Bab Al-Hawa doors shut on Syrian cancer patients in need of urgent care

Syrian refugees living in Turkey take a bus through the northern Bab al-Hawa border crossing, on February 17, 2023, as they return to Syria in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake. (AFP)
Syrian refugees living in Turkey take a bus through the northern Bab al-Hawa border crossing, on February 17, 2023, as they return to Syria in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake. (AFP)
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Updated 12 March 2023

Bab Al-Hawa doors shut on Syrian cancer patients in need of urgent care

Bab Al-Hawa doors shut on Syrian cancer patients in need of urgent care
  • Bashir Ismail, director of the medical office at Bab Al-Hawa crossing, told Arab News: “Before the earthquake we had about 10 daily ambulances carrying emergency cases that would receive treatment in Turkiye

BAB-AL-HAWA: Syria’s cancer patients are the latest victims of the fragile status of Bab Al-Hawa, an international crossing point that sits on the border of Turkiye and Syria.

Cancer patients in northwestern Syria were transferred through the border post to hospitals in Turkiye prior to the earthquake on Feb. 6, to receive the necessary care unavailable in the rebel-held zone.

That changed when the Turkiye-Syria quake rocked the region and prompted Turkish authorities to close the borders on those awaiting lifesaving treatment.

Bashir Ismail, director of the medical office at Bab Al-Hawa crossing, told Arab News: “Before the earthquake we had about 10 daily ambulances carrying emergency cases that would receive treatment in Turkiye.

“We had about 450 so-called ‘cold medical conditions’ per month, including cardiac surgery and cancer patients.

“These patients can no longer enter Turkiye to receive their treatments.”

Nawaf Bakran, 69, from the province of Idlib, is one of the many cancer patients paying the price for the border’s closure.

He told Arab News: “I came out alive from under the rubble. I suffer from cancer, and I have a monthly follow-up. I need a muscle injection for cancer, and I am also diabetic.”

Despite the doctor’s orders for Bakran to return to Turkiye for treatment, those at the border post have barred him from entering.

Bakran added: “They didn’t acknowledge the report of the cancer specialist, and we are now lost. We don’t know where to go.”

A pressing issue is missing documents, including ID papers and medical records, that have been lost underneath the rubble of toppled buildings.

Like Bakran, 58-year-old Mohamed Afsan is also an earthquake survivor currently battling cancer.

Afsan told Arab News: “We couldn't save any of our things. Now we want to retrieve our medical reports, we want to be put in contact with specialists and continue our treatment and the things we are required to do.

“We need radiation; our disease requires radiation. Radiation isn’t available here, and there’s no way we would go to the areas controlled by the regime.”

Afsan says people living in rebel-held Idlib would be putting themselves and their families’ lives at risk if they were to go to the areas controlled by the Syrian government.

Ayham Jamo is a hematologist and head of the oncology department at Idlib Central Hospital.

The Syrian American Medical Society is supporting his facility, but this has not made it any easier to relieve the overwhelming pressure brought on by the tragedy and its consequences.

He told Arab News of the plan he believes needs to be executed.

He said: “[This means] securing chemo doses and immunotherapies for all types of cancer. These therapies are expensive and aren’t available for free.

“We also call for a humanitarian corridor for radiotherapy, as it is an essential treatment that isn’t available in northwestern Syria."

The needs of cancer patients in northwest Syria are extensive, and Jamo believes that although solutions should start with securing the border crossing for patient transfers, urgent action is also needed within the country.

He told Arab News that this would mean establishing “an integrated cancer treatment center including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, a linear particle accelerator, PET scan, and bone scintigraphy.”

Aziz Asmar, a graffiti artist from Binnish in Idlib, has turned to art to draw the world’s attention to the plight of his people.

He said: “Through this drawing, we call on the Turkish authorities and all the active associations and organizations to help facilitate their entry to Turkiye so they can keep receiving their treatment.”

Asmar says “trending” has to take place before action is taken.

That is why he has painted in different languages the words “help me trend,” in a bid to ensure that all medical cases receive equal attention.

It is not the first time that the fragility of the border — precipitated by the geopolitics of the 12-year conflict — has resulted in cancer patients in northwestern Syria suffering further heartache.

In early 2020, with the accelerating spread of COVID-19, Turkish authorities also decided to close the borders on them.

