EIN QINIYA, Golan Heights: Sameera Rada Emran’s face should be everywhere. The 46-year-old Druze resident of the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights is running to head her village’s local council. But there are no posters bearing her image or campaign ads bellowing her name.
Druze residents of the Golan will for the first time join millions of Israelis voting in local elections next week. But candidates like Emran have had to keep a low profile amid a call by some Druze — who are members of a secretive offshoot of Islam — to boycott the polls, exposing a deep rift in the community over identity and the future of the occupied territory.
The chasm has pit community elders who pledge fealty to Syria and activists opposed to Israel’s occupation against those with looser ties to their ancestral homeland who seek to have a stake in how their own communities are managed.
“I understand the opposition and where it comes from because we still live it. The Golan Heights is occupied and that is a fact. No one can deny that. On the other hand, we have been in this situation for more than 50 years,” Emran said. “There are young people who need to live and we need to provide them a healthy and beneficial environment that allows them to progress.”
Israel occupied the Golan Heights in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the territory in 1981 — a move that is not internationally recognized.
In contrast to the Palestinian territories captured in 1967, however, the Golan has remained quiet under Israeli rule. While most of the Golan’s 26,000 Druze have chosen not to take Israeli citizenship, they hold Israeli residency status that gives them the right to travel and work freely. Residents speak Hebrew and the Golan, with its rugged landscape and many restaurants, is a popular destination for Israeli tourists.
Still, the community largely sees itself as inextricably linked to Syria. Many hope the territory might one day be returned to Syria as part of a peace deal.
Boycott supporters have been holding meetings to convince — or pressure — candidates not to run and voters to abstain and several would-be candidates have already withdrawn. Demonstrations against the elections have been held and a general strike is being planned for election day.
Emran said some of her relationships with neighbors have soured over her choice to run.
The divide has meant the frenzy of election campaigning has skipped over the sleepy Druze villages. Candidates have had to keep campaigning a hushed, low-key affair, with many appealing to voters through social media and quiet gatherings indoors.
Since the annexation, Israel has appointed representatives to local councils in the Golan’s four Druze villages. But a yearning by more educated, younger Druze for economic opportunities and greater integration into Israeli society, coupled with a realization that the territory will not return to Syria in the near future, has sparked a desire by some to control their own fate, even if it means cooperating with what’s still largely seen as an occupying power.
That, along with a sense that the appointees did not properly represent the community, prompted a group of young lawyers from the area to appeal to Israel’s Supreme Court for a say in choosing their leaders. Their petition succeeded, paving the way for the first-ever elections on Oct. 30.
Israel has cast the elections as an “historic” event. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri called it “a move that strengthens Israel’s democracy” when he announced the vote.
Israel’s government sees the Golan Heights as an integral part of the country and a bulwark against radical Islam and growing Iranian influence in Lebanon and Syria. The Syrian civil war, in which hundreds of thousands have died and millions displaced, has only deepened this sentiment.
“Israel on the Golan Heights is a guarantee for stability in the surrounding area,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a recent visit to an ancient Golan Heights synagogue. “Israel on the Golan Heights is a fact that the international community must recognize and as long as it depends on me, the Golan Heights will always remain under Israeli sovereignty.”
For now, much of the international community considers the Golan to be occupied territory with its status subject to an eventual peace deal between Israel and Syria.
Many Druze complain that in this uncertain status, Israel has not done enough to improve living conditions.
The candidates say their villages lack investment in education, infrastructure and tourism, a thriving industry that many say benefits nearby Jewish settlements but not the Druze.
Religious leaders supporting the boycott see elections as legitimizing Israel’s rule. Other opponents view holding polls in occupied territory as a violation of international law.
Others point to the skewed democracy at play in the elections: While residency status in Israel grants the right to vote in local elections, only citizens can run for the head of local councils. Of nearly 27,000 Golan Druze, 17,000 can vote but only about 5,000 are citizens.
“We consider ourselves Syrian Arabs under Israeli rule, under Israeli occupation,” said Sheikh Hayel Sharaf, a religious leader who opposes the polls. “For sure the Golan people will boycott.”
