Israel’s defense minister OKs plan to start drafting ultra-Orthodox
After discussions with top military officials, Gallant approved their recommendations for a so-called first call-up of ultra-Orthodox men into the military
The order is for an initial screening and evaluation to determine potential recruits
Updated 09 July 2024
Reuters
JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant approved a plan on Tuesday to start drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military, a move likely to further strain relations within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fractious right-wing coalition.
His government relies on two ultra-Orthodox parties that regard conscription exemptions as key to keeping their constituents in religious seminaries and out of a melting-pot army that might test their traditional customs.
Their political leaders are fiercely opposed to conscription at a time when Israel’s army is seeking to bolster its ranks amid the nine-month-old war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
After discussions with top military officials, Gallant approved their recommendations for a so-called first call-up of ultra-Orthodox men into the military over the coming month, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The order is for an initial screening and evaluation to determine potential recruits, it said. Initial call-ups are sent to Israelis when they are over 16 years old and they usually begin military service at the age of 18.
Israelis are bound by law to serve in the military for 24-32 months. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab minority are mostly exempt, though some do serve, and ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students have also been largely exempt for decades.
But Israel’s Supreme Court last month ruled that the state must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students into the military.
The long-time military waiver for the ultra-Orthodox has sparked protests in recent months by Israelis angry that the risk of fighting in Gaza is not being equally shared. For their part, ultra-Orthodox protesters have blocked roads under the banner “death before conscription.”
Fears that the almost 10-month-old Gaza war could become a regional conflict after the killings Tuesday of Hezbollah top commander Fuad Shukr in a Beirut suburb and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh the following day in Tehran
Israel has claimed responsibility for killing Shukr but remained silent on Haniyeh’s death
Updated 18 min 50 sec ago
AFP
JERUSALEM: Israel’s army said Sunday it had not changed “as of now” its policy for protecting civilians, as Iran and Hezbollah are expected to avenge killings blamed on Israel of two senior members.
“I would like to refer tonight to the various reports and rumors that we are on alert for the enemy’s response to the territory of the State of Israel,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in an online briefing to journalists.
“I emphasize that as of now there is no change in the Home Front Command’s defense policy,” he said of a branch of the army that deals with the protection of civilians in times of war and emergency, including natural disasters.
Hagari and other top Israeli military and government officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have repeatedly said the country is prepared for any attack.
But Hagari said that Israel’s protection is not “hermetic.”
“We strive to give you the necessary warning to prepare for any threat,” he said.
“The protection is not hermetic. Therefore, every citizen is required to know what the instructions are, wherever he is and to be vigilant.”
Hagari also announced that the Home Front Command has launched a new system to alert citizens in the event of any emergency.
“The alert will be sent to mobile phones in the area under threat,” he said.
“This is done without the need for an application and without any action on the part of the citizen.”
Fears that the almost 10-month-old Gaza war could become a regional conflict after the killings Tuesday of Hezbollah top commander Fuad Shukr in a Beirut suburb and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh the following day in Tehran.
Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah have vowed to avenge the deaths which they blame on Israel.
Israel has claimed responsibility for killing Shukr but remained silent on Haniyeh’s death.
Hezbollah has been trading near-daily cross-border fire with Israel since war erupted in Gaza on October 7 following Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel.
How conflict and mass displacement in Sudan are exacting a devastating toll on civilians
Sudanese face ‘horrendous levels of violence, repeated attacks, abuse and exploitation,’ says MSF
Award-winning Sudanese photographer describes the torment of civilians whose lives he documents
Updated 11 min 43 sec ago
Rebecca Anne Proctor
DUBAI: Sudanese freelance photographer Faiz Abubakr has been documenting the crisis in his home country that began in April 2023, when violence broke out between rival military factions.
The Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Sudan’s de facto president, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, have been locked in battle with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, under Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, ever since.
In this combination photo, Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (left frame) attends a graduation ceremony in Gibet near Port Sudan on July 31, 2024, while paramilitary forces commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo is shown in the other photo addressings his followers at an undisclosed location on July 28, 2023. (AFP photos)
Despite the immense danger, Abubakr felt compelled to go out into the streets with his camera to record the catastrophe unfolding in his home city of Khartoum and capture the impact of the generals’ bitter rivalry on its beleaguered citizens.
