US-Israeli settlers hope to see a second Trump term

Eli, above, part of a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the heart of the West Bank, could become Palestinian sovereign territory under a two-state solution favored by the international community. (AFP)

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Updated 1 min 18 sec ago

AFP

November 02, 2024 07:47

US-Israeli settlers hope to see a second Trump term

Recent polls show that a majority of Israelis dream of the days when the former president inhabited the White House
Donald Trump prioritized Israel during his previous term, moving the American embassy to Jerusalem among his other actions

Updated 1 min 18 sec ago

AFP

November 02, 2024 07:47

SHILOH, Palestinian Territories: Less than a week before the United States presidential election, Americans living in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank know exactly who they want to win: Donald Trump.
Recent polls show that a majority of Israelis, 66 percent according to one conducted by Israel’s Channel 12 News, dream of the days when the former president inhabited the White House.
Trump prioritized Israel during his previous term, moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights and helping to normalize ties between Israel and several Arab states under the so-called Abraham Accords.
Now, many Israelis believe Trump will offer yet more support as the country battles Iran-backed militant groups in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as Iran itself.
“I’m proud to tell you that I voted for President Trump,” Eliana Passentin, 50, who moved to Israel from San Francisco as a child, said.
For Passentin, a mother and grandmother, the stakes are higher than for the average Israeli.
For the past 29 years she has lived in Eli, part of a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the heart of the West Bank.
The area has been occupied by Israel since 1967, but it could become Palestinian sovereign territory under a two-state solution favored by the international community.
Passentin is employed by the local regional council.
She recalls how successive administrations in Washington pressured Israel to stop expanding settlements in an attempt to mediate peace between Israelis and Palestinians and reach a two-state solution.
“United States of America, our greatest ally, we thank you, but please understand we know how to run our country,” Passentin said.
In her backyard, with sweeping views of the entire area, Passentin points to nearby Israeli and Palestinian towns.
“I don’t think that Israelis living here are an obstacle to peace. On the contrary, I think that the Israelis living here are building the region for everyone,” she said.
She said the region was a hub for Jews in Biblical times, and claims that under international agreements Israelis have a right to live here.
International law says otherwise, however, and Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal by the international community.
Among Israelis who vote for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling right-wing coalition, 93 percent support Trump’s candidacy, according to the Channel 12 poll.
“Things have changed since October 7,” Passentin said, referring to Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on that day in 2023 which sparked the war in Gaza.
“Now it’s a whole different story — it’s not about Judea and Samaria, it’s about Israel,” she said, using the Biblical terms for the southern and northern West Bank.
“We have a right to defend ourselves... and I think President Trump respects and understands that.”
Gedaliah Blum, 45, a neighbor who was born in New Jersey, also said he voted for Trump based on the question of “what kind of future we want to have here in Israel.”
“Do we want a future that has an embargo threatened on Israel every time we defend ourselves?” he asked.
“Trump is not going to pressure Israel to sign a ceasefire that will let Hamas remain in power in Gaza. They’re not going to push Israel to sign a peace agreement with Lebanon that will allow Hezbollah to remain in power.”
With Kamala Harris in the Oval Office, Israel will be under constant “pressure,” Blum said.
“We’re going to get pressure, we’re going to get embargoes, we’re going to get Iranian money in their pockets. It’s not in the best interest of Israel.”
In the nearby settlement of Shiloh, where an estimated 20 percent of residents hold US citizenship, New York-born Yisrael Medad, 77, said he believed Trump would be good not only for America but also for “America’s friends abroad, including Israel.”
“I think the policies that a Republican candidate such as Trump are promoting are most beneficial for the administration, Congress and the American people,” he said.
On Israel, Medad said he believed that Trump would treat Israel more “fairly in terms of not denying its rights to defend itself... not only in a physical sense but also on the ideological front.”
Referring to a recent incident at a Democratic campaign rally in which Harris did not push back against a demonstrator who said Israel was committing a “genocide” in Gaza, Medad said: “That’s not the type of candidate I want in the White House.”