The war in Syria also looms large. For some residents, President Bashar Assad’s imminent victory is a sign that they will soon be reunited with Syria.
For others, the seemingly endless fighting has presented a realization that their future does not lie in the war-torn state.
“It’s clear that the religious leaders are losing control of the young generation because of pragmatic considerations,” said Yusri Hazran, a lecturer on the Middle East at Jerusalem’s Shalem College. “What is the alternative to Israel for them? There is none.”
Observers say they expect turnout to be low, in part because of the boycott, but say it could grow in coming elections as the taboo surrounding voting erodes.
Emran sees hope in her father, a Syrian loyalist with an open mind.
“I can say he’s not happy” about her campaign, she said, proudly showing off a yellow ballot with her name on it. “But he understands the need to do something and move forward.”
First elections for Druze in Israeli Golan divide community
First elections for Druze in Israeli Golan divide community
- Some Druze members of a secretive offshoot of Islam are calling to boycott the upcoming polls
- Boycott supporters have been holding meetings to convince or pressure candidates not to run and voters to abstain
Houthi leader says 129 ships attacked during Red Sea campaign
- US Central Command says its forces destroyed new wave of drones and missiles fired by the militia
AL-MUKALLA: The leader of Yemen’s Houthi militia, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, said on Thursday that his forces had attacked 129 ships in international waters since the start of their campaign in November, claiming that his group has resisted political and economic pressure to cease targeting ships.
“There are no political, economic, or other factors that might influence our activities,” he said in a televised speech.
The militia has launched 27 ballistic missiles and drones in 12 operations against 10 ships in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Mediterranean during the last seven days, Al-Houthi said, who disputed previous media reports that the militia had reduced its maritime strikes.
“Our actions have not decreased, but there has been a decrease in navigation and ship movement on the American and British sides, as well as a near-complete absence of Israeli activity.”
The Houthi leader’s threat to continue attacking ships came as the US Central Command announced on Thursday morning (Yemen time) that its forces had destroyed a new wave of drones and missiles fired by the Houthis over the international seas off Yemen, as well as foiled Houthi missile launches by destroying launchers.
The US military said it destroyed two missile launchers in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen on Tuesday night.
On the same day, the Houthis fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles over the Red Sea from areas under their control, and neither the US-led coalition nor foreign commercial ships were targeted.
Two drones fired by the Houthis in Yemen over the Red Sea were intercepted by US forces before reaching their targets on Wednesday morning.
“It was determined these missiles and systems presented an imminent threat to US, coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure,” the US military said in a statement.
Hours before the US military statement, the Houthis claimed on Wednesday night to have shot down another US military MQ-9 Reaper drone over the central province of Marib, shortly after locals shared images and videos on social media of what appeared to be a downed Reaper drone in the province’s desert.
The drone was engaged in a “hostile mission” above Marib when a “locally made” surface-to-air missile struck it on Wednesday morning, the Houthis said.
This is the sixth time the Yemeni militia has claimed to have shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone since the start of their Red Sea operation and the third in May.
The Houthis’ Red Sea activities resulted in the loss of one commercial ship, the capture of another, and the targeting of scores more ships in international maritime channels and pushed shipping companies to forgo the Suez Canal via the Red Sea in favor of longer and more costly routes across Africa.
Meanwhile, the Aden-based central bank sanctioned six Yemeni banks on Thursday for failing to follow an earlier directive to relocate their activities from Houthi-controlled Sanaa to government-controlled Aden.
The central bank ordered Yemeni banks and other financial institutions to stop doing business with Tadhamon Bank, Yemen Kuwait Bank, Shamil Bank of Yemen and Bahrain, Al-Amal Microfinance Bank, Al-Kuraimi Islamic Microfinance Bank, and International Bank of Yemen for dealing with the Houthis, which the Yemeni government and other countries consider terrorists, and not relocating their headquarters to Aden.
