves are a searing reminder of Palestinians’ vulnerability to rising violence from Israeli settlers. (AP video/Imad Isseid)
Charred homes and cars dotting this hilltop village surrounded by olive groves are a searing reminder of Palestinians’ vulnerability to rising violence from Israeli settlers. (AP video/Imad Isseid)

Charred homes and cars dotting this hilltop village surrounded by olive groves are a searing reminder of Palestinians' vulnerability to rising violence from Israeli settlers.
The trail of wreckage along Duma's main road is the aftermath of a three-hour attack in mid-April that left 15 homes damaged by arson and six residents injured by bullets, the head of its village council said. It was one of nearly 800 settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since Hamas attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, according to the UN.
The burnt remains in Duma also highlight the village's limited resources to clean up and rebuild, let alone defend itself from future incursions, which seem inevitable as gun-toting settlers patrol the area roughly 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Jerusalem, The Associated Press said.
“We as the village of Duma ... do not have the power to defend ourselves,” said Suleiman Dawabsha, chairman of the village council for this community of more than 2,000 people. He estimated the attack caused five million shekels ($1.3 million) in damage.
The rampage on April 13 echoed a similar event that took place almost a decade ago. In 2015, three Palestinians from Duma were killed, including an 18 month-old baby, after settlers fire-bombed a home there. An Israeli man was later convicted for murder.
The latest attack against Duma was part of a wave of settler violence touched off by the death of a 14-year-old Israeli who went missing on the morning of April 12. Authorities found his body the next day and they have arrested a man from Duma who they say was connected to the boy's alleged murder.
On April 15, two days after the attack in Duma, two Palestinians were shot dead by settlers near the town of Aqraba, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. And in a related spurt of violence, a man was killed by Israeli fire on April 12 in nearby al-Mughayyir, though it remains unclear whether the fatal bullet was fired by a soldier or settler.
There have been 794 settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank since Oct. 7 — from stones thrown at passing cars to bullets fired at residents, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed by settlers in these attacks, it said.
Attacks by settlers aren't the only form of violence on the rise in the West Bank.
Since the war in Gaza began, nearly 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the territory, according to the Health Ministry based in Ramallah, which says the overwhelming majority have been shot dead by soldiers. Palestinians in the West Bank have killed nine Israelis, including five soldiers, since Oct. 7, according to UN data.
The war has undoubtedly heightened tensions between settlers and Palestinians. But Israeli human rights groups blame the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for fueling settler violence by promoting an ideology of total Israeli supremacy in the West Bank.
These groups say the Israeli army doesn't do enough to stop the violence, and even facilitates it in some cases by offering the settlers protection. The Israeli army said in a statement it tries to protect everyone living in the West Bank and that complaints about soldiers are investigated.
No one was killed in the attack on Duma, but residents described narrow escapes.
Ibrahim Dawabsha, a truck driver and father of four, said most of his family hid in the kitchen as settlers launched firebombs and set part of their home ablaze.
“My daughter was at her uncle’s house, there was no one there,” he said. “What they (might) do to her I don’t know.”
The heads of Duma and al-Mughayyir said Israeli troops arrived shortly after the attacks on their communities began but did little to intervene. Instead, they fired at Palestinians attempting to confront the settlers, these officials said.
A prominent Israeli human rights group, Yesh Din, described it as an “umbrella of security” — a collaboration it says has become increasingly common since Israel's right-wing coalition government came to power in late 2022.
“As soon as the Palestinians try to protect themselves, they’re the ones who the army attacks,” said Ziv Stahl, Yesh Din’s director.
The United States has increased pressure on Israel to curb settler attacks in the West Bank, sanctioning some leaders, including a close ally of Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Dawabsha, the chief of Duma, does not believe the pressure campaign will be effective. “I am not pinning my hopes on the American government,” he said.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war, territories Palestinians want as part of a future state. Settlers claim the West Bank, home to some 3 million Palestinians, is their biblical birthright.
Around 500,000 Israeli settlers live across hundreds of settlements and outposts in the West Bank. These segregated and tightly guarded communities vary in size and nature. Larger settlements are akin to Jerusalem’s sprawling suburbs, while smaller unauthorized outposts can consist of just a few caravans parked on a hilltop.
Outposts often receive tacit government support and sometimes they gain formal recognition — and receive funding — from the Israeli government.
Duma's geography makes it uniquely vulnerable to attack.
Overlooking Jordan and Israeli settlements to the east, the village is surrounded more closely by at least three outposts that the head of its council says have expanded gradually over the past decade. Duma is in a section of the West Bank known as Area B: Its civil affairs are governed by the Palestinian Authority, but the Israeli military is in charge of its security.
Palestinians largely consider the PA to be ineffective and corrupt, and it rarely opposes Israel's military operations in the territory.
Over the past year, settlers have cut off Duma's access to four vital springs and wells that surround the village by sabotaging roads and other infrastructure, according to residents.
In the days following Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, more than 100 Bedouin Arabs that were living a nomadic lifestyle in the pastures south of Duma relocated to its fringes in search of greater safety and resources.
One of them, Ali Zawahiri, said his extended family relocated after settlers had begun burning their tents and stealing their livestock in apparent revenge attacks. The Bedouin Arabs living near Duma are one of 16 such communities in the West Bank that have relocated because of settler violence or threats since the start of 2023, according to Yesh Din.
"He is armed with a gun and I am just a person with nothing,” Zawahiri said.
An armed unit run by the Palestinian Authority that formerly patrolled the perimeter of West Bank towns at night halted operations shortly after the Gaza war broke out, when members of the force were kidnapped by settlers.
When asked how they might better defend themselves in the future, residents of Duma struggled to answer.
“What preparations?" said Ibrahim Dawabsha, whose truck — his main source of income — was burnt to ashes. "There are no preparations.”

