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France, Britain grant Palestinian Authority cash lifeline

France, Britain grant Palestinian Authority cash lifeline
The World Bank forecasts the Palestinian economy will contract anywhere between 6.5 percent and 9.4 percent during 2024. (Shutterstock/File)
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Updated 10 October 2024
AFP
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France, Britain grant Palestinian Authority cash lifeline

France, Britain grant Palestinian Authority cash lifeline
  • The Palestinian Authority (PA) faces “persistent challenges“
  • The aid will be channeled to the Palestinian Authority via an emergency fund created in 2021 by the World Bank
Updated 10 October 2024
AFP
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RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: France and Britain granted 19.7 million dollars (18 million euros) in emergency aid to the Palestinian Authority on Thursday to help fund health and education services in the occupied West Bank, officials said.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) faces “persistent challenges” due to the war in Gaza, violence in the West Bank, and the Israeli government’s withholding of customs revenue, Palestinian Planning and International Cooperation Minister Wael Zaqout said.
“This financing is part of the emergency fund framework to guarantee the continuity of vital services in education and health,” he told a press conference in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
The aid will be channeled to the Palestinian Authority via an emergency fund created in 2021 by the World Bank to keep the Palestinian economy afloat.
The PA has faced a serious budget crisis in recent years that has made it unable to pay salaries in full to public sector employees.
The problems worsened after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 last year, which led Israel to invade the territory.
In recent months, several senior Palestinian officials including the minister of the economy have warned about the risk of the West Bank economy collapsing.
“France remains committed to help build a viable Palestinian state, able to exercise its sovereignty over all its territories, including Gaza,” France’s consul-general in Jerusalem, Nicolas Kassianides, said in a statement.
The funds would “address the most essential and urgent needs of the Palestinian people,” he added.
British Consul-General Diane Corner said that her country’s contribution aimed to “support the salaries of 8,200 doctors, nurses and other employees in the health sector.”
The financial help “comes at a critical time and advances mutual priorities,” said Stefan Emblad, World Bank director in the Palestinian territories.
He added that the aid came on top of a recent $30 million grant from the World Bank, also to the emergency fund.

Topics: Palestinian Authority France Britain

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S.Sudan floods affect 893,000, over 241,000 displaced: UN

S.Sudan floods affect 893,000, over 241,000 displaced: UN
Updated 10 October 2024
AFP
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S.Sudan floods affect 893,000, over 241,000 displaced: UN

S.Sudan floods affect 893,000, over 241,000 displaced: UN
Updated 10 October 2024
AFP

NAIROBI: Some 893,000 people have been affected by flooding in South Sudan and more than 241,000 displaced, the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA said Thursday in a grim update on the disaster.

Aid agencies have warned that the world’s youngest country, highly vulnerable to climate change, is facing its worst flooding in decades.

“Flooding continues to affect and displace people across the country,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.

“Heavy rainfall and floods have rendered 15 main supply routes impassable, restricting physical access.”

OCHA said about 893,000 people were flood-affected in 42 of South Sudan’s 78 counties as well as the Abyei Administrative Area, a disputed zone claimed by both Juba and Khartoum.

It said Unity and Warrap states in the north of the country accounted for more than 40 percent of the affected population.

More than 241,000 people were displaced in 16 counties and the Abyei area “seeking shelter on higher ground,” OCHA added.

Since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, the world’s youngest nation has remained plagued by chronic instability, violence and economic stagnation as well as climate disasters such as drought and floods.

The World Bank said in an October 1 update that the latest floods were “worsening an already critical humanitarian situation marked by severe food insecurity, economic decline, continued conflict, disease outbreaks, and the repercussions of the Sudan conflict.”

It said an estimated nine million people, including refugees, will experience “critical needs” in 2024.

The conflict in Sudan has seen more than 797,000 refugees pour into South Sudan as of September, the World Bank said, almost 80 percent of them South Sudanese returnees.

The country also faces another period of political paralysis after the presidency announced yet another extension to a transitional period agreed in a 2018 peace deal, delaying elections due to take place in December by another two years.

Key provisions of the transitional agreement remain unfulfilled — including the creation of a constitution and the unification of the rival forces of President Salva Kiir and his foe Reik Machar.

The delays have left South Sudan’s partners and the United Nations increasingly exasperated.

UN mission chief Nicholas Haysom said on Wednesday there was deep frustration and fatigue among the South Sudanese people.

The international community needed “tangible evidence that this country’s leaders are genuinely committed to a democratic future.”

South Sudan boasts plentiful oil resources, but the vital source of revenue was decimated in February when an export pipeline was damaged in war-torn Sudan.

Topics: South Sudan floods

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Civilians flee Gaza’s Jabalia in tightening Israeli siege

Civilians flee Gaza’s Jabalia in tightening Israeli siege
Updated 10 October 2024
AFP
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Civilians flee Gaza’s Jabalia in tightening Israeli siege

Civilians flee Gaza’s Jabalia in tightening Israeli siege
Updated 10 October 2024
AFP

GAZA CITY: Civilians fled heavy bombings in northern Gaza on Thursday as Israeli troops advanced on Jabalia refugee camp, leaving many trapped in the line of fire.

