Middle-East
Israel presses on with hunt for West Bank militants. The death toll rises to 10 and civilians flee
Israeli troops pressed ahead with their hunt for Palestinian militants and weapons in a West Bank refugee camp Tuesday, after military bulldozers tore through alleys and thousands of residents fled to safety. The two-day Palestinian death toll rose to 10.
The large-scale raid of the Jenin camp, which began Monday, is one of the most intense military operations in the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades. It bore hallmarks of Israeli military tactics during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s and came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing pressure from his ultranationalist political allies for a tough response to recent attacks on Israeli settlers, including a shooting last month that killed four people.
Read: Israel launches most intense military operation in West Bank in years; at least 8 Palestinians dead
On Tuesday morning, rubble littered the streets of Jenin and there were reports of damage to shops. Columns of black smoke periodically punctuated the skyline over the camp in the northern West Bank city, long a Palestinian militant stronghold.
Jenin Mayor Nidal Al-Obeidi said that around 4,000 Palestinians had fled the Jenin refugee camp, finding accommodation in the homes of relatives and in shelters. Residents said there was no water and electricity in the camp.
Across the West Bank, Palestinians observed a general strike to protest the Israeli raid.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday that the two-day death toll rose to 10, with two more deaths reported overnight. The Israeli military has claimed all were militants, but did not provide details.
A spokesman for the Israeli military, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Monday that Israel had launched the operation because some 50 attacks over the past year had emanated from Jenin.
The Jenin camp and an adjacent town of the same name have been a flashpoint since Israeli-Palestinian violence began escalating in spring 2022. It was also a hotbed of Palestinian military activity in the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.
On Tuesday, hundreds of Israeli troops continued to operate in the camp, seizing weapons and explosives and destroying tunnels and command posts, the army said.
Israeli media reported that the army had arrested at least 120 suspected Palestinian militants since Monday.
Read: Israel deploys heavy police presence ahead of Jerusalem march
The Palestinian self-rule government in the West Bank and three Arab countries with normalized ties with Israel – Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – condemned Israel's incursion, as did the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
More than 140 Palestinians have been killed this year in the West Bank, part of more than a yearlong spike in violence that has seen some of the worst bloodshed in the area in nearly two decades. Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis have killed at least 26 people.
Israel says the raids are meant to crack down on Palestinians militants and thwart attacks. The Palestinians say such violence is inevitable in the absence of any political process with Israel and increased West Bank settlement construction and violence by extremist settlers.
Israel says most of those killed have been militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and people uninvolved in confrontations have also died.
Read more: UN to commemorate Palestinians' 1948 flight from Israel for the first time
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.
Israel launches most intense military operation in West Bank in years; at least 8 Palestinians dead
Israel on Monday launched its most intense military operation in the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades, carrying out a series of drone strikes and sending hundreds of troops on an open-ended mission into a militant stronghold. At least eight Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded.
The crackdown was reminiscent of Israeli military tactics during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s and came at a time of growing domestic pressure for a tough response to recent attacks on Israeli settlers, including a shooting last month that killed four Israelis.
The operation took place in the Jenin refugee camp — an area in the northern West Bank that has long been known as a bastion of militants. The fighting, which began shortly after midnight, continued past nightfall.
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Throughout the day, black smoke rose from the crowded streets of the camp, a densely populated neighborhood that is home to some 14,000 people, while exchanges of fire rang out and drones could be heard buzzing overhead. Military bulldozers plowed through narrow streets, damaging buildings as they cleared the way for Israeli forces.
"There are bulldozers destroying the streets, snipers are inside and on roofs of houses, drones are hitting houses and Palestinians are killed in the streets," said Jamal Huweil, a political activist in the camp, predicting the operation would fail.
The military blocked traffic in and out of Jenin, and the city resembled a ghost town. Streets were empty as armored Israeli vehicles patrolled. Piles of burning tires and garbage containers littered traffic circles. Power and water supplies were knocked out in the camp.
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Palestinian youths occasionally threw stones at army vehicles before darting away.
With the sound of shooting and explosions in the background, at least 10 ambulances rushed to the overwhelmed local hospital as relatives checked to see if loved ones were inside. One ambulance arrived with a bullet hole in front.
The Palestinians and three Arab countries with normalized ties with Israel – Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – condemned the incursion, as did the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Late Monday, the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank held an emergency meeting and said it was halting its already limited contacts with Israel. Leaders said a freeze on security coordination would remain in place, and they vowed to step up activity against Israel in the United Nations and international bodies. They also planned to minimize contacts with the United States.
Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was unswayed.
3 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in occupied West Bank; US slams latest settlement expansion
"In recent months, Jenin has turned into a safe haven for terrorism. We are putting an end to this," he said. He said the troops were destroying militant command centers and confiscating weapons supplies and factories. He claimed the operation was taking place with "minimum harm to civilians."
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesman, said there were a total of about 10 airstrikes — most of them aimed at keeping gunmen away from ground troops. He accused militants of operating next to a United Nations building and storing weapons inside of a mosque.
He said Israel launched the operation because some 50 attacks over the past year had emanated from Jenin.
Neither the prime minister nor Hagari gave any indication when the operation would end.
U.N. Mideast envoy Tor Wennesland warned that the escalation in the West Bank was "very dangerous." Asked about the Israeli drone attacks on residential areas, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said: "Attacks on heavily populated areas are violations of international humanitarian law."
Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian areas, said on Twitter that she was "alarmed by scale of Israeli forces operation" and noted the airstrikes in a densely populated refugee camp. She said the U.N. was mobilizing humanitarian aid.
UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said many camp residents were in need of food, drinking water and milk powder.
Late Monday, hundreds of Palestinians left the camp to flee the fighting. The Israeli army said it was allowing people who wanted to leave to do so. The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said as many as 3,000 people had left by midnight, and they expected the exodus to continue.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said at least eight Palestinians were killed and 50 people were wounded — 10 critically. The dead were identified as young men and Palestinian youths, including a 16-year-old boy and two 17-year-olds.
UN to commemorate Palestinians' 1948 flight from Israel for the first time
Separately, a 21-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the ministry said.
The Jenin camp and an adjacent town of the same name have been a flashpoint since Israeli-Palestinian violence began escalating in spring 2022.
Israel says it has stepped up activity because the Palestinian Authority is too weak to maintain quiet. It also accuses its archenemy Iran of funding militant groups involved in the fighting.
Palestinians reject such claims, saying the violence is a natural response to 56 years of occupation, including stepped-up settlement construction by Israel's government and increased violence by Jewish settlers.
Jenin was a major friction point in the last Palestinian uprising.
In 2002, days after a Palestinian suicide bombing during a large Passover gathering killed 30 people, Israeli troops launched a massive operation in the camp. For eight days and nights, they fought militants street by street, using armored bulldozers to destroy rows of homes, many of which had been booby-trapped.
Monday's raid came two weeks after another violent confrontation in Jenin that included the shooting death of a 15-year-old girl and after the military said a pair of rockets were fired from the area last week.
But there also may have been political considerations at play. Leading members of Netanyahu's far-right government, which is dominated by West Bank settlers and their supporters, have called for a broader military response to the ongoing violence in the area, particularly after the June 20 shooting that killed four people in the Jewish settlement of Eli.
"Proud of our heroes on all fronts and this morning especially of our soldiers operating in Jenin," tweeted National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist who recently called for Israel to kill thousands of militants if necessary. "Praying for their success."
Israeli military experts said they expected the operation to wrap up within a day or two. Prolonged violence and heavy casualties would risk attracting increased international criticism and drawing militants from the Gaza Strip or even Lebanon into the fighting.
Islamic Jihad, a militant group with a large presence in Jenin, threatened to launch attacks from its Gaza Strip stronghold if the fighting dragged on. Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group also made threats, saying the Palestinians have "many alternatives and means that will make the enemy regret its acts." Hezbollah fought a monthlong war against Israel in 2006.
More than 130 Palestinians have been killed this year in the West Bank, part of more than a yearlong spike in violence that has seen some of the worst bloodshed in the area in nearly two decades.
Israel says the raids are meant to beat back militants. The Palestinians say such violence is inevitable in the absence of any political process with Israel and increased West Bank settlement construction and violence by extremist settlers.
Israel says most of those killed have been militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and people uninvolved in confrontations have also died.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.
Palestinian attacker opens fire at West Bank gas station, kills at least 4 people
A Palestinian armed man opened fire at a gas station near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank on Tuesday, killing at least four people and wounding several others, Israeli medics said, as violence continued to roil the occupied territory.
The shooting underscored the fragility of the situation in the West Bank, where on Monday an Israeli military raid into the northern Jenin refugee camp ignited some of the fiercest Israeli-Palestinian fighting seen in years, killing six Palestinians. Armed group targeted Israeli military vehicles with roadside bombs and Israeli forces deployed helicopter gunships to evacuate stranded troops.
