Palestinians trek across rubble to return to their homes as Gaza ceasefire takes hold

Displaced Palestinians leave parts of Khan Younis as they go back to their homes in Rafah, southern Gaza on Jan. 19. (AP)
1 / 3
Displaced Palestinians leave parts of Khan Younis as they go back to their homes in Rafah, southern Gaza on Jan. 19. (AP)
Displaced Palestinians leave parts of Khan Younis as they go back to their homes in Rafah, southern Gaza on Jan. 19. (AP)
2 / 3
Displaced Palestinians leave parts of Khan Younis as they go back to their homes in Rafah, southern Gaza on Jan. 19. (AP)
Displaced Palestinians leave parts of Khan Younis as they go back to their homes in Rafah, southern Gaza on Jan. 19. (AP)
3 / 3
Displaced Palestinians leave parts of Khan Younis as they go back to their homes in Rafah, southern Gaza on Jan. 19. (AP)
Short Url
Updated 20 January 2025
Follow

Palestinians trek across rubble to return to their homes as Gaza ceasefire takes hold

Palestinians trek across rubble to return to their homes as Gaza ceasefire takes hold
  • Many Palestinian found their homes reduced to rubble

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: Even before the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was fully in place Sunday, Palestinians in the war-battered Gaza Strip began to return to the remains of the homes they had evacuated during the 15-month war.
Majida Abu Jarad made quick work of packing the contents of her family’s tent in the sprawling tent city of Muwasi, just north of the strip’s southern border with Egypt.
At the start of the war, they were forced to flee their house in Gaza’s northern town of Beit Hanoun, where they used to gather around the kitchen table or on the roof on summer evenings amid the scent of roses and jasmine.
The house from those fond memories is gone, and for the past year, Abu Jarad, her husband and their six daughters have trekked the length of the Gaza Strip, following one evacuation order after another by the Israeli military.
Seven times they fled, she said, and each time, their lives became more unrecognizable to them as they crowded with strangers to sleep in a school classroom, searching for water in a vast tent camp or sleeping on the street.
Now the family is preparing to begin the trek home — or to whatever remains of it — and to reunite with relatives who remained in the north.
“As soon as they said that the truce would start on Sunday, we started packing our bags and deciding what we would take, not caring that we would still be living in tents,” Abu Jarad said.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. Over 110,000 Palestinians have been wounded, it said. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The Israeli military’s bombardment has flattened large swaths of Gaza and displaced 1.9 million of its 2.3 million residents.
Even before the ceasefire officially took effect — and as tank shelling continued overnight and into the morning — many Palestinians began trekking through the wreckage to reach their homes, some on foot and others hauling their belongings on donkey carts.
“They’re returning to retrieve their loved ones under the rubble,” said Mohamed Mahdi, a displaced Palestinian and father of two. He was forced to leave his three-story home in Gaza City’s southeastern Zaytoun neighborhood a few months ago,
Mahdi managed to reach his home Sunday morning, walking amid the rubble from western Gaza. On the road he said he saw the Hamas-run police force being deployed to the streets in Gaza City, helping people returning to their homes.
Despite the vast scale of the destruction and uncertain prospects for rebuilding, “people were celebrating,” he said. “They are happy. They started clearing the streets and removing the rubble of their homes. It’s a moment they’ve waited for 15 months.”
Um Saber, a 48-year-old widow and mother of six children, returned to her hometown of Beit Lahiya. She asked to be identified only by her honorific, meaning “mother of Saber,” out of safety concerns.
Speaking by phone, she said her family had found bodies in the street as they trekked home, some of whom appeared to have been lying in the open for weeks.
When they reached Beit Lahiya, they found their home and much of the surrounding area reduced to rubble, she said. Some families immediately began digging through the debris in search of missing loved ones. Others began trying to clear areas where they could set up tents.
Um Saber said she also found the area’s Kamal Adwan hospital “completely destroyed.”
“It’s no longer a hospital at all,” she said. “They destroyed everything.”
The hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli forces waging an offensive in largely isolated northern Gaza against Hamas fighters it says have regrouped.
The military has claimed that Hamas militants operate inside Kamal Adwan, which hospital officials have denied.
In Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, residents returned to find massive destruction across the city that was once a hub for displaced families fleeing Israel’s bombardment elsewhere in the Palestinian enclave. Some found human remains amid the rubble of houses and the streets.
“It’s an indescribable scene. It’s like you see a Hollywood horror movie,” said Mohamed Abu Taha, a Rafah resident, speaking to The Associated Press as he and his brother were inspecting his family home in the city’s Salam neighborhood. “Flattened houses, human remains, skulls and other body parts, in the street and in the rubble.”
He shared footage of piles of rubble he said had been his family’s house. “I want to know how they destroyed our home.”
The returns come amid looming uncertainty regarding whether the ceasefire deal will bring more than a temporary halt to the fighting, who will govern the enclave and how it will be rebuilt.
Not all families will be able to return home immediately. Under the terms of the deal, returning displaced people will only be able to cross the Netzarim corridor from south to north beginning seven days into the ceasefire.
And those who do return may face a long wait to rebuild their houses.
The United Nations has said that reconstruction could take more than 350 years if Gaza remains under an Israeli blockade. Using satellite data, the United Nations estimated last month that 69 percent of the structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, including over 245,000 homes. With over 100 trucks working full-time, it would take more than 15 years just to clear the rubble away,
But for many families, the immediate relief overrode fears about the future.
“We will remain in a tent, but the difference is that the bleeding will stop, the fear will stop, and we will sleep reassured,” Abu Jarad said.