“The bombardment has not stopped. Every minute there are shells, rockets and fire on the buildings and everything that moves,” Areej Nasr, 35, told AFP after fleeing from Jabalia camp to Gaza City Thursday.

She said those wounded in strikes could not be rescued.

“No ambulance has arrived, and no one is assisting the wounded. There are dozens lying on the ground,” Nasr said.

The Israeli army, which said it had surrounded Jabalia over the weekend, issued new evacuation orders on Tuesday, telling residents to leave the camp and the entire Jabalia district around it.

Despite a year of strikes and fierce fighting, analysts say Hamas is regrouping.

Gaza’s civil defense agency said they currently cannot currently reach the wounded and dead in Jabalia, saying access is too complicated and dangerous at the moment.

“Many reports reach our teams, but unfortunately, we cannot access them, either because the area is a red zone or because the Israeli occupation is targeting that area,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP Thursday.

An AFP photographer in Jabalia Wednesday saw towering piles of rubble where buildings once stood, now littered with fragments of the belongings of former residents.

Several people took turns carrying a woman out of the camp by foot, her injured leg in a makeshift splint made of a broken piece of board salvaged from furniture.

The Israeli army on Thursday said it had “eliminated” more than 50 Palestinian combatants, “including those who fired anti-tank missiles toward the troops,” and “located large quantities of weapons, including AK-47, an RPG, and ammunition.”

Bassal said that at least 140 people have died in Jabalia alone so far during Israel’s latest operation in the camp.

Gaza City also suffered heavy artillery strikes, including on the Rimal neighborhood on Thursday, defense reported.

Bassal said the Rimal Clinic, which houses displaced Palestinians, was struck in a strike, killing at least two and injuring many.

Amjad Aliwa, an emergency physician at nearby Al-Shifa Hospital, once the largest medical complex in Gaza, said that a wave of injured people arrived after the bombing.

“The majority of the injured are children and women, with severe and serious wounds, including burns,” he told AFP, adding that “the number of injured is large, and our resources are limited.”

He said that teams “do not have the most basic medical supplies and necessities,” a reminder of the shortages that have hit the north of Gaza particularly hard since the start of the war.

Humanitarian organizations have complained that the drastic conditions brought about by current military operations have limited their work.

Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said Thursday that “people have nowhere left to go, and the humanitarian space in Gaza continues shrinking.”

She said that between October 8 and 10, “118 attacks have impacted the area, in contrast to a total of 140 incidents recorded there in the entire month of September.”

She added that Jabalia refugee camp bore the brunt of these attacks, with 80.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s attack on October 7 last year, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures, which include hostages killed and who died in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed 42,065 people in Gaza, most them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations has described as reliable.

Topics: War on Gaza

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Erdogan says Gaza ‘shame of humanity,’ calls for permanent ceasfire

Erdogan says Gaza ‘shame of humanity,’ calls for permanent ceasfire
Updated 10 October 2024
AFP
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Erdogan says Gaza ‘shame of humanity,’ calls for permanent ceasfire

Erdogan says Gaza ‘shame of humanity,’ calls for permanent ceasfire
  • Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated his claim that Israel’s actions in Gaza constituted ‘genocide’ and called it the ‘shame of humanity’
  • Erdogan branded Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the ‘butcher of Gaza’ and compared him to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler
Updated 10 October 2024
AFP

TIRANA: Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his attacks on Israel as he arrived in Tirana Thursday, the first stop of a Balkans tour that will also take him to Serbia.
Repeating his claim that Israel’s actions in Gaza constituted “genocide,” he branded it the “shame of humanity,” at a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
“The international community, we must do our best to urgently guarantee a permanent ceasefire and exert the necessary pressure on Israel,” he added.
“The genocide that has been going on in Gaza for the past year is the common shame of all humanity,” he added.
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
According to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, 42,065 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, mostly civilians. The UN has said the figures are reliable.
Erdogan has branded Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the “butcher of Gaza” and compared him to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler.
“The aggression led by the Netanyahu government now threatens the world order beyond the region,” Erdogan said.
Later Thursday Erdogan, accompanied by Prime Minister Edi Rama, inaugurated the Great Mosque of Tirana.
The largest Muslim place of worship in the Balkans, it has a capacity of up to 10,000 people. The project, funded by Turkiye, cost 30 million euros.
Turkiye is also a major employer in Albania. As Erdogan said in February, over 600 Turkish companies operate in the country, providing jobs to more than 15,000 workers.
It is also one of the five biggest foreign investors in Albania, he said, with $3.5 billion (3.2 billion euros) committed.
The two NATO member countries also have close military ties, with Turkiye supplying Tirana with its Bayraktar TB2 drones.
For the second stage of his tour Erdogan traveled from Albania to Serbia, where he was greeted at Belgrade airport by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Turkiye made a diplomatic comeback here in 2017 when Erdogan made a landmark visit to Belgrade.
The five century Ottoman presence in Serbia has traditionally weighed heavily on Belgrade-Ankara relations.
Another source of tension has been Turkiye’s historic ties with Serbia’s former breakaway province of Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a move Belgrade still refuses to recognize.
Erdogan’s 2017 visit repaired the relationship with Serbia, Belgrade analyst Vuk Vuksanovic told AFP.
But Belgrade was furious last year when Turkiye sold drones to Kosovo, something Serbia said was “unacceptable.”
The row could however still be patched up, Vuksanovic insisted.
“I would not be surprised if we see a military deal at the end of this visit,” he said.
He expected talks in Belgrade on Friday to focus on “military cooperation, the position of Turkish companies — and attempts by Belgrade to persuade Ankara to tone down support for Kosovo.”
While the rapprochement is relatively new, economic ties between the two countries are already significant.
Turkish investment in Serbia has rocketed from $1 million to $400 million over the past decade, the Turkiye-Serbia business council told Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency.
Turkish exports to Serbia hit $2.13 billion in 2022, up from $1.14 billion in 2020, according to official Serbian figures.
Turkish tourists are also important for Serbia, second only to visitor numbers from Bosnia.