The central bank also instructed Yemen’s public and financial institutions to deposit all banknote denominations issued before 2016 at the central bank and other commercial banks in government-controlled areas of Yemen within 60 days.
The economic war between the Yemeni government and the Houthis has escalated since 2016 when the government shifted the central bank’s offices from Sanaa to Aden.
The Houthis replied by ceasing to pay public workers in regions under their control, banning the circulation of banknotes printed by the Yemeni government in Aden, and targeting oil terminals in government-controlled Shabwa and Hadramout.
Israeli airstrike on Rafah kills 12 Palestinians, Gaza medics say
- Israel says more fighting in central, northern and southern Gaza
- Head of UNRWA calls for end to Israeli attacks on staff and buildings
JERUSALEM: Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians in a dawn airstrike on Rafah in southern Gaza on Thursday and fighting raged in several other areas of the coastal enclave, Gaza medics said.
Israel pressed on with its offensive on Rafah a day after saying its forces had taken control of a buffer zone along the nearby border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, giving it effective authority over Gaza’s entire land frontier.
It said the buffer zone’s capture had cut off a route used by the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas to smuggle arms into Gaza during more than seven months of war, which has laid waste to much of the territory and raised fears of famine.
Gaza medical sources said the 12 Palestinians, whom it said were civilians, had been killed and an unspecified number of others wounded in an Israeli airstrike as they tried to recover the body of a civilian in the center of Rafah.
Another Palestinian civilian was killed in an airstrike on Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City in the north of the densely populated enclave, the medics said.
Israel reported clashes in southern, central and northern Gaza but did not immediately comment on the reported deaths in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians took refuge earlier in the war.
Israel has kept up raids on Rafah despite an order by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the top UN court, to halt its attacks. Israeli forces say they are trying to root out Hamas fighters and rescue hostages being held there, and the ICJ also called for the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas.
More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air and land war in Gaza, with 53 of those killed in the past 24 hours, the Hamas-run enclave’s health ministry said.
Israel launched its offensive after Hamas fighters crossed from Gaza into southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year, killed 1,200 people and abducted more than 250, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli military said a soldier had been killed in fighting in northern Gaza, bringing to 292 Israel’s combat losses since its first Gaza ground incursion on Oct. 20.
TUNNELS, ARMS AND EXPLOSIVES
In an overnight call with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant underlined the continuing importance of Israeli operations in the Rafah area “due to concrete information regarding hostages held there.”
“Minister Gallant detailed IDF activities in the Rafah area where 20 terror tunnels have been identified,” the Israeli Defense Ministry said in a statement on the overnight call.
The Israeli military also said in a statement that tunnels used by Hamas for smuggling and moving fighters underground had been discovered during the latest raids, as well as large amounts of arms and explosives.
The Israeli statements did not say where the smuggling tunnels ran from. An Israeli official said on May 15 there were 50 tunnels connecting Rafah to the Sinai in Egypt, and voiced concern that Hamas could use them to smuggle senior operatives or hostages into Egyptian territory. Egypt on Wednesday denied the existence of any such tunnels.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, reiterated its opposition to a major ground offensive in Rafah on Tuesday but said it did not believe such an operation was under way.
The US has, with Egypt and Qatar, been involved in efforts to mediate indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on arranging a ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages. Those talks have stalled, with both sides blaming the other for the lack of progress.
As the war drags on, malnutrition has become widespread in Gaza as aid deliveries have slowed to a trickle, and the United Nations has warned of incipient famine.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), also called for an end to what he said were Israeli attacks on UNRWA staff and buildings in Gaza.
In article for the New York Times, he said Israeli officials were “delegitimizing UNRWA by effectively characterizing it as a terrorist organization,” and he described a “dangerous precedent of routine targeting of UN staff and premises.”
His comments followed allegations by Israel in January that 12 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Israel did not immediately respond to his remarks.
The Gaza war has also stoked violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, another territory where Palestinians seek statehood.
Israel said two soldiers were killed in an overnight hit-and-run by a Palestinian motorist in the West Bank city of Nablus. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from Palestinian factions.
