How the Israeli resettlement of Gaza went from being a fringe view to a real possibility

Special How the Israeli resettlement of Gaza went from being a fringe view to a real possibility
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Israel announced its Gaza disengagement plan in 2003, and implemented it two years later. The withdrawal happened 38 years after the Israeli army captured Gaza from the Egyptian army. (Reuters /File)
Special How the Israeli resettlement of Gaza went from being a fringe view to a real possibility
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A baby holds an Israeli flag as members of the Israeli settler community gather at a convention in Jerusalem on January 28, 2024, calling for Israel to rebuild settlements in the Gaza Strip and the northern part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. (REUTERS)
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Updated 01 February 2024
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How the Israeli resettlement of Gaza went from being a fringe view to a real possibility

How the Israeli resettlement of Gaza went from being a fringe view to a real possibility
  • Rightwing Israeli politicians, including cabinet ministers, are joining forces with settler groups hoping to reoccupy enclave
  • The resettlement of Gaza and ‘voluntary’ removal of Palestinians would likely deal a killer blow to the two-state solution

LONDON: It is easy to miss the gated entrance to the Gush Katif Museum, squeezed between two low-rise apartment blocks on an unremarkable side street in Jerusalem.

Since it opened in 2008, the museum has been a quiet, reflective backwater, a place of pilgrimage for a group of people who call themselves “the uprooted” — the survivors of a curious and, for them, traumatic chapter in the story of Israel and the Palestinians.

But since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants, and the subsequent devastating retribution visited upon Gaza by the Israeli army, the museum suddenly finds itself rather more than a mere footnote to history.




Israeli armor advances against Egyptian troops at the start of the Six-Day War June 5, 1967 near Rafah, Gaza Strip. Thirty-eight years later, the Israeli army pulled out of Gaza under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan. (AFP/Getty Images/File)

Instead, it has become the spiritual home of an increasingly vocal rightwing movement in Israel calling not only for the reoccupation of Gaza by Israel, but also for the ethnic cleansing of all Arabs from the territory.

Situated barely 1.5 km west of Jerusalem’s Old City, the museum was established in August 2008 to commemorate the 17 Israeli settlements that sprang up in Gaza in the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War.

From 1970 onward the agricultural settlements, inhabited mainly by orthodox Jews and known collectively as Gush Katif, occupied a narrow coastal strip running north from the Egyptian border for about 12 km.




In this combination of images taken from 2001 to 2004, Israeli children (top photos) are seen at play in the  Netzarim settlement in Gush Katif near the Gaza Strip. At the bottom are Palestinians living as refugees in their own homeland. As Palestinians escalated their resistance, the Israeli government decided to pull out from Gaza, forcibly uprooting Jewish settlers that it had previously encouraged to build homes on Palestinian lands. (AFP/File)

For 35 years the communities of Gush Katif, insulated from their Palestinian neighbors by a system of roads closed to Arab drivers and patrolled by a dedicated unit of the Israeli army, put down deep roots and thrived. They built homes, schools, synagogues and greenhouses on land they believed would belong to Israel forever.

But then it all came crashing down.

In what some in Israel still describe as a betrayal, and even a crime, in 2003 Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, announced his “disengagement” plan — a unilateral decision, taken in the face of stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, to withdraw all Israeli settlements from Gaza.




In this picture taken on May 4, 2001, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon views the wreckage of a car that exploded at Rafah Yam in the Gush Katif group of Jewish settlements, amid Palestinian resistance. Sharon subsequently ordered an Israeli disengagement from Gaza, to the dismay of settlers who came to the captured Palestinian territory on government invitation. (AFP)

In a televised speech on Aug. 15, 2005, Sharon described the withdrawal as “the most difficult and painful step of all … very difficult for me personally.”

The decision had not been taken lightly, he said, “but the changing reality in the country, in the region, and the world, required of me a reassessment and change of positions.”

Israel, he added, “cannot hold on to Gaza forever.”

Without doubt, the “disengagement” was traumatic for the Jews of Gush Katif, more than 8,000 of whom lost their homes. For some, it was a second displacement, having been resettled there at the invitation of the Israeli government after Israel handed over the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1982.