Features

Fighting Closes in amid 'Constant Terror' in Key Darfur City

Sudanese refugees gather to fill cans with water from a water point in the Farchana refugee camp, on April 8, 2024. (Photo by Joris Bolomey / AFP)
Sudanese refugees gather to fill cans with water from a water point in the Farchana refugee camp, on April 8, 2024. (Photo by Joris Bolomey / AFP)
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Fighting Closes in amid 'Constant Terror' in Key Darfur City

Sudanese refugees gather to fill cans with water from a water point in the Farchana refugee camp, on April 8, 2024. (Photo by Joris Bolomey / AFP)
Sudanese refugees gather to fill cans with water from a water point in the Farchana refugee camp, on April 8, 2024. (Photo by Joris Bolomey / AFP)

Sudanese shop owner Ishaq Mohammed has been trapped in his home for a month, sheltering from violence in El-Fasher, the last major city in the country's vast Darfur region not under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

For more than a year, Sudan has suffered a war between the army, headed by the country's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Experts have warned the northeast African country is at risk of breaking apart, Agence France Presse reported.

According to the United Nations, Sudan "is experiencing a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions", with famine threatening and more than 8.7 million people uprooted -- more than anywhere else in the world.

Among the war's many horrors, Darfur has already seen some of the worst. Now, experts and residents are bracing for more.

"We're living in constant terror," Mohammed told AFP by telephone, as the UN, world leaders and aid groups voice fears of carnage in the North Darfur state capital of 1.5 million people.

"We can't move for the bombardments," Mohammed said.

The RSF has seized four out of five state capitals in Darfur, a region about the size of France and home to around one quarter of Sudan's 48 million people.

"We're under a total siege," another resident, Ahmed Adam, told AFP in a text message that got through despite a near-total communications blackout in Darfur.

"There's no way in or out of the city that's not controlled by the RSF," he said.

For months, El-Fasher was protected by a fragile peace.

But unrest has soared since last month when the city's two most powerful armed groups -- which had helped to keep the peace there -- pledged to fight alongside the army.

Since then, El-Fasher and the surrounding countryside have seen "systematic burning of entire villages in rural areas, escalating air bombardments... and a tightening siege", according to Toby Harward, the UN's deputy humanitarian coordinator for Sudan.

