BEIRUT: For the first time, female military personnel from the armed forces of Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq gathered at UNESCO’s regional office hall in Beirut to participate in a workshop on protecting cultural property during armed conflict. They did so along with female officers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
“Our goal is to introduce participants to means of protecting cultural property during hostilities and military occupation,” UNESCO’s Joseph Kreidi told Arab News.
This is important because “we’re in a region that has witnessed and is still witnessing wars,” he said.
“We decided to allocate a workshop exclusively for women so as to empower them and to promote gender equality, in line with the organization’s objectives.”
Dr. Eric Klein, a senior technical adviser at UNESCO, presented a lecture on ways to protect cultural property during armed conflict, and how it could be a joint civilian-military mission.
Dr. Ali Badawi, regional director of the Lebanese Directorate General of Antiquities, shared with the participants the directorate’s experience in protecting his country’s antiquities during armed conflict.
Catherine Hanson, a researcher in preserving cultural heritage, introduced them to means of dealing with and documenting artifacts.
Myriam Haddad, a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross, gave a lecture on how to protect civilian areas under international humanitarian law.
Col. Ziad Rizkallah of the Lebanese Army told Arab News that the Lebanese participants in the workshop have law degrees and “are military police investigators and engineers in brigades stationed on the border.”
Before going to the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, where they spent the day among its relics and ruins, the participants listened to the Lebanese experience in protecting these relics.
“The border area of Naqura abounds with ruins and relics, as do all the cities on the Lebanese coast. We rushed to conduct surveys of the sites to preserve them,” said Badawi.
“This area hasn’t witnessed urban movement for decades, which contributed to the relics’ preservation.”
Answering a question about the fate of stolen artifacts that arrive in Lebanon and are seized, Badawi said: “Lebanon keeps the seized relics, but it informs the countries that it has them in its possession, asking them to verify their loss.”
Jordanian military women praised the opportunity that the workshop provided them. “The importance of the workshop is that it allows us, with the participation of men, to safeguard cultural property,” one of them said.
An Iraqi military official said: “The workshop provided us with steps to protect our country from the theft of antiquities, and to recover stolen antiquities on display in various museums around the world.”
She added that Iran, Jordan and Syria are used as routes to smuggle antiquities out of Iraq. She highlighted the serious damage caused by Daesh to archaeological and religious sites.
“When we return, we’ll explain and teach others how we can act to preserve the relics of our country,” she said.
Arab military women take part in UNESCO workshop
Arab military women take part in UNESCO workshop
UN Palestinian agency chief seeks probe into treatment of Gaza staff by Israel
- Lazzarini said Israel blocked him from entering Gaza last month, and that he plans to visit again on Sunday. He voiced hope that Israel would let him in
- Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory
GENEVA: The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, called on Tuesday for countries to back an independent investigation into alleged killings and detentions of its staff and damage to its premises once the Israel-Hamas conflict ends.
UNRWA has accused Israel of targeting its facilities during more than seven months of conflict in the Gaza Strip, and said 182 of its staff there had been killed and more than 160 of its shelters hit, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people fleeing Israeli bombardment.
After briefing UN member states in Geneva, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told reporters he wanted the countries to back an independent investigation “to look into this blatant disregard of the United Nations in order to avoid that this becomes also in the future the new standard.”
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva reacted by accusing UNRWA of complicity with Hamas, saying the militant group was embedded within the UN agency’s infrastructure.
Lazzarini said Israel blocked him from entering Gaza last month, and that he plans to visit again on Sunday. He voiced hope that Israel would let him in. UNRWA is the biggest humanitarian aid provider in Gaza where its 13,000 staff there also run schools and social services for the refugees who make up the majority of Gazans.
Israel accuses 19 of its staff members of taking part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks against Israel that killed 1,200 people and triggered Israel’s military offensive.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for UNRWA to be shut down, saying it seeks to preserve the issue of Palestinian refugees. A review of the agency’s neutrality said Israel had yet to provide evidence for its accusations that a significant number of UNRWA staff were members of terrorist groups and Lazzarini said that all but a handful of countries had now unblocked funds they had paused after the Israeli allegations.
He listed those still withholding funds as the US, Britain, Austria and his native Switzerland.
The Swiss lower house’s foreign affairs committee on Tuesday narrowly voted to partly unblock financial aid to UNRWA solely for humanitarian ends, a step that needs further parliamentary approval.
Some $267 million in total remains blocked, Lazzarini said, based on a tally of countries’ prior commitments. The agency has raised $115 million in private funding, he added.
Another UN investigation into the allegations against UNRWA staff members is still under way.
Food and other humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza have improved in April, but there is still far from enough to reverse the trend toward famine, he said.
“We are engaged in a race against the clock to reverse the spreading of hunger and the looming famine especially in the northern part,” he said.
Gas blast kills eight at Beirut restaurant: minister
- The firefighters put out a blaze in a small restaurant in Beirut after “a gas leak caused an explosion at the restaurant”
BEIRUT: A fire caused by a gas canister explosion killed at least eight people at a restaurant in Beirut on Tuesday, a Lebanese government minister and firefighters said.
The state-run National News Agency quoted the Beirut Fire Brigade as saying that “eight victims died of suffocation inside the restaurant.”
The firefighters put out a blaze in a small restaurant in Beirut after “a gas leak caused an explosion at the restaurant,” NNA added, quoted the same source.
Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi toured the site, also telling reporters at least eight people had been killed “by suffocation” in the blast.