Also read: 3 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in occupied West Bank; US slams latest settlement expansion
The intense surge in violence has killed 126 Palestinians and 24 people on the Israeli side so far this year, prompting many on either side of the conflict to fear a possible greater conflagration.
Israeli security forces said they shot the gunman and were still searching for other attackers near the Jewish settlement of Eli north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Palestinian media reported that the attacker's driver had fled the scene.
The condition of the attacker was not immediately clear. Photos circulated of a man lying bloodied and face-down in the street beside an automatic rifle.
Also read: 31 killed as Israel-Palestine fighting continues, Egypt pushes truce
The Palestinian armed groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad praised the attack as a response to the Israeli military raid on Monday, but stopped short of claiming responsibility.
"Revolutionaries in the West Bank are striking everywhere, and specifically where (Israel) does not expect it," said Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was set to meet with Israel's army chief and other top security officials to discuss a response to the shooting.
Also Read: Israeli army kills 2 Palestinians in West Bank raid
The Israeli rescue service said it had evacuated two seriously wounded men, ages 20 and 38, to nearby hospitals for treatment. It said that of the four people wounded at the scene, one remained in serious condition. The identities of the victims were not immediately clear.
Tuesday's shooting followed fighting in the northern Jenin refugee camp that killed six Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy, and wounded over 90 others. On Tuesday, the death toll from the raid rose to six when 48-year-old Amjad Abu Jaas succumbed to wounds sustained in the gunbattle, Palestinian health officials said. A dozen Palestinians remained in critical condition. Eight Israeli soldiers were also wounded.
After the deadly raid, Palestinians rushed to checkpoints to throw stones at Israeli military vehicles in protest. In the Palestinian town of Husan, west of Bethlehem, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man who they alleged threw a firebomb at troops along a West Bank highway. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man killed as 21-year-old Zakaria al-Zaoul.
Israel and the Palestinian territories have been gripped by months of violence, fueled by several factors. Rising militancy among a new generation of Palestinians, the new far-right government's hard-line stance against the Palestinians and an escalating Israeli military crackdown on the West Bank have all worked to fuel violence and undermine efforts to calm tensions.
Israel has been staging near-nightly raids in the West Bank in response to a spasm of Palestinian violence early last year. Israel says most of the 126 Palestinian dead this year were Palestinian fighters, but stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state.
Eid-ul-Azha 2023: Saudi Arabia sets June 28 as date
The beginning of the Islamic month of Dhul Hijjah, one of the holiest months in the Islamic calendar, has been announced by the Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia. Eid-ul-Azha 2023 will be celebrated on June 28 in the kingdom with the crescent’s sighting, according to an Al Arabiya report.
The Hajj pilgrimage, one of Islam’s “Five Pillars”, is performed in Makkah during Dhul Hijjah, the 12th and last month of the Islamic lunar calendar. During this time, Muslims from all over the world congregate there.
Read: Astronomers reveal expected date of Eid-ul-Azha 2023
The ninth day of Dhul Hijjah is known as the Day of Arafat. Millions of pilgrims from around the world congregate on this day in an act of faith and devotion on the plain of Arafat, close to Makkah.
Muslims all over the world will commemorate Eid-ul-Azha, popularly known as the “Festival of Sacrifice,” after the Day of Arafat. This significant Islamic holiday honours Prophet Ibrahim’s readiness to offer his son as a sacrifice to Allah. But before he could offer his son, Allah gave him a lamb, which he was to sacrifice in place of his son. Muslims recall this miraculous intervention each year.
Read: 90 lakh Eid holidaymakers to leave Dhaka by road: SCRF
Muslims sacrifice an animal, usually a lamb or a cow, in accordance with ritual on Eid-ul-Azha to commemorate this occasion. Following that, the meat is divided into three portions: one for the family, one for relatives and friends, and one for the underprivileged. This act of giving emphasises the importance of the community, empathy, and charity that are fundamental to both the holiday and the Islamic faith.
After long waits, new pilgrims prepare for Hajj's return, the first major one since COVID-19
This year’s Hajj is a landmark: the first full pilgrimage after three years when the COVID-19 pandemic sharply reduced the scale of one of Islam’s holiest rites.
Millions of Muslims from around the world will start converging next week on Mecca in Saudi Arabia to begin several days of rituals. For pilgrims, it is the ultimate spiritual moment of their lives, a chance to seek God’s forgiveness for their sins and walk in the footsteps of revered prophets like Muhammad.
Also read: All preparations taken to ensure smooth hajj management: State Minister
It’s a mass, communal experience, with Muslims of every race and class performing it together as one. It is also deeply personal; each pilgrim brings his or her own yearnings and experiences.