Tens of thousands of Israeli settlers and right-wing supporters march at a Gaza beach on April 27, 2005, in protest against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon disengagement plan. (AFP/File)

Contemporary newsreels playing at the Gush Katif Museum capture the traumatic forced evacuations that took place between Aug. 15 and 22 in 2005. Film of the final day of the evacuation shows women and children, crying and screaming, being dragged away from their homes by Israeli soldiers and police officers.

At one of the settlement’s synagogues, men, singing prayers and weeping, gather for the last time. Even as the settlements are being abandoned, diggers and bulldozers move in to destroy all the homes.

“I don’t think it’s fully appreciated that the religious right in Israel have their own calendar, and that there are traumatic events marked in that calendar,” said Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli attorney specializing in Israeli-Palestinian relations in Jerusalem and the founder of the NGO Terrestrial Jerusalem.

“Trauma number one came in 1967, when Moshe Dayan (then Israel’s defense minister) did not forcefully impose Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount, which they consider to be Israel’s biggest blunder.




In this file photo, Israeli troops observe the old city of Jerusalem, home to the Dome of the Rock (C) in the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, Islam's third holiest site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site of Judaism, prior to their attack June 1967. (AFP)

“But the second-largest trauma for the religious right is the eviction from Gush Katif, a seminal, traumatic event for them.

“There is a yearning for returning now that that has been spoken about for years, but always by people who were perceived as on the fringe. Now, there are people in government who are also talking about it.”

GAZA STRIPTIMELINE

• Belongs to Ottoman Empire from 16th to 20th century.

• Taken by British troops in 1917 during the Second World War.

• British rule ends in 1918.

• Under Egypt’s military rule in 1950s and 1960s.

* Captured by Israel in 1967 Middle East war.

• Palestinians gain limited control under 1993 peace accord.

• Israel evacuates troops and settlers in August 2005.

• In 2006, Hamas scores victory in Palestinian parliamentary vote.

• In 2007 Hamas ejects political rivals and becomes sole ruler.

And not just talking about it. Rightwing politicians, including some in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, are joining forces with settler groups and calling for the lost homes of Gush Katif, and many more besides, to be rebuilt.

On Sunday Jan. 28, no fewer than a dozen government ministers and 15 members of the Israeli parliament joined 3,000 people at the Jerusalem International Convention Center for a “Resettle Gaza Conference,” a boisterous, noisy affair with a distinctly celebratory atmosphere.




Jewish settlers gather at a convention in Jerusalem on January 28, 2024, calling for Israel to rebuild settlements in the Gaza Strip and the northern part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. (REUTERS)0

Among the high-profile conference-goers was Netanyahu’s security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the darling of Israel’s religious right.

Last year Ben-Gvir led ultranationalist settlers on a series of provocative marches to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which many Jewish religious extremists would like to see destroyed to make way for the construction of a third Jewish temple, replacing the two that the Jewish bible says were destroyed in antiquity.

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It was these marches, and an escalation in Israeli settler activities, that were cited by Hamas as the final provocation that triggered the Oct. 7 assault on Israel — an operation it named Al-Aqsa Flood.

Ben-Gvir has shown no remorse for his provocations. Indeed, on New Year’s Day he declared “we must promote a solution to encourage the migration of Gaza residents … a correct, just, moral, and humane solution.”

He added: “Make no mistake about it, we have partners around the world that can help, there are statesmen around the world to whom we can promote this idea.

“Encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza will allow us to bring the residents of Gush Katif back home.”




Israeli ministers, including national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, participated in a Resettle Gaza Conference in Jerusalem. (AFP)

His boss, Netanyahu, appears to share his sentiments.

In the face of growing international disquiet at Israel’s disproportionate military response in Gaza since Oct. 7, the man at the helm of the most rightwing government in Israel’s history, politically beholden to settler groups, has repeatedly rejected calls from allies, including the US, to pave the way for the long-awaited two-state solution.