 


Biden urges Netanyahu abandon judicial overhaul that sparked protests

Biden urges Netanyahu abandon judicial overhaul that sparked protests
Updated 29 March 2023

Biden urges Netanyahu abandon judicial overhaul that sparked protests

Biden urges Netanyahu abandon judicial overhaul that sparked protests
  • “Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends,” he said

WASHINGTON, JERUSALEM: US President Joe Biden on Tuesday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to abandon a judicial overhaul proposal that led to massive protests in Israel, prompting the Israeli leader to say he does not make decisions based on pressure from abroad.
Netanyahu on Monday delayed the overhaul proposal after large numbers of people spilled into the streets. The White House initially said in response that Netanyahu should seek a compromise on the issue.
But Biden went further in taking questions from reporters on Tuesday. “I hope he walks away from it,” Biden said, referring to the judicial proposal that would give the Israeli government greater control over appointments to the country’s Supreme Court.
Netanyahu quickly issued a statement in response.
“Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends,” he said.
Netanyahu said his administration was striving to make reforms “via broad consensus.”
“I have known President Biden for over 40 years, and I appreciate his longstanding commitment to Israel,” Netanyahu said.
He said the Israel-US alliance is unbreakable “and always overcomes the occasional disagreements between us.
“My administration is committed to strengthening democracy by restoring the proper balance between the three branches of government, which we are striving to achieve via a broad consensus,” Netanyahu said.

 


Israeli forces tighten security measures against Palestinians

Israeli security forces patrol in the West Bank town of Huwara, on March 26, 2023. (AFP)
Israeli security forces patrol in the West Bank town of Huwara, on March 26, 2023. (AFP)
Updated 29 March 2023

Israeli forces tighten security measures against Palestinians

Israeli security forces patrol in the West Bank town of Huwara, on March 26, 2023. (AFP)
  • Sources said that the settlers attacked houses and burned vehicles under the protection of Israeli army forces, who assaulted citizens

RAMALLAH: Israeli armed forces’ assaults against Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have continued with increasing frequency during Ramadan, Palestinian sources confirmed to Arab News.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army arrested 13 citizens from different parts of the West Bank. At the same time, and for the fourth consecutive day, it continued to tighten its grip on the town of Huwara, south of Nablus.

Kamal Odeh, Fatah secretary in Huwara, said that the Israeli army has deployed intensively on the main street, setting up several barriers and trying to divert citizens’ routes through secondary streets inside the town.

According to eyewitnesses, the Israeli army turned several houses along the main street in the center of Huwara into military barracks.

Amer Hamdan, a human rights activist from Nablus, told Arab News that it usually takes him one hour to drive from Nablus to Ramallah. Today, however, the trip took him two and a half hours due to Israeli military checkpoints in Huwara.

“The security situation around Nablus is ad frightening,” Hamdan told Arab News.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Israeli bulldozers demolished three agricultural facilities in the Al-Sawahra wilderness, east of Jerusalem, and a commercial facility in Deir Ballut, west of Salfit.

Maj. Gen. Abdullah Kamil, the governor of Salfit, said that the policy of demolishing homes and facilities by the Israeli authorities in Salfit is one of the most egregious and inhumane practices and that it serves the occupation’s plans to uproot Palestinian citizens from their lands in order to build more Israeli settlements.

During the past hours, settler militias have launched a large-scale attack on Huwara, south of Nablus.

Sources said that the settlers attacked houses and burned vehicles under the protection of Israeli army forces, who assaulted citizens.

On Tuesday, settlers cut down 14 olive trees in the lands of Husan village, west of Bethlehem, after they had also cut down 50 olive trees in that area about 10 days ago.

Separately, Secretary-General of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions Shaher Saad handed over to the Fact-Finding Committee of the International Labor Organization an annual report on violations against Palestinian workers inside Israel.

The paper included the number of Palestinian workers killed by the Israeli army — 93 in the year 2022, and 31 in the first two and a half months of 2023 — and the risks that workers are exposed to while passing through barriers and openings, in addition to violations related to brokers who deduct approximately $34 million from workers’ salaries per month.

Saad explained to the committee that the Israeli government’s procedures for handing over workers’ money to the Israeli Otaim company threaten their rights and prevent the implementation of social security in Palestine.

The report also included the daily violations that workers face, especially in the absence of occupational health and safety standards, including working hours that extend beyond those legally established.