Topics: US Israel Donald Trump

Israel’s path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone

Updated 57 min 26 sec ago

November 02, 2024 06:26

Israel’s path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone

Israeli warplanes and ground forces have blasted a trail of destruction through southern Lebanon the past month
More than 1 million people have fled bombardment, emptying much of the south

Updated 57 min 26 sec ago

November 02, 2024 06:26

BEIRUT: Perched on a hilltop a short walk from the Israeli border, the tiny southern Lebanese village of Ramyah has almost been wiped off the map. In a neighboring village, satellite photos show a similar scene: a hill once covered with houses, now reduced to a gray smear of rubble.
Israeli warplanes and ground forces have blasted a trail of destruction through southern Lebanon the past month. The aim, Israel says, is to debilitate the Hezbollah militant group, push it away from the border and end more than a year of Hezbollah fire into northern Israel.
Even United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanese troops in the south have come under fire from Israeli forces, raising questions over whether they can remain in place.
More than 1 million people have fled bombardment, emptying much of the south. Some experts say Israel may be aiming to create a depopulated buffer zone, a strategy it has already deployed along its border with Gaza.
Some conditions for such a zone appear already in place, according to an Associated Press analysis of satellite imagery and data collected by mapping experts that show the breadth of destruction across 11 villages next to the border.
The Israeli military has said the bombardment is necessary to destroy Hezbollah tunnels and other infrastructure it says the group embedded within towns. The blasts have also destroyed homes, neighborhoods and sometimes entire villages, where families have lived for generations.
Israel says it aims to push Hezbollah far enough back that its citizens can return safely to homes in the north, but Israeli officials acknowledge they don’t have a concrete plan for ensuring Hezbollah stays away from the border long term. That is a key focus in attempts by the United States to broker a ceasefire.
Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Israel’s immediate aim is not to create a buffer zone — but that might change.
“Maybe we’ll have no other choice than staying there until we have an arrangement that promises us that Hezbollah will not come back to the zone,” she said.
A path of destruction
Troops pushed into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1, backed by heavy bombardment that has intensified since.
Using satellite images provided by Planet Labs PBC, AP identified a line of 11 villages — all within 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) of Lebanon’s border with Israel — that have been severely damaged in the past month, either by strikes or detonations of explosives laid by Israeli soldiers.
Analysis found the most intense damage in the south came in villages closest to the border, with between 100 and 500 buildings likely destroyed or damaged in each, according to Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Der Hoek of Oregon State University, experts in damage assessments.
In Ramyah, barely a single structure still stands on the village’s central hilltop, after a controlled detonation that Israeli soldiers showed themselves carrying out in videos posted on social media. In the next town over, Aita Al-Shaab — a village with strong Hezbollah influence — bombardment turned the hilltop with the highest concentration of buildings into a gray wasteland of rubble.
In other villages, the damage is more selective. In some, bombardment tore scars through blocks of houses; in others, certain homes were crushed while their neighbors remained intact.
Another controlled detonation leveled much of the village of Odeissah, with an explosion so strong it set off earthquake alerts in Israel.
In videos of the blast, Lubnan Baalbaki, conductor of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, watched in disbelief as his parents’ house — containing the art collection and a library his father had built up for years — was destroyed.
“This house was a project and a dream for both of my parents,” he told the AP. His parents’ graves in the garden are now lost.