The Associated Press spoke to several pilgrims from across the world as they prepared for their journey.
Also read: Hajj pilgrims must submit Covid-negative report before journey
GAZA
It’s been hard, raising 10 children on her own in the Gaza Strip, blockaded on all sides and torn by multiple wars. But Huda Zaqqout says her life feels like a miracle because she is surrounded by her family, including 30 grandchildren.
And now, at 64, she is finally going on Hajj. It just so happens that now, after an easing of Saudi policy, more women pilgrims can participate without a “mahram,” or a male relative to escort them. It’s serendipitous timing for Zaqqout, who has waited years for this opportunity, and her sons cannot afford the long, arduous trip from Gaza to Mecca.
“Gaza is like a prison. We are locked up from all directions and borders,” she said.
Zaqqout registered for Hajj in 2010 but had never been selected. So this year she went on an Umrah, the so-called “lesser pilgrimage” to Mecca that can happen any time.
After she returned home, Zaqqout tuned into the radio broadcast that announced who will be this year’s Hajj pilgrims. She cried with joy when her name was announced.
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For Gazans, the trip is particularly hard. The tiny Mediterranean coastal territory has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since 2007, when the militant group Hamas took power. Though pilgrims are allowed to travel, it is a bureaucratic nightmare. Then the bus ride to Cairo Airport takes at least 15 hours and sometimes twice that due to long waits at the border and Egyptian checkpoints in the Sinai.
That hasn’t dampened Zaqqout’s joy. Her neighbors congratulate her. She watches YouTube videos to learn Hajj rituals and goes to physiotherapy for her feet, which often hurt, knowing she’ll be standing and walking a lot.
At her house in Gaza City, her grandchildren throng around her. At one point as she told her story, Zaqqout started to cry; the children hugged her and cried with her. When she went shopping for gifts, prayer mats and clothes, one grandson insisted on accompanying her, and holding her hand.
Zaqqout feels Hajj is the last thing on her life’s to-do list. She has no debts, her children are married and have families. “After that, I don’t need anything from life.”
INDONESIA
At a rural intersection outside Jakarta, 85-year-old Husin bin Nisan stands guard, his hands nimbly signaling for vehicles to stop or proceed. It’s a blind curve; approaching traffic can’t see what’s coming.
Husin is a “Pak Ogah,” a type of volunteer traffic warden found across Indonesia. Nearly every day for more than 30 years, he has directed traffic in a poor village called Peusar, living off tips from drivers equivalent to a few dollars a day.
The whole time, he has been saving coins for his dream. After 15 years of waiting, finally Husin is going on the Hajj.
Husin tearfully recounted the prayer he often repeated: “I beg You, God … open the way for me to go to Mecca and Medina. Please give Your blessing.”
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has a staggeringly long line of citizens wanting to go on Hajj; wait times can last decades. It backed up even more when Saudi Arabia barred foreign pilgrims in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, when Hajj reopened but with age restrictions, less than half of Indonesia’s quota could attend.
To catch up, Indonesia received from Saudi Arabia an additional 8,000 spots this year, reaching an all-time high of 229,000. Authorities are giving special preference to the elderly. Nearly 67,000 of this year’s pilgrims are above 65; the eldest is a 118-year-old woman.
A father of four and grandfather of six, Husin still works every day. Thin, with thick white hair and beard, he walks to his intersection and sometimes stands directing traffic for 12 hours a day.
In early June, Husin packed his suitcase, including the white robe that male pilgrims are required to wear. Then he put on his best clothes and said goodbye to his family and friends.
“Now, I could die in peace at any time because God has answered my prayer,” he said.
UNITED STATES
A wave of emotions washed over Saadiha Khaliq as she reflected on the spiritual significance of her upcoming pilgrimage to Mecca, more than 11,000 kilometers (7,000 miles) from her home in the U.S. state of Tennessee.
“It’s really this invitation and this honor,” said the 41-year-old Pakistani-American engineer, who lives near Nashville. “You just hope that you’re worthy of that honor.”
Undertaking the pilgrimage has been on Khaliq’s mind for several years; she would read and watch videos about Hajj rituals and ask others who had gone about their experiences.
Her religious quest gained urgency during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The pandemic really put things in perspective,” she said. “Life is short, and you have limited opportunities to do things that you really want to do.”
This year, she applied for places on the Hajj for herself and her parents. While they’ve been to Mecca before, this will be the first Hajj for all three.
