JERUSALEM: A swarm of locusts crossed into Israel from neighboring Egypt Monday, raising fears that Israel could be hit with a biblical plague ahead of the Passover holiday.
Israel sent out planes to spray pesticides over agricultural fields to prevent damage by the small swarm, which numbers about 2,000 locusts, said Dafna Yurista, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Ministry. The ministry also set up an emergency hotline and asked Israelis to be vigilant in reporting locust sightings.
The locust alert comes ahead of the weeklong Passover festival, which recounts the biblical story of the Israelite exodus from Egypt. According to the Bible, a huge swarm of locusts was the eighth of 10 plagues God imposed on Egyptians to persuade Pharoah to free the ancient Hebrews from slavery. Pharaoh did not agree to let them go until after the 10th plague, the death of the first born in every Egyptian family.
This year Passover begins March 25.
Locusts can have a devastating effect on agriculture by quickly stripping crops. Farmers told Israeli media they were worried about a potential onslaught.
“(The locusts) may not have ruined Pharaoh, but they could ruin us,” Tzachi Rimon, a farmer, told Israel’s Channel 10 TV.
Yurista said the number of locusts was relatively small, but “just because they aren’t many doesn’t mean we are ignoring them.”
Locusts are known to move with the wind, and the swarm was swept eastwards from Egypt, said Amir Ayali, who heads Tel Aviv University’s zoology department, on Channel 10 TV. The last time Israel experienced a major locust outbreak was in 2004.
Egypt’s state news agency MENA said more than 17,000 locusts were exterminated in an area spanning more than 84,000 acres. No significant economic losses were reported, as the locusts were not mature enough to cause damage and did not remain long in the area to feed. Other affected areas were mostly desert.
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Associated Press writer Amir Makar contributed from Cairo.
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Israel on alert as locusts cross in from Egypt
Israel on alert as locusts cross in from Egypt
Syria defense ministry says army has taken control of Al-Tanf base after US pullout
- Syria’s defense ministry said on Thursday that the army had taken control of the Al-Tanf base after the withdrawal of US forces deployed there as part of the coalition against the Daesh group
DAMASCUS: Syria’s defense ministry said on Thursday that the army had taken control of the Al-Tanf base after the withdrawal of US forces deployed there as part of the coalition against the Daesh group.
“Through coordination between the Syrian and American sides,” army units have taken control of the base “and have begun deploying along the Syrian-Iraqi-Jordanian” border nearby, a defense ministry statement said.
Two Syrian military sources told AFP on Wednesday that US forces had withdrawn from the base to Jordan.
One of them said the US forced had been moving equipment out for the past 15 days.
During the Syrian civil war and the fight against the Islamic State (IS), US forces were deployed in the country’s Kurdish-controlled northeast and at Al-Tanf, near the borders with Jordan and Iraq.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had been a major partner of the anti-IS coalition, and were instrumental in the group’s territorial defeat in Syria in 2019.
However, following the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad over a year ago, the United States has drawn closer to the new government in Damascus, recently declaring that the need for its alliance with the Kurds had largely passed.
Syria agreed to join the anti-IS coalition when President Ahmed Al-Sharaa visited the White House in November.
As Sharaa’s authorities have sought to extend their control over all of Syria, the Kurds have come under pressure to integrate their forces and de facto autonomous administration into the state, striking an agreement to do so last month after losing territory to advancing government troops.
Since then, the US has been conducting an operation to transfer around 7,000 suspected jihadists from Syria — where many were being held in detention facilities by Kurdish fighters — to neighboring Iraq.
Following the withdrawal from Al-Tanf and the government’s advances in the northeast, US troops are now mainly based at the Qasrak base in Hasakah, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Despite IS’s territorial defeat, the group remains active.
It was blamed for an attack in December in Palmyra in which a lone gunman opened fire on American personnel, killing two US soldiers and a US civilian.
Washington later conducted retaliatory strikes on IS targets in Syria.
“Through coordination between the Syrian and American sides,” army units have taken control of the base “and have begun deploying along the Syrian-Iraqi-Jordanian” border nearby, a defense ministry statement said.
Two Syrian military sources told AFP on Wednesday that US forces had withdrawn from the base to Jordan.
One of them said the US forced had been moving equipment out for the past 15 days.
During the Syrian civil war and the fight against the Islamic State (IS), US forces were deployed in the country’s Kurdish-controlled northeast and at Al-Tanf, near the borders with Jordan and Iraq.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had been a major partner of the anti-IS coalition, and were instrumental in the group’s territorial defeat in Syria in 2019.
However, following the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad over a year ago, the United States has drawn closer to the new government in Damascus, recently declaring that the need for its alliance with the Kurds had largely passed.
Syria agreed to join the anti-IS coalition when President Ahmed Al-Sharaa visited the White House in November.
As Sharaa’s authorities have sought to extend their control over all of Syria, the Kurds have come under pressure to integrate their forces and de facto autonomous administration into the state, striking an agreement to do so last month after losing territory to advancing government troops.
Since then, the US has been conducting an operation to transfer around 7,000 suspected jihadists from Syria — where many were being held in detention facilities by Kurdish fighters — to neighboring Iraq.
Following the withdrawal from Al-Tanf and the government’s advances in the northeast, US troops are now mainly based at the Qasrak base in Hasakah, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Despite IS’s territorial defeat, the group remains active.
It was blamed for an attack in December in Palmyra in which a lone gunman opened fire on American personnel, killing two US soldiers and a US civilian.
Washington later conducted retaliatory strikes on IS targets in Syria.
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