In north Lebanon, Syrian Alawites shelter among graves

In north Lebanon, Syrian Alawites shelter among graves
Beside mounds of garbage in the shade of towering trees, men, women and children from Syria's minority Alawite community seek shelter in north Lebanon among graves surrounding a half-built mosque - grateful to have escaped the sectarian violence at home but fearing for their future. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 22 May 2025
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In north Lebanon, Syrian Alawites shelter among graves

In north Lebanon, Syrian Alawites shelter among graves
  • “We each have our own horror story that drove us to this place,” said a man with sunken eyes
  • Around 600 people have sought shelter at the Hissa mosque

HISSA, Lebanon: Behind a ramshackle mosque in Hissa, north Lebanon, the living are making a home for themselves among the dead.

Beside mounds of garbage in the shade of towering trees, men, women and children from Syria’s minority Alawite community seek shelter among the graves surrounding the half-built mosque — grateful to have escaped the sectarian violence at home but fearing for their future.

“We each have our own horror story that drove us to this place,” said a man with sunken eyes.

One such story was of a mother who had been killed in front of her children by unknown militants as they crossed the border, said others staying at the mosque.

All of the refugees that spoke to Reuters requested anonymity for fear of retribution.

Around 600 people have sought shelter at the Hissa mosque. Hundreds sleep in the main hall, including a day-old baby.

On the building’s unfinished second story, plastic sheets stretched over wooden beams divide traumatized families.

Others sleep on the roof. One family has set up camp under the stairwell, another by the tomb of a local saint. Some sleep on the graves in the surrounding cemetery, others under trees with only thin blankets for warmth.

They are among the tens of thousands refugees who have fled Syria since March, when the country suffered its worst bloodshed since Bashar Assad was toppled from power by Islamist-led rebels in December.

Almost 40,000 people have fled Syria into north Lebanon since then, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said in a statement.

The outflow comes at a time when humanitarian funding is being squeezed after US President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze foreign aid and dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID) earlier this year.

NEEDS BUT NO RESOURCES

The recent violence in Syria, which has pitted the Islamist-led government’s security forces against fighters from the Alawite minority, the sect to which Assad’s family belongs, has killed more than 1,000 people since March.

For more than 50 years, Assad and his father before him crushed any opposition from Syria’s Sunni Muslims, who make up more than 70 percent of the population. Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, took many of the top positions in government and the military and ran big businesses.

Alawites now accuse the new government of President Ahmed Al-Sharaa of exacting revenge, but Sharaa says he will pursue inclusive policies to unite the country shattered by civil war and attract foreign investment.

Trump said last week he would lift sanctions on Syria, triggering hopes of economic renewal. But this has provided little comfort to the refugees in northern Lebanon, who are struggling to meet their basic needs.

“UNHCR, but also other agencies, are not now in a position to say you can count on us,” said Ivo Freijsen, UNHCR representative in Lebanon, in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation in April.

“So, in response to new arrivals, yes, we will try, but it will be less (than before).”

More refugees come from Syria every day. Almost 50 people arrived over two days last week, said one camp representative, who asked not to be named for security reasons.

UNHCR is equipping new arrivals with essential items like mattresses, blankets and clothes, as well as providing medical help and mental health support, said a spokesperson.

“UNHCR is also conducting rehabilitation works in shelters to make sure families are protected,” the spokesperson added.

’FORGOTTEN’ REFUGEES

At the mosque, food is scarce and the portable toilets provided by an aid group have flooded. Garbage is piling up and is attracting vermin. Snakes have been killed in the camp, and one refugee spoke of the “biggest centipedes we have ever seen.”

The camp’s children have nowhere to go.

It can be difficult for refugee children to access Lebanon’s school system, Human Rights Watch has said, while the refugees at the mosque say private schools are too expensive and may not accept children enrolling mid-year.

“We are becoming a refugee camp without realizing it,” said another man, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We need schools, we need toilets, we need clinics.”

He said he fled his home in Damascus after being warned by his neighbor that militants were asking about him. He never expects to go back and is hoping to move abroad.

But in the meantime, he said he needs to create a life for his children.

