Iraq recovers remains of 139 likely Daesh victims from mass grave
The Alo Antar hole — a natural desert feature turned into a mass grave by Daesh extremists — is located in Tal Afar
Updated 14 July 2024
AFP
MOSUL: Iraqi authorities have removed the remains of 139 people from a large pit believed to contain victims of Daesh, an official said on Sunday.
The Alo Antar hole — a natural desert feature turned into a mass grave by Daesh extremists — is located in Tal Afar, some 70 kilometers (40 miles) west of Mosul in northern Iraq.
It is not known how many bodies were dumped in the pit, but search efforts for other victims are ongoing.
“We have removed the remains of 139 persons and also human body parts,” said Dia Karim, director of the mass graves department at the Foundation of Martyrs — a government institution tasked with finding mass graves and identifying remains.
“They include women and men,” Karim said, adding that “according to testimonies, the victims date back to Daesh rule” or before when Al-Qaeda was present in the area.
Testimonies also suggest, according to Karim, that “the victims are Yazidis, Shiite Turkmen and security forces personnel from Mosul,” the de facto capital of Daesh’s self-declared “caliphate.”
At its peak, the group ruled over swathes of Syria and Iraq, while its fighters committed beheadings, torture and enslavement, turning life into a living hell and leaving behind many mass graves.
In northern Iraq, they committed some of their worst atrocities against the Yazidis — an ethnic and religious minority — including mass executions and sexual slavery.
Ahmed Assadi from the Foundation of Martyrs said the victims “were not buried but dumped in the hole,” whose full depth ranges between 42 and 12 meters.
“Some of the victims had been shot and others were found with their throats cut,” and several bodies were found in body bags.
Assadi added that some of the clothing found on them indicated that they might have been Yazidis or Turkmen, adding that other bodies were found in orange jumpsuits of the kind typically worn by Daesh hostages.
The bodies recovered from Alo Antar were taken to forensic departments to be identified using DNA testing.
The mass grave was discovered after Iraqi forces retook control of the area in 2017, but the work to recover the bodies only started in May of this year.
Iraqi authorities frequently announce the discovery of mass graves of Daesh victims, as well as those containing Daesh extremists themselves and others dating to the rule of dictator Saddam Hussein, but the identification process is slow, costly and complicated.
The United Nations estimates the extremists left behind more than 200 mass graves which might contain as many as 12,000 bodies.
A similar but much larger sinkhole known as Al-Khasfa in northern Iraq is also thought to contain the bodies of many Daesh victims.
In northern Syria, a 50-meter-deep gorge has been used as a dumping site for dead bodies during and after Daesh rule, according to a 2020 Human Rights Watch report.
Can Lebanon afford to ignore the threat of a destructive earthquake?
Recent tremors highlight the nation’s vulnerability to seismic activity, raising urgent questions about its preparedness
With aging infrastructure and limited resources, Lebanon faces significant risks in the event of a powerful earthquake
Updated 22 min 20 sec ago
Najia Houssari & Nadia Al-Faour
BEIRUT/DUBAI: Just when it seemed the phrase “a perfect storm of crises” had become the ultimate cliche in describing the many daunting challenges confronting Lebanon, yet another threat appeared on the horizon — the likelihood of a deadly earthquake.
On Aug. 16, the National Center for Geophysical Research in Lebanon recorded an earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale, originating from Hama in neighboring Syria, where its magnitude reached 5.2.
The tremor came less than 72 hours after another earthquake on Aug. 12, again originating in Hama, with a magnitude of 4.8. Although several people in Syria were injured in both quakes, there were no fatalities.
General view of Lebanon's second city of Tripoli, on the Mediterranean coast. (AFP/File photo)
Residents of Lebanon’s northern cities of Tripoli and Akkar felt the tremors particularly strongly, with many rushing into the streets, fearing the buildings around them may collapse, such was the strength of the quakes.
“The two earthquakes occurred within a well-known geological context in our region, specifically in western Syria, where the fault of the Dead Sea known as the Masyaf fault passes, and then you have the Al-Ghab fault,” Tony Nemer, professor of geology at the American University of Beirut, told Arab News.
“The first tremor occurred to the east of the Masyaf fault, about 25 km from the city of Hama, where there are ruptures branching off from the main faults. It was followed by aftershocks and three days later by another tremor.”
