Istanbul and Ankara mayors under probe over COVID-19 aid campaign
Helping the most-vulnerable is ‘not a crime,’ says ex-opposition MP
Updated 18 April 2020
Arab News
ANKARA: In a surprise move, the Turkish Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into the metropolitan municipalities of Istanbul and Ankara over their campaigns to help the most-vulnerable during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The campaigns were set up to collect donations to help low-income residents in the two municipalities, which are both governed by secular mayors from Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas are set to submit their pleas to the public authorities on Monday.
The Interior Ministry alleges that the campaigns do not conform with state regulations issued on March 31 — the day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, head of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), launched a nationwide donation campaign to aid the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic — which state that all provinces (which include metropolitan municipalities) wishing to launch campaigns for donations have to first get permission from the relevant government-appointed officials.
However, legal experts opposed to the government’s decision — which they see as a partisan political move — say that Turkish law grants authority to mayors to accept donations.
Baris Yarkadas, a journalist and ex-CHP MP, told Arab News: “They are launching an investigation against Imamoglu just because he collected donations for the needy people. They are trying to create a basis for appointing trustees to the cities. I’m warning the AKP: Do not (obstruct) the Turkish people. Helping the poor and the needy is not a crime.”
The state-owned Vakifbank has frozen the money collected by the municipal aid campaigns.
“How the banks are proceeding now is unlawful and out of fear. It’s a (stain on) the history of banking. If you see a wrong procedure, you can launch an investigation into the Istanbul mayor, but you can’t block the donations belonging to the citizens,” Imamoglu said in a statement issued to the press.
According to Emrah Gulsunar, a political scientist from Lund University in Sweden, the investigation is an attempt by Erdogan’s government to undermine the efforts of opposition-led municipalities in the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The investigation is an attempt by Erdogan’s government to undermine the efforts of opposition-led municipalities in the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Emrah Gulsunar, Political scientist
“From the beginning of the process, the Turkish government has been trying to establish a monopoly on the state’s social policies that aim to lessen the negative impacts of the pandemic,” he told Arab News.
“From his past as a mayor, Erdogan is well aware that local governments and municipalities are closer to society than the central government (and that) their social policies touch people’s daily lives directly, such as providing health products and free food, and helping the elderly.”
Gulsunar believes that Erdogan does not want credit for these policies to be given to the opposition, as this could pose a serious threat to his power.
“The government aims not just to deprive municipalities of one of their income sources, but also to intimidate them in their potential future attempts to mitigate the negative impacts of the pandemic by (instigating beneficial) social policies,” he added.
However, Gulsunar does not think that the investigations will result in prosecution or arrests. In the current situation, he believes, an investigation is as much as the government would risk.
Just two weeks before the March 2019 municipal elections, Turkish prosecutors prepared an indictment against Yavas over charges of fraud and forgery when he worked as a lawyer. A week later Erdogan threatened not to allow Yavas to serve as mayor even if he won the election, saying: “We will not hand Ankara over to a random person, to someone who forged signatures on checks. We want Ankara to continue to be governed by good people.”
In the end, however, both Yavas and Imamoglu won mayoral races against their government-backed rivals — the first time in almost 25 years that the opposition had won municipal elections in Turkey’s two major cities.
Gulsunar claims that the Turkish people resent the government’s interference in local politics in a case like this where the mayors were actually trying to help citizens.
“In Turkey’s polarized society, the opposition is already furious about this investigation, as expected,” he told Arab News.
“However, I do not think that this kind of investigation would be considered legitimate even by Erdogan’s more-moderate supporters, because there is no strong argument for preventing the municipalities from helping people.”
UN atomic chief urges Iran to take ‘concrete’ steps for cooperation
Grossi said a March 2023 deal with Iran was “still valid” but required more “substance”
Updated 52 min 47 sec ago
AFP
ISFAHAN: UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi, visiting Iran on Tuesday, urged the country to adopt “concrete” measures to bolster cooperation on its nuclear program and address the international community’s concerns.
At a news conference in the city of Isfahan, Grossi said he had proposed in talks with Iranian officials that they “focus on the very concrete, very practical and tangible measures that can be implemented in order to accelerate” cooperation.
The International Atomic Energy Agency director-general held talks with senior Iranian officials including Atomic Energy Organization’s head Mohammad Eslami.
Grossi insisted on the need to “settle differences” on the nuclear issue while the Middle East was going through “difficult times,” particularly with the war between Israel and the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Sometimes, political conditions pose obstacles to full-fledged cooperation” between Iran and the international community, he said.
