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Activists prepare to defy Israeli naval blockade of Gaza

Activists prepare to defy Israeli naval blockade of Gaza
An activist washes the deck of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship ‘Handala’ as they prepare to sail for Gaza in an attempt to break a long-standing Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian aid in Marsa, Malta on Aug. 16, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 16 August 2024
Reuters
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Activists prepare to defy Israeli naval blockade of Gaza

Activists prepare to defy Israeli naval blockade of Gaza
  • It will be a trip fraught with danger
  • “We expect to encounter resistance throughout our mission,” said Australian activist Michael Coleman.
Updated 16 August 2024
Reuters
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VALLETTA: Peace activists from several countries are setting out on a converted trawler to defy an Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“The purpose of this mission is to send a message that civil society is not OK with what’s happening in Gaza,” said Fellipe Lopes, the Portuguese media coordinator of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition on board the ship Handala during a stopover in Malta.
It will be a trip fraught with danger. Another coalition ship on a similar mission to Gaza in 2010 was stopped and boarded by Israeli troops, and nine activists died. Other ships were similarly stopped and boarded, without loss of life.
“We expect to encounter resistance throughout our mission,” said Australian activist Michael Coleman.
“Ours is not an illegal activity in any shape or form. The International Court of Justice has asked them to grant unfettered access to aid into Gaza and I implore them to let us and other aids through immediately,” he said.
The Handala was visited in Malta by 78-year-old retired US Army Col. and diplomat Ann Wright, who was on board another coalition ship boarded by Israeli troops in 2010, in the incident in which nine activists died.
“These people are very brave, because we don’t know what’s going to happen. If the Israelis stop them, we know it’ll be brutal,” Wright said.
The brightly colored Handala carries activists from Italy, France, Norway, Australia, the Netherlands, Syria and a number of Palestinians. It has made several port calls around Scandinavia and the Mediterranean to raise awareness about the situation in Gaza.
Its hull carries slogans reading: “Free Palestine,” “Gaza you are not alone” and “Stop the Genocide,” while its humanitarian aid cargo consists mostly of medicines.
The trip along the Eastern Mediterranean to Gaza will take a week but organizers said they might stop over in another harbor on the way.

Topics: War on Gaza Freedom Flotilla Peace activists Israeli blockade

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Kurdish fighters in Syria face dual threats

Kurdish fighters in Syria face dual threats
Updated 20 December 2024
AFP
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Kurdish fighters in Syria face dual threats

Kurdish fighters in Syria face dual threats
  • Suppressed for decades, the Kurds took advantage of the weakness of Bashar Assad’s government during the civil war
  • But with the rise of the new authority following his ouster, they are left navigating a complex and uncertain future
Updated 20 December 2024
AFP

BEIRUT: Kurdish fighters in northern Syria are increasingly under pressure from Turkish-backed armed groups while also fearing the new authorities in Damascus will upend their hard-won autonomy.
Suppressed for decades, the Kurds took advantage of the weakness of Bashar Assad’s government during the civil war, but with the rise of the new authority following his ouster, they are left navigating a complex and uncertain future.
As Islamist-led militants pressed their lightning 12-day offensive that toppled Assad on December 8, Turkish-backed fighters began a parallel operation against Kurdish-led forces in the north.
They quickly seized Tal Rifaat and Manbij, two key Kurdish-held areas in a 30-kilometer (17-mile) stretch along the Turkish border where Ankara wants to establish a so-called “security zone.”
Following a wave of fighting, a US-brokered truce took hold on December 11, although Kurdish forces say it has not been respected by Turkish forces in the area nor their proxies.
Kurdish fighters make up the bulk of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which was formed in 2015 and is seen as the Kurds’ de facto army.
The SDF spearheaded the fight that defeated Daesh group militants in Syria in 2019 and is still seen by the US as a “crucial” to prevent a militant resurgence in the area.
They have warned about a possible Turkish assault on the Kurdish-held border town of Kobani, also known as Ain Al-Arab, which has become a symbol of the fight against IS.
On Tuesday, SDF leader Mazloum Abdi proposed setting up a “demilitarized zone” in Kobani under US supervision.
There are also US troops in Syria as part of an international coalition against the militants, whose numbers doubled earlier this year to around 2,000, the Pentagon said Thursday.
As well as relying on pro-Turkish fighters, Ankara has between 16,000 to 18,000 troops in northern Syria, Turkish officials say, indicating they are ready for deployment “east of the Euphrates” if Kurdish fighters don’t disarm.
But Turkiye’s top diplomat Hakan Fidan on Wednesday said there would be no need for Ankara to intervene if the new government was to “address this issue properly.”
Observers say Ankara wants to take advantage of the Syrian upheaval to push Kurdish forces away from the border zone, seeing them as “terrorists” over their ties with the PKK which has fought a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.
Since 2016, the Turkish military has launched several operations in northern Syria targeting the YPG (the People’s Protection Units), which makes up the bulk of the SDF.
Turkish troops have remained in a large stretch of land on the Syrian side of the border.
Syria’s Kurds have made several gestures of openness toward the new authorities in Damascus, fearing for the future of their autonomous region.
They have adopted three-starred independence flag used by the opposition that is now flying over Damascus, and said Wednesday they were canceling customs and other taxes on goods moving between their area and the rest of Syria.
HTS’ military chief Murhaf Abu Qasra, whose nom de guerre is Abu Hassan Al-Hamawi, said Tuesday Kurdish-held areas would be integrated under the new leadership because Syria “will not be divided.”
“The region currently controlled by the SDF will be integrated into the new administration of the country,” he said.