Syria to have new government on March 1: foreign minister

Syria to have new government on March 1: foreign minister
Updated 9 sec ago
Follow

Syria to have new government on March 1: foreign minister

Syria to have new government on March 1: foreign minister
  • Ahmed Al-Sharaa, leader of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group that led the offensive that overthrew Bashar Assad, was appointed interim president
DUBAI: Syrian Arab Republic will have a new government next month, Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani said on Wednesday, with interim authorities having ruled the country after the overthrown of Bashar Assad.
“The government that will be launched March 1 will represent the Syrian people as much as possible and take its diversity into account,” Shaibani said on the sidelines of the World Governments Summit in the United Arab Emirates.
The Islamist-led militants that seized power installed an interim government headed by Mohammad Al-Bashir to steer the multi-ethnic, multi-confessional country until March 1.
Last month, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, leader of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group (HTS) that led the offensive that overthrew Assad, was appointed interim president.
He was tasked with forming a transitional legislature with the Assad-era parliament dissolved, along with the Baath party which ruled Syria for decades.
HTS and other factions have themselves been dissolved, with their fighters to be integrated into a future national force.
In an interview earlier this month, Sharaa said that organizing elections could take up to five years.
The new authorities have pledged to hold a national dialogue conference involving all Syrians, but have yet to set a date.

Govts need centralized AI centers with accurate data for better public services, say business leaders

Govts need centralized AI centers with accurate data for better public services, say business leaders
Updated 21 min 23 sec ago
Follow

Govts need centralized AI centers with accurate data for better public services, say business leaders

Govts need centralized AI centers with accurate data for better public services, say business leaders
  • Unified data vital, says Larry Ellisson at World Governments Summit
  • AstraZeneka’s Pascal Soriot warns of dangers of ‘data fragmentation’

DUBAI: Governments need to feed artificial intelligence models accurate data  —stored in secure, centralized centers — so that better solutions can be found to improve public services, said Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison at the World Governments Summit here on Wednesday.

AI, if harnessed correctly, would fundamentally change several industries including medicine, agriculture and robotics, said Ellison during a discussion on governance featuring former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

This was a view later echoed by AstraZeneka’s CEO Pascal Soriot, who warned against the inefficiencies of fragmented information which placed hurdles in the way of effective healthcare.