To overcome these obstacles, he said, “we need to come up with concrete steps that are going to be helpful in bringing us closer to these solutions that we all need.”
Grossi said a March 2023 deal with Iran was “still valid” but required more “substance.”
The agreement was reached during Grossi’s last visit to Iran and outlined basic cooperation measures including on safeguards and monitoring. The IAEA chief said, however, that there had been a “slowdown” in the agreement’s implementation including the number of inspections being reduced and the accreditation of a group of IAEA experts being withdrawn by Iran.
Iran suspended its compliance with caps on nuclear activities set by a landmark 2015 deal with major powers a year after the US in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from the agreement and reimposed sweeping sanctions.
“We have this legal right to reduce our commitments when the other parties do not adhere to their obligations,” Eslami said during the joint news conference.
Tensions between Iran and the IAEA have repeatedly flared since the deal fell apart, and EU-mediated efforts have so far failed both to bring Washington back on board and to get Tehran to again comply with the terms of the accord.
The agency has in recent months criticized Iran for a lack of cooperation on issues including the expansion of its nuclear work, the barring of inspectors and deactivating the agency’s monitoring devices at its nuclear facilities.
Why Israel’s military operation in Rafah will lead to ‘inevitable catastrophe’ in Gaza
Israel has seized control of the Rafah border crossing and ordered 100,000 Palestinians to “evacuate immediately”
Full-scale assault on Rafah would intensify humanitarian emergency throughout Gaza, aid agencies warn
Updated 38 min 48 sec ago
ANAN TELLO Robert Edwards
LONDON: Palestinians in Gaza’s southern governorate of Rafah face a desperate situation as the Israeli military proceeds with its long-planned assault on the area, capturing the Gaza side of the border crossing with Egypt and ordering displaced families to move yet again.
The Israeli army announced on Tuesday morning that its 401st Brigade had taken “operational control” of the Rafah border crossing after advancing into the eastern part during the night as part of its mission to dislodge Hamas.
Earlier on Monday, Israel ordered some 100,000 Palestinians in eastern Rafah to “evacuate immediately” to Al-Mawasi, a coastal town near Khan Younis that humanitarian organizations said was “completely uninhabitable.”
Mercy Corps said Palestinians in eastern Rafah were confronted with two impossible choices: Face death under bombardment or attempt a perilous journey to an unlivable area with no access to essential aid.
Smoke billows after Israeli bombardment in Rafah. (AFP)
Bushra Khalidi, advocacy director for Oxfam in the Palestinian territories, says civilians fleeing Rafah have been left with nowhere to go.
She told Arab News that people in Rafah “are worried of even leaving their homes” because they fear they will not find anywhere in the middle area or in Al-Mawasi.
According to the AFP news agency, more than 74 percent of the infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed since Oct. 7 when Israel launched its bombing campaign in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
Al-Mawasi, which Israel had dubbed a “humanitarian zone,” is “already overpopulated and filled with makeshift tents,” said Khalidi. “There is no infrastructure, there (are) no services, and no facilities to host this number of (internally displaced people).”
Moreover, this narrow coastal strip, measuring just 1 km wide and 14 km long, already hosts an estimated 250,000 displaced Gazans, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Ahmed Bayram, media adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council in the Middle East, stressed that “there is not a corner or a street in Gaza where people can go expecting safety.”
Israeli tanks enter the Gazan side of the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP/Israeli Army)
He told Arab News: “Al-Mawasi, which is one of the areas Israel has asked people to go to, is full to the very brim. There is no free spot left in that narrow stretch of land, which is not equipped for such high demand.”
According to Mercy Corps, Al-Mawasi is already a sea of makeshift tents, with little in the way of humanitarian relief, electricity, or water.
It also remains unclear whether Palestinians can flee to neighboring countries through the Rafah crossing now that it is under Israeli control, said Ruth James, Oxfam’s regional humanitarian coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.
She told Arab News: “Many Palestinians in Gaza currently do not have the recognized right to return to their original homes. Given this context, Egypt, or any other state, should be cautious of inadvertently abetting any potential efforts by Israel, or any other party, to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population of Gaza.”
Volker Turk, the UN human rights chief, slammed Israel’s evacuation order as “inhumane,” warning that such an action could amount to a war crime, Reuters reported.
Oxfam’s Khalidi also warned that if a Rafah-wide incursion happens, which is the worst-case scenario, it would “entail mass carnage and a complete bloodbath.”