“This is kind of a big, lifelong dream and achievement for them,” she said. “I’m just grateful that I get to be part of the whole experience.”
Khaliq was born in the United Kingdom. In the 1990s, her family moved to the United States and eventually to Tennessee, where her father is a mathematics professor.
As part of her preparations, she’s trying to go with a clean slate, from clearing financial obligations to working to make amends and seek forgiveness from family members or friends who she might have had issues with.
“It’s very hard to stand there (in Mecca), if there’s negativity in your heart ... if you made space for things that are resentment or anger,” she said. “And I’m still working on cleansing that part of my heart.”
As conditions for Syrians worsen, aid organizations struggle to catch the world’s attention again
Six months after she got the call informing her that her U.N. assistance would be cut, Najwa al-Jassem is struggling to feed her four children and pay rent for their tent in a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley.
She once received food rations and cash that covered most of their modest monthly expenses. The family now only gets the equivalent of $20 a month, which just covers the rent for their cramped tent.
Her husband gets only sporadic day labor and "my kids are too young for me to send them to work the fields," she told The Associated Press in the camp near the town of Bar Elias. "We're eating one meal a day."
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Aid agencies will struggle to draw the world's attention back to the plight of Syrians like al-Jassem on Wednesday at an annual donor conference hosted by the European Union in Brussels for humanitarian aid to respond to the Syrian crisis.
Funding from the two-day conference will also go toward providing aid to Syrians within the war-torn country and to some 5.7 million Syrian refugees living in neighboring countries, particularly Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
This year, organizers aim to raise some $11.2 billion, though humanitarian officials acknowledged that pledges will likely fall short.
Also Read: Blinken announces $150M in aid for Syria, Iraq at Saudi conference on combatting Islamic State group
On Tuesday, a day before the conference, the World Food Program announced that it was faced with an "unprecedented funding crisis" and would cut aid to 2.5 million out of the 5.5 million people in Syria who had been receiving food assistance.
The conference comes as Syria's protracted uprising-turned-civil-conflict has entered its 13th year, and after a deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked large swaths of Syria in February, further compounding its misery. The World Bank estimated over $5 billion in damage s, as the quake destroyed homes and hospitals and further crippled Syria's poor power and water infrastructure.
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It also comes at a politically precarious time for refugees living in neighboring countries. Syrian President Bashar Assad recently received a major political lifeline with the return of Damascus to the Arab League, and Syria's neighbors have, in return, called for a mass repatriation of refugees.
Anti-refugee rhetoric has surged in neighboring Lebanon and Turkey, both dealing with economic and political crises.
In Lebanon, where officials have put the blame for the country's economic crisis onto the country's estimated 1.5 million refugees, authorities have imposed curfews on refugees and restricted their ability to rent homes. Rights groups have said the Lebanese military has deported hundreds of Syrian refugees in recent months.
In Turkey, where Syrians were once welcomed with compassion, repatriation of the roughly 3.7 million refugees became a top theme in last month's presidential and parliamentary elections, which ended in a new term for incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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Erdogan's government for years defended its open-door policy, but has in recent years been building housing developments in areas of northwestern Syria controlled by Ankara-backed Syrian opposition groups, with the stated aim of encouraging refugee returns. Ankara and Damascus have also been holding talks in Moscow to improve strained relations.
The government has also carried out sporadic forcible deportations, while Erdogan's challengers took a harder line, vowing to deport refugees en masse.
While some Syrian refugees have voluntarily returned from Turkey and Lebanon, most say the situation is too volatile.
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At the camp in Lebanon, Fteim Al-Janoud struggled to hold back her tears as she talked about how she and her husband can only afford to send one of her six children to school. But the refugee from Syria's northern Aleppo province said the situation there is even worse, both in terms of security and material concerns.
"If the conditions were good and if our homes were fixed so we could live peacefully and comfortably, we wouldn't have a problem going back to Syria, even with Assad still there," she said.
Despite the deteriorating situation for Syrians, aid has dwindled in recent years, as donors rushed to support over 5 million Ukrainian refugees and over 7 million internally displaced in the conflict-hit European country. The war in Ukraine, a global bread basket, also sparked a food inflation surge on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic that rocked the global economy for years.
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"We see needs are increasing, and we also see that that donor funding is gradually going down," said Ivo Freijsen, the U.N. refugee agency's representative to Lebanon, where some 90% of refugees live in extreme poverty and are dependent on aid.
"From a humanitarian point of view, it means that more people will be suffering," he said. "We need to be seeking to see funding levels stay at the same level and actually increase."