Topics: War on Gaza Recep Tayyip Erdogan Edi Rama Benjamin Netanyahu

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Japan provides 950 million yen aid to affected regions in Syria

Japan provides 950 million yen aid to affected regions in Syria
Updated 10 October 2024
Arab News Japan
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Japan provides 950 million yen aid to affected regions in Syria

Japan provides 950 million yen aid to affected regions in Syria
  • The economic situation was further worsened by the February 2023 earthquakes
  • The UN estimates that 16.7 million people in Syria need humanitarian assistance in 2024
Updated 10 October 2024
Arab News Japan

TOKYO: The government of Japan has committed approximately 915 million yen in partnership grant aid to support activities of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in Syria.
The assistance aims to support humanitarian early recovery in regions affected by the crisis and the February 2023 earthquakes.
The Syria crisis entered its fourteenth year, and the situation continues to deteriorate, leading to further displacement and increasing hardships for the people.
The economic situation was further worsened by the February 2023 earthquakes, resulting in a significant loss of livelihoods and heightened vulnerabilities across the country.
The UN estimates that 16.7 million people in Syria need humanitarian assistance in 2024, the highest number since the onset of the crisis.
While continuing to deliver life-saving support, UNHCR has also expanded its humanitarian early recovery activities to improve socioeconomic conditions and resilience of affected people.
With the support from the government of Japan, UNHCR will enhance capacity-building and self-reliance of internally displaced people, returnees, and host communities in Aleppo, Homs, and Hama governorates affected by the crisis and earthquakes.
The initiatives encompass the rehabilitation of vocational training facilities to produce skilled workers, the small business start-up support to empower vulnerable people toward economic self-sufficiency, and the rehabilitation of civil registries and cadastral offices to facilitate access to critical legal services, enabling people to exercise their basic rights.
These initiatives represent a significant step toward improving the socioeconomic situation of the people in Syria.
UNHCR will continue to work closely with the government of Japan and the international community to further strengthen humanitarian early recovery in Syria.

Topics: Japan UNHCR earthquakes Syria

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Boat carrying Turkish evacuees from Lebanon lands in Turkiye

Boat carrying Turkish evacuees from Lebanon lands in Turkiye
Updated 10 October 2024
AFP
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Boat carrying Turkish evacuees from Lebanon lands in Turkiye

Boat carrying Turkish evacuees from Lebanon lands in Turkiye
  • The TCG Bayraktar, which set sail from Beirut around 8:00 am (0500 GMT), pulled into the port of Mersin around 9:00 p.m.
  • Turkish officials said around 2,000 people had signed up to leave Lebanon on navy ships in the first such evacuation by sea
Updated 10 October 2024
AFP

MERSIN, Turkiye: The first of two naval ships evacuating Turkish citizens and their families from war-torn Lebanon landed at a port in southern Turkiye late on Thursday, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.
The TCG Bayraktar, which set sail from Beirut around 8:00 am (0500 GMT), pulled into the port of Mersin around 9:00 p.m. carrying the first batch of 966 people.
As it pulled into the port, a large group of journalists were waiting on the quayside.
A second boat carrying a similar number of passengers was set to dock around midnight, officials said.
Turkish officials said around 2,000 people had signed up to leave Lebanon on navy ships in the first such evacuation by sea.
Turkiye, which is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon, announced the move on Tuesday because of the deteriorating security situation in the country.
Speaking to AFP in Beirut ahead of the boats’ departure on Wednesday, Turkish ambassador in Lebanon Ali Baris Ulusoy told AFP the evacuation was a first and came after “a growing number of requests from our Turkish nationals living in Lebanon to be evacuated.”
He said they were allowing close relatives “who are not necessarily Turkish nationals, like spouses, children or parents” to travel too.
Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire on the country’s southern border since the start of the Gaza war a year ago.
But Israel has intensified its strikes against Hezbollah since September 23, killing more than 1,200 people in Lebanon and displacing more than a million from their homes.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Turkiye TCG Bayraktar Mersin

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