- 'Large-scale massacre' warning -

At least 23 communities in North Darfur have been burned in apparent arson, Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab found in a report last week.

The war's overall death toll, however, remains unclear, a factor "that captures just how invisible and horrific this war is", Tom Perriello, US special envoy for Sudan, told a congressional committee on May 1.

While figures of 15,000-30,000 have been mentioned, "some think it's at 150,000", Perriello said.

UN experts reported up to 15,000 people killed in the West Darfur capital El-Geneina alone.

Members of the non-Arab Massalit ethnic group in El-Geneina last year were targeted for killing and other abuses by the RSF and allied groups, forcing an exodus to neighboring Chad, which the UN says is hosting more than 745,000 people from Sudan.

The International Criminal Court, currently investigating ethnic-based killings primarily by the RSF in Darfur, says it has "grounds to believe" both sides are committing atrocities in the war.

As El-Fasher is home to both Arab and African communities, an all-out battle for control of the city causing massive civilian bloodshed "would lead to revenge attacks across the five Darfur states and beyond Darfur's borders", said Harward.

In late April, United States ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned that El-Fasher "is on the precipice of a large-scale massacre".

Eyewitnesses report fighting "is now inside" the nearby Abu Shouk camp, established 20 years ago for people displaced by ethnic violence committed by the Janjaweed militia, which led to ICC war crimes charges.

The Janjaweed later evolved into the RSF.

"Everyone who hasn't managed to leave is trapped at home," camp resident Issa Abdelrahman told AFP.

"People are running out of food, and no one can get to them."

- Eating grass -

According to UN experts, the RSF has repeatedly besieged and set fire to villages and displacement camps in Darfur.

Their siege of El-Fasher has halted aid convoys and commercial trade, Harward said.

Shortages have also hit the El-Fasher Southern Hospital -- the city's only remaining medical facility, where personnel are "completely exhausted", a medical source told AFP.

Requesting anonymity for fear of both sides' well-documented targeting of medics, the source said "some doctors haven't left the hospital in over a month", tirelessly treating gunshot wounds, bombardment injuries and child malnutrition.

The Darfur region was already facing widespread hunger, but now "people are resorting to consuming grass and peanut shells", according to Michael Dunford, the World Food Programme's regional director for Eastern Africa.

Yet it is difficult for them to flee.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said encirclement of El-Fasher by armed groups and restrictions on movement along key roads "are limiting families from leaving".

Early this year the RSF declared victories across Sudan, but the army has since mounted defenses in key locations.

The RSF has for months threatened an attack on El-Fasher but has held off, in large part due to the locally brokered truce.

They also seem to have been deterred by "heightened international demands and warnings," according to Amjad Farid, a Sudanese political analyst and former aide to ex-civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok.

But these warnings are "falling on deaf ears", Harward says.

With the US having announced an imminent resumption of peace talks in Saudi Arabia, Farid said the RSF has focused anew on El-Fasher.

These are negotiations the RSF cannot enter from a position of weakness, Farid told AFP.

Features

Why the US is Stopping Some Bomb Shipments to Israel

A Palestinian woman walks down the stairs of a house hit in an Israeli strike, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 9, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
A Palestinian woman walks down the stairs of a house hit in an Israeli strike, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 9, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
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Why the US is Stopping Some Bomb Shipments to Israel

A Palestinian woman walks down the stairs of a house hit in an Israeli strike, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 9, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
A Palestinian woman walks down the stairs of a house hit in an Israeli strike, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 9, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

The United States has suspended a shipment of weapons to Israel, including heavy bombs the US ally used in its campaign against Hamas in Gaza which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.

The suspension comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues a military assault on the Palestinian city of Rafah, over the objections of US President Joe Biden. Here's what we know so far:

WHAT BOMBS WERE BLOCKED?