When asked whether its intention was to create a buffer zone, Israel’s military said it was “conducting localized, limited, targeted raids based on precise intelligence” against Hezbollah targets. It said Hezbollah had “deliberately embedded” weapons in homes and villages.
Israeli journalist Danny Kushmaro even helped blow up a home that the military said was being used to store Hezbollah ammunition. In a television segment, Kushmaro and soldiers counted down before they pressed a button, setting off a massive explosion.
Videos posted online by Israel’s military and individual soldiers show Israeli troops planting flags on Lebanese soil. Still, Israel has not built any bases or managed to hold a permanent presence in southern Lebanon. Troops appear to move back and forth across the border, sometimes under heavy fire from Hezbollah.
October has been the deadliest month of 2024 for the Israeli military, with around 60 soldiers killed.
Attacks on UN peacekeeping troops and the Lebanese Army
The bombardment has been punctuated by Israeli attacks on UN troops and the Lebanese Army — forces which, under international law, are supposed to keep the peace in the area. Israel has long complained that their presence has not prevented Hezbollah from building up its infrastructure across the south.
Israel denies targeting either force.
The Lebanese military has said at least 11 of its soldiers were killed in eight Israeli strikes, either at their positions or while assisting evacuations.
The peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, said its forces and infrastructure have been harmed at least 30 times since late September, blaming Israeli military fire or actions for about 20 of them, “with seven being clearly deliberate.”
A rocket likely fired by Hezbollah or an allied group hit UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura on Tuesday, causing some minor injuries, said UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti.
UNIFIL has refused to leave southern Lebanon, despite calls by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for them to go.
Experts warn that could change if peacekeepers come under greater fire.
“If you went from the UN taking casualties to the UN actually taking fatalities,” some nations contributing troops may “say ‘enough is enough,’ and you might see the mission start to crumble,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.
The future of the territory is uncertain
International ceasefire efforts appear to be centered on implementing UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
It specified that Israeli forces would fully withdraw from Lebanon while the Lebanese army and UNIFIL — not Hezbollah — would be the exclusive armed presence in a zone about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the border.
But the resolution was not fully implemented. Hezbollah never left the border zone, and Lebanon accuses Israel of continuing to occupy small areas of its land and carrying out frequent military overflights above its territory.
During a recent visit to Beirut, US envoy Amos Hochstein said a new agreement was needed to enforce Resolution 1701.
Israel could be trying to pressure an agreement into existence through the destruction wreaked in southern Lebanon.
Yossi Yehoshua, military correspondent for the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, wrote that the military needs to “entrench further its operational achievements” to push Hezbollah, the Lebanese government and mediating countries “to accept an end (of the war) under conditions that are convenient for Israel.”
Some Lebanese fear that means an occupation of parts of the south, 25 years after Israel ended its occupation there.
Lebanese parliamentarian Mark Daou, a critic of both Hezbollah and of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, said he believed Israel was trying to degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities and turn the Lebanese public “against the will to resist Israeli incursions.”
Gowan, of the International Crisis Group, said one aim of Resolution 1701 was to give the Lebanese army enough credibility that it, not Hezbollah, would be seen “as the legitimate defender” in the south.
“That evaporates if they become (Israel’s) gendarmerie of southern Lebanon,” he said.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Lebanon Israel