Netanyahu’s position was made clear in a statement issued by his office on Jan. 21, the day after US President Joe Biden once again publicly urged him to seek peace by agreeing to the principle of Palestinian statehood.

“In his conversation with President Biden,” it read, “Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy that after Hamas is destroyed Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty.”




US President Joe Biden, left, meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 18, 2023, to discuss the the war between Israel and Hamas. (Pool Photo via AP, File)

A return to Gush Katif, now being openly proposed by some in Netanyahu’s cabinet, would be compatible with this bleak vision of the future — but some want to go much further.

In a poll carried out in Israel in December, 68 percent of Israelis said they supported the idea of “voluntary migration” for the Arab citizens of Palestine. And on Dec. 25, the day after the poll results were published, Netanyahu told a meeting of his Likud Knesset faction that his government was already working on how to achieve this.

“Our problem is finding countries that are ready to absorb them, and we are working on it,” the Jewish Press reported Netanyahu as saying.

The idea is also gaining traction among the Jewish lobby overseas.

On Jan. 2, a columnist for the Jewish Press, the largest independent weekly Jewish newspaper in the US, a self-proclaimed “tireless advocate on behalf of the State of Israel,” offered a sinister take on the calls for “voluntary migration.”

“It stands to reason that rather than engage in futile efforts to persuade the countries of the world to open their gates to the most militant Islamist population on the planet, Israel should invest efforts in making life in Gaza unbearable,” wrote David Israel in a deeply disturbing column.




Palestinian man uses a wheelchair to transport bags of flour distributed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on January 29, 2024. If rightwing Israelis have their way, Palestinians should be sent to a country where they are welcomed. (REUTERS/File Photo)

He added: “The idea of tempting the Gaza Arabs onto large cruise ships that would take them to nicer places may be a romantic delusion, but the flight of thousands of starved individuals from a disease-ridden and ever-shrinking livable space would eventually bring down the Egyptian government’s barred gates.”

In Israel, not everyone is comfortable with the talk of resettling Gaza, a prospect that has alarmed even politically center-right newspaper The Jerusalem Post. In an editorial on Jan. 30, it labelled the Resettle Gaza Conference “disturbing” and condemned the calls to resettle Gaza as “divisive.”

But, given the support of a growing number of ministers and others, the paper concluded, “we can no longer say the resettlement of Gaza is a fringe idea that has no teeth or staying power.”




Palestinians shop in an open-air market near the ruins of houses and buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes during the conflict in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 30, 2023. Rightwing Israelis are toying with the idea of letting Palestinians leave Gaza "voluntarily" and migrate to other countries. (REUTERS/File Photo)

Omer Bartov, professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs in Providence, Rhode Island, cautions against the use of euphemisms in the current situation.

“When speaking of a reoccupation of Gaza and the ‘voluntary’ removal of Palestinians, Ben-Gvir and followers are in fact speaking about the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, and then its settlement by Jews,” he said.

“They are quite open about that. There is nothing voluntary about this.”

If this came about, he said, “this would first of all mean that the entire IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) operation in Gaza will be seen as one of forcible removal of population, which is a war crime and a crime against humanity under international humanitarian law.”

It might also “be a breach of the Genocide Convention, as it could be presented as the intentional destruction of the part of the Palestinian people living in Gaza. This would put Israel directly in the sights of the International Court of Justice.”




Displaced Palestinians flee from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on January 30, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)

Bartov is, however, doubtful that “the radicals in the Israeli cabinet will manage to push this through. I don’t think there will be ethnic cleansing, but I do anticipate a major political crisis in Israel.

“This can be channeled in a positive direction only through massive pressure by the US and its allies, especially the UK, France and Germany, and then a regional agreement with Arab states, not least Saudi Arabia, to normalize relations with Israel on condition of the creation of an independent, possibly demilitarized, Palestinian state,” he said.

In the Gush Katif museum, among the artefacts on display, pride of place goes to a menorah, the traditional candelabra traditionally lit on the Jewish holiday of Hannukah. It was saved from the synagogue of Netzarim, the last of the Gaza settlements to be evacuated, and growing numbers in Israel would like to see it returned to what they believe is its rightful place.