Washington paused one shipment consisting of 1,800 2,000-pound (907-kg) bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, Reuters quoted US officials as saying.
Four sources said the shipments, which have been delayed for at least two weeks, involved Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which convert dumb bombs into precision-guided ones, as well as Small Diameter Bombs (SDB-1). The SDB-1 is a precision guided glide bomb that packs 250 pounds of explosive. They were part of an earlier approved shipment to Israel, not the recent $95 billion supplemental aid package the US Congress passed in April.

WHY IS THE US BLOCKING THESE BOMBS?

The US is reviewing "near term security assistance," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate hearing on Wednesday "in the context of unfolding events in Rafah."
"We've been very clear...from the very beginning that Israel shouldn't launch a major attack into Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battlespace," Austin said.

More than one million Palestinian civilians have sought shelter in Rafah, many previously displaced from other parts of Gaza following Israel's orders to evacuate from there.

The US decision was taken due to concerns about the "end-use of the 2,000-pound bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza," said a US official speaking on condition of anonymity. The US had carefully reviewed the delivery of weapons that might be used in Rafah, the official said.

WHEN WAS THE DECISION MADE? WAS BIDEN INVOLVED?
The decision was made last week, US officials said. Biden was directly involved. Biden confirmed the pause personally in a CNN interview Wednesday.

"Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers," he said when asked about 2,000-pound bombs sent to Israel.

WHAT KIND OF DAMAGE CAN 2,000-POUND BOMBS CAUSE?

Large bombs like 2,000-pound bombs have an impact over a wide area. According to the United Nations, "The pressure from the explosion can rupture lungs, burst sinus cavities and tear off limbs hundreds of meters from the blast site."

The International Commission for the Red Cross in reports the use of wide area explosives in a densely populated area "is very likely to have indiscriminate effects or violate the principle of proportionality."

WHAT WAS ISRAEL'S RESPONSE?

Israel denies targeting Palestinian civilians, saying its sole interest is to annihilate Hamas and that it takes all precautions to avoid unnecessary death.
After the news broke Tuesday in Washington, a senior Israeli official declined to confirm the report. "If we have to fight with our fingernails, then we'll do what we have to do," the source said. A military spokesperson said any disagreements were resolved in private.

WERE THESE BOMBS LEGAL FOR ISRAEL TO USE IN GAZA?
That is a matter of heated debate.
International humanitarian law does not explicitly ban aerial bombing in densely populated areas, however civilians cannot be targets and a specific military aim must be proportionate to possible civilian casualties or damage.

WHAT DOES THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT SAY?

The statute of the International Criminal Court, which is investigating the Israel-Gaza war, lists as a war crime intentionally launching an attack when it is known that civilian death or damage will be "clearly excessive" compared to any direct military advantage.

HAS THE US WITHHELD MILITARY AID FROM ISRAEL BEFORE?
Yes, in 1982. President Ronald Reagan imposed a six-year ban on cluster weapons sales to Israel after a Congressional investigation found that Israel had used them in populated areas during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Israel's use of US-made cluster bombs was reviewed under President George W. Bush, over concerns they were used during a 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Features

‘A Blessing’: Rains Refill Iraq’s Drought-Hit Reservoirs

A picture taken on May 5, 2024 shows the Darbandikhan Dam in northeastern Iraq. Iraq has suffered four consecutive years of drought, with irregular rainfall badly affecting water resources, forcing many farmers to abandon their land. (AFP)
A picture taken on May 5, 2024 shows the Darbandikhan Dam in northeastern Iraq. Iraq has suffered four consecutive years of drought, with irregular rainfall badly affecting water resources, forcing many farmers to abandon their land. (AFP)
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‘A Blessing’: Rains Refill Iraq’s Drought-Hit Reservoirs

A picture taken on May 5, 2024 shows the Darbandikhan Dam in northeastern Iraq. Iraq has suffered four consecutive years of drought, with irregular rainfall badly affecting water resources, forcing many farmers to abandon their land. (AFP)
A picture taken on May 5, 2024 shows the Darbandikhan Dam in northeastern Iraq. Iraq has suffered four consecutive years of drought, with irregular rainfall badly affecting water resources, forcing many farmers to abandon their land. (AFP)

The reservoir behind the massive Darbandikhan dam, tucked between the rolling mountains of northeastern Iraq, is almost full again after four successive years of drought and severe water shortages.