Lebanon PM says expanded strikes suggest Israel rejects truce

Updated 02 November 2024

NAJIA HOUSSARI

November 02, 2024 08:42

Lebanon PM says expanded strikes suggest Israel rejects truce

Caretaker PM Najib Mikati on Friday accused Israel of blocking progress in negotiations
US envoys have been working to secure truces on both fronts ahead of US election next week

Updated 02 November 2024

NAJIA HOUSSARI

November 02, 2024 08:42

BEIRUT: Israel bombarded the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday as caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused it of “stubbornness” in negotiations.

Israeli attacks came amid stalled talks by two US envoys in Israel in an attempt to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Mikati reaffirmed Lebanon’s continued commitment to UN resolution 1701 and its provisions.

Mikati said he believed that Israel’s “renewed expansion of the scope of its aggression on Lebanese regions, its repeated threats to the population to evacuate entire cities and villages, and its renewed targeting of the southern suburbs of Beirut with destructive raids are all indicators that confirm Israel’s rejection of all efforts being made to secure a ceasefire in preparation for the full implementation of UN Resolution 1701.”

He said: “Israeli statements and diplomatic signals that Lebanon received confirm Israel’s stubbornness in rejecting the proposed solutions and insisting on the approach of killing and destruction.

“This places the entire international community before its historical and moral responsibilities to stop this aggression.”

Mikati denied the claims of two Reuters sources on Friday, which stated that the US “had asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire to inject momentum into stalled talks on a deal to end hostilities.”

His media office said that the Lebanese government’s stance was “clear on seeking a ceasefire from both sides and the implementation of Resolution 1701.”

Mikati’s warning came as the Israeli Air Force carried out 14 raids against neighborhoods in Beirut’s southern suburbs after two weeks of cautious calm in the area.

The raids affected Burj Al-Barajneh, Rweis, Haret Hreik, Hadath and the old airport road.

Twelve raids targeted Baalbek-Hermel, causing further casualties, including entire families.

In Amhazieh alone, 12 people died in a raid, most of whom were children, while a woman was killed and five were injured in a raid in Taraya, west of Baalbek.

Three people were killed in Hrabta, while another was killed in Kasarnaba.

Before the raids, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee sent evacuation warnings to residents at about 3.30 a.m., which was followed by heavy shooting by Hezbollah members to alert sleeping residents in the areas targeted.

People left their homes in pyjamas, carrying their children along the streets near the old airport road, one of the targeted areas

During a week-long period of relative calm, many residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs returned to their homes, which were not affected by previous raids.

The raids caused widespread destruction in these areas, which are considered by the Israeli army as Hezbollah’s security square, although the Lebanese consider the area residential.

In a statement on Friday, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed concern over “the impact of the Israeli operations on civilians and infrastructure in Lebanon.”

Israeli strikes on the ancient cities of Tyre and Baalbek, home to UNESCO-designated Roman ruins, were endangering Lebanon’s cultural heritage, said UN special coordinator Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.

“Ancient Phoenician cities steeped in history are in deep peril of being left in ruins,” Hennis-Plasschaert said in a social media post, adding that Lebanon’s cultural heritage “must not become yet another casualty in this devastating conflict.”

Her appeal came as Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said: “Since last September, Israel has wasted more than one opportunity to reach a ceasefire, implement Resolution 1701, restore calm, and return the displaced to both sides of the border.”

He underlined Lebanon’s “commitment to implementing Resolution 1701 as the only option to achieve regional security and stability.”

MP Michel Moussa, a parliamentary Development and Liberation Bloc member, said Berri “has been informed that ceasefire negotiations have reached an impasse.”

Moussa said Israel had shown no intention to negotiate, appearing to await US elections as a “significant turning point.”

During his meeting with US special envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel “is determined to confront the threats in the north. Any ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon must guarantee Israel’s security.”

He added: “There is pressure to prematurely achieve a settlement in Lebanon, and reality has proven otherwise.

“I did not set a date for the war’s end, but I set clear goals for victory,” Netanyahu said. “We respect Resolutions 1701 and 1559, but they are not the main thing.”

The Israeli airstrikes, which continued on Friday morning and during the day, targeted a residential apartment in the town of Qmatiyeh in Aley, killing three members of a family living there and wounding five.

They also targeted dozens of towns in the south and northern Bekaa after the city of Baalbek turned into a ghost town as a result of renewed Israeli warnings against the return of those who were displaced from it.

Israeli attacks on Baalbek-Hermel Governorate and Central Bekaa include 1,035 airstrikes, which have killed 528 and 1,069 injured people.

According to a report by the ministerial emergency committee, the toll has risen to 2,822 dead and 12,937 wounded since the first attack by Israel against Lebanon about 14 months.

Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan estimated that about “60,000 people were displaced from Baalbek and Hermel, and the figure needs to be updated daily.”