More than 20,000 Peace Now demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv on October 1, 1996, calling for a continuation of the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Twenty-seven years after, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still in office, leading right-wing extremists in posing an obstacle to peace. (AFP/File)

In a film shown at the museum, Rivka Goldschmidt, one of the “Uprooted” from Gush Katif, speaks of her hopes for the future.

“It could be that our children will be able to return to Gush Katif and that will be a great comfort,” she says.

“I don’t know if it will happen, or when it will happen, but in the back of my mind that is an aspiration because there was something there that was great and tremendous, built by honest people.”

Gush Katif, she adds, “was vacated for no reason and it could be that our children, maybe our grandchildren, will return there one day.”

If Netanyahu and the rightwing ministers in his cabinet get their way, that day could be sooner than anyone could have predicted.

And if that happens, the prospects for a two-state solution and the peace for which so many Palestinians and Israelis have prayed for so long will likely have been dashed for generations to come.

 


UN Security Council condemns attacks on peacekeeping forces in Lebanon

UN Security Council condemns attacks on peacekeeping forces in Lebanon
Updated 14 November 2024
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UN Security Council condemns attacks on peacekeeping forces in Lebanon

UN Security Council condemns attacks on peacekeeping forces in Lebanon
  • Several UN peacekeepers have been injured in southern Lebanon since a year of skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah escalated into fierce clashes in the past month
  • Council members say peacekeepers must never be the target of attacks and urge all involved in the conflict to respect their safety and security

NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council on Wednesday condemned attacks in southern Lebanon in recent weeks in which several UN peacekeeping troops have been injured.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon continues to monitor hostilities in the south of the country along the demarcation line separating it from Israel. A year of skirmishes between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters in border areas have escalated into fierce clashes in the past month.

Israel accuses the UN peacekeeping forces of providing cover for Hezbollah and has told UNIFIL to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon for their own safety. The international force has refused to comply, instead vowing to remain and carry out its mandate along the Blue Line of demarcation between the two countries, which was established by the UN in June 2000. It has issued several warnings that the Israeli army’s “deliberate and direct destruction of clearly identifiable UNIFIL property is a flagrant violation of international law” and UN resolutions.

Without mentioning Israel by name, the 15 members of the UN Security Council on Wednesday urged all parties involved in the conflict to take all possible steps to respect the safety and security of UNIFIL personnel and facilities, and said peacekeepers must never be the target of attacks.

The council reiterated its “full support” for UNIFIL, underscored “its role in supporting regional stability,” and expressed “deep appreciation” to the countries that contribute troops to the force.

Council members also expressed “deep concern for civilian casualties and suffering, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the damage to cultural heritage sites in Lebanon, and endangerment of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Baalbeck and Tyre, and the rising number of internally displaced people.”

They called on “all parties” to abide by international humanitarian law and fully implement Security Council resolutions.


Israeli airforce bombs Syria-Lebanon border

Israeli airforce bombs Syria-Lebanon border
Updated 14 November 2024
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Israeli airforce bombs Syria-Lebanon border

Israeli airforce bombs Syria-Lebanon border
  • A leading monitor said that 15 people had been wounded in the strikes in an area of Syria’s Homs region
  • “Earlier today, with the direction of IDF (military) intelligence, the IAF (Israeli airforce) struck smuggling routes between Syria and Lebanon,” the army said