At last year's conference in Brussels, donors pledged $6.7 billion, falling billions short of the U.N.'s $10.5 billion appeal, split almost evenly to assist Syrians inside the war-torn country and refugees. The funding shortage forced hospitals in opposition-held northwestern Syria to cut back services, while the U.N. World Food Program cut the size of its monthly rations for the more than 1 million people it serves in that area.
"We know that Ukraine has taken a big toll," said U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon Imran Riza. "We know that Sudan has now become also quite a priority. It's a difficult time and it's a time that's also following COVID and everything else that happened that hit economies so hard across the globe."
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Given those difficulties, he said international donors need to "move towards much more sustainable interventions" rather than remaining in crisis mode.
At the camp in the Bekaa Valley, Al-Jassem says she's struggling to cope with mounting debts she and her husband have to cover unpaid rent and medical expenses.
But she's more worried about the well-being of her children, who have lived their entire lives in a refugee camp in worsening conditions.
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"The kids sometimes go to school without having breakfast," she explained. "Their teacher would sometimes call me and ask why they didn't bring a sandwich with them, and I would say it's because I have nothing in the pantry."
Blinken announces $150M in aid for Syria, Iraq at Saudi conference on combatting Islamic State group
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that the U.S. would provide nearly $150 million in aid for areas in Syria and Iraq that were liberated from the Isamic State extremist group.
He spoke at a ministerial conference hosted by Saudi Arabia on combatting the group, which no longer controls any territory — but whose affiliates still carry out attacks across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
The Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS includes more than 80 countries and continues to coordinate action against the extremist group, which at its height controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq. Blinken said the U.S. pledge is part of new funding amounting to more than $600 million.
“Poor security and humanitarian conditions. Lack of economic opportunity. These are the fuel for the kind of desperation on which ISIS feeds and recruits,” he said, using a common acronym for the extremist group. “So we have to stay committed to our stabilization goals.”
Blinken co-hosted the conference as part of a two-day visit to the kingdom in which he met with senior Saudi officials, including the country's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Blinken also attended a meeting of Gulf foreign ministers.
The United States has been forced to recalibrate its decades-long alliance with Saudi Arabia as the kingdom seeks to transform itself into a global player untethered to Washington.
Under the crown prince, the oil-rich kingdom has embarked on a massive economic and social transformation aimed at reducing its dependence on oil and attracting commerce, investment and tourism. In recent years the kingdom has lifted a ban on women driving, sidelined its once-feared religious police and begun hosting concerts, raves and visiting celebrities — all of which was unthinkable a decade ago, when it was best known internationally for its ultra-conservative Islamic rule.
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The Saudis have meanwhile launched wide-ranging diplomatic efforts to wind down their war in Yemen, resolve a crisis with Qatar, restore relations with archrival Iran and welcome Syria's President Bashar Assad back into the Arab League after a 12-year boycott.
The flurry of diplomacy has included outreach to U.S. foes like Russia and even Venezuela, whose President Nicolas Maduro met with the crown prince shortly before Blinken's arrival. The Saudis have also resisted U.S. pressure to bring down oil prices as they seek revenues to fund what they have taken to referring to as “gigaprojects,” like a $500 billion futuristic city under construction on the Red Sea.
The kingdom is also hard at work transforming itself into a global power in the world of sports, attracting soccer superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema to its local clubs with lavish contracts and entering into a commercial merger with the PGA tour.
The Saudis say they are pursuing their own national interests in a world increasingly defined by great power competition. In addition to improving relations with Washington's foes, the Saudis have also resolved a spat with Canada and invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a close Western ally, to address an Arab League summit last month.
Critics say the diplomatic efforts and the push into international sports are aimed at repairing the kingdom's image after the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist. U.S. intelligence concluded that Prince Mohammed likely approved the operation carried out by Saudi agents — allegations he denies.
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Critics also point to an unprecedented crackdown on dissent in recent years, with authorities jailing everyone from liberal women's rights activists to ultra-conservative Islamists, and even targeting Saudis living in the United States.
The State Department said Blinken engaged in wide-ranging discussions with Saudi and other Arab officials, including on ending the war in Yemen, shoring up an oft-violated U.S.-Saudi cease-fire in Sudan, and reducing Israeli-Palestinian friction. It said he also brought up human rights concerns, but it was not clear if he had convinced the Saudis to release any prisoners or lift travel bans.
As a candidate, President Joe Biden had vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over the Khashoggi killing, but he was forced to back down last year in the face of rising oil prices, eventually meeting with the crown prince and sharing a much-debated fist bump with him.