Aggression against Gaza represents a turning point in history of region: Arab League chief
- Aboul Gheit said that the Arab League was committed to making all efforts to build a promising future for both Arab and Chinese societies
CAIRO: Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that the aggression against Gaza for more than eight months “marks a turning point in our region’s history.”
He said that there was “a deep sense of frustration over the international community’s inability to halt this massacre.”
Aboul Gheit was speaking at the opening session of the 10th ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum in Beijing.
The forum — founded in 2004 in Cairo — includes members of the Arab League.
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered the keynote address at the opening ceremony.
Leaders from Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia and the UAE were also present.
Aboul Gheit said: We value China’s role and steadfast support for the just cause of the Palestinian people, their right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state.”
He urged China, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, to play a more significant role in reinforcing the global consensus on the two-state solution, leading to a reliable and irreversible path to establishing an independent Palestinian state along the June 4, 1967, borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Aboul Gheit said that the Arab League and its member states aimed to enhance regional stability by working to contain existing crises, settle them peacefully, and reduce escalation through balanced relations with neighboring countries based on non-interference in internal affairs and mutual respect.
He reaffirmed the league’s support for China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, maintaining a firm commitment to the one-China principle.
Aboul Gheit said that the Arab League was committed to making all efforts to build a promising future for both Arab and Chinese societies.
“We aim to advance the strategic partnership between the Arab countries and China for a better future, strengthening cooperation mechanisms and finding political solutions to issues of mutual concern on regional and international fronts.”
Aboul Gheit said that China had “an illustrious presence in world history that we deeply respect and appreciate. Its profound influence on the world’s present and future is evident and highly valued. Moreover, China’s experience achieving renaissance and progress is greatly admired in our Arab world.”
The Arab League chief said: “Today, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of establishing the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum.
“This forum marked a significant milestone in the history of relations between the two sides, placing these relations within a comprehensive institutional framework, thus ensuring their development and future potential.
“Since its inception, the forum has become a success story in international multilateral cooperation, evidenced by the various mechanisms, memorandums and frameworks it has produced to facilitate collaboration across political, economic, social and development fields.”
Aboul Gheit said that the first Arab-Chinese summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2022 marked a qualitative shift in Arab-Chinese relations.
This summit signaled the beginning of a pivotal phase in the history of relations between the Arab world and China.
“The outcomes and agreements from this summit laid a strong foundation for mutual benefit, and we are committed to continuing efforts to implement them,” Aboul Gheit said.
He called for institutionalizing the Arab-China summit and holding regular sessions to enhance progress and allow for continuous monitoring and development of cooperation programs.
Child malnutrition at ‘emergency levels’ in Sudan: UN
- “The lives of Sudan’s children are at stake and urgent action is needed to protect an entire generation from malnutrition, disease and death,” the UNICEF, WHO and WFP said
- “The ongoing hostilities are worsening the drivers of child malnutrition“
ROME: Three UN agencies warned Thursday of a “significant deterioration” in the nutrition situation of children and mothers in war-torn Sudan, calling for “urgent action.”
“The lives of Sudan’s children are at stake and urgent action is needed to protect an entire generation from malnutrition, disease and death,” the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Food Program (WFP) said in a statement.
Sudan has been in the throes of conflict for over a year between the regular army led by de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, including up to 15,000 in a single West Darfur town, according to UN experts.
Nearly nine million people have been forced from their homes.
“The ongoing hostilities are worsening the drivers of child malnutrition,” the agencies said.
“These include a lack of access to nutritious food, safe drinking water and sanitation, and increased risk of disease,” they added.
“Sudan is facing an ever-increasing risk of conflict-induced famine that will have catastrophic consequences including the loss of life, especially among young children.”
The agencies said the conflict “is also severely impacting the delivery of humanitarian supplies, leaving countless women and children without access to vital food and nutritional support... (while) growing violence and bureaucratic procedures impede access to conflict affected areas.”
Child malnutrition in Sudan is “at emergency levels,” the statement said.