Soriot warned of the problems of what he called data fragmentation, where information is not held in a centralized environment.

“While AI is transformative, data fragmentation remains a hurdle. The healthcare industry needs time to adapt, but the potential is undeniable.”

In Ellison’s session, titled “Reimagining Technology for Government: A conversation with Larry Ellison and Tony Blair,” the Oracle co-founder said the scope to improve governance, especially in areas such as health, has improved significantly.

Oracle is a US-based tech company known for its database management system used by organizations across the globe.

“Countries need to unify their data so it can be consumed and used by the AI model. We must feed the AI model as much data about a country as possible,” Ellison said.

A single unified platform was proposed by Ellison to give AI models all the context and information needed to provide accurate responses and maximize its usage.

Ellison said government data was currently fragmented and once this information was unified, it was vital to store it securely. “These data centers need to be secure in our countries for privacy and security reasons,” he added.

Improving AI models would, for example, lower healthcare costs as diagnosis would be much faster, he explained. AI could also help maximize crop yields to improve food security for the planet.

“The UAE has a treasure of data that can improve quality of life and lifespan by preparing healthcare data and using these AI models to improve quality of life,” he added.

He added that Oracle would no longer require users to access platforms with passwords but would implement biometric scans and AI technology.

“The digital tools we have right now are so primitive. We can easily be locked out of all our data; passwords and data are so easily stolen and ransomed. We need to modernize our systems,” he said.

In the later session on the global health sector, AstraZeneca’s Soriot said there were two factors contributing to the current surge in preventable conditions.

“Self-inflicted diseases are a growing crisis in the health industry,” he said, identifying climate change and obesity as the leading culprits.

“Air pollution, increasing temperatures, and climate change are not just abstract threats; they are silent killers,” Soriot warned.

He elaborated on the impact of microplastics, pollutants, and toxic emissions, which have been linked to rising cases of heart attacks, cancers, and kidney and liver diseases worldwide.

Soriot pointed to obesity as another critical factor.

“This self-inflicted condition triggers chronic low-level inflammation, paving the way for kidney disease, heart disease, diabetes, and various forms of cancer,” he said.

He expressed frustration over the minimal investment in preventive healthcare. “Governments allocate only 3 percent of their healthcare budgets to prevention and early diagnosis.”

But he said this could be tackled with the use of technology. “Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing healthcare, enabling early diagnosis where traditional methods fall short.”

AI’s capabilities in detecting early signs of lung cancer and kidney issues could extend lives significantly, he added.

In his closing remarks Soriot said: “The future of healthcare hinges on our ability to prevent rather than just treat.

“We must prioritize early intervention, leverage technology, and rethink our approach to health. Only then can we hope to reverse this silent crisis.”

 


Israel air strike targeting drone hits two in Gaza

Israel air strike targeting drone hits two in Gaza
Updated 12 February 2025
Follow

Israel air strike targeting drone hits two in Gaza

Israel air strike targeting drone hits two in Gaza
  • The Israeli military has previously said it thwarted similar attempts to smuggle weapons using drones
  • Hamas, while reaffirming its commitment to the truce, has accused Israel of violations

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it conducted an air strike on Wednesday in the Gaza Strip, targeting two people attempting to retrieve a drone that had crossed into the Palestinian territory.
The military said the drone had flown from Israeli territory and was subsequently targeted by an Israeli warplane in southern Gaza.
“Recently, several attempts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip using drones have been detected,” the military said in a statement.
“The IDF (military) struck the drone in southern Gaza, along with two additional suspects who were collecting it,” it said, without specifying their fate.
The Israeli military has previously said it thwarted similar attempts to smuggle weapons using drones.
On Sunday, it identified a drone crossing from Egypt into Israeli territory.
“Following pursuit in the area the weapons smuggling was thwarted by the forces,” it said at the time.
It was unclear whether Wednesday’s strike was the first the military conducted in Gaza since the ongoing 42-day phase of a ceasefire took effect on January 19.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a truce following negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
Since the truce began, both sides have carried out five hostage-prisoner exchanges, with Hamas releasing 16 Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails.
However, the ceasefire is under increasing strain after Israel threatened to resume fighting if Hamas does not hand over more hostages by this weekend.
Hamas, while reaffirming its commitment to the truce, has accused Israel of violations.