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said that it carried out air strikes on Wednesday along the border with Syria and Lebanon, with state media in Damascus saying that key infrastructure had been targeted.
A leading monitor said that 15 people had been wounded in the strikes in an area of Syria’s Homs region which is a known stronghold of Lebanon’s Hezbollah although there was no immediate confirmation from Syrian authorities.
Israel rarely comments on its military operations in Syria but it did confirm the strikes which had been first reported by the Syrian state news agency Sana.
“Earlier today, with the direction of IDF (military) intelligence, the IAF (Israeli airforce) struck smuggling routes between Syria and Lebanon,” the army said in a statement.
“These routes coming from the Syrian side of the border into Lebanon are used to smuggle weapons to the Hezbollah terrorist organization.”
The Sana news agency said that “the Israeli aggression” on the Homs region had been met with a barrage of anti-aircraft fire.
Citing a military source, Sana said that the Israeli planes had targeted bridges along the Orontes river and roads around the Syria-Lebanon border.
The strikes had caused “significant damage,” according to the source, putting some of the infrastructure out of action, without giving details.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor also said that Israeli military aircraft had hit Syrian bridges and military checkpoints.
Fifteen members of the Syrian armed forces or allied groups had been wounded in the strikes, said the observatory which has a vast network of contacts throughout Syria.
But since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, it has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syrian government forces and groups supported by its arch-foe Iran, notably Hezbollah troops that have been deployed to assist Assad’s regime.
Israel has carried out frequent raids on highways on the Lebanese side of the border with Syria to cut off potential weapons supplies since a major escalation of its conflict with Hezbollah in September.


How Syrians in war-torn Lebanon are coping with double displacement

How Syrians in war-torn Lebanon are coping with double displacement
Updated 14 November 2024
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How Syrians in war-torn Lebanon are coping with double displacement

How Syrians in war-torn Lebanon are coping with double displacement
  • Syrians face increasing barriers to shelter and aid access in Lebanon due to overcrowding and mounting hostility
  • Lebanon has the highest refugee population per capita globally, hosting 1.5 million Syrians prior the current escalation

LONDON: Syrians displaced to Lebanon by the civil war in their home country have found themselves on the move once again, as Israel’s targeting of the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia has forced more than a million people from their homes.

Many Syrians, unable to return home for fear of conscription or arrest, face a difficult dilemma — whether to ride out the conflict in Lebanon, despite deepening poverty and mounting hostility, or even risk the irregular sea crossing to Cyprus or beyond.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been trading blows along the Lebanese border since Oct. 8, 2023, when the militia began rocketing northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas, its Palestinian militia ally, which had just attacked southern Israel, sparking the Gaza war.

However, in September this year, the Israeli military suddenly ramped up its attacks on Hezbollah positions across Lebanon, disrupting its communications network, destroying arms caches, and eliminating much of its senior leadership.

Israeli jets have pounded Hezbollah positions in towns and villages across southern Lebanon and its strongholds in the suburbs of the capital, Beirut, while ground forces have mounted “limited” incursions into Lebanese territory.

More than 1.2 million people have been displaced since the hostilities began more than a year ago, according to UN figures. Among them, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, has identified 34,000 Syrians who have been secondarily displaced since October 2023.

For Lebanese civilians, the conflict has revived grim memories of the devastating 2006 war with Israel and the civil war years of 1975-90. For Syrians, though, the memories of conflict and displacement are even more raw, with the 13-year civil war in their home country still ongoing.

A picture shows smoke billowing from a tissue factory after an overnight Israeli strike on the Lebanese city of Baalbeck in the Bekaa valley on October 11, 2024. (AFP)

Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon took part in the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, on the side of the Bashar Assad regime against armed opposition groups, thereby contributing to the mass displacement of Syrians that followed.

“Refugees who have fled their homeland in search of safety and security are now facing the reality of being displaced once again in Lebanon due to ongoing hostilities,” Lisa Abou Khaled, a UNHCR spokesperson, told Arab News.

“This double displacement exacerbates their vulnerability.”

UNHCR reported that more than 400,000 people, at least 70 percent of them Syrians, have crossed the border into Syria to escape the escalating violence in Lebanon. However, for many, returning home is not an option.


Rescue workers remove rubble, as they search for victims at the site that was hit by Israeli airstrikes in Qana village, south Lebanon, on Oct. 16, 2024. (AP)

The alternative is to remain in Lebanon, where Syrians have reportedly been denied access to work, housing, and services amid the country’s economic crisis, and mounting hostility from Lebanese citizens who believe their own needs have been overlooked.

Rabab, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, spent several nights sleeping rough in Sidon’s Martyrs’ Square last month before locals offered her and her husband a place to stay.

