NEW YORK CITY: The UK and the four EU countries that are members of the UN Security Council (France, Greece, Denmark and Slovenia) on Wednesday urged Israeli authorities to immediately allow the safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Their plea echoed an appeal by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the Arab summit in Cairo on Monday.
Speaking on behalf of the five nations, Jay Dharmadhikari, the charge d’affaires at the French mission to the UN said: “We call on Israel to abide by its obligations under international law and to allow and facilitate the safe, unconditional, massive and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid at scale, as well as to ensure the protection of civilians and other protected persons, including humanitarian workers, in line with international humanitarian law.”
The diplomats also called for progress in the next phases of the ceasefire agreement and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas, and commended the efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the US to facilitate negotiations.
The joint statement followed a Security Council consultation session on Resolution 2720, which included a briefing by Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza. Adopted by the Security Council in December 2023, Resolution 2720 calls for increased aid to address the crisis in Gaza, including the provisioning of fuel, food and medical supplies.
The five nations condemned Hamas for continuing to hold and mistreat hostages, and called for their immediate release.
“We need a permanent ceasefire that can pave the way for the release of all remaining hostages and for the reconstruction of Gaza,” Dharmadhikari added.
The countries denounced terrorism and reaffirmed that the delivery of humanitarian aid must be nonnegotiable principle under international humanitarian law.
They also welcomed regional efforts to form a cohesive plan for the future of Gaza, emphasizing that any plans must exclude Hamas, ensure the security of Israel, and avoid the displacement of Palestinians.
It must also align with Resolution 2735 and support the unity of the West Bank and Gaza under the mandate of the Palestinian Authority, they added. US-drafted Resolution 2735, which was adopted by the Security Council in June last year, represents a proposal for a three-phase ceasefire agreement to end the war.
“We stand ready to support and develop these ideas further,” Dharmadhikari said.
The diplomats also reiterated their unwavering, long-term commitment to the vision of a two-state solution, consistent with international law and UN resolutions, in which Israel and Palestine can live peacefully side by side with secure, recognized borders.
Trump urges Hamas to release hostages in Gaza in what he calls ‘last warning’
Trump said there will be “hell to pay later” if hostages are not released
Updated 3 min 1 sec ago
Reuters
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump asked Hamas militants to immediately release all hostages held in Gaza in what he called his “last warning” to them while also urging the group’s leadership to leave the Palestinian enclave.
Trump posted on Truth Social: “This is your last warning! For the leadership, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance. Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD!“
Trump said there will be “hell to pay later” if hostages are not released.
How doctors in diaspora are helping resuscitate Syria’s broken health system
Shortages of food and medicine are compounding Syria’s suffering as the nation marks its first Ramadan since the fall of Assad
Aid agencies are working to prop up the country’s shattered infrastructure, as the health system creaks under ongoing US sanctions
Updated 36 min 11 sec ago
ANAN TELLO
LONDON: Brought to the brink of collapse by more than a decade of civil war, fragmentation, sanctions, and the displacement of countless medical professionals, the Syrian Arab Republic’s health system is on life support.
With the fall of the Bashar Assad regime in December and the rise of a fledgling transitional authority, Syria now faces the daunting task of rebuilding a unified and resilient health sector from amid the ruins.
Data from the World Health Organization shows that just 57 percent of Syria’s hospitals and 37 percent of its primary health centers are fully operational. However, even these suffer severe shortages, leaving millions unable to access basic services.
“Hospitals are outdated, primary health care centers lack essential services, technology is obsolete, and there is no health insurance, funding, or digitization,” Dr. Zaher Sahloul, head of the US-based medical charity MedGlobal, told Arab News.
“The Ministry of Health is tasked with resuscitating the healthcare system with a very limited capacity and a small cadre of health administrators. The whole healthcare system needs to be rebuilt.”
A senior Syrian health official recently told the Iraq-based Shafaq News that interim authorities have devised “a short-term emergency plan spanning three to six months, prioritizing fuel, electricity, and vital medical supplies.