“Many questions ran through my mind about the lives of these residents who fled daily from the scourge of war, whose homes and belongings were consumed by fire, and who died in tragic ways,” Abubakr told Arab News. “These questions related to how they spent their days under the roar of planes and explosions, which forced them to abandon their homes and were haunted by the curses of displacement.”
According to the UN, Sudan is now in the grips of the world’s largest internal-displacement crisis, with millions forced to flee their homes, including Abubakr who initially sought refuge in Egypt with his family
After a few months, he returned to Sudan to work for several news agencies until he was wounded, he said, by an RSF gunman. While he recovered, he and his family moved to Kassala, located in the east of Sudan, close to the border with Eritrea.
Abubakr’s clients had included AFP, Le Monde, and The New York Times. Prior to the conflict, he was the recipient of the 2022 World Press Photo Award in the “Africa, singles” category. Now he is just trying to survive.
“The situation is much worse than before,” said Abubakr. “Life is very difficult due to lack of food and livelihood. There is the threat of famine in all parts of the country.
Even in displacement, freelance photographer Faiz Abubakr has continued to photograph the conflict unfolding around him in Sudan. (Instagram)
Even in displacement, Abubakr has continued to photograph the conflict unfolding around him, in particular its impact on civilians forced to leave their homes.
“I try to document their stories, but it is very difficult to photograph due to security reasons,” he said. “I lost everything during the war, including most of my photography equipment. My psychological state is becoming worse.”
INNUMBERS
• 10 million People internally displaced in Sudan, according to the UN.
• 25 million More than half of the population in need of humanitarian aid.
Abubakr is not alone. The conflict has taken a devastating toll on the health and wellbeing of Sudanese civilians, according to a new report by Medecins Sans Frontieres, whose staff operate in eight states across Sudan.
The population has faced “horrendous levels of violence, succumbing to widespread fighting and surviving repeated attacks, abuse, and exploitation” by the warring parties, the report states.
“The violence in Sudan shows no signs of abating,” Vickie Hawkins, executive director of MSF UK, writes in the report. “In fact, it is intensifying at a pace that outstrips our ability to process, document and respond to the daily events that our teams and patients experience in Sudan.”
The report draws on medical and operational data collected by MSF from April 15, 2023, to May 15 this year. It notes the patterns of violence and abuse observed by MSF teams and the devastating impact of the fighting on public health.
In the report, an unnamed health worker at Al-Nao hospital in Omdurman, west of Khartoum, described the aftermath of recent shelling in a residential area of the city.
“About 20 people arrived and died straight after. Some arrived already dead,” the health worker said. “Most of them came with already hanging hands or legs, already amputated. Some only with a small part of skin keeping two limbs together.
“One patient came with an amputated leg, their caregiver followed behind, carrying their missing limb in their hand.”
According to MSF, Al-Nao hospital has treated 6,776 patients for injuries caused by armed violence between Aug. 15, 2023 and April 30 this year — an average of 26 people per day.
“After 15 months of conflict, the warring parties show a complete lack of regard for any civilian life,” Kyle McNally, a project coordinator for MSF who was recently stationed in Sudan’s southwestern city of Nyala, told Arab News.
“These are the people that they claim to be representing and fighting for. Instead, this is really a war on the people of Sudan in the way that they’re conducting their hostilities. We see very egregious violations of civilian protection and attacks against civilians as well as civilian infrastructure.
“Hospitals and medical staff have not been spared. We see numerous attacks against healthcare facilities. The hospital system and the healthcare system have been completely decimated by the fighting.”
According to the UN, Sudan faces a deepening food crisis, with around 25 million people — including more than 14 million children, of whom 3 million are under the age of five, suffering acute malnutrition — in dire need of humanitarian assistance.
At least 10 million people have been forced to flee their homes to escape the violence, according to newly released data from the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
“The conflict in Sudan has become one of the largest displacement crises in the world,” Alyona Synenko, spokesperson for the Africa region at the International Committee of the Red Cross, told Arab News from Nairobi.
“We’re talking about a quarter of the population of the country that has fled their homes. People have lost their homes and lost access to essential means for survival.”