Some 140,000 Palestinians from the West Bank are working in Israel, 30,000 in Israeli settlements, and 17,000 from the Gaza Strip.

Qadura Faris, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, told Arab News that since 2021, cases of cancer among Palestinian security prisoners have been increasing, with 24 prisoners currently suffering from the disease.

He confirmed that the prison administration has deliberately pursued a policy of medical negligence toward prisoners, which has led to the death of 75 prisoners out of the 236 who have died in prisons since 1967.

“The policy of medical negligence is the most dangerous policy pursued by the Israeli prison administration,” Faris told Arab News, adding that about 700 sick prisoners diagnosed in Israeli prisons have faced difficult health conditions over the past years, including about 200 who suffer from chronic diseases.

Israel has 4,780 Palestinian security prisoners in its jails.

 


Lebanese politicians hurl insults at each other as tensions boil over in parliament

Lebanese politicians hurl insults at each other as tensions boil over in parliament
Updated 29 March 2023

Lebanese politicians hurl insults at each other as tensions boil over in parliament

Lebanese politicians hurl insults at each other as tensions boil over in parliament
  • Meanwhile, the US Treasury has imposed sanctions on two Lebanese citizens accused of being drug kingpins

BEIRUT: Politicians in Lebanon shouted and hurled insults at each other during a meeting of a joint parliamentary committee on Tuesday. It came as tensions continued to rise amid the ongoing failure to choose a new president and growing concerns that it will be impossible to hold municipal elections scheduled for May.

Amal Movement MP Ghazi Zeaiter, who has been accused of involvement in the events leading up to the massive explosion at Beirut’s port in August 2020, clashed with independent MP Melhem Khalaf, who has been staging a sit-in at the parliament for more than two months over the failure of MPs to elect a new president. As tensions rose, Zeaiter was accused of publicly insulting Khalaf.

Another dispute, over the municipal elections, broke out between Sami Gemayel, head of the Kataeb Party, and the Amal Movement’s Ali Hassan Khalil, who is also accused of involvement in the port explosion. The former accused the latter of using “immoral” insults.

As the rows continued, the meeting was ended. It took place a day after caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati reversed his unpopular decision, announced last week, to delay the start of daylight saving time for a month “to allow those fasting during Ramadan to rest for an hour.”

“What happened during the session was shocking,” said MP Hadi Abu Al-Hassan, a member of the Democratic Gathering bloc. “The country’s situation will become too dangerous if we continue this way.”

Politicians need to heed the voice of reason and consider carefully the best interests of the country and its people, he added.

“We need to elect a president, form a government and start implementing reforms instead of carrying on with this tense drama.”

The presidency has been vacant since Michel Aoun’s term concluded at the end of October last year. Politicians have been unable to reach agreement on a successor.

Abu Al-Hassan said that Walid Jumblatt, the head of the Progressive Socialist Party, has been talking with members of a number of parties in an attempt to ensure the volatile political situation remains under control but underlying tensions remain high.

After the ill-tempered parliamentary meeting, Gemayel refused to go into the details of the dispute but said that he considers what happened to be “a dangerous offense against sanctities and we cannot accept this.”

He warned that if some officials persist with their current approach to managing the country’s affairs, even bigger problems lie in store.

“If I disclosed what happened, I would be contributing to creating the strife that some want to drag the country into, and we do not want that,” Gemayel added.

He called on Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri to “address what happened” and added “if he does not want to deal with it, then he can consider the message received and we will discuss with our allies how we will take things from here.”

Warning of the potential dangers of failure to hold the municipal elections, Gemayel stressed “the need for the state to cover the cost” of the polls “as the required amount is $8 million.”

The Lebanese government has said it is unable to cover the cost of the elections, according to a source in the Ministry of Interior, as “there is no money or staff to hold them.”

The ministry has set the cost of the elections at $12 million. International donors, including the EU, the US Agency for International Development, and the UN Development Program, have pledged $3 million, which would cover the cost of necessities such as printing, stationery and logistics. The Lebanese state would need to provide the remaining money for election workers, judges, security, the transportation of ballot boxes, and electrical power, among other things.

Any decision to postpone the elections would require the calling of a legislative session. Christian parliamentary blocs refuse to agree to such sessions on the grounds that “Parliament is currently an electorate body whose sole purpose is to elect a president.” Meanwhile, other political forces do not want to be the ones responsible for passing a law that extends the terms of the current municipal councils.