Zuhair Qarat, director of planning and international cooperation at Syria’s Ministry of Health, said the country is experiencing critical shortages of essential medical supplies, fuel, and even food for patients and staff.
To pave the way for recovery, local nongovernmental organizations and international aid groups have launched their own initiatives, like MedGlobal’s “Rebuilding Syria” campaign, to help address these shortages.
MedGlobal, a US-based medical charity, has launched the “Rebuilding Syria” campaign to help address shortages in health care services. ((Photo courtesy of MedGlobal)
Their efforts come as Muslims in Syria observe their first Ramadan since the fall of the regime. Food shortages during the fasting month have only intensified the suffering and highlighted the need for additional aid.
A recent report by the World Food Programme found that more than half of Syria’s population — 12.9 million people — are food insecure, with about 3 million facing acute hunger. Malnutrition, especially in children, weakens the immune system and can lead to a range of health problems.
MedGlobal’s Sahloul said that although Syrian doctors “are very capable, working against all odds,” the average salary for a doctor is just $25 a month — barely enough to cover three days of food and transportation.
“The needs are immense, while the funding is limited, especially with the persistence of sanctions,” he said.
Coinciding with the Muslim holy month, MedGlobal has launched a special appeal for donations.
“In Ramadan, we are ramping up our fundraising campaign for the many programs we are offering, especially lifesaving dialysis services, medications for poor patients with chronic diseases, and supporting lifesaving heart procedures to patients with cardiac disease in public hospitals,” said Sahloul.
“We also started a new program to provide meals to patients and medical staff in two public hospitals in Homs.”
MedGlobal has been working to address medical supply shortages by ramping up its in-kind donation programs to Syrian hospitals.
“We recently sent a shipment of medical supplies worth $20 million, to be distributed to hospitals in coordination with the Ministry of Health,” said Sahloul.
IN NUMBERS
• 14.9 million Syrians in need of healthcare services. * $56.4m
• $56.4 million Funds required to address health needs.
(Source: WHO)
In addition to donations, MedGlobal and its partners are engaging Syrian expatriates in postwar recovery. One key effort is REViVE, launched by Syrian experts in global health, healthcare administration, public health, economics, informatics, and mental health.
Another initiative, the Homs Healthcare Recovery, also known as Taafi Homs, employs 625 Syrian doctors in the diaspora to develop a plan to support public hospitals.
“Through the initiative, we activated the only cardiac catheterization center in Homs at Al-Walid Hospital, launched a mental health program to support victims of torture and freed prisoners, and provided training to recent psychiatry graduates in coordination with the University of Illinois at Chicago,” said Sahloul.
“We also procured critical medical equipment, including an eye echo machine for the city’s only public eye hospital and a neurosurgical microscope for the university hospital. Additionally, we delivered 1,000 life-saving dialysis kits to three hospitals and dialysis centers.
“Similar initiatives have begun in Deir ez-Zor and rural Damascus.”
And while these initiatives are providing Syrians with much-needed health services, Sahloul stressed that the full collaboration of the new health authorities remains key to their success.
Although the fall of the Assad regime has opened a path for the health sector’s recovery, significant challenges remain. These include the absence of a state-led transition strategy, the continued brain drain of health professionals, and US sanctions.
“At this early stage, the focus is only on immediate and urgent needs and stopping the bleeding,” Sahloul said. “This is necessary but is not enough.
“A new strategy must be drafted to address health governance, human resources, health information systems, training, and education. It should place the Ministry of Health and related ministries at the center, supported by local and international NGOs, as well as UN agencies.
“There should be greater coordination and collaboration between the Ministry of Health, NGOs, and UN agencies. This is not happening at present for many reasons.”
Failing to develop a clear strategy amid ongoing shortages of basic services and limited resources “will further cripple the healthcare system, drive more brain drain, worsen healthcare outcomes more than the war’s impact, and allow disease outbreaks,” he added.
Sahloul also stressed the “urgent need” to lift “crippling” US sanctions, which had been imposed on the Assad regime but continue to weigh on the new government, to achieve a full recovery for the medical sector.