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Biden and Sunak to focus on Ukraine and economic security in British PM's first White House visit
President Joe Biden is welcoming Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for wide-ranging talks on Thursday as the British leader makes his first White House visit as premier.
The leaders' Oval Office talks are expected to cover the war in Ukraine, China, economic security, international cooperation on regulating the growing field of artificial intelligence, and more. Biden and Sunak have already had four face-to-face meetings since Sunak became prime minister in October, but the talks in Washington will offer the two leaders a chance for their most sustained interaction to date.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the 15-month-old Russian invasion of Ukraine will be “top of mind.” The U.S. and U.K. are the two biggest donors to the Ukraine war effort and play a central role in a long-term effort announced last month to train, and eventually equip, Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets.
Sunak also is looking to make the case to Biden for U.K. Defense Minister Ben Wallace to succeed outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who is set to end his term leading the 31-member alliance in September. Stoltenberg is slated to meet with Biden in Washington on Monday, and leaders from the alliance are set to gather in Lithuania on July 11-12 for their annual summit.
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“The two leaders will review a range of global issues including our economic partnership or shared support of Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia’s war of aggression, as well as further action to accelerate the clean energy transition," Jean-Pierre said. "The president and the prime minister will also discuss the joint U.S.-U.K. leadership on critical emerging technologies as well as our work to strengthen our economic security.”
Sunak is keen to make the U.K. a key player in artificial intelligence, and announced that his government will gather politicians, scientists and tech executives for a summit on AI safety in the fall.
He said it was vital to ensure that “paradigm-shifting new technologies” are harnessed for the good of humanity.
“No one country can do this alone," Sunak said. “This is going to take a global effort.”
Sunak's visit comes as U.S. and British intelligence officials are still trying to sort out blame for the breaching of a major dam in southern Ukraine, which sent floodwaters gushing through towns and over farmland. Neither Washington nor London has officially accused Russia of blowing up the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam.
Sunak said Wednesday that U.K. intelligence services are still assessing the evidence, but “if it does prove to be intentional, it will represent a new low ... an appalling barbarism on Russia’s part.”
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“Russia throughout this war has used as a deliberate active strategy to target civilian infrastructure,” he told broadcaster ITV in Washington.
The two sides are hoping to demonstrate that the U.S.-U.K. relationship remains as strong as ever despite recent political and economic upheaval in the U.K. Sunak is one of three British prime ministers Biden has dealt with since taking office in 2021, and the administrations have had differences over Brexit and its impact on Northern Ireland.
There also have been some awkward moments between the two leaders in the early going.
Biden, at a White House celebration in October to mark the Hindu holiday of Diwali, noted the elevation of Sunak, who is the U.K.'s first leader of color and the first Hindu to serve in the role, as a “groundbreaking milestone” but he badly mangled the pronunciation of Sunak's name.
At a March meeting in San Diego with Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to announce plans to sell Australia nuclear-powered attack submarines, Biden jokingly told Sunak “maybe you can invite me to your home in California.” The lighthearted aside resurrected old political baggage for Sunak, whose political aspirations briefly dimmed as he faced an ethics investigation last year after it emerged that he had possessed a U.S. green card two years after being appointed chancellor of the exchequer. Sunak, a former hedge fund manager with an MBA from Stanford University, and his wife own a home in California.
Nonetheless, there's a sense in the Biden administration that the U.S.-U.K. relationship is back on more stable footing after the sometimes choppy tenure of Boris Johnson and the 45-day premiership of Liz Truss.
“I think there’s a sense of relief to some degree, not just in the White House, but throughout Washington, that the Sunak government has been very pragmatic and maintained the U.K.’s robust commitment to Ukraine and to increasing defense spending,” said Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He added that with Sunak, there’s also been “somewhat of a return to pragmatism” on economic issues and relations with the European Union post-Brexit.
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Sunak opened his two-day Washington visit on Wednesday by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. He met with key congressional leaders, including Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, as well as business leaders. He also attended a Washington Nationals baseball game.
Shortly before departing for Washington, Sunak announced that several U.S. companies were making $17 billion (£14 billion) in new economic investments in the U.K.
The chairs of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Republican Rep. Chris Smith and Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, on Wednesday wrote to Sunak asking him to work with the Biden administration on Hong Kong policy and push for the release of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai and other activists.
Lai's son, Sebastien Lai, last month in testimony before the U.S. committee expressed disappointment that the U.K. had not condemned his father’s detention publicly and had not taken a stronger stance in advocating for his release. The elder Lai founded the now shut pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and faces charges under Hong Kong’s security law and a colonial-era sedition law.