In Central Darfur, acute malnutrition is estimated to be at 15.6 percent among children under five, while at the Zamzam camp for displaced people in North Darfur state it is close to 30 percent.
“We need immediate and safe access to deliver the humanitarian assistance that they so desperately need,” said WFP head Cindy McCain.
“Millions of lives are at stake and the international community must act now or we risk losing an entire generation of children,” she said.
The agencies warned: “The window to avert the worst is rapidly closing.”
Israeli airstrike on Rafah kills 12 Palestinians, Gaza medics say
- Officials say Israeli strike occurred as they tried to recover body of civilian in southern Gaza city
- Israel says more fighting in central, northern and southern Gaza
- Head of UNRWA calls for end to Israeli attacks on staff and buildings
JERUSALEM: Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians in a dawn airstrike on Rafah in southern Gaza on Thursday and fighting raged in several other areas of the coastal enclave, Gaza medics said.
Israel pressed on with its offensive on Rafah a day after saying its forces had taken control of a buffer zone along the nearby border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, giving it effective authority over Gaza’s entire land frontier.
It said the buffer zone’s capture had cut off a route used by the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas to smuggle arms into Gaza during more than seven months of war, which has laid waste to much of the territory and raised fears of famine.
Gaza medical sources said the 12 Palestinians, whom it said were civilians, had been killed and an unspecified number of others wounded in an Israeli airstrike as they tried to recover the body of a civilian in the center of Rafah.
Another Palestinian civilian was killed in an airstrike on Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City in the north of the densely populated enclave, the medics said.
Israel reported clashes in southern, central and northern Gaza but did not immediately comment on the reported deaths in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians took refuge earlier in the war.
Israel has kept up raids on Rafah despite an order by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the top UN court, to halt its attacks. Israeli forces say they are trying to root out Hamas fighters and rescue hostages being held there, and the ICJ also called for the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas.
More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air and land war in Gaza, with 53 of those killed in the past 24 hours, the Hamas-run enclave’s health ministry said.
Israel launched its offensive after Hamas fighters crossed from Gaza into southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year, killed 1,200 people and abducted more than 250, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli military said a soldier had been killed in fighting in northern Gaza, bringing to 292 Israel’s combat losses since its first Gaza ground incursion on Oct. 20.
TUNNELS, ARMS AND EXPLOSIVES
In an overnight call with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant underlined the continuing importance of Israeli operations in the Rafah area “due to concrete information regarding hostages held there.”
“Minister Gallant detailed IDF activities in the Rafah area where 20 terror tunnels have been identified,” the Israeli Defense Ministry said in a statement on the overnight call.
The Israeli military also said in a statement that tunnels used by Hamas for smuggling and moving fighters underground had been discovered during the latest raids, as well as large amounts of arms and explosives.
The Israeli statements did not say where the smuggling tunnels ran from. An Israeli official said on May 15 there were 50 tunnels connecting Rafah to the Sinai in Egypt, and voiced concern that Hamas could use them to smuggle senior operatives or hostages into Egyptian territory. Egypt on Wednesday denied the existence of any such tunnels.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, reiterated its opposition to a major ground offensive in Rafah on Tuesday but said it did not believe such an operation was under way.
The US has, with Egypt and Qatar, been involved in efforts to mediate indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on arranging a ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages. Those talks have stalled, with both sides blaming the other for the lack of progress.
As the war drags on, malnutrition has become widespread in Gaza as aid deliveries have slowed to a trickle, and the United Nations has warned of incipient famine.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), also called for an end to what he said were Israeli attacks on UNRWA staff and buildings in Gaza.
In article for the New York Times, he said Israeli officials were “delegitimizing UNRWA by effectively characterizing it as a terrorist organization,” and he described a “dangerous precedent of routine targeting of UN staff and premises.”
His comments followed allegations by Israel in January that 12 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Israel did not immediately respond to his remarks.
The Gaza war has also stoked violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, another territory where Palestinians seek statehood.
Israel said two soldiers were killed in an overnight hit-and-run by a Palestinian motorist in the West Bank city of Nablus. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from Palestinian factions.