Tony Nemer, professor of geology at the American University of Beirut. (Supplied)
Nemer said that significant aftershocks could be expected. “When the area is seismically active, small tremors are generated, and it is possible that they may also generate a large tremor,” he said.
“It is not easy to determine whether this will constitute future danger as the matter requires a comprehensive and time-consuming on-the-ground evaluation and study.
“In light of the second earthquake, it has become necessary for Syrian colleagues to be present in the field to study surface phenomena and install temporary seismic monitoring devices to shed light on the causes of the current seismic movement.”
The tremors brought back memories of the massive twin earthquakes that struck southeast Turkiye and northwest Syria on Feb. 6, 2023, with magnitudes of 7.8 and 7.5 felt throughout the region.
Residents search for victims and survivors amid the rubble of collapsed buildings following an earthquake in the village of Besnia near the town of Harim, in Syria's northwestern Idlib province on the border with Turkey, on February 6, 2023. (AFP/File)
The twin earthquakes were among the deadliest of the past decade, killing more than 55,000 people and flattening tens of thousands of buildings across both countries. Although Turkiye was harder hit, a decade of civil war left Syria uniquely vulnerable to the disaster.
Lebanon is also in a poor condition to withstand such a disaster — five years into a severe economic crisis, paralyzed politically, and now a proxy battlefield between the Israeli military and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, which threatens to drag the country into a regional war.
If a larger earthquake were to strike the region, or the epicenter to fall closer to Lebanon, the country, with its ramshackle infrastructure and gutted emergency services, may be ill-equipped to withstand the tremors or launch effective search and rescue operations.
How likely is such a disaster? Lebanon is located at the meeting point of three tectonic plates — the Arab plate, the Turkish plate and the African plate — which makes the region especially prone to seismic activity.
According to the government’s own disaster and crisis response plan, Lebanon is located on a geological fault line that passes through the middle of Lebanon and extends for 1,000 km from the Red Sea in the south to the Anatolian mountains in southern Turkiye.
This is called the Dead Sea Transform fault, which is responsible for the largest seismic events in the Middle East.
The fault system branches off when it enters Lebanese territory, forming several faults known as the Yamoune fault, the Rum fault, the Hasbaya fault, the Rashaya fault and the Sarghaya fault.
Although it does not constitute a meeting point of tectonic plates, the Yamoune fault is considered one of the most dangerous for Lebanon, as it runs up the middle of the country from the south to the north.
“In studying seismic events in Lebanon and the Middle East, it becomes clear that this part of the world has been exposed since 2000 B.C. to strong earthquakes that caused a lot of devastation, destruction and loss of life,” said Nemer.
The last major seismic event in Lebanon took place in 1956 in the town of Chehim in the Kharoub region between Mount Lebanon and the south. An earthquake of magnitude 5.8 caused significant destruction and loss of life.
FASTFACTS
• Lebanon lies on active fault lines, including the Dead Sea Transform, making it highly earthquake prone.
• Aged, substandard buildings are highly vulnerable due to weak construction regulations and materials.
• The nation’s disaster management focuses on post-quake responses, neglecting crucial preventive measures.
In 1997, the same town witnessed a moderate earthquake on the Rum fault. The Srifa area in southern Lebanon also witnessed a series of mild earthquakes in 2008, causing some damage.
There are also marine faults in Lebanese waters, which extend along the beaches between Damour and Batroun, at a distance ranging from 10 to 30 km off the coastline, which could pose a significant tsunami threat.
If waves were to come from Cyprus, it could take around 10 minutes for them to reach Lebanese shores. But if the waves were to form in Lebanese waters, they could reach the coast within three minutes, leaving precious little time to raise the alarm and evacuate.
Even if the population is able to evacuate in time, Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast is home to several major cities and significant infrastructure, including the nation’s main international airport, power plants, ports and tourist facilities
A general view photographed on October 21, 2010 shows an excavation site in southern Lebanon's port of Tyre. The ancient city was among those devastated by a masssive tsunami in 365 A.D. that was triggered by an earthquake that centered on the Mediterranean island of Crete. (AFp/File photo)
The historical archive contains several terrifying accounts of earthquakes and tsunamis that have battered the region.