“A robust stance by the U.K. government is critically important, given your oversight of the Sino-British Declaration and the millions of Hong Kongers who hold British citizenship or British National (Overseas) passports,” the lawmakers wrote. “The erosion of Hong Kong’s promised autonomy and the dismantling of a free press and the rule of law are issues of global concern.”
Iran unveils what it calls a hypersonic missile able to beat air defenses amid tensions with US
Iran claimed on Tuesday that it had created a hypersonic missile capable of traveling at 15 times the speed of sound, adding a new weapon to its arsenal as tensions remain high with the United States over Tehran's nuclear program.
The new missile — called Fattah, or "Conqueror" in Farsi — was unveiled even as Iran said it would reopen its diplomatic posts on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia after reaching a détente with Riyadh following years of conflict.
The tightly choreographed segment on Iranian state television apparently sought to show that Tehran's hard-line government can still deploy arms against its enemies across much of the Middle East.
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"Today we feel that the deterrent power has been formed," Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said at the event. "This power is an anchor of lasting security and peace for the regional countries."
Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard's aerospace program, unveiled what appeared to be a model of the missile. Hajizadeh claimed the missile had a range of up to 1,400 kilometers (870 miles).
That's about mid-range for Iran's expansive ballistic missile arsenal, which the Guard has built up over the years as Western sanctions largely prevent it from accessing advanced weaponry.
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"There exists no system that can rival or counter this missile," Hajizadeh claimed.
That claim, however, depends on how maneuverable the missile is. Ballistic missiles fly on a trajectory in which anti-missile systems like the Patriot can anticipate their path and intercept them. Tuesday's event showed what appeared to be a moveable nozzle for the Fattah, which could allow it to change trajectories in flight. The more irregular the missile's flight path, the more difficult it becomes to intercept.
Iranian officials also did not release any footage of a successful launch of the Fattah.
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Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds in excess of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, could pose crucial challenges to missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability. Iran described the Fattah as being able to reach Mach 15 — which is 15 times the speed of sound.
China is believed to be pursuing the weapons, as is America. Russia claims to already be fielding the weapons and has said it used them on the battlefield in Ukraine. However, speed and maneuverability isn't a guarantee the missile will successfully strike a target. Ukraine's air force in May said it shot down a Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missile with a Patriot battery.
Gulf Arab countries allied with the U.S. widely use the Patriot missile system in the region. Israel, Iran's main rival in the Mideast, also has its own robust air defenses.
In November, Hajizadeh initially claimed that Iran had created a hypersonic missile, without offering evidence to support it. That claim came during the nationwide protests that followed the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the country's morality police.
Tuesday's announcement came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to begin a visit to Saudi Arabia.
Israel's Netanyahu appoints new media advisor, journalist who had called Biden 'unfit,' report says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a new media advisor who has tweeted critically against President Joe Biden, the daily Haaretz reported.
The appointment comes at a time when U.S.-Israel relations are strained.
Gilad Zwick, a journalist with a conservative Israeli TV station, has in his tweets called Biden "unfit" to rule and said that he was "slowly but surely destroying America." He also posted tweets suggesting he supported President Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 U.S. election was rigged. The tweets were still online Monday.
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Both Netanyahu's office and Zwick did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Zwick previously worked for Israel Hayom, a pro-Netanyahu daily.
Zwick's appointment comes as ties between Israel and its closest ally, the United States, are fraught over a contentious Israeli government plan to overhaul the judiciary and over the government's ultranationalist character.
Biden has publicly expressed concern over the Netanyahu government's plan to reshape the legal system, which has sparked mass protests that continue weekly even after the plan was put on hold.
The Biden administration has also voiced unease about Netanyahu's government, made up of ultranationalists who were once at the fringes of Israeli politics and now hold senior positions dealing with the Palestinians and other sensitive issues.
Amid the tensions, Biden has so far denied Netanyahu a typically customary invitation to the White House after his election win late last year.
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Critics accuse Netanyahu of gradually shifting Israel from a bipartisan matter to a wedge issue in U.S. politics. They point to him appearing to openly support Republican candidates as well as his 2015 speech to Congress which was seen as a slight to the Obama administration over its nuclear deal with Iran. Netanyahu says Israel's bond with the U.S. is unbreakable and downplays any rifts as disagreements between friends.
Last month, Israel's parliament hosted U.S. House speaker Kevin McCarthy, who became just the second House speaker to address the Knesset, after Republican Newt Gingrich in 1998.