In other news, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Lebanese citizens Hassan Daqqou and Nouh Zeaiter, who are accused of being drug lords.

Daqqou is a Lebanese-Syrian dual national from Tufail, a town the straddles the border with Syria. He was arrested in Lebanon in 2021 and remains in detention. The Criminal Court in Beirut last year sentenced him to seven years of hard labor for manufacturing Captagon and trafficking it to other countries. The US Treasury accuses him and his drug-trafficking operations of having direct links to Hezbollah.

Zeaiter is wanted by the Lebanese state on charges of drug trafficking. He is said to surround himself with no fewer than 14 armed guards and travels in four-wheel-drive vehicles with darkened windows. The US Treasury also links him with Hezbollah.

A few days ago, an army force ambushed a convoy on the outskirts of the town of Harbta in which wanted members of the Zeaiter family were traveling. During the armed battle that ensued, Zeaiter’s son, Mahdi, was injured and arrested.


Egypt to allow Iranians visas on arrival in Sinai as regional tensions ease

Egypt to allow Iranians visas on arrival in Sinai as regional tensions ease
Updated 29 March 2023

Egypt to allow Iranians visas on arrival in Sinai as regional tensions ease

Egypt to allow Iranians visas on arrival in Sinai as regional tensions ease

CAIRO: Egypt will soon allow Iranians traveling with tour groups to obtain visas on arrival in the south of its Sinai peninsula with a view to extending access to other parts of the country, Egyptian Tourism Ministry officials said.

The decision is part of a series of measures announced on Monday aimed at improving access to visas to boost tourism revenues at a time when Egypt has been struggling economically with an acute foreign currency shortage.

It also comes as some Middle Eastern countries including Egypt are taking steps to ease regional tensions. Egypt’s Sunni Muslim Arab ally Saudi Arabia and Shiite Muslim Iran announced this month that they would restore diplomatic relations.

Cairo has mended a rift with Qatar and is re-establishing ties with Turkiye, another country to benefit from new visa rules with Turkish nationals given expanded access to visas on arrival, according to a Egyptian Tourism Ministry statement.

Among the other new visa rules announced were a $700, five-year multiple-entry visa, which Tourism Minister Ahmed Issa said was aimed at investors and property owners who are based outside Egypt.

On visas for Iranians arriving in South Sinai, home to the highly secured resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, Issa said: “We will evaluate the experience of their arrival in South Sinai as a first step, and building on that, we’ll determine if they will be admitted in other places.”

Relations between Egypt and Iran have generally been fraught in recent decades although the two countries have maintained diplomatic contacts.

Tourists from China, which Egypt regards as a market with big potential, and Indians residing in Gulf countries will also be granted visas on arrival.

All new visa rules have been approved in principle and will be put into effect soon, a Tourism Ministry official said.


In Egypt’s ‘Garbage City,’ a charity teaches children to recycle

In Egypt’s ‘Garbage City,’ a charity teaches children to recycle
Updated 29 March 2023

In Egypt’s ‘Garbage City,’ a charity teaches children to recycle

In Egypt’s ‘Garbage City,’ a charity teaches children to recycle

CAIRO: As a child growing up in Cairo’s Manshiyat Nasser, a shanty town also known as “Garbage City,” Teresa Saeed spent her free time rummaging through the piles of rubbish strewn everywhere to find paper and materials to indulge her love of drawing and painting.

Now 34, she runs a charity that encourages children in the area to make creative and positive use of their environment by exploring the space and recycling.

In Manshiyat Nasser, a neighborhood of unpainted brick buildings east of central Cairo, many streets and buildings are piled high with rubbish collected from across the metropolis and processed or recycled informally.

“The whole idea is that these children are constantly surrounded with recycling. Why not teach them how to recycle in a way that reduces our consumption and benefits society?” she said.

Saeed’s charity Mesaha, the Arabic word for space, runs weekly recycling activities for 150-200 children aged 6-15.

In two-day workshops, the children gather plastic bottles, sticks, cardboard, paper and cans, and transform them into piggy banks, musical instruments, puzzles, or paintings.

“These activities help children connect with their environment and think outside the box,” Saeed said. “Instead of being angry at my surrounding environment, how can I do something that adds value to it?”

Saeed hopes to expand the project to other areas in Egypt.

“I dream that those children will grow to be leaders of change in their future professions or wherever they go” she said.