Iraqi officials say recent rainfall has refilled some of the water-scarce country's main reservoirs, taking levels to a record since 2019.

"The dam's storage capacity is three million cubic meters (106 million cubic feet). Today, with the available reserves, the dam is only missing 25 centimeters (10 inches) of water to be considered full," Saman Ismail, director of the Darbandikhan facility, told AFP on Sunday.

Built on the River Sirwan, the dam is located south of the city of Sulaimaniyah in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.

"In the coming days, we will be able to say that it's full," said Ismail, with the water just a few meters below the road running along the edge of the basin.

The last time Darbandikhan was full was in 2019, and since then "we've only had years of drought and shortages," said Ismail.

He cited "climate change in the region" as a reason, "but also dam construction beyond Kurdistan's borders".

The central government in Baghdad says upstream dams built in neighboring Iran and Turkiye have heavily reduced water flow in Iraq's rivers, on top of rising temperatures and irregular rainfall.

This winter, however, bountiful rains have helped to ease shortages in Iraq, considered by the United Nations to be one of the five countries most vulnerable to some impacts of climate change.

In Iraq, rich in oil but where infrastructure is often run-down, torrential rains have also flooded the streets of Kurdistan's regional capital Erbil.

Four hikers died last week in floods in Kurdistan, and in Diyala, a rural province in central Iraq, houses were destroyed.

- 'Positive effects' -

Ali Radi Thamer, director of the dam authority at Iraq's water resources ministry, said that most of the country's six biggest dams have experienced a rise in water levels.

At the Mosul dam, the largest reservoir with a capacity of about 11 billion cubic meters, "the storage level is very good, we have benefitted from the rains and the floods," said Thamer.

Last summer, he added, Iraq's "water reserves... reached a historic low".

"The reserves available today will have positive effects for all sectors", Thamer said, including agriculture and treatment plants that produce potable water, as well as watering southern Iraq's fabled marshes that have dried up in recent years.

He cautioned that while 2019 saw "a sharp increase in water reserves", it was followed by "four successive dry seasons".

Water has been a major issue in Iraq, a country of 43 million people that faces a serious environmental crisis from worsening climate change, with temperatures frequently hitting 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer.

"Sure, today we have rain and floods, water reserves that have relatively improved, but this does not mean the end of drought," Thamer said.

About five kilometers (three miles) south of Darbandikhan, terraces near a small riverside tourist establishment are submerged in water.

But owner Aland Salah prefers to see the glass half full.

"The water of the Sirwan river is a blessing," he told AFP.

"When the flow increases, the area grows in beauty.

"We have some damage, but we will keep working."

Features

Netanyahu Weighs Risks of Rafah Assault as Hostage Dilemma Divides Israelis

Families of Israeli soldiers who were killed in the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, demonstrate outside the US embassy branch in Tel Aviv calling for the war to continue and for the Israeli army to keep on fighting inside Rafah in the south of the besieged Palestinian territory on May 7, 2024. (AFP)
Families of Israeli soldiers who were killed in the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, demonstrate outside the US embassy branch in Tel Aviv calling for the war to continue and for the Israeli army to keep on fighting inside Rafah in the south of the besieged Palestinian territory on May 7, 2024. (AFP)
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Netanyahu Weighs Risks of Rafah Assault as Hostage Dilemma Divides Israelis

Families of Israeli soldiers who were killed in the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, demonstrate outside the US embassy branch in Tel Aviv calling for the war to continue and for the Israeli army to keep on fighting inside Rafah in the south of the besieged Palestinian territory on May 7, 2024. (AFP)
Families of Israeli soldiers who were killed in the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, demonstrate outside the US embassy branch in Tel Aviv calling for the war to continue and for the Israeli army to keep on fighting inside Rafah in the south of the besieged Palestinian territory on May 7, 2024. (AFP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces competing pressures at home and abroad when he weighs how far to push the operation to defeat Hamas in Rafah that complicates hopes of bringing Israeli hostages home.

