UAE delivers 400 tonnes of food aid to Gaza

UAE delivers 400 tonnes of food aid to Gaza
The UAE, in partnership with Anera, announced that it had delivered 400 tonnes of food aid to Gaza. (WAM)
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Updated 05 May 2024
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UAE delivers 400 tonnes of food aid to Gaza

UAE delivers 400 tonnes of food aid to Gaza
  • Delivery, specifically for the northern areas of the enclave, is enough to feed about 120,000 people

DUBAI: The UAE, in partnership with American Near East Refugee Aid, announced on Sunday that it had delivered 400 tonnes of food aid to Gaza.

The delivery, specifically for the northern areas of the enclave, is enough to feed about 120,000 people, Emirates News Agency reported.

Reem Al-Hashimy, Emirati minister of state for international cooperation, said: “The UAE’s safe and successful delivery and distribution of food relief to the Gaza Strip, especially the northern Gaza Strip, marks a significant scaling up in action.”

She continued: “We remain firmly committed to our position of solidarity with the brotherly Palestinian people and alleviating suffering in the Gaza Strip. The UAE, working in parallel with international partners, is determined more than ever to intensify all efforts to ensure that aid lifelines get to those who need it the most.”

Sean Carroll, CEO of ANERA, thanked the Emirati government for its assistance in getting the much-needed aid to the Palestinian people.

“ANERA and the people we serve are extremely grateful for support from the government and people of the UAE, that allows us to deliver this food to northern Gaza, where the needs are so great,” he said.

Last month the UAE allocated $15 million under Cyprus’s Amalthea Fund to bolster aid efforts in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Gulf country continues to collaborate with international partners and organizations to enable the effective delivery of food and relief via land, air and sea.

To date, the UAE has dispatched more than 31,000 tonnes of humanitarian supplies, including food, relief items and medical supplies, using 256 flights, 46 airdrops, 1,231 trucks, and six ships.

The UAE has embarked on several sustainable relief projects to ensure a consistent supply of food and water to the people of Gaza.

These initiatives include the establishment of five automatic bakeries, the provision of flour to eight existing bakeries, and the installation of six desalination plants with a combined capacity of 1.2 million gallons of water a day.


Israeli strike kills two members of Hamas-run police force in Gaza, interior ministry says

Israeli strike kills two members of Hamas-run police force in Gaza, interior ministry says
Updated 35 sec ago
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Israeli strike kills two members of Hamas-run police force in Gaza, interior ministry says

Israeli strike kills two members of Hamas-run police force in Gaza, interior ministry says

CAIRO: An Israeli airstrike killed two policemen east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, the Hamas-run interior ministry said in a statement, calling it a breach of the fragile January 19 ceasefire.
It said the policemen were deployed in the area to secure the entry of aid trucks into Gaza. A third policeman was injured, it added.
“The ministry...condemns this crime and calls upon the mediators and the international community to compel the occupation to stop targeting the police force, which is a civil apparatus,” the statement said.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the Hamas report.


Shipment of ‘heavy’ US bombs arrives in Israel

Shipment of ‘heavy’ US bombs arrives in Israel
Updated 23 min 31 sec ago
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Shipment of ‘heavy’ US bombs arrives in Israel

Shipment of ‘heavy’ US bombs arrives in Israel
  • Rubio to discuss Gaza truce with Israel PM on first leg of Mideast tour

TEL AVIV:  Israel’s defense ministry said Sunday that a shipment of “heavy” US-made bombs arrived overnight in Israel, as Marco Rubio began his first visit to the country as Washington’s top diplomat.
“A shipment of heavy aerial bombs recently released by the US government was received and unloaded overnight in Israel,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to MK-84 munitions recently authorized by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Rubio landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv and is due to hold talks with Israeli officials on Sunday when he will highlight Trump’s controversial proposal to take control of the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by more than 15 months of war between Hamas and Israel.
Coming from Munich, where he took part in a security conference dominated by the Ukraine war, the top US diplomat is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday.
Netanyahu, who recently visited Washington where he met Donald Trump, expressed his appreciation for the US president’s “full support” for Israel’s next moves in Gaza.
“Israel will now have to decide what they will do,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday.
“The United States will back the decision they make!” he added.
Rubio arrived in Israel hours after Hamas freed three Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in the sixth swap of a nearly month-old ceasefire.
The ceasefire came close to collapse earlier this week and Netanyahu credited “President Trump’s firm stance” with ensuring Saturday’s releases went ahead.
In his meetings, the US top diplomat is expected to discuss the second phase of the ceasefire, which should see the release of remaining hostages and a more permanent end to the war but which has yet to be agreed in detail.
A source close to the negotiations said mediators hope to begin talks on the second phase “next week in Doha.”
Washington has expressed openness to alternative proposals from Arab governments but has stressed that currently, “the only plan is Trump’s.”
Trump has proposed taking control of the Palestinian territory and displacing its residents to Egypt or Jordan, both of which strongly oppose the proposal.
Trump has warned of repercussions for Egypt and Jordan if they do not allow in the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza.
“Right now the only plan — they don’t like it — but the only plan is the Trump plan. So if they’ve got a better plan, now’s the time to present it,” Rubio said on Thursday.