The most prominent was a tsunami in 365 A.D., when the site of present-day Beirut witnessed waves more than 10 meters in height, after an earthquake likely exceeding a magnitude of 8 struck the Greek island of Crete.
Another famous disaster befell the region in 551 A.D. when an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale resulted in a tsunami that devastated present-day Beirut, Tire and Tripoli in what was then Phoenicia.
In 1202, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Syria, with aftershocks traveling up Lebanon’s Yamoune fault. Lebanon witnessed 50 earthquakes in 60 days, causing major subsidence along the coastline, sinking many small islands and destroying Tripoli and Baalbek.
In 1956, Lebanon was hit by a catastrophic 5.6 earthquake, which mainly affected the regions of Chouf, Jezzine, Saida and parts of Beqaa.
While Turkish authorities have been preparing over many years for the possibility of a major earthquake striking Istanbul, studying ways to fortify its buildings, officials in Lebanon, by contrast, appear resigned to their fate.
Indeed, the national response plan for natural disasters primarily focuses on what can be done after an earthquake has taken place — not on what can be done to limit the damage.
The infrastructure of Lebanese cities has not been retrofitted to guard against tremors. Some 20 percent of the nation’s buildings are more than 50 years old, while hundreds of thousands of residents, including Syrian and Palestinian refugees, live in informal and substandard structures.
Officials in Lebanon, according to the UN Program for Disaster Risk Reduction, have not taken the risk of earthquakes seriously, and buildings that contain vital institutions such as ministries, health centers and army barracks have not been sufficiently retrofitted.
A general view of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. A recent report of the he Lebanese Real Estate Authority has warned that at least 16,000 buildings in Lebanon are vulnerable to collapse. (AFP/File)
In the wake of August’s earthquakes, the Lebanese Real Estate Authority has warned that at least 16,000 buildings are vulnerable to collapse, “without counting the buildings that were damaged as a result of the Beirut port explosion” of 2020.
“The economic hardship, the port explosion, the migration of capital, the absence of official support and the absence of control over the quality of building materials played a negative role in the increase in the number of cracked buildings that are on the verge of collapse or total or partial collapse,” Imad Al-Hussami, head of the authority’s engineering committee, told Arab News.
In the absence of official preparations, the Lebanese Real Estate Authority has urged citizens to “monitor the condition of cracks and fissures in their buildings, avoid being under worn out and protruding roofs, open windows to relieve pressure, and seek the assistance of experienced engineers and experts to protect themselves.”
Key mediator Egypt expresses skepticism about the Gaza ceasefire proposal as more details emerge
Diplomatic efforts have redoubled as fears grow of a wider regional war after the recent targeted killings of leaders of the militant Hamas and Hezbollah groups, both blamed on Israel, and threats of retaliation
Updated 22 August 2024
AP
CAIRO: Key mediator Egypt expressed skepticism Wednesday about the proposal meant to bridge gaps in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas as more details emerged a day before negotiations were expected to resume in Cairo.
The challenges around the so-called bridging proposal appeared to undermine the optimism for an imminent agreement that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken carried into his latest Mideast visit this week.
Diplomatic efforts have redoubled as fears grow of a wider regional war after the recent targeted killings of leaders of the militant Hamas and Hezbollah groups, both blamed on Israel, and threats of retaliation.
President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, the White House said, without immediately giving details on what was said.
Officials in Egypt, in its unique role as both a mediator and affected party since it borders Gaza, told The Associated Press that Hamas won’t agree to the bridging proposal for a number of reasons — ones in addition to the long-held wariness over whether a deal would truly remove Israeli forces from Gaza and end the war.
One Egyptian official with direct knowledge of the negotiations said the bridging proposal requires the implementation of the deal’s first phase, which has Hamas releasing the most vulnerable civilian hostages captured in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war. Parties during the first phase would negotiate the second and third phases with no “guarantees” to Hamas from Israel or mediators.
“The Americans are offering promises, not guarantees,” the official said. “Hamas won’t accept this, because it virtually means Hamas will release the civilian hostages in return for a six-week pause of fighting with no guarantees for a negotiated permanent ceasefire.”
He also said the proposal doesn’t clearly say Israel will withdraw its forces from two strategic corridors in Gaza, the Philadelphi corridor alongside Gaza’s border with Egypt and the Netzarim east-west corridor across the territory. Israel offers to downsize its forces in the Philadelphi corridor, with “promises” to withdraw from the area, he said.