“When we visited the municipality, they refused to register our names and said priority was given to displaced Lebanese families,” Rabab, who is originally from northwest Syria, told Arab News.

“Returning to Syria now is out of the question as I have no family left there, and my husband will face conscription.”

INNUMBERS

• 1.2 million: People displaced by conflict in Lebanon since October 2023.

• 34,000: Syrians in Lebanon who have been secondarily displaced.

• 400,000: Displaced people, 70 percent of them Syrians, who have fled to Syria.

(Source: UNHCR)

The result has been a growing number of Syrian families displaced from southern Lebanon sleeping rough on the streets of Sidon and other cities, with the buzz of Israeli drones and jets overhead and winter temperatures fast approaching.

“Many displaced Syrians in Lebanon, particularly those newly displaced due to recent escalations, face significant challenges in accessing shelters,” Tania Baban, the Lebanon country director of the US-based charity MedGlobal, told Arab News.

Recounting an incident in Sidon, where displaced Syrians had been turned away “due to a lack of shelter capacity,” Baban said: “Municipalities in regions have implemented restrictions, often barring entry to Syrian displaced people, citing overcrowding or security concerns.

Syrian children, who had to fled their country after the outbreak of the war in Syria in 2011 and migrated to Lebanon, are seen in an area where refugees live in Sidon city of Lebanon on October 7, 2024. (Anadolu via Getty Images)

“As a result, some families are sleeping in informal makeshift camps, abandoned buildings, or even out in the open parking lots in Sidon,” she added, stressing that the situation is particularly dire in areas like the capital, Beirut, which was already overpopulated prior to the escalation.

Hector Hajjar, Lebanon’s caretaker minister of social affairs, has denied accusations of discrimination against displaced Syrians. According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, Hajjar said earlier this month that his government was committed to safeguarding all affected groups.

Stressing that “UNHCR appreciates Lebanon’s generous hospitality in hosting so many refugees and understands the challenges this adds at this very delicate juncture,” the UN agency’s spokesperson Abou Khaled called on “all actors to maintain and apply humanitarian principles and allow equal access to assistance.”

“Newly displaced Syrians and Lebanese in several regions tell us that they have had to sleep in the open,” she said, adding that “UNHCR and partners are working with the relevant authorities on finding urgent solutions to this issue.”

Lebanon has the most refugees per capita in the world, hosting some 1.5 million Syrians prior to the current escalation, according to government estimates.

Zaher Sahloul, president of MedGlobal, called on humanitarian agencies to “act swiftly to provide the protection and support these refugees urgently need.”

“Every person, regardless of nationality, deserves to be treated with dignity and compassion during this crisis,” he said in a statement in late September.

Unfortunately, this has not been the case for many Syrians in Lebanon.

Footage has emerged on social media showing the purported abuse of Syrians. In one such video, a man was seen tied to a post on a city street while the person filming claims this was done because people in Syria’s Idlib had celebrated the death of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Meanwhile, some Lebanese politicians have seized upon the worsening situation in Lebanon to advance an anti-Syrian agenda, insisting Syria is now safe for them to return.

Syrian Red Crescent rescuers attend to displaced people arriving from Lebanon at the Jdeidat Yabus border crossing in southwestern Syria on October 7, 2024. (AFP)

Last month, Bachir Khodr, the governor of Baalbek-Hermel, told Al-Jadeed TV that “the reason for the Syrians’ presence is the war in Syria. This war has ended, so they must now leave Lebanon, as the war is here now.”

Lebanon has endured a crippling economic crisis since 2019, which has plunged much of the population into poverty. In recent years, Lebanese politicians have characterized displaced Syrians as a burden on society and called for their deportation.

Despite human rights organizations unanimously agreeing in May that no part of Syria is safe for returnees, a UNHCR report in March highlighted that 13,772 Syrians had been deported from Lebanon or pushed back at the border with Syria in about 300 incidents in 2023.

Children sit in a bus as Syrians who were refugees in Lebanon return to their home country after a five-day journey to the northern Idlib province where they are received at a temporary resting point in the town of Qah, on October 4, 2024. (AFP)

Human Rights Watch also reported in April that Lebanese authorities “have arbitrarily detained, tortured, and forcibly returned Syrians to Syria,” including activists and army defectors.