The displacement of farmers, in particular, has led to the collapse of Sudan’s agricultural sector, exacerbating food insecurity. “Food production has suffered immensely, and we’re witnessing a worsening food crisis,” said Synenko.
“We have hundreds of people who call us, desperate, because they don’t know what happened to their loved ones. We have more and more families who are separated and have lost any means to contact each other.”
During the first half of 2024, the ICRC worked in partnership with the Sudanese Red Crescent to provide emergency assistance and essential services. However, its efforts have been frustrated by the security situation, administrative challenges, and difficulties accessing communities.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, where allegations of ethnic cleansing and attacks on hospitals have emerged.
“We saw just utter devastation throughout the city of Nyala, which used to be the second most populous city in Sudan,” said McNally of MSF.
“The entire northern half of the city is almost completely destroyed. You see a complete lack of basic services anywhere. There has been virtually no international humanitarian response in this part of the country.
“You really see people struggling. You have the residents who remained, and then you also have IDP camps in the surrounding area with hundreds of thousands of people. You see a lot of people who are incredibly desperate and very little assistance currently reaching them.”
According to Abubakr, Sudanese civilians suffer especially badly in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces. The paramilitary group now controls most of Khartoum, Al-Jazirah, Kordofan, and the vast western region of Darfur.
Of particular concern are reports of sexual and gender-based violence emerging from across the country, but especially from Darfur.
An MSF survey of 135 survivors of sexual violence, treated in refugee camps in Chad by MSF teams between July and December 2023, found that 90 percent were abused by an armed perpetrator. Fifty percent were abused in their own home and 40 percent were raped by multiple attackers.
Abubakr recalls feeling haunted by the sight of his neighbors in Khartoum abandoning their homes — leaving places and belongings that were integral to their identity, not knowing whether they would ever return. He never believed that he, too, would flee the city of his birth.
Now, only the memories and the photographs of a home he someday hopes to reclaim remain.
“I see that a person does not inhabit the place as much as the place inhabits them,” said Abubakr. “The images and scenes of my home never left my mind. I wish to return to it again.”
US and allies prepare to defend Israel as Netanyahu says it’s already in ‘multi-front war’ with Iran
In Israel, some prepared bomb shelters and recalled Iran’s unprecedented direct military assault in April following a suspected Israeli strike that killed two Iranian generals
Updated 42 min 9 sec ago
AP
TEL AVIV, Israel: Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting Sunday, as the United States and allies prepared to defend Israel from an expected counterstrike and prevent an even more destructive regional conflict.
Tensions have soared following nearly 10 months of war in Gaza and the killing last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran. Iran and its allies have blamed Israel and threatened retaliation. Hamas says it has begun discussions on choosing a new leader.
A Palestinian man carries a wounded girl at the site of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Gaza City, in this still image taken from a video August 4, 2024. (REUTERS)
Netanyahu said Israel was ready for any scenario. Jordan’s foreign minister was making a rare trip to Iran as part of diplomatic efforts — “We want the escalation to end,” Ayman Safadi said — while the Pentagon has moved significant assets to the region.
“We are doing everything possible to make sure that this situation does not boil over,” White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told ABC.
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, August 4, 2024. (REUTERS)
In Israel, some prepared bomb shelters and recalled Iran’s unprecedented direct military assault in April following a suspected Israeli strike that killed two Iranian generals. Israel said almost all the drones and ballistic and cruise missiles were intercepted.
A stabbing attack on Sunday near Tel Aviv killed a woman in her 70s and an 80-year-old man, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service, and two others were wounded. The police said the attack was carried out by a Palestinian militant, who was “neutralized.”
Flares of the Israeli army light up the sky of the area bordering Lebanon on August 3, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters. (AFP)
Inside Gaza, the Health Ministry said at least 25 people were killed and 19 others injured when Israel struck two schools in Gaza City. AP video showed at least one child among the dead. Israel’s military, which regularly accuses Palestinian militants of sheltering in civilian areas, said it hit Hamas command centers.
“As you can see, there is no equipment to recover the injured. Rescuers are digging with their hands,” said one man, Yusuf Al-Mashharawi.
