BAGHDAD: The Iraqi government is seeking funds for the reconstruction of areas liberated from Daesh, Iraqi officials and lawmakers told Arab News on Wednesday.
Iraqi security forces, backed by the US-led coalition and Shiite-dominated paramilitary groups, have liberated more than 95 percent of areas formerly held by Daesh.
Iraqi Planning Minister Salman Jumaili, during a meeting with France’s trade minister in Baghdad on Wednesday, said Iraq needs $100 billion over 10 years from 2018 to rebuild affected areas.
The reconstruction plan is “aimed at achieving human, social and economic development, as well as the rehabilitation of infrastructure,” Jumaili said after the meeting.
“Iraq relies on the international community’s support to enable the government to implement its development programs, particularly with regard to reconstruction.”
In liberated areas, Baghdad seeks to maintain security, provide employment opportunities for youths, compensate citizens affected by terrorism or military operations, and build schools and hospitals, Iraqi officials told Arab News.
The EU on Wednesday offered a $71 million grant to finance reconstruction and mine clearance in Anbar, Salahuddin, Kirkuk, Nineveh and Diyala provinces, Iraq’s Planning Ministry said.
The US ambassador to Iraq, Douglas Silliman, on Tuesday said his country is working to secure a $115-million international grant to Iraq to finance the reconstruction of liberated areas.
Iraq is working to hold a conference for international donors in February, officials said.
A major challenge facing the Iraqi government is the return of 2.9 million internally displaced people, tens of thousands of whom are living in tents on the outskirts of cities, while others are spread across provinces.
Iraqi lawmakers have complained that the Cabinet has not allocated enough funds in the 2018 budget to bring displaced people back to their homes.
“The allocations offered by the government in the draft budget to bring displaced people back home, reconstruct their areas and maintain stability there aren’t enough,” Hussam Al-Eqabi, a member of the parliamentary finance committee, told Arab News. “We need to discuss details with the government, to amend the budget.”
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Baghdad seeks funds to rebuild areas liberated from Daesh
Baghdad seeks funds to rebuild areas liberated from Daesh
Israel bars some aid workers from Gaza as groups face suspension
- NGOs ordered to cease operations unless they give employee details to Israel
- MSF and others denied entry, impacting key medical services in Gaza
GENEVA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israel said on Thursday it had barred entry to Gaza of foreign medical and humanitarian staff whose organizations were ordered to cease operations unless they register employee details with Israeli authorities and meet other new rules.
Fearing a renewed humanitarian crisis if medical and aid services can suddenly no longer access war-shattered Gaza, some of the 37 international nongovernmental organizations that were ordered to halt work are weighing whether to submit staff names to Israeli authorities, two aid sources told Reuters.
Three of the aid groups said their foreign staff were told by Israeli authorities this week they could not enter Gaza.
Israel’s diaspora ministry, which manages the registration process, says the measures are meant to prevent diversions of aid by Palestinian armed groups. NGOs say sharing staff details poses too much of a risk, pointing to the hundreds of aid workers who were killed or injured during the two-year Gaza war.
Israel has shared little evidence of aid being diverted in the Palestinian enclave, an allegation that was disputed in a US government analysis.
The diaspora ministry said that while the NGOs had been granted 60 days to conclude operations, “the entry of foreign personnel into Gaza is not approved.” It said international staff with “approved organizations” including the United Nations could continue work as usual.
Three prominent global NGOs — Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Medecins du Monde Suisse and the Danish Refugee Council — said their international staff were refused entry to Gaza this week. Foreign aid staff had generally been permitted to rotate in and out of Gaza since the start of the war.
“If we don’t have somebody in a key position, such as the emergency coordinator in charge of operations, then we either have to compensate, or we have a gap” in aid service, said Anna Halford, Gaza emergency coordinator at MSF.
'System breaks down'
Israel’s government said some 23 aid groups had agreed to the new registration rules, meaning humanitarian goods will continue to get into Gaza.
But a UN-led coordination body has said the international groups that have registered could meet only a fraction of the required humanitarian response in the devastated Gaza Strip, where homelessness and hunger remain rife.
Some of the 37 banned groups operate specialized services like field hospitals, aid officials say. MSF bolsters six Gaza health ministry hospitals and runs two field hospitals. The Medicos del Mundo NGO screens Gaza residents for malnutrition and provides mental health services.
“Without nutritional staff doing the screening and primary health care centers doing the therapeutic feeding and referral of patients with severe malnutrition to in-patient care — the whole system breaks down,” an aid source told Reuters.
Fearing the loss of those essential services for Gaza’s two million residents, some aid groups are considering reversing course and agreeing to the new registration rules.