Disputing the findings, Khodr, the governor of Baalbek-Hermel, argued that the return of some “235,000 displaced Syrians” to their country “challenges the theory that the Syrian authorities might arrest those returning to it.”

“We have repeatedly said that the Syrian side has not harassed any of its citizens who have returned since the start of the voluntary return campaigns in 2018, but rather they have been treated in the best possible way,” Khodr posted on the social platform X on Oct. 8.

However, the UK-based Syrian Network for Human Rights reported that Syrian authorities have arrested 23 individuals who had returned from Lebanon since September.

Syrians who were refugees in Lebanon return to their home country after a journey to the opposition held northern Idlib province through the crossing Aoun al-Dadat north of Manbij, on October 9, 2024. Lebanon became home to hundreds of thousands of Syrians after the repression of anti-government protests in Syria in 2011 sparked a war that has since killed more than half a million people. (AFP)

For those Syrians who have chosen to remain in Lebanon, despite its many challenges, assistance provided by humanitarian aid agencies has become a vital lifeline.

Abou Khaled of UNHCR said her agency “is working relentlessly with humanitarian partners and Lebanese authorities to urgently find safe shelter for those without any.”

“A comprehensive emergency shelter strategy has been shared with proposed shelter solutions in all Lebanese regions and work is ongoing at the cadastre and district levels to implement parts of it.”

She added: “Current hostilities, compounded by the ongoing socio-economic situation, create challenges for all communities, all of whom deserve equal access to safety and dignity.”
 

 


Israel’s ban on UN agency for Palestinian refugees will have ‘catastrophic consequences’

Israel’s ban on UN agency for Palestinian refugees will have ‘catastrophic consequences’
Updated 13 November 2024
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Israel’s ban on UN agency for Palestinian refugees will have ‘catastrophic consequences’

Israel’s ban on UN agency for Palestinian refugees will have ‘catastrophic consequences’
  • UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini says entire generation of Palestinians will be denied right to an education
  • UN member states urged to consider the effects Israel’s decision on the ‘international rules-based order’

An Israeli law banning the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees will have “catastrophic consequences” that threaten regional stability, the head of the organization warned on Wednesday.

In an impassioned plea to the General Assembly, Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, urged member states to take action to prevent Israel’s move against his organization.

The Israeli parliament voted last month to cut ties with UNRWA and ban it from operating in Israel. The law, which is expected to be implemented within three months, will severely limit the agency’s ability to operate in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, where millions of Palestinians rely on its services.

Meanwhile, the appalling humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, with international aid groups accusing Israel this week of failing to meet US demands to alleviate the suffering.

Lazzarini spelled out the severity of the situation in his address to the General Assembly as he issued stark warnings about the far-reaching implications of the decision to ban UNRWA. He said it would not only cause the humanitarian response in Gaza to collapse but also deal a blow to the international rules-based order under which all UN agencies must operate.

“The risk of the agency’s collapse threatens the lives and futures of individuals and communities, the stability of the region, and the integrity of our multilateral system,” Lazzarini said.

UNRWA, he added, has become another casualty of the war in Gaza, during which Israeli forces have killed more than 43,000 people, the majority of them women and children. He said famine has probably already taken hold in the territory, and hunger and disease are widespread.

“The implementation of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) legislation will have catastrophic consequences,” Lazzarini said.

“In Gaza, dismantling UNRWA will collapse the United Nations’ humanitarian response, which relies heavily on the agency’s infrastructure.”

He went on to highlight the devastating effects the ban would have on education in Gaza, where “in the absence of a capable public administration or state, only UNRWA can deliver education to more than 660,000 girls and boys.

“In the absence of UNRWA, an entire generation will be denied the right to education. Their future will be sacrificed, sowing the seeds for marginalization and extremism.”

Schooling for a further 50,000 children in the West Bank would also be under threat, along with primary health care for half a million Palestinian refugees.