An injured Palestinian boy awaits treatment at the Kuwaiti hospital following Israeli strikes in Rafah. (AFP)
She explained that this is due to “how small” Rafah is and “because of how congested and overpopulated it is.”
Echoing her colleague’s fears, James said: “It’s hard to imagine the scale of need caused by a Rafah invasion. Simply put, this invasion can’t happen. There must be an immediate and permanent ceasefire.”
She added: “The alternative is an avoidable, massive loss of civilian life.”
Despite repeated public objections, even US President Joe Biden’s appeals against the Rafah offensive have gone unheeded.
According to the Associated Press, Biden urgently warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call on Monday against invading Rafah, stressing it would only lead to more deaths and exacerbate the despair in the embattled enclave.
The Israeli military said its operation in Rafah is designed to eliminate fighters and dismantle infrastructure used by Hamas, according to Reuters.
An aerial view of cargo trucks relocated away from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. (Maxar Technologies)
Israel’s overnight strikes across Rafah killed at least 23 people, including five children, according to local health officials.
Prior to that, Israeli warplanes pounded homes in Rafah, killing at least 27 Palestinians, including two babies, according to Gaza’s health authority.
This is despite Hamas accepting the terms of a Qatari-Egyptian ceasefire proposal on Monday.
Humanitarian organizations concur that the impact of Israel’s operation in Rafah will extend beyond the eastern area, affecting more than 1.4 million people who have been sheltering in the southern governorate — and the entirety of Gaza’s remaining population.
“While the initial ‘evacuation orders’ and operations announced in the east of Rafah are directly impacting 100,000 people, over 1.4 million are sheltering in Rafah, half of which are children, and are at direct risk of any escalated military operations across the area,” Salim Oweis, a spokesperson for UNICEF in Gaza, told Arab News.
Displaced Palestinians flee Rafah for safer areas in southern Gaza. (AFP)
“The extended impact will be far-reaching to include all the 2.2 million residents of Gaza.”
Elaborating, Oweis added: “Rafah is the main hub of all humanitarian response, and any impact on the already struggling aid delivery and humanitarian response will hamper the efforts across Gaza.”
Rafah is the last population center in the Gaza Strip after the seven-month Israeli assault obliterated three-quarters of the besieged enclave, killing at least 34,700 Palestinians according to Gaza’s health ministry, and displacing 90 percent of the population of 2.3 million people.
Israel’s evacuation orders in eastern Rafah, coupled with unceasing airstrikes across Gaza’s south, have instilled panic among the war-weary residents, triggering an exodus of thousands of Palestinians who have nowhere to seek refuge.
Describing the situation across the Gaza Strip as “a state of despair, chaos and confusion” as Israel carries out its assault on Rafah, NRC’s Bayram said that “by issuing its orders, Israel has again pushed over 1 million people into the unknown.”
FASTFACTS
• Israel ordered Palestinians to evacuate to Al-Mawasi — deemed ‘completely uninhabitable.’
• Closing Rafah crossing would cut Gaza’s only viable humanitarian lifeline, warn aid chiefs.
• Fears that Rafah-wide incursion would ‘entail mass carnage and a complete bloodbath.’
He added: “Let’s not forget, while the orders cover an area with 100,000 people east of Rafah, the rest of the population in central and western areas will think they are next to be forcibly transferred, and so they will try to get out while they can.”
Tahani Mustafa, a senior Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group, foresees a “horrific” humanitarian situation if the Rafah hostilities do not stop.
“All movement of people and goods has been closed off, at a time where famine is already in the north and was very much on the verge in the south,” she told Arab News.
“There’s been no contingency plan in place, and all foreign aid delegations have been evacuated. If this goes ahead as Israel states, it will be a massacre.”
Gallant promised to “deepen” the Rafah operation if hostage deal talks failed. (AFP)
As Israel has blocked aid through the Rafah border crossing, aid groups are concerned about the impact on much-needed humanitarian assistance across the Gaza Strip. This concern is exacerbated by the suspension of aid deliveries to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing following a nearby Hamas rocket attack.
Oxfam’s James cautioned that “even one day of closure (of crossing points) means that additional lives are likely to be lost to hunger and illness.”
She called on Israel to “adhere to its obligations under international humanitarian law to ensure civilian populations are provided with the most essential aid in sufficient quantities.”
Khalidi pointed out that aid organizations “are already facing huge obstructions” in delivering aid across Gaza.