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria

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WFP says three staff killed in aerial bombardment in Sudan

WFP says three staff killed in aerial bombardment in Sudan
Updated 20 December 2024
AFP
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WFP says three staff killed in aerial bombardment in Sudan

WFP says three staff killed in aerial bombardment in Sudan
Updated 20 December 2024
AFP

ROME: The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday that three of its staff had been killed in an “aerial bombardment” in Sudan the previous day.
“WFP is outraged by the killing of three of its staff members in an aerial bombardment in Sudan on December 19, 2024,” the agency said in a statement on X.
“A WFP field office was hit during the attack. We are gathering more information and will provide updates as we learn more.”
A spokesman was unable to give more details when contacted by AFP.
War has raged since April 2023 between the Sudanese army under de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The WFP on Thursday warned that Sudan risks becoming the world’s largest hunger crisis in recent history, with 1.7 million people across the country either facing famine or at risk of famine.

Topics: Sudan Unrest

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Turkiye will support Syria’s reconstruction, improve cooperation

Turkiye will support Syria’s reconstruction, improve cooperation
Updated 20 December 2024
Reuters
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Turkiye will support Syria’s reconstruction, improve cooperation

Turkiye will support Syria’s reconstruction, improve cooperation
  • Turkish president says to intensify trade relations with Syria and Iraq ‘to bring new dynamism for both Syria and Turkiye in every respect’
Updated 20 December 2024
Reuters

ANKARA: Turkiye will do whatever necessary for the reconstruction of Syria following the ouster of Bashar Assad, including improving ties in trade, energy and defense, President Tayyip Erdogan said.
“We will intensify our trade relations with Syria and Iraq. This will bring new dynamism for both Syria and Turkiye in every respect,” Erdogan said, according to a transcript of remarks he made to journalists on his return flight from Egypt.
“We will collaborate in many areas, from defense to education and energy. Syria currently faces serious energy issues. But we will swiftly address all of these problems.”

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria Turkiye

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Palestinian officials accuse Israeli settlers of mosque arson in West Bank

Palestinian officials accuse Israeli settlers of mosque arson in West Bank
Updated 20 December 2024
AFP
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Palestinian officials accuse Israeli settlers of mosque arson in West Bank

Palestinian officials accuse Israeli settlers of mosque arson in West Bank
  • Attack targeted the Bir Al-Walidain mosque in the village of Marda
  • Settlers also vandalized the mosque’s walls with “racist graffiti” in Hebrew
Updated 20 December 2024
AFP

