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Banning UNRWA will lead to vacuum and more suffering for Palestinians, agency’s chief says

Banning UNRWA will lead to vacuum and more suffering for Palestinians, agency’s chief says
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday that the laws are “ultimately against the Palestinians themselves”. (REUTERS)
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Updated 01 November 2024

Banning UNRWA will lead to vacuum and more suffering for Palestinians, agency’s chief says

Banning UNRWA will lead to vacuum and more suffering for Palestinians, agency’s chief says
  • Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday that the laws are “ultimately against the Palestinians themselves”
  • Israel alleges that Hamas and other militants have infiltrated the agency

RIYADH: The head of the UN agency caring for Palestinian refugees said Wednesday that newly passed Israeli laws effectively banning its activities in Israel will leave a vacuum that will cost more lives and create further instability in Gaza and the West Bank.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview — the first since the laws were passed — that the legislation is “ultimately against the Palestinians themselves,” effectively denying them a functioning provider of lifesaving services, education and health care.
UNRWA has been the main agency procuring and distributing aid in the Gaza Strip, where almost the entire population of around 2.3 million Palestinians relies on the agency for survival amid Israel’s nearly 13-month-old war with the militant Hamas group.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering in UNRWA-run schools. Other aid groups say the agency’s strong, decades-old infrastructure across Gaza is irreplaceable. So far, Israel has put forward no plan for getting food, medicine and other supplies to Gaza’s population in UNRWA’s absence.
Israel alleges that Hamas and other militants have infiltrated UNRWA, using its facilities and taking aid — claims for which it has provided little evidence. The laws, passed by parliament this week, sever all ties with UNRWA and ban its operations in Israel.
And since the agency’s operations in Gaza and the West Bank must go through Israeli authorities, the laws threaten to close its activities there as well. The laws are expected to come into effect in three months.
If the Israeli decision is implemented “this would be a total disaster, it is like throwing (out) the baby with the water,” Lazzarini told the AP, speaking in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where he is attending a conference to discuss the Mideast conflict.
“This would create a vacuum. It would also feed more instability in the West Bank and Gaza,” he said. “Having UNRWA ending its activities within the three months would also mean more people will die in Gaza.”
He said the agency is looking for “creative ways to keep our operation going.” He appealed for support from the UN General Assembly and donors to keep providing services and called on Israel to rescind the decision or extend the three-month grace period. He said Israel has not officially communicated with the agency following the adoption of the laws.
For decades, UNRWA has operated networks of schools, medical facilities and other services around Gaza and the West Bank — as well as in neighboring Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. In Gaza especially, it plays a major role in maintaining social services and the economy, as the territory’s largest single employer and the source of education and health care for much of the population.
The laws threaten to shut down all those operations, impacting the education and welfare of hundreds of thousands of children well into the future, he said.
“We have today 1 in 2 persons in Gaza below the age of 18, among them 650,000 girls and boys living in the rubble, deeply traumatized at the age of primary and secondary school,” he said. “Getting rid of UNRWA is also a way to tell these children that you will have no future. We are just sacrificing your education. Education is the only thing which has never, ever been taken away from the Palestinians.”
UNRWA was established to help the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. It now offers support to the refugees and their descendants, who number some 6 million around the region.
Lazzarini said the Israeli laws are the “culmination of years of attack against the agency.” He said “the objective is to strip the Palestinian from refugee status.”
International law gives Palestinian refugees and their descendants the right to return to their homes. Israel has refused to allow their return, saying it would end the Jewish majority in the country. Israel has said the refugees should be taken in by their host countries, and officials often argue that UNRWA’s services keep Palestinians’ hopes for return alive.
In a letter to the UN, Lazzarini said the Israeli laws and campaign against the agency “will not terminate the refugee status of the Palestinians, which exists independently of UNRWA’s services, but will severely harm their lives and future.”
Israel claims hundreds of Palestinian militants work for UNRWA, without providing evidence, and that more than a dozen employees took part in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that ignited the latest war.
The UN has fired nine staffers after internal investigations found they may have participated in the attack. UNRWA has nearly 30,000 staff around the region, including 13,000 in Gaza, most of them Palestinians. Israel also says Hamas fighters operate in UNRWA schools and other facilities in Gaza — and has hit many of them with airstrikes.
UNRWA denies knowingly aiding armed groups and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants from its ranks.
Lazzarini said Israel has not responded to inquiries from UNRWA for details about other allegations, including that the agency’s premises are used by militant groups.. With the continued fighting, the agency has been unable to verify the claims, he said and called for an independent investigation.
At least 237 UNRWA staff have been killed in the war in Gaza, a toll among UN staff not seen in any other conflict. Over 200 UNRWA facilities have been damaged or destroyed, killing more than 560 people sheltering there.
Lazzarini spoke on the sidelines of the conference by the Global Alliance for a Two-State Solution, a Saudi government-created initiative attended by foreign ministers from Arab, Muslim, African and European countries.
“If we want to be successful in any future political transition, we need an agency like UNRWA taking care of education and the primary health of the Palestinian refugees” until there is a viable functioning state or administration to do so, he said.