“Humanitarian and emergency aid won’t be enough,” he said.
In addition to destroyed infrastructure, funding shortfalls, and supply shortages, the exodus of medical professionals has devastated Syria’s health system.
The conflict, which began in 2011 following Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests, led to a loss of more than 70 percent of Syria’s health workforce. By 2021, the International Rescue Committee said there was just one doctor for every 10,000 people.
“The resourceful Syrian diaspora should be embraced and allowed to help,” said Sahloul, noting that “there are more than 12,000 Syrian-American doctors and a similar number in Germany.”
Syrians now make up the largest group of foreign doctors in Germany, The Associated Press reported in December. German officials have even said Syrian physicians are “indispensable” to the nation’s health system.
Sahloul said stopping the brain drain must be the top priority. “Every young doctor or new graduate I met in Syria is thinking of leaving,” he said. “This is not good for the future of the country and its health.”
However, he added, “retention of healthcare workers requires improving compensation first and foremost, improving training and education, updating technology, and updating hospitals.”
In the meantime, NGOs are finding ways to leverage Syrian expatriates to aid the recovery. “Attracting Syrian specialists back is a challenge, but there are always creative solutions,” said Sahloul.
“Syrian expatriate physicians volunteering within MedGlobal and other diaspora NGOs are ready to contribute to medical and surgical missions, as well as tele-health, tele-psych, and online education and training — initiatives we’ve implemented across various regions over the past 14 years.”
Meanwhile, Syria faces multiple public health crises, including the rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria due to unchecked antibiotic use and limited lab testing.
Sahloul said a mental health crisis is also unfolding. This has been fueled by torture survivors, the families of the forcibly disappeared, victims of violence and displacement, returning refugees, and drug addiction linked to the production of the amphetamine-type stimulant captagon.
“There are very limited resources to manage the mental health crisis and festering drug addiction,” he said.
Syria also faces an epidemic of noncommunicable diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, chronic kidney disease, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
“Many patients cannot afford their medications — a problem compounded by one of the highest smoking rates in the world,” said Sahloul.
Although Assad’s portraits have been removed from hospitals in areas once under his regime’s control, anything beyond this surface level change remains unlikely without the lifting of US sanctions and a clear recovery strategy.
For now, Syria’s doctors will continue to fight an uphill battle, struggling to keep the lights on amid ongoing electricity and fuel shortages, and keeping themselves and their patients fed, let alone provide lifesaving care.
Israel’s settler pressure on West Bank villages stirs annexation fears
Military control and settler outposts threaten Palestinian livelihoods, villagers say
Updated 06 March 2025
Reuters
BARDALA, West Bank: Just meters from the last houses in Bardala, a Palestinian village at the northern end of the occupied West Bank, Israel’s army has been bulldozing a dirt road and ditch between the community and open grazing land on the hills behind it.
Israel’s military said the works were for security and to allow it to patrol the area following the killing of an Israeli civilian in August near the village by a man from another town. It did not detail what it was building there.
Farmers from the fertile Jordan Valley village fear the army patrols and Israeli settlers moving in will exclude them from pastures that feed around 10,000 sheep and goats, as has happened in other parts of the West Bank, undercutting their livelihoods and eventually driving them from the village.
Israeli settler outposts have appeared around the village since last year, with clusters of blue and white Israeli flags fluttering from nearby hilltops.
The settlers intimidated semi-nomadic Bedouin shepherds to abandon their camps in the area last year, four Bedouin families and Israeli human rights NGOs said.
The tighter military control in the Jordan Valley and the arrival of settler outposts in the area over the past months are new developments in a part of the West Bank that had mostly avoided the build-up of Israel’s presence on the ground in central areas of the Palestinian territory.
With each advance of Israeli settlements and roads, the territory becomes more fractured, further undermining prospects for a contiguous land on which Palestinians could build a sovereign state. Most countries consider Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank to be illegal.