“This is not acceptable for us and of course for Hamas,” the Egyptian official said.
A second Egyptian official, briefed on the latest developments in negotiations, said there were few chances for a breakthrough since Israel refuses to commit to a complete withdrawal from Gaza in the deal’s second phase. The official said Israel also insists on keeping its forces in the Philadelphi corridor and having full control of the Netzarim corridor.
He also said Egypt told the United States and Israel that it won’t reopen the Rafah crossing into Gaza, a crucial entry point for humanitarian aid, without the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian side and from the Philadelphi corridor — where Israel wants to prevent Hamas from replenishing its arsenal through smuggling tunnels. Israel’s defense minister says over 150 such tunnels have been destroyed.
Both Egyptian officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations. Mediators are scheduled to meet on Thursday and Friday in Cairo for more talks on the proposal before submitting it officially to Hamas.
Hamas political official Bassem Naim said Tuesday that the bridging proposal adopted several new demands from Netanyahu, including that Israeli forces remain in Rafah, Philadelphi and Netzarim and search displaced Palestinians returning to northern Gaza. Israel has said the searches are necessary to find militants.
Naim said the proposal also includes unspecified changes to the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel and doesn’t guarantee that a ceasefire would remain in place during negotiations on the transition from the deal’s first phase to the second.
In previous versions of the ceasefire plan, the second phase would entail a permanent ceasefire, full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of remaining male hostages, both civilians and soldiers.
Blinken after his visit to Egypt and fellow mediator Qatar said the bridging proposal is “very clear on the schedule and the locations of (Israeli military) withdrawals from Gaza,” but no details on either have emerged.
Blinken added that because Israel accepted the proposal, the focus turns to doing everything possible to “get Hamas on board.” Egypt’s state-run Al-Ahram daily reported that Blinken received a “clear Egyptian demand for the US to work toward a well-framed deal with clear deadlines and clear objectives to encourage Hamas to sign.”
But there is skepticism, along with fatigue, among many in Israel about Netanyahu’s commitment to securing an agreement.
“As long as the entire group of professional negotiators believes that Netanyahu is scuttling a deal, there won’t be any confidence,” commentator Nadav Eyal wrote in daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
The war in Gaza, now in its 10th month, has caused widespread destruction and forced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to flee their homes. Aid groups fear the outbreak of polio and other diseases.
The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants killed some 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians. Over 100 hostages were released during last year’s ceasefire. Hamas is still believed to be holding around 110 hostages. Israeli authorities estimate around a third are dead. Six bodies of hostages were recovered this week in Gaza.
“In what world do families have to beg and cry for the return of their family members alive and murdered?” Esther Buchshtab, the mother of one, 35-year-old Yagev Buchshtab, asked at his funeral Wednesday.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. On Wednesday, Israeli tank and drone strikes in Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah killed at least 17 people, according to hospital staff and AP journalists who counted the bodies.
Also on Wednesday, Netanyahu made his first visit to northern Israel since Israel’s killing of a top Hezbollah commander last month in Beirut, as focus returns to the increasing crossfire along Israel’s border with Lebanon.
“We are ready for every scenario, both defensive and offensive,” he said while meeting troops.
Anger, despair as Israelis bury hostages who died in captivity
The Israeli military on Tuesday announced it had retrieved the remains of Yagev, 34, and five other hostages from a tunnel in Gaza’s southern area of Khan Yunis after a battle with Palestinian militants
Updated 22 August 2024
AFP
NIRIM, Israel: Tearful crowds gathered on Wednesday for the funerals of hostages whose bodies were recovered this week from war-torn Gaza, with some mourners voicing anger that they were not saved.
“In what world must families beg, scream and cry for the return of their loved ones, alive or murdered? Bring them all back,” Esther Buchshtab said while standing in front of her son Yagev’s grave.
The Israeli military on Tuesday announced it had retrieved the remains of Yagev, 34, and five other hostages from a tunnel in Gaza’s southern area of Khan Yunis after a battle with Palestinian militants.
They were among 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack which triggered the war.
Of those, 105 are still being held hostage inside the Gaza Strip, including 34 the military says are dead.