Senior Arab officials warn that Trump Gaza plan would inflame Middle East

Senior Arab officials warn that Trump Gaza plan would inflame Middle East
Updated 12 February 2025
Follow

Senior Arab officials warn that Trump Gaza plan would inflame Middle East

Senior Arab officials warn that Trump Gaza plan would inflame Middle East
  • Trump plan would lead the Middle East into a new cycle of crises with a ‘damaging effect on peace and stability’
  • Trump enraged the Arab world by declaring unexpectedly that the US would take over Gaza

DUBAI: US President Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza and resettle Palestinians, which has drawn global condemnation, will threaten a fragile ceasefire in the enclave and fuel regional instability, senior Arab officials said on Wednesday.

Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit warned the World Government Summit in Dubai that if Trump pressed ahead with his plan, he would lead the Middle East into a new cycle of crises with a “damaging effect on peace and stability.”

Trump enraged the Arab world by declaring unexpectedly that the United States would take over Gaza, resettle its over 2-million Palestinian population and develop it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

After 16 months of Israeli air strikes in the Gaza war following Hamas’ attacks on Israel in October 2023, Palestinians fear a repeat of the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, when nearly 800,000 people fled or were driven out during the 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel. Trump has said they would have no right to return.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Tuesday the ceasefire in Gaza would end and the military would resume fighting Hamas until it was defeated if the Palestinian militant group did not release hostages by midday on Saturday.

Hamas later issued a statement renewing its commitment to the ceasefire and accusing Israel of jeopardizing it.

Hamas has gradually been releasing hostages since the first phase of a ceasefire began on January 19, but on Monday said it would not free any more over accusations Israel was violating the deal.

“If the situation explodes militarily once more, all this (ceasefire) effort will be wasted,” Aboul Gheit said.

Jasem Al-Budaiwi, who heads the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council political and economic alliance, called on Trump to remember the strong ties between the region and Washington.

“But there has to be give and take, he says his opinion and Arab world should say theirs; what he is saying won’t be accepted by the Arab world.”

Trump has said the Palestinians in Gaza, an impoverished tiny strip of land, could settle in countries like Jordan, which already has a huge Palestinian population, and Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous state. Both have rejected the proposal.

For Jordan, Trump’s talk of resettlement comes close to its nightmare of a mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank, with the idea of Jordan becoming an alternative Palestinian home long promoted by ultra-nationalist Israelis.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi partly views it as a security issue. He believes Islamists like Hamas are an existential threat to Egypt and beyond and would not welcome any members of the group crossing the border and settling in Egypt.

Egypt will host an emergency Arab summit on February 27 to discuss “serious” developments for Palestinians.

Aboul Gheit said the idea of the Arab Peace Initiative floated in 2002, in which Arab nations offered Israel normalized ties in return for a statehood deal with the Palestinians and full Israeli withdrawal from territory captured in 1967, would be reintroduced.

Trump’s plan has upended decades of US policy that endorsed a two-state solution in which Israel and a Palestinian state would coexist.

Elsewhere, China reiterated its opposition to what it called “forced displacement” of Palestinians when asked about Trump’s plan.

“Gaza belongs to the Palestinians and is an integral part of the Palestinian territory... We oppose the forced displacement of the people of Gaza,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular press briefing on Wednesday.

So far, 16 of 33 hostages taken by Hamas militants from Israel have been freed as part of the ceasefire deal’s first phase due to last 42 days. Five Thai hostages were also let go in an unscheduled release.

In exchange, Israel has released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including some serving life sentences for deadly attacks and others detained during the war and held without charge.