Over recent weeks, caravans and shelters have begun appearing on the scrub-covered hills a few hundred meters west of Bardala, on land behind the new track, Reuters reporters saw. Such temporary shelters have been the first signs of new outposts being built.
Ibrahim Sawafta, a member of the Bardala village council, said two dozen farmers would be prevented from reaching grazing land if soldiers and settler outposts obstruct their free movement. Unable to keep their large flocks in pens within the village itself, they would be forced to sell.
“Bardala would be a small prison,” he said, sitting on a bench outside his house in the village. He said the overall goal was “to restrict people, to force them to leave the Jordan Valley.”
The army said the area behind the dirt road outside Bardala was designated as a live fire zone but included “a passage” manned by Israeli soldiers, suggesting limitations on free movement in the area.
It said the passage would allow for “the continuation of daily life and the fulfillment of residents’ needs,” without giving further details.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as the Yesha Council and the Jordan Valley Council, that represent settlers in the West Bank did not reply to requests for comment for this story.
Sawafta said gunmen had been known to come into the area from towns to the west and the barrier appeared intended to make access more difficult and force traffic through main roads with security checkpoints under Israeli control.
But he said the effect of the move would be to obstruct access to the land, which in some cases was owned by villagers. The activity around Bardala is part of a wider Israeli effort to reshape the West Bank.
Over the year and a half since war broke out in Gaza, settlement activity has accelerated in areas seen as the core of a future Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, Israel’s pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Donald Trump who has already proposed that Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond as an attempt to ethnically cleanse Palestinian territories.
In recent weeks, army raids in refugee camps near volatile West Bank cities, including Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas, near Bardala, have sent tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes, fueling fears of permanent displacement.
The raids come amid a renewed push to formally absorb the West Bank as part of Israel, a proposal supported by some of US President Donald Trump’s aides. Israel’s military has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war.
Bardala, with a population of about 3,000, lies a few meters from the pre-1967 line separating the West Bank from Israel. It prospered quietly over the past 30 years as Israel’s settlement movement swallowed up thousands of hectares of land in other parts of the West Bank.
US holds secret talks with Hamas on Gaza hostages, source says
US special envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler has been holding the direct talks with Hamas in recent weeks in Doha, the source said
Updated 05 March 2025
Reuters
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has been conducting secret talks with Hamas on the possibility of releasing US hostages being held in Gaza, a source briefed on the conversations told Reuters.
US special envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler has been holding the direct talks with Hamas in recent weeks in Doha, the source said, confirming a report by Axios.
Until recently the United States had avoided direct discussions with the militant group. The US State Department designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.
The Israeli embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Boehler’s office declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The source said the talks have focused on gaining the release of American hostages still held in Gaza, but also have included discussions about a broader deal to release all remaining hostages and how to reach a long-term truce.
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff plans to return to the region in coming days to work out a way to either extend the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal or advance to the second phase, a State Department spokesperson said on Monday.
Israel’s cutoff of supplies to Gaza sends prices soaring as aid stockpiles dwindle
The aid freeze has imperiled the progress aid workers say they have made to stave off famine over the past six weeks
Israel says the siege aims at pressuring Hamas to accept ceasefire proposal
Updated 05 March 2025
AP
JERUSALEM: Israel’s cutoff of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza’s 2 million people has sent prices soaring and humanitarian groups into overdrive trying to distribute dwindling stocks to the most vulnerable.
The aid freeze has imperiled the progress aid workers say they have made to stave off famine over the past six weeks during Phase 1 of the ceasefire deal Israel and Hamas agreed to in January.
After more than 16 months of war, Gaza’s population is entirely dependent on trucked-in food and other aid. Most are displaced from their homes, and many need shelter. Fuel is needed to keep hospitals, water pumps, bakeries and telecommunications — as well as trucks delivering the aid — operating.
Israel says the siege aims at pressuring Hamas to accept its ceasefire proposal. Israel has delayed moving to the second phase of the deal it reached with Hamas, during which the flow of aid was supposed to continue. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he is prepared to increase the pressure and would not rule out cutting off all electricity to Gaza if Hamas doesn’t budge.