In a report on its field operations against the Israeli army, Hezbollah said that “more than 95 soldiers were killed, 900 others wounded, and 42 Merkava tanks were destroyed” since the ground offensive began. “Three Hermes 450 and two Hermes 900 drones were shot down. Israeli forces are trying not to move or change their positions in the fields, fearing being targeted,” Hezbollah said.

The UNIFIL commander, Gen. Aroldo Lazaro, visited Mikati and Berri on Friday to discuss the ongoing military operations against Lebanon and the difficulties and threats UNIFIL faces while carrying out its mission.

Mikati emphasized the importance of “adhering to the role of UNIFIL, recognizing its importance in the south and not compromising its rules of work and the missions it is carrying out in close cooperation with the Lebanese army.”

In Israel, sirens sounded in several settlements in the Galilee panhandle, coinciding with an Israeli announcement “detecting around 10 rockets being launched from Lebanon, some of which were intercepted and others landed in open areas.”

Hezbollah announced targeting “Kiryat Shmona, Hatzor HaGlilit, Kidmat Tzvi, Yesod HaMa’ala and Karmiel,” and a group of soldiers near the Lebanese border town of Khiyam.

Also on Friday, a 17th Saudi relief plane, operated by the Saudi aid agency KSRelief, landed at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut, carrying food, shelter and medical aid, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Missile strike on central Israel wounds 19

Updated 1 min 7 sec ago

AFP

November 02, 2024 00:24

Missile strike on central Israel wounds 19

Hezbollah also said on Saturday it had launched rockets at an Israeli intelligence base near Tel Aviv

Updated 1 min 7 sec ago

AFP

November 02, 2024 00:24

JERUSALEM: A missile strike in Israel’s Sharon area wounded 19 people, police said early Saturday, after the army reported three projectiles were fired from Lebanon into central Israel.

All 19, four of whom were “in moderate condition,” were taken to hospitals for treatment, the Israeli police added.

Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency medical service earlier said that several people had been wounded in a strike on the central city of Tira, including “a male around 20 with shrapnel injuries.”

Hezbollah also said on Saturday it had launched rockets at an Israeli intelligence base near Tel Aviv in the early hours of Saturday.

At 2:30 a.m. (00:30 GMT) militants “fired a salvo of rockets at the Glilot base of the 8200 military intelligence unit in the suburbs of Tel Aviv” the Iran-backed group said in a statement.

The militant group frequently claims to have fired rockets at Israeli bases or urban areas in Israeli territory, and has several times claimed the targeting of Glilot.

Videos posted by the Israeli Foreign Ministry on social media showed fire and smoke spilling from a building into the street and emergency responders swarming the site.

“This is the result of a direct hit of a Hezbollah rocket on a building in the Israeli Arab town of Tira, injuring 19 civilians,” the ministry said in the post.

“We cannot and will not rest until Hezbollah is dismantled,” it added.

The Israeli army said on Telegram that it had intercepted some of the three projectiles fired from Lebanon.

Tira, a predominantly Arab town, is located around 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Tel Aviv, near the border with the occupied West Bank.

The war raging in the Gaza Strip has spread to Lebanon, where Israel has been carrying out air strikes against Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian group Hamas.

According to Israeli figures, at least 63 people have been killed on the Israeli side since cross-border exchanges with Hezbollah erupted following Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

On Thursday, rocket fire from Lebanon killed seven people in Metula, northern Israel, including four Thai farmers.