“What’s his fault?” he asked, beckoning to his nine-year-old son. “He was a computer whiz and now he is not even going to school.”

The refugees sheltering in the mosque are among the millions of people affected by Trump’s decision to freeze US funding to humanitarian programs in February.

The UNHCR has been forced to reduce all aspects of its operations in Lebanon, Freijsen said, including support to Syrian refugees.

The UNHCR had enough money to cover only 14 percent of its planned operations in Lebanon and 17 percent of its global operations by the end of March, the UN agency said in a report.

“Our assistance is not what it is supposed to be,” Freijsen said. “In the past, we always had the resources, or we could easily mobilize the resources. These days are over, and that’s painful.”

The people in the mosque fear that they have been forgotten.

“Human rights are a lie,” a third man said, his eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep. “It is just something (that the powerful) instrumentalize when they want.”


Iraq’s Jewish community saves a long-forgotten shrine

Iraq’s Jewish community saves a long-forgotten shrine
Updated 10 sec ago
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Iraq’s Jewish community saves a long-forgotten shrine

Iraq’s Jewish community saves a long-forgotten shrine
A few months ago, the tomb of Rabbi Isaac Gaon was filled with rubbish
“It was a garbage dump and we were not allowed to restore it,” said the head of Iraq’s Jewish community, Khalida Elyahu

BAGHDAD: In a vibrant Baghdad district, laborers are working tirelessly to repair the centuries-old shrine of a revered rabbi in an effort to revive the long-faded heritage of Iraq’s Jewish community.

A few months ago, the tomb of Rabbi Isaac Gaon was filled with rubbish. Its door was rusted, the windows shattered and the walls stained black from decades of neglect.

Today, marble tiling covers the once-small grave, and at its center stands a large tombstone inscribed with a verse, the rabbi’s name and the year he died: 688. A silver menorah hangs on the wall behind it.

“It was a garbage dump and we were not allowed to restore it,” said the head of Iraq’s Jewish community, Khalida Elyahu, 62.

The Jewish community in Iraq was once one of the largest in the Middle East, but now it has dwindled to just dozens.

Baghdad today has one synagogue left, but it has no rabbis. And many houses that once belonged to Jews are abandoned and dilapidated.

The Jewish community itself is funding the shrine’s restoration, at an estimated cost of $150,000.

The project will bring “a revival for our community, both within and outside Iraq,” Elyahu said.

With the backing of Iraqi officials, she said she hopes to restore more neglected sites.

Little information is available about Rabbi Isaac. But when Iraq’s National Security Adviser Qassem Al-Araji visited the tomb earlier this year, he said the rabbi had been a finance official.

Rabbi Isaac Gaon was prominent during the Gaonic period, also known as the era of Babylonian academies for rabbis.

The term “Gaon” is likely to refer to his position as the head of one such academy.

His name was mentioned in the 10th century by another rabbi, who told a tale that never appeared elsewhere, according to Professor Simcha Gross from the University of Pennsylvania.

“There is only one single story,” said Gross.

It goes that Rabbi Isaac led 90,000 Jews to meet Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the fourth Islamic caliph and a relation of the Prophet Muhammad, who is also revered by Shiites as the first Imam, during one of his conquests in central Iraq.

“We have no other evidence for this event, and there are reasons to be skeptical,” Gross said.

Nothing else is known about Rabbi Isaac, not even his religious opinions.

But the tale has origins that are not without context, said Gross.

In the 10th century, minorities — Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians — began to tell stories of how they greeted “Muslim conquerors” because “their privileges including taxes were dependent on whether or not they were believed to have welcomed the Muslims,” he said.

At that same time, Jewish shrines started to appear, even though Jewish roots in Iraq date back some 2,600 years.

According to biblical tradition, Jews arrived in Iraq in 586 BC as prisoners of Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II after he destroyed Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.

In Iraq, they wrote the Babylonian Talmud.

Thousands of years later, in Ottoman-ruled Baghdad, Jews made up 40 percent of the population.

A turning point was the 1941 pogrom in Baghdad when more than 100 Jews were killed.

Like other Jewish communities in the Arab region, their history has changed since the Palestinian Nakba — “catastrophe” in Arabic — and Israel’s creation in 1948. Soon afterwards, almost all of Iraq’s 135,000 Jews went into exile.