“The essence of the debate (for aid groups) is how to safeguard their principles, humanitarian standards, and the safety of the local staff while being able to continue the services,” a senior aid source said.
COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry unit that controls access to Gaza, said the NGOs’ conduct “raises suspicion regarding the parties with whom they operate” in Gaza, but they remained free to register with the diaspora ministry.
'Everything is missing'
Samira Al-Ashqar, 40, who fled her Beit Lahia home to Al-Ansar camp in north Gaza with her disabled husband and nine others during the war, depends on Oxfam — one of the aid groups facing an Israeli ban — for food and financial support.
“Now, after the war, everything is missing, and things have become dire ... If these institutions were to stop, the people of Gaza would face complete devastation,” Al-Ashqar said.
Mohamed Abu Selmia, head of Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital, told Reuters the banning of groups like MSF could affect hundreds of thousands of people.
“The Israeli occupation’s decision comes at a time of unprecedented deterioration in health conditions. We suffer acute shortages of medication that reach 100 percent in some areas, and 55 percent overall,” he said.
MSF said an Israeli ban could also mean that foreign aid groups would no longer be able to pay local staff in Gaza because Israel could block bank transfers.
Fearing a renewed humanitarian crisis if medical and aid services can suddenly no longer access war-shattered Gaza, some of the 37 international nongovernmental organizations that were ordered to halt work are weighing whether to submit staff names to Israeli authorities, two aid sources told Reuters.
Three of the aid groups said their foreign staff were told by Israeli authorities this week they could not enter Gaza.
Israel’s diaspora ministry, which manages the registration process, says the measures are meant to prevent diversions of aid by Palestinian armed groups. NGOs say sharing staff details poses too much of a risk, pointing to the hundreds of aid workers who were killed or injured during the two-year Gaza war.
Israel has shared little evidence of aid being diverted in the Palestinian enclave, an allegation that was disputed in a US government analysis.
The diaspora ministry said that while the NGOs had been granted 60 days to conclude operations, “the entry of foreign personnel into Gaza is not approved.” It said international staff with “approved organizations” including the United Nations could continue work as usual.
Three prominent global NGOs — Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Medecins du Monde Suisse and the Danish Refugee Council — said their international staff were refused entry to Gaza this week. Foreign aid staff had generally been permitted to rotate in and out of Gaza since the start of the war.
“If we don’t have somebody in a key position, such as the emergency coordinator in charge of operations, then we either have to compensate, or we have a gap” in aid service, said Anna Halford, Gaza emergency coordinator at MSF.
'System breaks down'
Israel’s government said some 23 aid groups had agreed to the new registration rules, meaning humanitarian goods will continue to get into Gaza.
But a UN-led coordination body has said the international groups that have registered could meet only a fraction of the required humanitarian response in the devastated Gaza Strip, where homelessness and hunger remain rife.
Some of the 37 banned groups operate specialized services like field hospitals, aid officials say. MSF bolsters six Gaza health ministry hospitals and runs two field hospitals. The Medicos del Mundo NGO screens Gaza residents for malnutrition and provides mental health services.
“Without nutritional staff doing the screening and primary health care centers doing the therapeutic feeding and referral of patients with severe malnutrition to in-patient care — the whole system breaks down,” an aid source told Reuters.
Fearing the loss of those essential services for Gaza’s two million residents, some aid groups are considering reversing course and agreeing to the new registration rules.
“The essence of the debate (for aid groups) is how to safeguard their principles, humanitarian standards, and the safety of the local staff while being able to continue the services,” a senior aid source said.
COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry unit that controls access to Gaza, said the NGOs’ conduct “raises suspicion regarding the parties with whom they operate” in Gaza, but they remained free to register with the diaspora ministry.
'Everything is missing'
Samira Al-Ashqar, 40, who fled her Beit Lahia home to Al-Ansar camp in north Gaza with her disabled husband and nine others during the war, depends on Oxfam — one of the aid groups facing an Israeli ban — for food and financial support.
“Now, after the war, everything is missing, and things have become dire ... If these institutions were to stop, the people of Gaza would face complete devastation,” Al-Ashqar said.
Mohamed Abu Selmia, head of Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital, told Reuters the banning of groups like MSF could affect hundreds of thousands of people.
“The Israeli occupation’s decision comes at a time of unprecedented deterioration in health conditions. We suffer acute shortages of medication that reach 100 percent in some areas, and 55 percent overall,” he said.
MSF said an Israeli ban could also mean that foreign aid groups would no longer be able to pay local staff in Gaza because Israel could block bank transfers.
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