Hamas confirms it responded to latest Gaza truce proposal

Hamas confirms it responded to latest Gaza truce proposal
Updated 24 July 2025

Hamas confirms it responded to latest Gaza truce proposal

Hamas confirms it responded to latest Gaza truce proposal
  • Negotiators from both sides have been holding indirect talks in Doha with mediators

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Hamas confirmed on Thursday that it has responded to an Israeli proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, after more than two weeks of indirect talks in Qatar have failed to yield a truce.
“Hamas has just submitted its response and that of the Palestinian factions to the ceasefire proposal to the mediators,” the Palestinian militant group said in a statement on Telegram.
The response included proposed amendments to clauses on the entry of aid, maps of areas from which the Israeli army should withdraw, and guarantees on securing a permanent end to the war, according to a Palestinian source familiar with ongoing talks in Doha.
Negotiators from both sides have been holding indirect talks in Doha with mediators in an attempt to reach an agreement on a truce deal that would see the release of Israeli hostages.
Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s 2023 attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
But the talks have dragged on for more than two weeks without a breakthrough, with each side blaming the other for refusing to budge on their key demands.
For Israel, dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities is non-negotiable, while Hamas demands firm guarantees on a lasting truce, a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and the free flow of aid into Gaza.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer on Wednesday accused Hamas of obstructing talks.
“Israel has agreed to the Qatari proposal and the updated (US special envoy Steve) Witkoff proposal, it is Hamas that is refusing,” Mencer told reporters, adding that Israel’s negotiating team was still in Doha and talks were ongoing.
The United States said Witkoff will head to Europe this week for talks on a possible ceasefire and an aid corridor.
More than 100 aid organizations warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation” was spreading in Gaza.


Canada calls for immediate resumption of UN-led aid in Gaza

Canada calls for immediate resumption of UN-led aid in Gaza
Updated 24 July 2025

Canada calls for immediate resumption of UN-led aid in Gaza

Canada calls for immediate resumption of UN-led aid in Gaza

OTTAWA: The Canadian government said on Wednesday that Israeli military operations against civilians and aid workers in Gaza were unacceptable, and called for the immediate resumption of UN-led aid distribution in the war-torn enclave.
“Israeli military operations against WHO staff and facilities, World Food Programme aid convoys, & the ongoing killing of Palestinians seeking urgently needed food and water are unacceptable,” the Canadian foreign ministry said on X.
“Hunger in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels ... Canada calls for the immediate resumption at scale of UN-led aid,” the ministry added. 


Iraqi governor quits after mall fire

Iraqi governor quits after mall fire
Updated 23 July 2025

Iraqi governor quits after mall fire

Iraqi governor quits after mall fire
  • Mohammed Al-Miyahi said he resigned ‘in honor of the blood of the martyrs’

BAGHDAD: The governor of an Iraqi province where a fire in a shopping mall killed more than 60 people resigned Wednesday.

The fire last Wednesday tore through a newly opened shopping center in the town of Kut in Wasit province. 
While an investigation is ongoing, officials and residents have said that lack of safety measures in the building exacerbated the tragedy.
Provincial Gov. Mohammed Al-Miyahi said he had resigned “in honor of the blood of the martyrs, as they are in need of a gesture that may soothe part of their deep wounds, and in loyalty to them and to the people of this province.” 
The provincial council elected a new governor, Hadi Majid Kazzar.
The fire had sparked widespread public anger, with families of the victims demanding the governor’s dismissal and that others responsible for negligence be held accountable. 
They asserted that the blaze was the result of a long history of administrative corruption and weak oversight.
Iraqi parliament speaker Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani had sent an official request to Prime Minister Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani calling for the governor’s dismissal, and the Cabinet decided in a session on Tuesday to refer Al-Miyahi to the investigation.
Al-Miyahi previously said that the building owner did not implement fire safety measures and had not applied for required permits, and that legal complaints had been filed against the owner and shopping center owner.
Poor building standards have often contributed to tragic fires in Iraq. In July 2021, a blaze at a hospital in the city of Nasiriyah that killed between 60 to 92 people was determined to have been fueled by highly flammable, low-cost type of “sandwich panel” cladding that is illegal in Iraq.
In 2023, more than 100 people died in a fire at a wedding hall in the predominantly Christian area of Hamdaniya in Nineveh province after the ceiling panels above a pyrotechnic machine burst into flames.