Decades of conflict and instability — Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, the 2003 US-led invasion and the ensuing violence — completed the community’s erosion.

Some who stayed on converted to other religions, or do not reveal their faith.

Today, 50 synagogues and Jewish sites remain, Elyahu said. Most are crumbling, and some have become warehouses.

Rabbi Isaac’s shrine once included a synagogue and a school, but has been reduced to the small room housing the grave, the restoration’s supervisor said.

“It took us two months to clean it of garbage,” said the supervisor, who asked to remain anonymous.

Now “we are receiving requests from outside Iraq to visit it.”

Decades ago people would come to pray and light candles, believing in the rabbi’s “healing powers.”

Mussa Hayawi, 64, lives nearby. He recounted stories from his childhood in a quarter which was, until the 1940s, one of several Jewish districts in Baghdad.

He said women used to soak themselves in water from the shrine’s well, hoping to conceive.

Rabbi Isaac “was a revered man.” People came “to pray for their sick, to ask for a baby, or the release of a prisoner,” Hayawi said.

Turkiye will fine airline passengers who unbuckle before the plane stops

Turkiye will fine airline passengers who unbuckle before the plane stops
Updated 47 min 7 sec ago
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Turkiye will fine airline passengers who unbuckle before the plane stops

Turkiye will fine airline passengers who unbuckle before the plane stops
  • The updated rules came into effect earlier this month
  • Turkish media reports have said fines of up to $70 will be imposed

ANKARA: Airline passengers in Turkiye who unbuckle their seat belts, access overhead compartments, or occupy the aisle before their plane has fully stopped now face fines under new regulations issued by the country’s civil aviation authority.

The updated rules, which aim to enhance safety and ensure a more orderly disembarkation, came into effect earlier this month. They were adopted following passenger complaints and flight inspections indicated a growing number of safety violations during taxiing after landing, according to the Turkish Directorate of Civil Aviation.

It is not unusual in Turkiye for passengers to stand up or move inside the cabin soon after the plane has landed, often leading to chaotic disembarkation.

Under the new regulations, commercial airlines operating flights in Turkiye are required to issue a revised version of the standard in-flight announcement to remain seated, warning that violations will be documented and reported, according to a circular issued by the aviation authority.

Passengers are also reminded to wait for those in front of them to exit first instead of rushing forward.

The circular does not say how much passengers who disregard the regulations could be fined, but Turkish media reports have said fines of up to $70 will be imposed.

“Despite announcements informing passengers of the rules, many are standing up before the
aircraft reaches its parking positions and before the seat belt sign is turned off,” the aviation authority noted.

“This behavior compromises the safety of passengers and baggage, disregards the satisfaction and exit priority of other travelers,” it said.

There have been no immediate reports confirming that the newly introduced fines are being enforced.

Turkiye is a popular travel destination, drawing millions of tourists every year.


UK sends trade envoy to Israel after suspending talks

UK sends trade envoy to Israel after suspending talks
Updated 28 May 2025
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UK sends trade envoy to Israel after suspending talks

UK sends trade envoy to Israel after suspending talks
  • Lord Ian Austin, who is the UK government’s trade envoy to Israel, was welcomed to Haifa, just days after Foreign Secretary David Lammy paused negotiations
  • Lord Austin: Trade with Israel provides many thousands of good jobs in the UK and brings people together in the great multicultural democracy that is Israel

LONDON: In a somewhat unlikely turn of events, a British trade envoy has visited Israel to “promote trade” between the two countries — a week after the UK suspended relevant talks.

Lord Ian Austin, who is the UK government’s trade envoy to Israel, was welcomed to Haifa on Monday, just days after Foreign Secretary David Lammy paused negotiations.

The British Embassy in Israel said that Lord Austin had visited a number of projects — such as the Customs Scanning Center, Haifa Bayport, and the Haifa-Nazareth Light Rail project — to “witness co-operation at every stop.”

“Trade with Israel provides many thousands of good jobs in the UK and brings people together in the great multicultural democracy that is Israel,” Lord Austin said.