Yagev’s widow, Rimon Kirscht, also spoke during Wednesday’s ceremony in Nirim, standing in front of his coffin draped in an Israeli flag.
“My life, I just want to say sorry. You deserved so much better,” she said.
“Thank you for teaching me. I am yours. I am here.”
The crowd quickly dispersed to attend the funeral of Avraham Munder, 79, another hostage whose body was recovered on Tuesday, in the nearby Nir Oz kibbutz.
Nir Oz was the site of one of the worst massacres on October 7 and more than 70 of its residents were taken captive.
Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett and at least two ministers from the current government attended the funeral in Nir Oz, where speeches were interspersed with songs in Hebrew to honor Munder — a music lover and amateur singer.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed 40,223 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.
Many who came to pay their respects to the dead Israeli hostages on Wednesday lamented the fact that months of negotiations have yet to yield a deal releasing the rest.
“We were promised efforts to reach an agreement,” said Nissan Kalderon, 56, whose brother Ofer Kalderon, a French-Israeli, is still held captive in Gaza.
“We really hope that the agreement will be concluded immediately, so that we can save those who are still alive and bring back the dead to bury them, because every day that passes, they die. This is the proof,” said Kalderon, wearing a T-shirt with his brother’s photograph.
Nir Oz resident Adriana Adar, whose nephew Tamir Adar’s body is still in Gaza, said she felt “despair” above anything else.
“I haven’t stopped crying for days,” she said.
“This week, we’ve been going from one funeral to another. This could have been avoided. All those who are buried now could have come back alive, and the fact that they are buried here, is not enough to comfort us.”
Israeli military intel chief asks for ‘forgiveness’ over Hamas attack failures
The military announced in April that Haliva had asked to be relieved of his duties, citing his “responsibility” for the failure to prevent the attack, which triggered the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip
Updated 22 August 2024
AFP
JERUSALEM: The outgoing head of Israeli military intelligence, Major General Aharon Haliva, asked Wednesday for “forgiveness” from Israelis for failing to protect them from Hamas’s October 7 attack.
According to a video released by the Israeli military, Haliva — the first high-ranking official to make a public appeal for forgiveness — said at a ceremony marking his departure that “we did not uphold the sanctity of our oaths.”
October 7, when Gaza militants stormed southern Israeli communities, army bases and a rave party, was a “bitter and dark day which I carry in my heart, on my conscience and on my shoulders every day and night since,” Haliva said.
“An apology won’t correct, heal or bring back the beloved ones who paid the heaviest of prices, but it must be said... On my behalf and on behalf of the entire intelligence wing, I ask for forgiveness.”
The military announced in April that Haliva had asked to be relieved of his duties, citing his “responsibility” for the failure to prevent the attack, which triggered the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has never formally apologized for the failure of his government or the country’s security forces to prevent the unprecedented attack, the deadliest in Israel’s since it was founded in 1948.
The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants also seized 251 hostages, of whom 105 remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed 40,223 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths. The UN rights office says most dead are women and children.
The Israeli military says 333 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza since its ground offensive began on October 27.
Israeli PM says troops will not leave Philadelphi corridor in Gaza
“Israel will insist on the achievement of all of its objectives for the war… including that Gaza never again constitutes a security threat to Israel”: Netahyahu’s office
Updated 21 August 2024
Reuters
JERUSALEM: Israel has not agreed to withdraw its troops from the so-called Philadelphi corridor along the border between Egypt and Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday, denying an Israeli television report.
“Israel will insist on the achievement of all of its objectives for the war, as they have been defined by the Security Cabinet, including that Gaza never again constitutes a security threat to Israel. This requires securing the southern border,” Netahyahu’s office said in a statement.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Netanyahu on Wednesday about ways to advance a potential Gaza ceasefire and hostages deal, the White House said.
The call followed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s whirlwind trip to the Middle East that ended on Tuesday without an agreement between Israel and Hamas militants on a truce in the Palestinian enclave.
Blinken and mediators from Egypt and Qatar have pinned their hopes on a US “bridging proposal” aimed at narrowing the gaps between the two sides in the 10-month-old Gaza war.
“President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to discuss the ceasefire and hostage release deal and diplomatic efforts to de-escalate regional tensions,” a White House statement said.