Lazzarini repeated previous requests for UN member states to do whatever they can to halt the implementation of the Israeli ban and maintain funding for UNRWA. He painted Israel’s actions targeting the agency as representing a wider threat to the UN and the multilateral world order under which it operates.

“The United Nations and its staff are in an increasingly untenable position; if the legal and political framework within which we operate does not hold, we cannot stay and deliver,” he said.

Speaking later to the press, Lazzarini said there had been much anger and condemnation in response to the Israeli law and he hopes there might still be some pathway to prevent its implementation. But he conceded this might be “wishful thinking.”

The Israeli law was widely criticized in the region and the wider international community. Saudi Arabia described it as a “flagrant violation of international law and a direct violation of the rules of international legitimacy.”

On Tuesday, the US said Israeli authorities had made some progress in increasing the flow of aid to Gaza and, as a result, Washington would not limit weapons transfers to the country. However, this came as a report published by eight international aid agencies said conditions in the territory were worse than at any point in the war.

Israel claims that some UNRWA staff took part in the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel last year, which killed about 1,200 people and sparked the war in Gaza. The UN reacted by firing nine of the agency’s workers that might have been involved. Lazzarini said the agency has a “zero-tolerance approach” to any breaches of its neutrality.


Why is only limited aid getting to Palestinians inside Gaza?

Why is only limited aid getting to Palestinians inside Gaza?
Updated 13 November 2024
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Why is only limited aid getting to Palestinians inside Gaza?

Why is only limited aid getting to Palestinians inside Gaza?
  • Aid groups accuse the Israeli military of hindering and even blocking shipments in Gaza

JERUSALEM: The US decided not to punish Israel over the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip after giving it an ultimatum to increase aid entering the territory. But the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians is still at nearly its lowest level of the entire 13-month-old war.

The White House last month gave Israel 30 days to improve conditions or risk losing military support. As the deadline expired Tuesday, leading international aid groups said Israel had fallen far short.

But the US State Department announced it would not take any punitive action, saying Israel has made limited progress. However, it called for more steps.

Aid groups accuse the Israeli military of hindering and even blocking shipments in Gaza. Almost the entire population of around 2.3 million Palestinians relies on international aid for survival, and doctors and aid groups say malnutrition is rampant. Food security experts say famine may already be underway in hard-hit north Gaza.

“It’s really frustrating because by almost every objective metric, all agencies say that the humanitarian situation has gotten worse in that time frame that the US has specified,” Aseel Baidoun, a senior manager of the aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians, said.

“Even though we have provided all the evidence that there is a risk of famine ... still the U.S. miraculously finds Israel not violating the humanitarian aid law.”

Israel, which controls all crossings into Gaza, says it is committed to delivering humanitarian assistance and has scrambled to ramp up aid. 

COGAT, the military body in charge of aid passage, said they had taken a number of steps over the past month to increase the amount entering the territory, including opening a fifth crossing — into central Gaza — this week. 

Israel says the UN and international aid groups need to do a better job of distributing supplies.

Aid into Gaza is typically measured in terms of truckloads of food and supplies entering the territory. The US has demanded 350 trucks daily — still below the 500 a day that entered before the war.

In October, aid entry plunged to its lowest level since the first month of the war. Israeli government figures show roughly 57 trucks a day entering on average. The average has risen to 100 a day so far in November, slightly lower than the same month last year.

The UN, however, says even less is entering. It reports receiving an average of 39 trucks daily since the beginning of October. This is largely because it says it cannot reach the main crossing point in the south to collect cargos due to Israeli military restrictions and lawlessness. The UN says virtually no food or other aid has reached the northernmost part of Gaza since the beginning of October. That’s when the Israeli military launched a major offensive against Hamas fighters in the area of Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, cutting them off.

Israel says October’s drop in aid was because it closed crossings into Gaza during the Jewish high holidays. It said it couldn’t allow deliveries to the far north in October because of the fighting.

Under international pressure, COGAT allowed two deliveries to the far north this month.

But little of it got through. Last week, the World Food Programme said troops on the ground ordered its trucks to unload their cargo before reaching their destination.