Hamas’s October attack on Israel resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s response has killed 43,259 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which are considered reliable by the United Nations.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Gaza Lebanon

Deaths of 10 newborns shake millions’ trust in Turkiye’s health care system

Updated 02 November 2024

November 02, 2024 03:01

Deaths of 10 newborns shake millions’ trust in Turkiye’s health care system

Turkish prosecutors have accused 47 doctors and other medical workers of neglect or malpractice in the deaths of 10 newborns since last year
Prosecutors say that the evidence clearly shows medical fraud for profit, although they haven’t said how much the defendants allegedly earned

Updated 02 November 2024

November 02, 2024 03:01

ANKARA, Turkiye: The mother thought her baby looked healthy when he was born 1.5 months early, but staff swiftly whisked him to the neonatal intensive care unit.
It was the last time Burcu Gokdeniz would see her baby alive. The doctor in charge told her that Umut Ali’s heart stopped after his health deteriorated unexpectedly.
Seeing her son wrapped in a shroud 10 days after he was born was the “worst moment” of her life, the 32-year-old e-commerce specialist told The Associated Press.
Gokdeniz is among hundreds of parents who have come forward seeking an investigation into the deaths of their children or other loved ones since Turkish prosecutors accused 47 doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers and other medical workers of neglect or malpractice in the deaths of 10 newborns since last year.
Turkiye guarantees all citizens health care through a system that includes both private and state institutions: The government reimburses private hospitals that treat eligible patients when the public system is overwhelmed.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, in power since 2002, has promoted the expansion of private health care facilities to improve access in the country of 85 million people. The case of the newborn deaths has put for-profit health care for the country’s most vulnerable — newborns — into the most horrifying light imaginable.
The medical workers say they made the best possible decisions while caring for the most delicate patients imaginable, and now face criminal penalties for unavoidable unwanted outcomes.
Shattered parents say they have lost trust in the system and the cases have prompted so much outrage that demonstrators staged protests in October outside hospitals where some of the deaths occurred, hurling stones at the buildings.
After the scandal emerged, at least 350 families petitioned prosecutors, the Health Ministry or the president’s office seeking an investigation into the deaths of their loved ones, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

In this photo provided by the Eskici family, Eymen, the newborn son of Ozan Eskici and Ebru Eskici, lays in an incubator in the now closed Istanbul's Reyap Hospital neonatal intensive care unit in April 2019. (Eskici family via AP)