Street demonstrations against the government by families and supporters of some of the more than 130 hostages still held in Gaza have become a constant fixture, with protestors demanding a ceasefire deal with Hamas to get them back.

Others are demanding the government and the Israeli Defense Forces press ahead with the Rafah operation against the remaining Hamas formations holding out around the city which began this week with air strikes and battles on the outskirts.

"We applaud the Israeli government and the IDF for going into Rafah," said Mirit Hoffman, a spokesperson for Mothers of IDF Soldiers, a group representing families of serving military personnel, which wants an uncompromising line to pressure Hamas into surrender.

"We think that this is how negotiations are done in the Middle East."

The opposing pressures mirror divisions in Netanyahu's cabinet between centrist ministers concerned at alienating Washington, Israel's most vital ally and supplier of arms, and religious nationalist hardliners determined to clear Hamas out of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas handed Netanyahu a dilemma this week when it declared it had accepted a ceasefire proposal brokered by Egypt for a halt to fighting in return for an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli officials rejected the offer, accusing Hamas of altering the terms of the deal. But it did not break off negotiations and shuttle diplomacy continues, with CIA chief Bill Burns in Israel on Wednesday to meet Netanyahu.

Internationally, protests have spread against Israel's campaign in Gaza, which has so far killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, and spread malnutrition and disease in the enclave.

Seven months into the war, surveys show opinion in Israel has become increasingly divided since Netanyahu first vowed to crush Hamas in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack that killed some 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, took more than 250 hostage, and triggered the campaign in Gaza.

"I understand that it's necessary to defeat Hamas but I think that can wait, and the hostages cannot wait," said Elisheva Leibler, 52, from Jerusalem. "Every second they're there poses immediate danger to their lives."

For the moment, Netanyahu has kept the cabinet together, rejecting the latest Hamas proposal for a ceasefire but keeping the negotiations alive by dispatching mid-ranking officials to Cairo, where Egyptian mediators are overseeing the process.

But the risks he faces by holding out against a deal, as his hard-right partners wish, were highlighted on Tuesday when Washington paused a shipment of weapons to signal its opposition to the long-promised Rafah assault.

DIVIDED OPINION

Despite his image as a security hawk, Netanyahu, Israel's longest serving prime minister, has struggled with a widespread perception that he was to blame for the security failures that allowed Hamas to overwhelm Israel's defenses around Gaza.

That has fed a mood of distrust among many Israelis who otherwise support strong action against Hamas.

A survey published on Wednesday for Channel 13 suggested that 56% of Israelis thought Netanyahu's chief consideration was his own political survival against only 30% who thought it was freeing the hostages.

A survey by the Israel Democracy Institute found just over half the population believed a deal to rescue the hostages should be the top government priority, over the aim of destroying the remaining Hamas formations.

But a separate poll by the Jewish People's Policy Institute (JPPI) found 61% thought the military must operate in Rafah no matter what. The Channel 13 poll found 41% in favor of accepting the deal and 44% opposed.

"I don't trust Hamas at all," said 81-year-old David Taub, from Jerusalem. "The only solution is to conquer Rafah, and then maybe, we hope, we pray, the hostages will come back to us."

For the moment, Netanyahu depends on the two hardliners from the nationalist religious bloc, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, both of whom reject any suggestion of compromise.

Both have clashed repeatedly with Benny Gantz, the centrist former army general who joined the emergency wartime cabinet in the wake of Oct 7, and who is the leading contender to replace Netanyahu after new elections.

Gantz and his ally Gadi Eisenkot, another former army chief, are both sworn enemies of Hamas, but both have been alarmed at the deterioration in relations with the United States.

For the increasingly desperate hostage families, a mood of deepening exhaustion at the endless uncertainty has settled in, with hopes of a safe return overcoming any other consideration.

Niva Wenkert, mother of 22-year-old hostage Omer Wenkert, said she had no choice but to trust Israeli leaders but that not enough had been done.

"The hostages are still in Gaza, the military actions almost stopped and the feelings are very, very bad. I want Omer back."