Rights groups have called the cutoff a “starvation policy.”
Four days in, how is the cutoff affecting Gaza?
Food, fuel and shelter supplies are threatened
The World Food Program, the UN’s main food agency, says it has no major stockpile of food in Gaza because it focused on distributing all incoming food to hungry people during Phase 1 of the deal. In a statement to AP, it said existing stocks are enough to keep bakeries and kitchens running for under two weeks.
WFP said it may be forced to reduce ration sizes to serve as many people as possible. It said its fuel reserves, necessary to run bakeries and transport food, will last for a few weeks if not replenished soon.
There’s also no major stockpile of tents in Gaza, said Shaina Low, communications adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council. The shelter materials that came in during the ceasefire’s first phase were “nowhere near enough to address all of the needs,” she said.
“If it was enough, we wouldn’t have had infants dying from exposure because of lack of shelter materials and warm clothes and proper medical equipment to treat them,” she said.
At least seven infants in Gaza died from hypothermia during Phase 1.
Urgently checking reserves
“We’re trying to figure out, what do we have? What would be the best use of our supply?” said Jonathan Crickx, chief of communication for UNICEF. “We never sat on supplies, so it’s not like there’s a huge amount left to distribute.”
He predicted a “catastrophic result” if the aid freeze continues.
During the ceasefire’s first phase, humanitarian agencies rushed in supplies, with about 600 trucks entering per day on average. Aid workers set up more food kitchens, health centers and water distribution points. With more fuel coming in, they could double the amount of water drawn from wells, according to the UN humanitarian agency.
Around 100,000 tents also arrived as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians tried to return to their homes, only to find them destroyed or too damaged to live in.
But the progress relied on the flow of aid continuing.
Oxfam has 26 trucks with thousands of food packages and hygiene kits and 12 trucks of water tanks waiting outside Gaza, said Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s policy lead in the West Bank.
“This is not just about hundreds of trucks of food, it’s about the total collapse of systems that sustain life,” she said.
The International Organization for Migration has 22,500 tents in its warehouses in Jordan after trucks brought back their undelivered cargo once entry was barred, said Karl Baker, the agency’s regional crisis coordinator.
The International Rescue Committee has 6.7 tons of medicines and medical supplies waiting to enter Gaza and its delivery is “highly uncertain,” said Bob Kitchen, vice president of its emergencies and humanitarian action department.
Medical Aid for Palestinians said it has trucks stuck at Gaza’s border carrying medicine, mattresses and assistive devices for people with disabilities. The organization has some medicine and materials in reserve, said spokesperson Tess Pope, but “we don’t have stock that we can use during a long closure of Gaza.”
Prices up sharply
Prices of vegetables and flour are now climbing in Gaza after easing during the ceasefire.
Sayed Mohamed Al-Dairi walked through a bustling market in Gaza City just after the aid cutoff was announced. Already, sellers were increasing the prices of dwindling wares.
“The traders are massacring us, the traders are not merciful to us,” he said. “In the morning, the price of sugar was 5 shekels. Ask him now, the price has become 10 shekels.”
In the central Gaza city of Deir Al-Balah, one cigarette priced at 5 shekels ($1.37) before the cutoff now stands at 20 shekels ($5.49). One kilo of chicken (2.2 pounds) that was 21 shekels ($5.76) is now 50 shekels ($13.72). Cooking gas has soared from 90 shekels ($24.70) for 12 kilos (26.4 pounds) to 1,480 shekels ($406.24).
Following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, Israel cut off all aid to Gaza for two weeks — a measure central to South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice. That took place as Israel launched the most intense phase of its aerial bombardment of Gaza, one of the most aggressive campaigns in modern history.
Palestinians fear a repeat of that period.
“We are afraid that Netanyahu or Trump will launch a war more severe than the previous war,” said Abeer Obeid, a Palestinian woman from northern Gaza. “For the extension of the truce, they must find any other solution.”