Earlier, Israeli strikes killed at least 18 people. One hit a tent camp for thousands of displaced Palestinians in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, killing four people, including one woman, the Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said it targeted a Palestinian militant in the strike, which it said caused secondary explosions, “indicating the presence of weaponry in the area.”
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian (R) welcoming Jordan's foreign minister Ayman Safadi ahead of their meeting in Tehran on August 04, 2024. (AFP)
The hospital in Deir Al-Balah is the main medical facility operating in central Gaza as many others in the territory no longer function. A separate strike on a home near Deir Al-Balah killed a girl and her parents, according to the hospital.
Another strike flattened a house in northern Gaza, killing at least eight, including three children, their parents and their grandmother, according to the Health Ministry. Another three people were killed in a strike on a vehicle in Gaza City, according to Civil Defense first responders.
Palestinian militants in Gaza fired at least five projectiles at Israeli communities near the border without causing casualties or damage, the military said. The military later told people in some parts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis to evacuate.
People stand near their luggage at the Beirut-Rafic Al Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon August 4, 2024. (REUTERS)
The Health Ministry also said an Israeli strike on Saturday at a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City killed at least 16 people. Israel’s military said it struck a Hamas command center.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 people hostage.
Israel’s massive offensive in response has killed at least 39,580 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Heavy airstrikes and ground operations have caused widespread destruction and displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
The militant group Hezbollah and Israel have continued to trade fire along the Lebanon border since the war began, with the severity growing in recent months. The Lebanese state-run National News Agency said an Israeli strike targeted a house in Beit Lef, and the Lebanese Health Ministry said two people were critically wounded.
Hezbollah says it’s aimed at relieving pressure on fellow Iran-backed ally Hamas. A growing number of countries, including the US, are encouraging citizens to leave Lebanon after last week’s killing of a senior commander.
Qatar, US sign agreement to boost security cooperation
Officials also discussed the existing relations between their two countries
Updated 04 August 2024
Arab News
DOHA: Qatar and the US signed an agreement on Sunday in Doha to boost security cooperation between the two countries, Qatar News Agency reported.
The agreement was signed by Abdullah bin Khalaf bin Hattab Al-Kaabi, undersecretary of Qatar’s ministry of interior, and US Ambassador to Qatar Timmy Davis.
During the meeting, the two officials also discussed the existing relations between their two countries regarding security as well as ways to bolster them.
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia joined the US, UK, France, Canada and Jordan in calling on their citizens to leave Lebanon amid growing fears of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Turkiye’s Islamic defense consultancy founder dead aged 79
SADAT came under international scrutiny over its stealth role in promoting Turkiye’s interests abroad
Updated 6 sec ago
AFP
ANKARA: The founder of Turkiye’s defense consultancy SADAT, widely viewed as Ankara’s secret weapon in wars across North Africa and the Middle East, died on Sunday according to Turkish media.
Besides founding the private military outfit in 2012, 79-year-old Adnan Tanriverdi also served as a senior adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan between 2016 and 2020.
A brigadier general whose service ended during a purge of Islamic influence from the traditionally secular military in 1996, Tanriverdi founded SADAT International Defense Consultancy in 2012.
SADAT came under international scrutiny over its stealth role in promoting Turkiye’s interests abroad, although Tanriverdi’s son and the company’s current chief Melih Tanriverdi told AFP in 2021 that it had “nothing to do with being a mercenary organization.”
On its website, the company’s manifesto says it aims “to establish a Defense Collaboration and Defense Industry Cooperation among Islamic Countries to help (the) Islamic World take the place where it merits among Superpowers.”
Its span of proposed operations stretches from North Africa to the Middle East and parts of central and southeast Asia.
An AFP investigation in May revealed that SADAT was responsible for recruiting pro-Turkish mercenaries from Syria and sending them to Niger to protect Turkish interests and projects, particularly mines.
And in 2020, the United States said that SADAT had sent teams to Libya to train Syrian fighters supporting the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.
The Syria Justice and Accountability Center also said that SADAT was “responsible for the international air transport of mercenaries” to Libya and Azerbaijan, then at war with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
When questioned in May, the Turkish defense ministry told AFP that “all these allegations are false and have no truth.”