NABLUS: Palestinian officials reported on Friday that Israeli settlers had set fire to a mosque in the occupied West Bank, an act Israeli police said was under investigation.
According to Abdallah Kamil, the governor of Salfit, the attack targeted the Bir Al-Walidain mosque in the village of Marda.
“A group of settlers carried out an attack early this morning by setting fire to the mosque,” Kamil said in a statement.
In addition to the arson, the settlers vandalized the mosque’s walls with “racist graffiti” in Hebrew, he said.
Photographs shared on social media showed slogans spray-painted in black including “Death to Arabs.”
Villagers of Marda confirmed the details, with one resident telling AFP: “They set fire to the entrance of the mosque and wrote Hebrew slogans on its walls.”
Another resident said the fire was extinguished before it could engulf the entire structure.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw villagers gathering at the mosque to assess the extent of the damage.
Governor Kamil alleged that settlers had previously entered the village “under the protection of the Israeli army,” and that similar acts of vandalism and graffiti had been reported in nearby areas.
The Palestinian foreign ministry in Ramallah condemned the incident, calling it a “blatant act of racism” and a reflection of the ” widespread incitement campaigns against our people carried out by elements of the extremist right-wing ruling government” of Israel.
Israeli police and the domestic Shin Bet security agency described the incident as a matter of “great severity.”
They said they would “act decisively to ensure accountability for those responsible,” adding an investigation was underway, with authorities gathering testimony and evidence from the scene.
Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has intensified since the war in Gaza began on October 7 last year following Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Since the start of the war, at least 803 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
In the same period, Palestinian attacks have claimed the lives of at least 24 Israelis in the West Bank, based on Israeli official data.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Topics: West Bank

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US diplomats meet representatives of Syria's Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham in Damascus

US diplomats meet representatives of Syria's Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham in Damascus
Updated 2 min 15 sec ago
Reuters
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US diplomats meet representatives of Syria's Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham in Damascus

US diplomats meet representatives of Syria's Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham in Damascus
  • First group of American diplomats to formally visit Syria in more than a decade since the US shuttered its embassy in Damascus in 2012
Updated 2 min 15 sec ago
Reuters

WASHINGTON: US diplomats discussed the principles of transition in Syria and regional events in a meeting with representatives of Syria's Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) in Damascus on Friday, a US State Department spokesperson said.
While in Damascus, the diplomats are also working on issues related to the fate of missing US journalist Austin Tice, Majd Kamalmaz and other American citizens who disappeared under Bashar Al-Assad's regime, the spokesperson added.

Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, former special envoy for Syria Daniel Rubinstein and the Biden administration’s chief envoy for hostage negotiations, Roger Carstens, made the trip for talks with Syria’s interim leaders, the State Department said earlier on Friday.

The team is also the first group of American diplomats to formally visit Syria in more than a decade since the US shuttered its embassy in Damascus in 2012.

“They will be engaging directly with the Syrian people, including members of civil society, activists, members of different communities, and other Syrian voices about their vision for the future of their country and how the United States can help support them,” the State Department said.

At the top of their agenda will be information about Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012. And they will push the principles of inclusion, protection of minorities and a rejection of terrorism and chemical weapons that the Biden administration says will be critical for any US support for a new government.

The US has redoubled efforts to find Tice and return him home, saying officials have communicated with the rebels who ousted Assad’s government about the American journalist. Carstens traveled previously to Lebanon to seek information.

Tice, who has had his work published by The Washington Post, McClatchy newspapers and others, disappeared at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus as the Syrian civil war intensified.

A video released weeks after Tice went missing showed him blindfolded and held by armed men and saying, “Oh, Jesus.” He has not been heard from since. Assad’s government publicly denied that it was holding him.

The rebel group that spearheaded the assault on Damascus that forced Assad to flee — Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS — is designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and others. While that designation comes with a raft of sanctions, it does not prohibit US officials from speaking to its members or leaders.

The State Department said Rubinstein, Leaf and Carstens would meet with HTS officials but did not say if the group’s leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who was once aligned with Al-Qaeda, would be among those they see.

US officials say Al-Sharaa’s public statements about protecting minority and women’s rights are welcomed, but they remain skeptical that he will follow through on them in the long run.

The US has not had a formal diplomatic presence in Syria since 2012, when it suspended operations at its embassy in Damascus during the country’s civil war, although there are US troops in small parts of Syria engaged in the fight against the Islamic State militant group.

The Pentagon revealed Thursday that the US had doubled the number of its forces in Syria to fight IS before Assad’s fall. The US also has significantly stepped up airstrikes against IS targets over concern that a power vacuum would allow the militant group to reconstitute itself.

The diplomats’ visit to Damascus will not result in the immediate reopening of the US embassy, which is under the protection of the Czech government, according to US officials, who said decisions on diplomatic recognition will be made when the new Syrian authorities make their intentions clear.

Topics: Fall of Assad

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