 


Turkiye says it would reconsider its military presence in Syria if Kurdish militants are eliminated

Turkiye says it would reconsider its military presence in Syria if Kurdish militants are eliminated
Updated 16 February 2025
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Turkiye says it would reconsider its military presence in Syria if Kurdish militants are eliminated

Turkiye says it would reconsider its military presence in Syria if Kurdish militants are eliminated
  • The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has waged an insurgency against Turkiye for decades, seeking greater autonomy for Kurds

BEIRUT: Turkiye’s foreign minister said Saturday his country would reconsider its military presence in northeastern Syria if that country’s new leaders eliminate a Kurdish militant group designated as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union.
Hakan Fidan spoke at the Munich Security Conference alongside Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani, who did not comment on the remarks. Fidan has expressed such sentiments before.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has waged an insurgency against Turkiye for decades, seeking greater autonomy for Kurds.
“We can’t tolerate armed militia in any form,” Fidan said. He said such groups should be integrated “under one national army” in Syria and noted that its new leaders have been responsive to that idea.
Al-Shaibani did speak in support of disarming all non-state factions and of including Kurds in Syria’s new government.
The presence of Turkish-backed forces in northeastern Syria has increased substantially since insurgent groups ousted former President Bashar Assad late last year, and the forces have been targeting Kurdish forces more often.
Turkiye also views the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed military Kurdish alliance in Syria, as an extension of the PKK. That has led to ongoing military confrontations between Turkish-backed forces and the SDF in northern Syria.
While most insurgent groups have agreed to integrate into the new Syrian army, the SDF has refused.
“Kurds are part of the Syrian nation but they can’t have their own army, as this is against our unity,” said another speaker on Saturday’s conference panel, Hind Kabawat of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution.

 


Freed Palestinian inmates set prison garb ablaze on return to Gaza

Freed Palestinian inmates set prison garb ablaze on return to Gaza
Updated 16 February 2025
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Freed Palestinian inmates set prison garb ablaze on return to Gaza

Freed Palestinian inmates set prison garb ablaze on return to Gaza
  • Ibrahim, 61, said he had left “prison and suffering,” but the Gaza Strip — for years under a crippling Israeli-led blockade — was “the largest prison in the world”
  • The vast majority of prisoners released on Saturday, in exchange for three Israeli hostages, were Gazans taken into Israeli custody during the war, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group

KHAN YUNIS, Palestinian Territories: As Palestinian inmates released by Israel on Saturday stepped off the buses that took them to the Gaza Strip, some flashed a victory sign and swiftly set fire to sweatshirts they were made to wear in prison.
Images broadcast on Israeli media before their release under a ceasefire deal with Hamas showed rows of Palestinian prisoners wearing the sweatshirts emblazoned with the Star of David, the logo of Israel’s prison service and the Arabic phrase “we do not forget and we do not forgive.”
The white sweatshirts could be seen on the ground wreathed in orange flames at the prisoners’ reception point in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, an AFP correspondent said.
The growing blaze sent plumes of black smoke skywards over the crowds greeting the released inmates.
In previous releases under the Gaza deal, Palestinians were let out with plain grey prison tracksuits that did not bear any inscriptions.
The vast majority of prisoners released on Saturday, in exchange for three Israeli hostages, were Gazans taken into Israeli custody during the war, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group.
The Gaza-bound convoy, facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, dropped off jubilant prisoners who threw victory signs and waved at the crowd welcoming them.
Other Palestinians freed Saturday were serving life sentences over attacks against Israelis, with some of them deported upon release.

Hamas, the Palestinian group whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war, and ally Islamic Jihad both condemned the Israeli prison service sweatshirts, calling them “racist.”
Ibrahim, 61, a freed prisoner who declined to share his last name, said he was sad to see the extent of the destruction wrought by the war in Gaza.
He said he had left “prison and suffering,” but the Gaza Strip — for years under a crippling Israeli-led blockade — was “the largest prison in the world.”
He said he had been arrested in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, and still did not know why he was jailed for nine months.
Abd Abu Zayra, another freed prisoner, told AFP he had Hamas to thank for his release, a moment “of joy and victory mixed with sadness and tragedy.”
“We pray that the war ends and that all prisoners are released,” he said.
The buses inched forward through the dense crowd, dropping off prisoners one after the other.
Paramedics taking the freed prisoners to hospital for check-ups were overwhelmed by the sea of relatives and friends who had gathered to greet them.
Muhammad Zaqout, director of Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry, said medical examinations would be conducted for each prisoner.
He said many have suffered “torture” and neglect in jail.

Tariq Haniyeh, a 22-year-old Gazan, told AFP he had come to Khan Yunis to welcome his relative Loay Haniyeh a year after his arrest at a refugee camp near Gaza City.
“It’s a great joy to see the prisoners freed, but I’m very sad because I still have other relatives who are still detained,” said Tariq Haniyeh.
He said his family was still in mourning after the deaths of 21 relatives during the war, including distant cousin Ismail Haniyeh, the former Hamas chief killed by Israel in Tehran in July 2024.
Unlike Ismail Haniyeh, Tariq said his relative Loay, had “no connection to any Palestinian faction, and they (Israel) arrested him like thousands of others, without reason.”
Those in the last buses, too excited to wait, began their reunion from the bus windows.
One man stood on the shoulders of another to kiss a prisoner from the window. A child was hoisted in the air to be embraced.
Some stood on their toes to try to reach the hand of a loved one, while some prisoners still on the buses grabbed the microphones of journalists to start recounting their journey.
 

 


Four freed Palestinian prisoners transferred to West Bank hospital: Red Crescent

Four freed Palestinian prisoners transferred to West Bank hospital: Red Crescent
Updated 16 February 2025
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Four freed Palestinian prisoners transferred to West Bank hospital: Red Crescent

Four freed Palestinian prisoners transferred to West Bank hospital: Red Crescent
  • Negotiations on a second phase of the ceasefire, meant to lay out steps towards a more permanent end to the war, are expected to begin next week

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Four Palestinian prisoners freed from an Israeli jail on Saturday as part of the ongoing truce in Gaza were transferred to hospital on arrival in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, the Red Crescent said.
“Our teams are transferring four released (Palestinian) prisoners from the location of reception to the hospital,” the Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a statement following the sixth hostage-prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel.