Why Syria’s return to Arab fold is seen as a win-win proposition

Special Why Syria’s return to Arab fold is seen as a win-win proposition
1 / 5
The participation of Syria follows its readmission into the pan-Arab body earlier this month and amid broader Saudi-led efforts to repair relations between Syria and other Arab countries. (Supplied)
Special Why Syria’s return to Arab fold is seen as a win-win proposition
2 / 5
Syria's President Bashar Assad, 4th from left, joins other Arab leaders in a photo session at the close of the Arab League summit in Jeddah on May 19, 2023. (SPA)
Special Why Syria’s return to Arab fold is seen as a win-win proposition
3 / 5
Syria's President Bashar Assad is seen on screen as he speaks during the Arab League summit in Jeddah on May 19, 2023. (Al Ekhbariya TV via REUTERS)
Special Why Syria’s return to Arab fold is seen as a win-win proposition
4 / 5
A laborer works at a factory to recycle war remnants and scrap metal near the rebel-held Bab al-Hawa crossing between Syria and Turkey on January 25, 2023. (AFP)
Special Why Syria’s return to Arab fold is seen as a win-win proposition
5 / 5
Syrian President Bashar Assad holds talks with Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit on the sidelines of the summit in Jeddah on Friday. (SPA)
Short Url
Updated 21 May 2023
Follow

Why Syria’s return to Arab fold is seen as a win-win proposition

Why Syria’s return to Arab fold is seen as a win-win proposition
  • Ending of isolation chimes with Saudi Arabia’s push for region’s stability and economic growth, analysts say
  • Move could facilitate the beginning of much-needed reconstruction and renewed trade

IRBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan: Thirteen years after President Bashar Assad attended a major Arab League meeting, a Syrian delegation led by him has taken part in the 32nd summit, this time in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

Assad’s participation in Friday’s summit follows Syria’s readmission into the pan-Arab body earlier this month and amid broader Saudi-led efforts to repair relations between Damascus and other Arab countries.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud struck a distinctly conciliatory tone in his address on Wednesday to participants in a preparatory meeting for the summit. “We welcome the return of Syria to the Arab League,” he said while stressing the need for devising new mechanisms to deal with “the challenges facing us.”

The Kingdom is playing a critical role in Syria’s return to the Arab fold, which began with the delivery of humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged country in the aftermath of the devastating Feb. 6 Turkiye-Syria earthquakes. 

Saudi Arabia and Syria intend to resume work at their respective diplomatic relations and resume flights. While Saudi Arabia, which cut ties with the Assad government in 2012, is not the first Arab country to re-establish relations with Syria, it is spearheading the current diplomatic drive, which many analysts believe has the potential to produce significant outcomes.

“I think Saudi Arabia played the role of ‘normalizing’ normalization,” Ryan Bohl, a senior Middle East and North Africa analyst at the risk intelligence company RANE, told Arab News. “Countries such as Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain were already pushing for normalization, but they all seemed like outliers without Saudi support.

FASTFACTS

Syrian President Bashar Assad received an invitation to the Arab League summit in Jeddah.

The invitation from King Salman was delivered by Saudi diplomat Nayef bin Bandar Al-Sudairi.

The invitation came 12 years after Syria’s Arab League membership was suspended.

“As the biggest Gulf Arab state with tremendous political and economic clout in the region, Riyadh’s blessing on normalization helped accelerate the trend,” he said. “In terms of benefits, most of them are long-term. In the immediate term, Saudi Arabia benefits from the appearance of being a peacemaker resolving issues through diplomacy.”

In the “longer run,” Bohl expects the Kingdom to help kickstart Syria’s reconstruction and “play a major role in rebuilding the country and potentially building up influence there.”




Syrian President Bashar Assad meeting in Damascus with Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Jordan, Nayef bin Bandar Al-Sudairy ahead of the recently concluded Arab Summit in Jeddah. (Syrian Presidency Telegram Page / AFP)

For Syria, the combination of diplomatic normalization and regional rehabilitation puts it on the “path of potentially gaining some sort of new economic ties with the outside world” that could facilitate the beginning of much-needed reconstruction and renewed trade.

The Arab League had suspended Syria in November 2011 over the Assad government’s crackdown on protests which began earlier that year and which morphed into a war that has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country’s infrastructure and industry.

“The Saudi role has been key to Syria’s return to the bosom of the Arab world,” Joshua Landis, director of both the Center of Middle East Studies and the Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Arabian Gulf Studies at the University of Oklahoma, told Arab News.

Saudi Arabia’s push for stability and economic growth in the Middle East will help bring to fruition Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s vision of “turning the Kingdom into a business and tourist hub” for the region.

“Syria’s rebuilding is key to building a better region that is more stable and prosperous,” he said.

Landis believes the Syrian move will advance the goal of “cementing Saudi Arabia’s role as the leader of the Arabs and the larger Middle East.”

“Now that the Saudi leadership has come to an understanding with Iran, there is no reason not to do the same in Yemen and Syria,” Landis said. “It is a win for Saudi Arabia.”

Both analysts view the Jeddah summit of the pan-Arab body as a potentially consequential one. “I think it will be one of several events that will be significant,” Bohl of RANE said. “At this point, it’s just a degree of how much more normalized Syria can get among its former adversaries. The next big breakthrough would be somehow getting past the US sanctions regime.”

For his part, Landis described the event as significant “even though the Arab League has been known for its insignificance.”

Syria’s normalization with a majority of Middle Eastern states could also help to improve the domestic humanitarian situation and even restore a degree of stability not seen in over a decade.




A girl walks near tents at Atmah Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp, in rebel-held town of Afrin, Syria May 19, 2023. (REUTERS)

“Normalization will ease humanitarian aid for places affected by the February earthquakes and in rebel-held territory,” Bohl said. “It could speed along some of the reconciliation agreements necessary to see a peaceful end to the civil war by encouraging rebel groups to engage in concessions to Damascus. It might also signal to Washington that its mission in Syria needs to be better defined and given a time limit.”

Nevertheless, both analysts concede that significant challenges and obstacles remain. The US remains opposed to lifting its sanctions on Syria. Landis describes those sanctions as the “great barrier” to rebuilding Syria.

“Arab countries will now have to decide how they want to chip away at Western sanctions and defy the West’s efforts to maintain a strict boycott of Syria,” he said.




Men wait for customers at a market in Syria's northern city of Raqqa on December 23, 2022, amid soaring inflation and ongoing economic crisis. (AFP)

Readmission into the Arab League is the first step toward stabilizing Syria and jumpstarting its economy, which has been severely paralyzed by over a decade of civil war and sanctions. Landis summed up the process as a “humble beginning.”

“The real challenge for the Arab League and Saudi diplomacy will be whether it can get the West to loosen sanctions and help facilitate the return of trade, the restoration of Syria’s energy sector and electric grid,” he said. 

“Until that happens, Syrians will continue to live in misery and privation.”

 


Hundreds more Palestinians killed as Israel pursues Hamas in south Gaza

Hundreds more Palestinians killed as Israel pursues Hamas in south Gaza
Updated 08 December 2023
Follow

Hundreds more Palestinians killed as Israel pursues Hamas in south Gaza

Hundreds more Palestinians killed as Israel pursues Hamas in south Gaza
  • The UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) said 1.9 million people — 85 percent of Gaza’s population — had been displaced and its shelters were four times over capacity

GAZA/JERUSALEM: Israel battled Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip’s biggest cities on Thursday, leaving hundreds more Palestinians dead as almost 2 million displaced Gazans struggled to find safe refuge amid critical shortages of food and shelter.
Residents reported fierce battles going on east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s largest city and Palestinian health officials said three Gazans were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.
Israel said its forces killed a number of gunmen in Khan Younis, including two who emerged firing from a tunnel.
Israeli TV showed footage, which Reuters could not independently verify, of what it said were captured Hamas fighters, stripped to their underwear with heads bowed sitting in a Gaza City street.
Some Palestinians recognized relatives and denied they had any links to Hamas or any other group. Hani Almadhoun, a Palestinian American based in Virginia saw relatives in the picture and told Reuters they were “innocent civilians with no links to Hamas or any other faction.”
“They took them from a house, that belongs to the family, in the area of the market. They detained my brother Mahmoud, 32, his son Omar, 13, my other nephew Aboud, 27, and my father 72, and several of our in-laws.”
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said soldiers were fighting against militants in Hamas “centers of gravity.”
“During this fighting, those who stay in the area, come out of tunnels and some out of houses, we investigate and check who is linked to Hamas and who is not, we detain and interrogate all of them,” Hagari said. He did not speak directly about the images but said that hundreds of suspected militants have been interrogated so far and that many have surrendered in the past 24 hours.
Gazans have crammed into Rafah on the southern border with Egypt, heeding Israeli messages saying that they would be safe in the city after successive warnings to head south.
But more than 20 people were killed in apartments there late on Wednesday, said Eyad Al-Hobi, a relative of some of those killed.
“All apartments in the building suffered serious damage,” he said as people brought out two apparently lifeless children.
Another relative, Bassam Al-Hobi, said the building had been hit by three rockets and he gestured to bodies wrapped in white cloth, some small, on the ground and surrounded by mourners.
In Washington, a senior State Department official said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Israel’s strategic affairs minister on Thursday, and told him Israel needs to do more to protect civilians in its offensive in southern Gaza.

NEW PHASE
Israeli troops reached the heart of Khan Younis on Wednesday in a new phase of the war, now entering its third month. Health officials said three people were killed there on Thursday.
Ambulances and relatives rushed the wounded into the city’s Nasser hospital, but even the floor space inside was full. Two badly wounded children lay on a trolley and a bloodstained young boy lay screaming among the patients on the floor.
“The injuries are very severe,” said doctor Mohamed Matar. “The situation is catastrophic in all senses of the word...We can’t treat the injured in this state.”
Those who escape violence face an increasingly desperate struggle to survive.
Ibrahim Mahram, who fled to Al Mawasi, said five families were sharing a tent in the former Bedouin village, which refugee organizations say lacks shelter, food and other necessities.
“We suffered from the war of cannons and escaped it to arrive at the war of starvation,” he told Reuters.
The UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) said 1.9 million people — 85 percent of Gaza’s population — had been displaced and its shelters were four times over capacity.
UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said pressure was growing in the south of the enclave near Egypt.
“People are piling up in the little sliver of land between Khan Younis and the Rafah border,” he told Reuters.
The Gaza health ministry said 17,177 Palestinians had been killed and 46,000 wounded since Oct 7, when Israel began bombing Gaza in response to an assault by Hamas militants who control the enclave. In the past 24 hours alone, 350 people had been killed, ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said.
Israel says it must wipe out Hamas and is doing everything possible to get civilians out of harm’s way.
BOMBING AND GUNBATTLES
Israel said it had raided a Hamas compound in Jabalia, killing several gunmen and found tunnels, a training area and weapons.
The armed wing of Hamas said fighters had destroyed or damaged 79 army vehicles in Gaza City in the past three days but did not produce evidence.
The surprise Hamas incursion on Oct 7. killed 1,200 people, with 240 people taken hostage, according to Israel’s tally.
The Israeli military says 88 soldiers have been killed in ground incursions into Gaza that began on Oct. 20.
The UN has been unable to distribute aid in any part of Gaza except for the area around Rafah for the past four days, it said in its daily humanitarian report on Thursday.
A senior Hamas official told Reuters mediators were still exploring opportunities for a truce and reiterated its demand that Israel cease its attacks but the White House said Israel and Hamas were not close to a deal on a humanitarian pause.
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Thursday there were promising signs that the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel could soon be opened to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
A guided-missile attack from Lebanon killed a 60-year-old farmer in northern Israel on Thursday, Hagari said, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Beirut would be turned “into Gaza” if Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, started an all-out war.
The White House said on Thursday that Israel and Hamas were not close to another deal on a new humanitarian pause and release of further Israeli hostages.
 

 


As aid runs out, Syria’s displaced fear dying of hunger

As aid runs out, Syria’s displaced fear dying of hunger
Updated 08 December 2023
Follow

As aid runs out, Syria’s displaced fear dying of hunger

As aid runs out, Syria’s displaced fear dying of hunger
  • The WFP said it “regrets to announce the end of its general food assistance across Syria in January 2024 due to lack of funding.”

ATME, Syria: Displaced people in camps in northeast Syria have expressed fears about their future after the World Food Programme announced the end of food assistance across the war-torn country.
“Stopping aid to the camps will exponentially increase suffering,” said Ali Farahat, the director of the Maram camp for the displaced in the town of Atme near the border with Turkiye.
“Some have told me ‘if aid stops, we will die of hunger’,” he told AFP on Wednesday.
In a statement issued on Monday, the WFP said it “regrets to announce the end of its general food assistance across Syria in January 2024 due to lack of funding.”
The United Nations’ food aid agency said it would “continue supporting families affected by emergency situations and natural disasters across the country through smaller and more targeted emergency response interventions.”
It told AFP the “decision is based on funding, which is a global issue that WFP faces.”
In September, the WFP had warned that insufficient funds had forced it to reduce assistance in various parts of the world, pushing an estimated 24 million people to the brink of famine.
In July, 45 percent of aid recipients in Syria were cut from assistance, it said.
“WFP’s activities by nature are fully scalable meaning they can be reduced or increased based on needs and available resources,” the agency told AFP.
Around three million people live in areas controlled by the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) militant group in Idlib province.
Roughly half live in camps for the displaced, while others reside in abandoned buildings or caves, or even in old buildings and rusty buses.
Camps for the displaced are often overcrowded and lack basic needs, with residents depending principally on food, medical and other aid provided by international organizations.
Residents of those camps in northeastern Syria, including Maram in Atme, are likely to be the hardest hit by the WFP decision.
Maram’s residents could be seen queuing up to receive some of the last of their aid rations of the year.
“Stopping assistance will lead to the death of those who subsisted on them because they don’t have money to buy food,” said Ahmed Adla, 40, who was displaced 11 years ago from the village of Kurin in Idlib’s countryside.
Khaled Al-Masri, 45, displaced nearly 13 years ago from the nearby village of Hass along with 11 family members, said: “I hope they come to see our conditions and how we spend the winter. We can’t keep our children warm.”


Fears of US veto loom large on eve of UN Security Council vote on Gaza ceasefire call

Fears of US veto loom large on eve of UN Security Council vote on Gaza ceasefire call
Updated 08 December 2023
Follow

Fears of US veto loom large on eve of UN Security Council vote on Gaza ceasefire call

Fears of US veto loom large on eve of UN Security Council vote on Gaza ceasefire call
  • Saudi envoy expresses hope the US will allow adoption on Friday of resolution drafted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the UN’s Arab Group of nations
  • An 8-member ministerial delegation, led by Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, arrived in Washington on Thursday in attempt to rally US support for the resolution

NEW YORK CITY: All eyes will be on the US during a meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, when the 15-member body is due to vote on a draft resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

However, Robert Wood, alternate permanent representative of the US to the UN, indicated that Washington continues to dismiss the need for any additional action by the council “at this time.”

The resolution was drafted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab Group of nations at the UN, and presented by the UAE, which currently occupies the Arab seat on the council.

The text, seen by Arab News, demands “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza and “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access.”

It expresses “grave concern over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population, and (emphasizes) that the Palestinian and Israeli civilian populations must be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law.”

The vote on the resolution follows a dramatic constitutional move by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday, when he invoked one of the few powers provided to him by the UN Charter by calling on the Security Council to demand a ceasefire, to help avert a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza that could have “potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole, and for peace and security in the region.”

In a letter to the council, he said more than eight weeks of fighting has “created appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Wood said that Washington’s position on the issue remains unchanged, despite the historic appeal by the secretary-general for an immediate ceasefire.

“We don’t think another Security Council product right now is going to be helpful to the situation,” said Wood.

His country is currently focused on “difficult and sensitive diplomacy geared to getting more hostages released, more aid flowing into Gaza, and better protection of civilians,” he added.

The US has been working to persuade Israeli authorities to recalibrate their approach so that the targeting of Hamas facilities and the group’s leadership is more precise, Wood said. This process will take time, he added as he expressed concern about the number of Palestinians killed and injured but said he remains confident that Israeli authorities are listening to the US calls.

Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative to the UN, Abdulaziz Alwasil, said he remains hopeful that the US, one of five nations that holds the power of veto within the Security Council, will allow the resolution to be adopted on Friday.

Flanked by 57 representatives of the OIC and the Arab Group, he said an eight-member Arab ministerial delegation, empowered by the Riyadh Summit on Nov. 11 and led by Saudi foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan, arrived in Washington on Thursday morning for meetings with members of Congress and representatives of President Joe Biden’s administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during which they would “push for accepting the resolution presented by the Arab group.”

Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer of the state of Palestine to the UN, also expressed “sincere hope” that the Security Council will adopt the resolution and “listen to the brave, courageous principled position of the secretary-general, (which) gives you an indication of how dangerous the situation is in the Gaza Strip.”

Asked about the possibility that the Arab ministerial delegation in Washington would fail to change the view of the Biden administration about a ceasefire call, Mansour highlighted the international isolation of the US on the issue.

He said: “We are calling for a ceasefire. The secretary-general is calling for a ceasefire. All UN agencies are calling for a ceasefire. (Josep) Borrell (the EU’s foreign policy chief) is calling for a ceasefire. The EU is doing the same, (French President Emmanuel) Macron (too), not to mention Russia and China and many others.

“(Also) people in the streets, including the Jewish American community, particularly the young generation, who took over Grand Central Station (in New York), and the (other) millions in the streets.

“All of them are saying, ‘We want a ceasefire.’ (So) those who are opposing a ceasefire are among the very small minority. The lives of children are precious, so any effort to save their lives is in line with humanity and any effort not to save their lives is in contradiction to humanity.”


US imposes sanctions on Iran-backed network funding Yemen’s Houthis

Houthi supporters rally to show support to Palestinian factions, in Sanaa, Yemen October 7, 2023. (REUTERS)
Houthi supporters rally to show support to Palestinian factions, in Sanaa, Yemen October 7, 2023. (REUTERS)
Updated 08 December 2023
Follow

US imposes sanctions on Iran-backed network funding Yemen’s Houthis

Houthi supporters rally to show support to Palestinian factions, in Sanaa, Yemen October 7, 2023. (REUTERS)
  • The sanctions freeze all properties and interests in the United States of those targeted and generally prohibit Americans from conducting transactions with them

WASHINGTON: The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on 13 individuals and entities for allegedly funneling tens of millions of dollars in foreign currency to Yemen’s Houthi group from the sale and shipment of Iranian commodities.
The US Treasury said in a statement that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s paramilitary and espionage force, backed the scheme involving a complex web of exchange houses and firms in multiple countries, including Yemen, Turkiye, and St. Kitts and Nevis.
Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson said funds provided by Iran have enabled recent attacks by the Houthis on commercial shipping in the Red Sea that endanger international trade.
“The Houthis continue to receive funding and support from Iran, and the result is unsurprising: unprovoked attacks on civilian infrastructure and commercial shipping, disrupting maritime security and threatening international commercial trade,” the Treasury statement quoted Nelson as saying.’
The Houthis say they have been staging drone and missile attacks against Israel and Israeli ships in the Red Sea in response to the offensive Israel launched against Hamas in Gaza after the Oct.7 rampage into Israel by Hamas militants.
Iran denies any involvement in the attacks.
Washington has said that US warships have downed missiles and drones fired by the Houthis although the Pentagon says it has not been clear that the American vessels were actually targeted. US warships have also intercepted attacks on commercial ships that the US military says were linked to multiple nations.
The sanctions freeze all properties and interests in the United States of those targeted and generally prohibit Americans from conducting transactions with them.
The Treasury said that the targeted network involved Said Al-Jamal, a key “Iran-based Houthi financial facilitator,” and Bilal Hudroj, who runs a Lebanon-based exchange house, both of whom already are under US sanctions.
Jamal has for years used a web of exchange houses in Yemen and abroad to funnel the proceeds of Iranian commodity sales to the Houthis and the IRGC, the Treasury said, adding that Hudroj has assisted in the remittances to the Houthis.
The 13 entities and individuals hit in the latest sanctions include a jewelry shop and exchange house in Turkiye, the Treasury said, as well as exchange houses, shipping agents and individuals in St. Kitts and Nevis, Britain and Russia.