The stark reality of how Israel treats its own Druze citizens

The stark reality of how Israel treats its own Druze citizens
Updated 23 July 2025

The stark reality of how Israel treats its own Druze citizens

The stark reality of how Israel treats its own Druze citizens
  • Bombing campaign in Syria to protect minority group highlights tensions over Israel’s treatment of its own Druze citizens
  • Generations of Druze have served in Israel’s armed forces, but many now question what their loyalty has earned them in return

LONDON: Israel mounted a bombing campaign across Syria last week with the stated objective of protecting the Druze community of Sweida from attack by Bedouin fighters amid a recent upsurge in sectarian violence.

Yet, this purported humanitarian intervention on behalf of a vulnerable religious minority has drawn attention to the disparity in Israel’s treatment of its own Druze citizens, prompting accusations of double standards.

For centuries, the Druze — an enigmatic religious community whose origins in the Levant date back to the 11th century — have guarded their beliefs and customs behind a veil of secrecy.

Today, amid mounting regional upheaval and intensifying sectarian conflict, the fate of this small group — whose numbers are dwarfed by those of their neighbors — has become a critical test case for questions of loyalty, identity, and equal citizenship within modern nation states.

Israeli troops on July 16 sought to control crowds and prevent Druze from crossing the border with Syria, after deadly violence in the country's south that prompted Damascus to send in government forces. (AFP)

Nowhere are these tensions more apparent than in Israel, where the Druze have forged a uniquely complex relationship with the Jewish majority, one marked by military partnership and shared sacrifice, yet also by persistent inequality and simmering frustration.

As a result of their opposition to conversion and discouragement of intermarriage, the Druze community remained small in number and vulnerable, constantly maneuvering politically for their own survival among more powerful forces.

Still, when push comes to shove, they can prove to be fearless warriors.

The special relationship between the Jewish and Druze communities already existed in Mandatory Palestine. This relationship grew closer and stronger after Israel declared its independence, although it remains rather complex.

One of the tenets of Druze philosophy — some might call it a survival mechanism — is loyalty to the state where they reside. In this sense, Israel is no exception.

Syrian Druze people cross back into Syria as they walk at the Israeli-Syrian border, in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams, on July 17, 2025. (AP)

In 1956, at the request of the Druze community’s leaders, Druze men became subject to the military draft upon turning 18, just like their Jewish compatriots.

This created a covenant written in blood between the Jewish and Druze communities, with more than 430 having lost their lives serving in the Israeli security forces — a substantial number for a small community of 143,000, which is less than 1.6 percent of Israel’s population.

But despite this sacrifice and the generally positive perception of the Druze among Jewish Israelis — unlike attitudes toward other Arab communities — they are not spared discrimination. Consequently, there are forces among their youth who oppose continued military service.

The recent wave of deadly sectarian clashes that rocked southern Syria exposed the country’s fragility, as the new government proved either incapable or unwilling to impose law and order, leading to a failure to protect the Druze.

The response by the Druze in Israel highlighted another strong tenet in the community’s philosophy: mutual responsibility. In a Pew Research Center survey, nine in 10 said that they had a strong sense of belonging to the Druze community and were proud to be part of it.

Roughly two-thirds expressed that they feel a special responsibility to care for Druze in need around the world.

Over the last week, this manifested in community leaders exerting pressure on the Israeli government to intervene on behalf of the Druze in their clashes with Bedouin militias.

Translating intentions into action, around 1,000 community members — including two members of the Knesset, Afef Abed and Hamad Amar from the right-wing parties Likud and Yisrael Beytenu, respectively — crossed the border from the Israeli-occupied side of the Golan Heights to support their brethren on the other side, expressing outrage over what they described as the massacre of their relatives in Suwaida.

Members of the Druze community pass through a hole in the barbed-wire border fence in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights near Majdal Shams on July 16, 2025, amid deadly violence in the in Syria's Sweida province. (AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Druze community in Israel and the Golan Heights in a video statement, urging them to show restraint and avoid crossing into Syria amid the ongoing clashes.

Instead, Israel took the extreme measure of striking the Syrian Defense Ministry in Damascus and government forces in southern Syria, with Netanyahu announcing that Israel was “working to save our Druze brothers.”

Israel’s immediate reaction to the fall of the Bashar Assad regime in December of last year was to “temporarily” take over additional territory on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights — a move that increasingly looks permanent — and to carry out hundreds of airstrikes on military targets across Syria.