Last Tuesday, the government confirmed it was suspending its trade negotiations with Israel in the wake of an accelerated military offensive in Gaza and the country’s decision to limit the amount of aid allowed into the Palestinian territory.

Mr Lammy told the Commons that Israel’s actions were “egregious” and amounted to a “dark new phase in this conflict.”

But despite the suspension of any new trade talks with Israel, No. 10 has insisted that the UK still has a trading relationship with the country.

A spokesperson for the prime minister said: “We have always had a trading relationship, but are pausing any new ones.”

The UK has sanctioned a number of individuals and groups in the West Bank, which it said have been linked with acts of violence against Palestinians — including Daniella Weiss, a leading settler activist who was the subject of Louis Theroux’s recent documentary, “The Settlers.”

Writing for Politics Home, Lord Austin said: “It is in our national interest, and the decision this week by the government to pause negotiations on a new Free Trade Agreement does not change that.

“The situation in Gaza is terrible, as it is in all wars, and the quickest way to get the aid in and save lives is for Hamas to stop fighting and release the hostages. That would end the conflict immediately.”

A government spokesperson said: “We suspended talks with Israel on a new FTA because it is not possible to advance discussions with a Netanyahu government pursuing such egregious policies in Gaza and the West Bank.

“Lord Austin is in Israel this week in his capacity as trade envoy to maintain our relationship with Israeli businesses.”


Netanyahu says Hamas Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar has been killed

Hamas Gaza chief Mohammad Sinwar. (Screenshot)
Hamas Gaza chief Mohammad Sinwar. (Screenshot)
Updated 1 min 4 sec ago
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Netanyahu says Hamas Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar has been killed

Hamas Gaza chief Mohammad Sinwar. (Screenshot)
  • Mohammad Sinwar was elevated to the top ranks of the Palestinian militant group last year after Israel killed his brother Yahya in combat

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel had killed Hamas Gaza chief Mohammad Sinwar, one of its most wanted targets and the younger brother of the deceased group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar.
Mohammad Sinwar had been the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza earlier this month and Netanyahu said on May 21 that it was was likely he had been killed.
“We eliminated Mohammad Deif, (Ismail) Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Sinwar,” Netanyahu said, confirming the death to the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset.
“In the last two days we have been in a dramatic turn toward a complete defeat of Hamas,” he said, adding that Israel was also “taking control of food distribution,” a reference to a new aid distribution system in Gaza managed by a US-backed group.
Hamas has yet to confirm his death Sinwar’s death.
Sinwar was elevated to the top ranks of the Palestinian militant group last year after Israel killed his brother Yahya in combat.
Yahya Sinwar masterminded the October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, now in its 20th month, and was later named the overall leader of the group after Israel killed his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh in Iran. 


UAE summons Israeli ambassador over ‘provocative practices in Jerusalem’

UAE summons Israeli ambassador over ‘provocative practices in Jerusalem’
Updated 28 May 2025
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UAE summons Israeli ambassador over ‘provocative practices in Jerusalem’

UAE summons Israeli ambassador over ‘provocative practices in Jerusalem’
  • The ministry strongly condemned what it described as arbitrary practices

DUBAI: The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation summoned the Israeli ambassador on Wednesday to protest what it called “shameful and offensive violations” against Palestinians in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem’s Islamic Quarter.

The ministry strongly condemned what it described as arbitrary practices, calling them a serious provocation against Muslims and a blatant violation of the sanctity of the Holy City. It warned that repeated attacks by Israeli extremists, accompanied by incitement to hatred and violence, amount to a systematic campaign that threatens not only Palestinians but regional and international stability.

The UAE urged the Israeli government to take full responsibility for the actions of its officials and settlers, hold perpetrators accountable—including ministers—and prevent the exploitation of Jerusalem to advance agendas of violence and extremism. It warned that failure to act would be seen as tacit approval, fueling hatred and instability.

The statement reaffirmed support for Jordan’s custodianship of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem and stressed the need to respect the authority of the Jerusalem Endowments Administration.

The UAE reiterated its rejection of any practices that violate international law and called for full protection of religious sites, emphasizing the importance of preserving the city’s status quo and its symbolism of peaceful coexistence.