Some lawmakers representing Beirut also visited, with parliament member Ibrahim Mneimneh questioning safety standards at the restaurant.
The accident “shows this place was not in line with public safety standards,” he said.
Lebanon’s economy has been in free-fall since late 2019, worsening a long-running public oversight problem in different sectors, especially with regard to public safety.
Kuwait launches anti-smoking campaign to safeguard children
- WHO reveal a threefold increase globally in e-cigarette usage among children aged 13-15 compared to adults
LONDON: The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health will launch an anti-smoking awareness campaign on Thursday aimed at safeguarding children from the dangers of tobacco, the Kuwait News Agency reported on Tuesday.
Collaborating with various ministries and state agencies, the campaign will underscore the critical need to protect vulnerable populations from the hazards of smoking.
Dr. Abeer Al-Baho, director of the ministry’s Health Promotion Department, said the awareness drive will be inclusive by reaching out to men, women, and children alike.
The campaign will highlight the detrimental effects of smoking, shed light on the legal ramifications for those found to be smoking in unauthorized areas, and particularly safeguard individuals with health vulnerabilities, minors, and the environment.
Al-Baho stressed the campaign’s pivotal role in curbing smoking-related diseases and fatalities, emphasizing the direct and indirect harm caused to the lungs and heart and the links with many types of cancer.
Scheduled to run until May 31, coinciding with World No Tobacco Day, the campaign will span all six Kuwaiti governorates, featuring demonstrations that show the hazards of smoking.
Disturbing statistics from the World Health Organization reveal a threefold increase globally in e-cigarette usage among children aged 13-15 compared to adults, prompting urgent warnings about the risks posed by tobacco in its various forms, including traditional smoking and e-cigarettes.
Blinken says he will press Netanyahu on Gaza aid measures during Israel trip
- Visit comes month after US President Biden issued stark warning to Israeli PM
- Blinken on a tour of Middle East, seventh since region plunged into conflict on Oct. 7
AMMAN: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday he would discuss with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu measures that Israel still needs to take to increase the flow of aid into Gaza during his planned talks in the country on Wednesday.
Blinken arrived in Israel on Tuesday to also push for a much awaited ceasefire between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in Gaza.
Ahead of his arrival in Israel, Blinken spoke to reporters at a warehouse of the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization where aid shipments from US-based charities are gathered.
While there are some improvements in the humanitarian aid situation in the densely populated enclave, he said, much more needs to be done to ensure assistance reaches people in a sustained manner.
“I’m now able to go to Israel tomorrow and go over with the Israeli government the things that still need to be done if the test is going to be met of making sure that people have what they need,” Blinken said.
“And I’ll be doing that (on Wednesday) directly with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government,” he said.
Blinken’s check-in with Netanyahu on aid will take place about a month after US President Joe Biden issued a stark warning to Netanyahu, saying Washington’s policy could shift if Israel fails to take steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers.
A spiraling humanitarian crisis has prompted calls from Israel’s Western and Arab partners to do more to facilitate the entry of aid to Gaza, where most people are homeless, many face famine, disease is widespread, and where much civilian infrastructure lies in ruins.
REGIONAL TOUR
Blinken is on a tour of the Middle East, his seventh since the region plunged into conflict on Oct. 7 when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 others, according to Israeli tallies.
In response, Israel has launched a relentless assault on Gaza, killing more than 34,000 Palestinians, local health authorities say, in a bombardment that has reduced the enclave to a wasteland. More than one million people face famine, the United Nations has said, after six months of war.
The first shipments of aid directly from Jordan to northern Gaza’s newly opened Erez crossing will leave on Tuesday, goods are also arriving via the port of Ashdod, and a new maritime corridor will be ready in about a week, Blinken said.
“But more still needs to be done,” he said. “We still have to have a deconfliction mechanism that’s effective and works — that’s a work in progress,” Blinken added.
He said there should also be a clear list of items needed in Gaza to avoid “arbitrary denials” — a reference to a process of rigorous inspections of aid shipments that has seen some trucks stranded at border crossings.
US and Egyptian presidents warn of danger of military escalation in Rafah
- The leaders say an Israeli assault on the Gazan city would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis and have repercussions on security and stability across the region
CAIRO: The Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, on Tuesday discussed the efforts being made by Egypt to encourage a ceasefire agreement in Gaza between Israel and Hamas and secure the release of hostages.
Ahmed Fahmy, a spokesperson for the presidency, said the two leaders expressed concern about the potential danger of a threatened Israeli military escalation in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, which has become the final refuge for more than a million Palestinians displaced by fighting from other parts of the territory. They said it would add a further, catastrophic dimension to the already worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and have wider repercussions on security and stability across the region.
The war began with the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, in which 1,170 people were killed, according to a tally by news agency Agence France-Presse. The militants also took about 250 hostages; Israeli authorities estimate 129 of them are still being held in Gaza, including 34 believed to be dead.
During Biden’s telephone call to El-Sisi, the Egyptian president stressed the need for humanitarian aid workers to be granted full and unrestricted access to Gaza, and highlighted the intensive efforts Egypt has been making in support of the aid effort.
The presidents agreed on the importance of preventing any regional expansion of the conflict, and reaffirmed that a two-state solution to the long-running dispute between Israel and Palestine is the best way to achieve peace, security and stability in the Middle East.
They also highlighted the strategic partnership between Egypt and the US, and their continuing efforts to strengthen bilateral cooperation at all levels.