With this in mind, Israel’s use of force again last week raises questions about whether the strikes were solely in defense of the Druze or intended to send a broader message to the government of Ahmed Al-Sharaa about the power balance between the two countries.

Another factor raises suspicion over Israel’s purported commitment to the Druze in Syria. Despite the total loyalty of the Druze to the state of Israel, it does not appear that the Jewish state is equally loyal to them.

For all their years of sacrifice and devotion, the Druze still do not enjoy the same equal rights as the Jewish population. Although attitudes toward the Druze in Israel may be more favorable than toward Palestinian citizens, they are still far from being treated as equals.

This photo taken on July 13, 2006 shows members of the Druze community attending the funeral of 25-year-old First Sergeant Wasim Salah Nazal, a Druze member of the Israeli military, at the Druze village of Yanuh in northern Israel. Despite the sacrifice and devotion shown they have shown to Israel, the Druze still do not enjoy the same equal rights as the Jewish population.  (AFP/File)

Some researchers of the Druze community in Israel suggest that they represent something of an in-between group, comprising “individuals who simultaneously belong to social categories that are often seen as mutually exclusive, while maintaining their distinct group identity.”

The Druze are ethnically Arab and share that Arab identity with the Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel, but, at the same time, identify with the Jewish Israeli state.

In recent years, there has been an awakening among young Druze that, despite their sacrifices, they are institutionally and socially discriminated against as individuals and as a community.

In a protest last year, community leaders stated: “The covenants of blood and life have become superficial and false slogans.” They demanded that budgets allocated to their towns and villages be equal to those of their Jewish neighbors.

This discrimination is visible not only in the underinvestment in their communities, but also in the confiscation of their land for the Judaization of the Galilee and in house demolitions — not to mention having to contend with poor electricity networks, sewage systems, and roads.

Many residents in the 16 Druze towns and villages of Israel find it almost impossible to obtain planning permission, leaving them under constant threat of demolition orders or hefty fines.

Members of the Druze minority and their supporters protest outside the US Embassy in Jerusalem on July 16, 2025, amid clashes between Syrian government forces and Druze armed groups in the southern Syrian city of Sweida. (AP)

A piece of legislation dating back to 2017, the Kaminitz Law, gives authorities the power to issue penalties — such as demolition and stop-work orders, the confiscation of building equipment and vehicles, and arrests — all without referring these cases to the judicial system.

Generally, the law is seen as targeting Arab communities, where building permits are almost impossible to secure, resulting in illegal construction followed by fines and threats of demolition by the government, despite a growing population and need for additional accommodation.

A request to put in place a 5-year plan to support local authorities of Druze communities has not been approved despite protests by community leaders.

The final straw for many Druze in Israel was likely the 2018 Nation State Law, which made many feel that despite their loyalty and sacrifice for the country, they are not rewarded in kind.

The law explicitly states that Jews have a unique right to national self-determination in Israel, and it relegated Arabic from being one of the two official languages, alongside Hebrew, to one with “special status.”

Describing Israel as “the national home of the Jewish people” was effectively a way of defining everyone else as unequal in their political, human, and civil rights.

Despite repeated promises from the Israeli government to promote a Basic Law for the Druze community, which aims to anchor the important status of the Druze community in Israel, this still has not happened.

This has instilled among the community an oft-quoted sentiment: “Druze enter the army as an Israeli and leave as an Arab.”

For the Druze, there is a sense that the community has the rawest of deals — one in which they are loyal and prepared to sacrifice their lives for the country but are still treated as second-class citizens.
 

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Wildfire kills 10 firefighters and rescue workers in Turkiye

Wildfire kills 10 firefighters and rescue workers in Turkiye
Updated 23 July 2025

Wildfire kills 10 firefighters and rescue workers in Turkiye

Wildfire kills 10 firefighters and rescue workers in Turkiye
  • The wind suddenly changed direction, causing the flames to shift rapidly
  • Turkiye has been battling wildfires since June 26

ANKARA: At least 10 firefighters and rescue workers were killed Wednesday and many others injured while battling a wildfire in northwestern Turkiye, the forestry minister Ibrahim Yumakli said.

The five forestry workers and five members of the AKUT rescue organization died while trying to put out the wildfire raging through a forested area of Eskisehir province, Yumakli said. At least 14 other rescuers and forestry workers were hospitalized, he said.

The deaths bring the number of fatalities in wildfires that have flared amid strong winds, high temperatures and dry conditions so far in the country this year to 13.

The minister said the wind suddenly changed direction, causing the flames to shift rapidly and surround the forest workers.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire.

Turkiye has been battling wildfires since June 26.

An elderly man and two forestry workers were killed in a wildfire that raged near the town of Odemis, in Izmir province, earlier this month.