 


Two months of war in Gaza leave elderly and newborns destitute and displaced

Two months of war in Gaza leave elderly and newborns destitute and displaced
Updated 08 December 2023
Follow

Two months of war in Gaza leave elderly and newborns destitute and displaced

Two months of war in Gaza leave elderly and newborns destitute and displaced
  • With no real sign of any imminent respite, Palestinians are living with little food or clean water, often on the street, trying to calm screaming children at night as bombs and shells fall

GAZA: After two months of war in Gaza, most of its people are homeless, crammed by a pounding Israeli bombardment into yet smaller areas of an already tiny enclave where the elderly and newborns live alike in tents amid the rubble.
Three women pushed from their homes in the Gaza Strip over 61 days of fighting have now ended up desperate for shelter and safety after fleeing from one place to another under air strikes and shellfire.
Zainab Khalil, 57, is seeking to move for a fourth time as Israeli tanks roll into the southern city of Khan Younis. Israa Al-Jamala, 28, lives in a tent tending her infant daughter who was born the night a short-lived truce began. And Mai Salim walks by the Egyptian border fearing she and her family will be forced across it into a life of permanent exile.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people were taken unawares by the sudden disaster that began to unfold for them on Oct. 7 as Israeli jets began strikes to retaliate for a surprise Hamas attack across the border that Israel says killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
The Israeli military has vowed to crush Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza and is pledged to Israel’s destruction, but says the group hides its weapons, command centers and fighters among a civilian population it uses as “human shields.” Hamas denies this.
Four-fifths of Gaza residents have now been displaced, many of them several times over. Their homes, businesses, mosques and schools have been damaged, destroyed or abandoned as too dangerous in the face of the Israeli assault. Health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza say 17,177 people have been killed there.
With no real sign of any imminent respite, Palestinians are living with little food or clean water, often on the street, trying to calm screaming children at night as bombs and shells fall.
“A new mother should be in her home raising the child with her mother, with her family,” said Jamala, cradling her tiny daughter, also called Israa, amid the tents that have sprung up around a hospital in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.
After the Jamala home was shelled, the family moved into the makeshift camp outside Shuhada Al-Aqsa hospital, she said. Little Israa was born there on Nov. 24, the night a week-long truce began, raising hope that the conflict might relent.
But after a week, fighting resumed and the family remains in the tent, a carpet covering the sand and Israa sleeping in a small cot.
Like others in Gaza they struggle to find food and other necessities. “See how much we’re in need. There’s no milk. No powdered milk,” Jamala said.
Even when the war finally ends, she does not know what she will do as their home was shelled. “Where will we stay? Where can we raise this baby? Where can we live?” she said.

BOMBARDMENT
Khalil lived in Sheikh Radwan, a suburb of Gaza City near Beach Refugee Camp in the enclave’s north. Israel started telling residents to go south in mid-October, though it continued with air strikes across the territory.
She did not want to leave, calling it the most difficult decision of her life. She finally moved to a shelter nearby where she thought she would be safer from bombardment, but as air strikes intensified over 10 days she decided to move on.
“A journey mixed with fear, despair, displacement and sadness under heavy bombardment,” was how she described her odyssey from shelter to shelter.
When Israeli troops pushed into Gaza City and surrounded Al-Shifa Hospital, she headed south with a friend and her family, alternately walking and riding in a donkey cart.
As they crossed a front line, Israeli soldiers ordered them to “walk a bit and stop, walk and stop” over four hours, she said.
She wound up living in a school in Khan Younis being used as a shelter for around 30 displaced people, where some of her nieces had already ended up. “In this war, who doesn’t get killed by bombs gets killed by disease, sadness and despair,” she said.
But Israel’s military is now ordering people in Khan Younis too to leave and Khalil must look for a new place to stay.
The only major town left to run to is Rafah, hard against the border with Egypt. Most Gaza residents are descended from refugees who fled or were forced from their homes in what is now Israel during the war of 1948. Many are terrified they will end up as refugees again, forced from Gaza altogether.
Walking by the border fence, Salim and a friend peered over toward Egypt. She had fled her home in Gaza City, moving first to Nuseirat and later to Khan Younis before finally ending up in Rafah after the Israeli military ordered people to move again.
“For us, this is the last stop. After that, if they want to forcibly displace us we will not leave. They can kill us right here but we will not leave our land and our entire lives. We will not do that,” she said.