Nerves fray in Turkiye textile sector as Syrian refugees mull return

Nerves fray in Turkiye textile sector as Syrian refugees mull return
Updated 12 February 2025
Follow

Nerves fray in Turkiye textile sector as Syrian refugees mull return

Nerves fray in Turkiye textile sector as Syrian refugees mull return

GAZIANTEP: As excitement swept through the Syrian community after Bashar Assad’s overthrow, businesses in Turkiye that rely on them for labor began quickly crunching the numbers.
“The Syrians have made a big contribution to the textile sector here. If they leave, there will be a serious labor problem,” said Ali Gozcu, reflecting the widespread anxiety gripping Turkiye’s textile industry.
Gozcu runs ALG Teksil, a clothing firm in Gaziantep, a southeastern Turkish city that is home to half a million Syrians.
“We don’t expect a sudden departure, but if it happens, we will suffer a serious loss of labor,” he told AFP, adding that 70 percent of his workers were Syrian.
And he is not alone.
“All of the workers here are Syrian,” agreed Yusuf Samil Kandil, a quality controller at Beni Giy clothing, referring to the Unal district where textile firms line the run-down streets and old-fashioned mannequins stand in dusty shopfronts alongside racks of garments.
“If the Syrians leave, our labor costs will increase significantly, as well as our production costs,” he told AFP.
Turkiye is the world’s sixth-largest textile manufacturer and its industry is based in the southern regions that host most of its around 2.9 million Syrian migrants.
Government figures show that around 100,000 Syrians have work permits, but experts believe about a million Syrians are active in the Turkish economy, mostly in informal, labor-intensive jobs in construction, manufacturing and textiles.
Their departure could put a serious dent in the workforce of an industry that is struggling with inflationary pressures and rising costs.
So far, just over 81,000 people have returned, interior ministry figures show, although observers expect a surge in June over the Eid Al-Adha holiday.
On ALG’s factory floor, dozens of young men and women sit hunched over industrial sewing machines or overlockers, churning out thousands of t-shirts.
A new Syrian flag hangs on the wall and there is an Arabic notice on the toilet door.
Zekeriya Bozo, a 55-year-old worker who wants to return to Syria and “create a new business there” said: “If Syrians leave, there won’t be anyone left to work” at ALG.
But experts say it is a complicated picture for Syrians, suggesting fears of a mass departure are unfounded due to the uncertainty hanging over a country ravaged by 13 years of war.
“Although they’re very happy that Assad is gone, that was only one barrier to them going back,” said Professor Murat Erdogan, whose Syrians Barometer survey has consistently flagged their concerns about safety, the potential for conflict and Syria’s ruined infrastructure.
Most have established a life in Turkiye, with more than 970,000 babies born over the past 12 years.
Despite tough working conditions, they know they are unlikely to find something better back home, he told AFP.
“They told us they have a lot of problems in Turkiye and work very hard for very little money. But if they go back, even if they did find jobs, they said they’ll only get $14 a month,” he said.
They earn far more than that in Turkiye.
“Going back is a huge decision. Because of that, I think a maximum of 20 percent of them will return and that will take a lot of time.”
Despite the uncertainty, Gozcu is looking into new ways of working that could accommodate the return of some Syrians, nearly half of whom hail from the Aleppo region just across the border from Gaziantep.
“We’ve become very close with our Syrian workers,” he told AFP.
If need be, “we will open workshops in Syria for them and will continue our production there,” he said.
Although much of Syria was in ruins, Kemal Kirisci, a migration expert at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said there was potential for developing business links in the future.
“Syria is a very promising place in the long run. Ideally, we could have a very porous economic border so people could move back-and-forth,” he told AFP.
“It would be a win for Turkish industry, for the economy, a win for Syria and for the new regime.”
There could eventually be a revival of the so-called ‘ShamGen’ area of free trade and visa-free movement between Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkiye that was inspired by the EU’s Schengen zone but collapsed at the start of the war in 2011.
“These things could be revived very easily — but the key lies with this new regime,” he said.