The prosecution’s case
Prosecutors are demanding up to 583 years in prison for the main defendant, Dr. Firat Sari, who operated the neonatal intensive care units of several hospitals in Istanbul. Sari is charged with “establishing an organization with the aim of committing a crime,” “defrauding public institutions,” “forgery of official documents” and “homicide by negligence.”
Prosecutors say that the evidence clearly shows medical fraud for profit, although they haven’t said how much the defendants allegedly earned. An indictment issued this month accused the defendants of falsifying records, and placing patients in the neonatal care units of some private hospitals for prolonged and sometimes unnecessary treatments in facilities unprepared to treat them.
The indictment and the testimonies of nurses who have come forward suggest that the newborns were sometimes transferred to hospitals that were understaffed and had outdated equipment or insufficient medicine.
The indictment and testimonies also claim that the defendants withheld treatment and gave false reports to parents in order to keep hospital stays long as possible and to embezzle the social security system out of more money. The indictment alleges that the long-term stays coupled with patient mistreatment resulted in babies’ deaths.
The prosecutor’s office included hundreds of pages of transcripts of audio recordings in the indictment but the recordings themselves were not made available to the public.
In one of the transcripts, a nurse and a doctor talk about how they mishandled the treatement of a baby and agree to fake the the hospital record. The transcript describes the nurse as saying: “Let me write in the file the situation worsened, and the baby was intubated.”
Suspect Hakan Dogukan Tasci — a male nurse — is described as accusing Sari of compromising patient care by leaving just him in charge at the hospital instead of having a doctor present in the intensive care unit.
Tasci is also described as accusing an ambulance driver, who is among the 47 who have been charged in the scandal, of transferring babies to some hospitals for “profit.”
“He does not check whether the hospital is suitable for these newborn babies or not, he risks the lives of the babies and sends them to hospitals just to make money,” the indictment quotes the male nurse as saying.
In an interview with the Turkish newspaper BirGun, Dr. Esin Koc, president of the Turkiye Neonatology Association, said that the private hospitals in the indictment most likely had “insufficient staff.”
“They made it seem like there were doctors who didn’t exist,” she told BirGun.
She said that her association conducted inspections of the neonatal intensive care units of private, state and university hospitals in about 40 hospitals in 2017 and while university and state hospitals were good, “there were problems in private hospitals at that time.”
Years without a family, then a death
After years of fertility treatment, Ozan Eskici and his wife welcomed twins — a boy and a girl — to one of Sari’s hospitals in 2019. Although the babies initially appeared to be healthy, both were admitted to intensive care. The girl was discharged after 11 days, but the boy died 24 days later.
During questioning by prosecutors, Sari denied accusations that the babies were not given the proper care, that the neonatal units were understaffed or that his employees were not appropriately qualified, according to a 1,400-page indictment.
He told prosecutors: “Everything is in accordance with procedures.”
This week, a court in Istanbul approved the indictment and scheduled the trial date for Nov. 18 in a case that whose defendants are increasingly isolated.
Lawyer Ali Karaoglan said he and two other attorneys who represented Sari during the investigation have recently withdrawn from the case. And authorities have since revoked the licenses and closed nine of the 19 hospitals implicated in the scandal, including one owned by a former health minister.
The scandal has led main opposition party leader Ozgur Ozel to call for all hospitals involved to be seized by the state and nationalized. Erdogan said those responsible for the deaths would be severely punished but warned against placing all blame on the country’s health care system.
“We will not allow our health care community to be battered because of a few rotten apples,” Erdogan said, calling the alleged culprits “a gang of people devoid of humanity.”
“This gang ... committed such despicable atrocities by exploiting the facilities provided by our state to ensure citizens with higher quality and more accessible, affordable health care,” Erdogan said.
No more trust in the system
Gokdeniz, who gave birth in 2020, said she trusted Sari and accepted her son’s death as natural until she watched the scandal unfold in TV news and on social media.
“It all started to fall into place like dominoes,” she said.
Eskici, too, had placed complete trust in Sari, whose assurances he now views as cruel deceptions.
“The sentences he told me are in front of my eyes like it was yesterday,” he said.
Sibel Kosal, who lost her baby daughter Zeynep at a private hospital in 2017, is also seeking answers. She says the scandal has shattered her trust in the health care system and left her in constant fear for her surviving children.
“They have ruined a dad and a mom,” she said.
Kosal pleaded to the authorities to take immediate action.
“Don’t let babies die, don’t let mothers cry,” she said. “We want a livable world, one where our children are safe.”

Topics: Turkiye

Head of UN-backed team of experts cites RSF paramilitaries in Sudan for sexual violence as war rages

Updated 02 November 2024

November 02, 2024 02:21

Head of UN-backed team of experts cites RSF paramilitaries in Sudan for sexual violence as war rages

The fact-finding mission on Tuesday released a more comprehensive version of its report presented in September to the rights council
Earlier this week, the UN migration agency said 14 million people have been displaced either within Sudan or abroad because of the conflict

Updated 02 November 2024

November 02, 2024 02:21

GENEVA: The head of a UN-backed fact-finding team looking into human rights violations and abuses in Sudan said Friday it found the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces responsible for large-scale sexual violence in areas that it controls.
Mohamed Chande Othman has denounced “staggering violence” in Sudan since war broke out more than 18 months ago between the Sudanese military and the RSF, starting with open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, that later spread across the country.
“We said in our report that we attribute sexual gender-based violence to RSF in West Darfur, in Darfur, in greater Khartoum, and in Al-Gezira (state),” the Tanzanian lawyer said Friday by phone from Zimbabwe, where he was attending a conference.
However, Othman said a renewed mandate from the UN Human Rights Council would allow his team of independent experts to investigate “credible” allegations of sexual exploitation by the Sudanese armed forces as well.
Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital Khartoum and spread to other regions including western Darfur. The war has killed more than 24,000 people so far, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a group monitoring the conflict since it started.

Infographic courtesy of UN International Migration Office

The fact-finding mission on Tuesday released a more comprehensive version of its report presented in September to the rights council, which has 47 member countries. The broader report cited gang rapes, sexual slavery and the abduction of victims in areas the RSF controls.
“It’s important to highlight the horrendous nature and the widespread nature — the patterns of violence — that were committed,” Othman said.
His team found the sexual violence and allegations of enforced marriages and human trafficking across borders for sexual purposes took place mostly during invasions of towns and cities.
“Victims and witnesses consistently reported that perpetrators threatened them with weapons, including firearms, knives and whips to intimidate and coerce them,” the latest report said, citing violence like punching, beatings with sticks, and lashing before and during rape.
“Men and boys were also reportedly targeted while in detention with sexual violence, including rape, threats of rape, forced nudity and beating on the genitals, requiring further investigation,” it added.
The violence in Sudan has been unrelenting. On Sunday, a doctors group and the United Nations reported that RSF fighters in east central Sudan’s Jazirah state carried out a multi-day attack that killed more than 120 people in one town.
On Tuesday, the UN migration agency said 14 million people — or over 30 percent of the country’s population — have been displaced either within Sudan or abroad because of the conflict, making it the world’s largest displacement crisis.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the RSF attacks in Jazirah and the appalling reports of a large number of killings, detentions and acts of sexual violence against women and girls as well as the looting of homes and markets, and the burning of farms, his spokesman said.
“Such acts may constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. “Perpetrators of such serious violations must be held accountable.”
The UN chief reiterated his call for a ceasefire, expressed alarm at the worsening humanitarian situation in Sudan and demanded that all parties facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, Dujarric said.

Topics: Sudan Mohamed Chande Othman

US-Israeli settlers hope to see a second Trump term

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Israel’s path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone

Israel’s path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone

Israel intensifies bombardment of Gaza and southern Lebanon ahead of Oct. 7 anniversary

Israeli tanks enter Khiam outskirts in deep south Lebanon incursion

Lebanon PM says expanded strikes suggest Israel rejects truce

Lebanon PM says expanded strikes suggest Israel rejects truce

Missile strike on central Israel wounds 19

Missile strike on central Israel wounds 19

WHO ‘deeply concerned’ about ‘rising attacks’ on Lebanon health care

Delayed Gaza polio vaccinations to resume on Saturday, agencies say

Deaths of 10 newborns shake millions’ trust in Turkiye’s health care system

Deaths of 10 newborns shake millions’ trust in Turkiye’s health care system

Displaced Gazan mothers struggle to care for their newborns

Baby Talk: Conditions to be aware of in newborns

Head of UN-backed team of experts cites RSF paramilitaries in Sudan for sexual violence as war rages

Head of UN-backed team of experts cites RSF paramilitaries in Sudan for sexual violence as war rages

UN chief condemns Sudan’s RSF, Britain to push for Security Council action

Dead or alive? Scores missing after paramilitary group’s attacks in Sudan’s Al-Jazira state

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Mauritius reverses ban on social media

US-Israeli settlers hope to see a second Trump term

Air monitor records pollution level in Lahore 80 times WHO limit

World’s largest captive crocodile Cassius dies in Australia

Japan urges 200,000 people to evacuate due to heavy rain

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US-Israeli settlers hope to see a second Trump term

US-Israeli settlers hope to see a second Trump term

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Israel’s path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone

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Lebanon PM says expanded strikes suggest Israel rejects truce

Missile strike on central Israel wounds 19

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Deaths of 10 newborns shake millions’ trust in Turkiye’s health care system

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Head of UN-backed team of experts cites RSF paramilitaries in Sudan for sexual violence as war rages

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