“Often aid is not making it even past Khan Younis,” she said. “And hence the descent to hell, into starvation, that we have seen over the last course of months in the north, but also across the strip.”
Stressing the need to open “all crossings” to meet the immense and deep humanitarian needs in Gaza, Khalidi said: “We’re hearing that maybe other crossings will open, but the problem is that we already had two crossings open, and that was not enough.”
Displaced Palestinians arrive in Khan Yunis after Israel issued an evacuation order for parts of Rafah. (AFP)
The World Food Programme warned on Saturday that northern Gaza is experiencing a “full-blown famine,” which is “moving its way south.”
Bayram of the NRC also warned that “the entire aid system is at the point of collapse.”
He said: “Closing down the Rafah crossing means cutting off the only viable lifeline currently available for aid workers,” highlighting that the NRC relies on the Rafah crossing to bring in essential aid.
“Fuel is running low already and the existing stocks will not be able to sustain increasing demand,” he added, stressing that “Israel must reverse its plans so we can avoid an inevitable catastrophe.”
UNICEF’s Oweis emphasized that “any interruption to the already limited aid access will have a devastating impact on the humanitarian situation as a whole.”
He added: “With no fuel coming in, all the basic services will be in jeopardy of a total halt, including aid delivery and what’s left of healthcare.
“Not having food entering the strip means that more children will fall into malnutrition and disease, and will be put at heightened risk of death.”
A woman mourns a child killed by Israeli strikes on Rafah. (AFP)
Gaza’s health authority reported on April 25 that since February, at least 28 children, most of them no older than 12 months, had died of malnutrition and dehydration.
Oweis stressed that “the only hope for a way out of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe is simple, and it’s an immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire.”
He added: “Meanwhile, safe and consistent access for humanitarian organizations and personnel to reach children and their families with lifesaving aid, wherever they are in the Gaza Strip, is crucial.”
Israel’s incursion into Rafah putting 1.5m people in danger: WHO director
Hospitals in Rafah must be protected and provided with the supplies they need to keep providing care to the thousands of sick and injured civilians, Balkhy said
Updated 07 May 2024
Arab News
LONDON: Israel’s military incursion into the Gazan city of Rafah is putting 1.5 million people, including 600,000 children, in “grave danger,” a World Health Organization official warned on Tuesday.
Dr. Hanan Balkhy, regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said on X that lives were hanging in the balance as the health system in the Gaza Strip struggled to remain functional.
The WHO and its partners were committed to providing assistance and delivering aid to all areas of the Gaza Strip, she said, but that required unimpeded access through the Rafah border crossing.
She called for the urgent reopening of the crossing and said any further escalation would push an already fragile humanitarian operation “to a breaking point.”
Hospitals in Rafah must be protected and provided with the supplies they need to keep providing care to the thousands of sick and injured civilians who were the victims of Israeli military operations, Balkhy said.
She called on the international community to pressure Israel to stop its military operation, which is threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Rafah.
“An urgent ceasefire in Gaza is needed now, for humanity’s sake,” she said.
Israeli forces seized the main border crossing between Egypt and southern Gaza on Tuesday, shutting down a vital aid route into the Palestinian enclave that was already on the brink of famine.
Hezbollah carries out drone, artillery attacks on Israeli forces, equipment
Group claims it ‘killed, wounded’ soldiers in strike on Yiftah barracks
Lebanese Foreign Ministry warns of risk of ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in Rafah
Updated 07 May 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI
BEIRUT: Hezbollah on Tuesday carried out a series of drone and artillery attacks on Israeli forces and other targets under the blanket slogan of “Supporting the Gaza Resistance.”
The group said it targeted “officers and soldiers while they were in the courtyard of the Yiftah barracks” and that its strikes were successful in “killing and wounding them.”
It also “targeted with other drones one of the Iron Dome platforms located south of the Ramot Naftali barracks, which was directly hit and damaged.”
A third target was “spy equipment at the Al-Sammaqa site in the Kafr Shuba hills,” while a fourth was “Israeli soldiers as they were moving inside a bulwark at the Israeli Al-Rahib military site,” on which it “achieved a direct hit.”
Israeli media said that “six explosive-rigged drones were launched from Lebanon, five of which exploded in the Upper Galilee, causing damage.”
Officials at the Kiryat Shmona settlement asked residents there to “stay in shelters due to fears of drone infiltration.”
Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said Hezbollah’s operations included “launching rockets and drones toward border areas in the Upper Galilee” and that an Israeli warplane dropped heat balloons over the area where the drones entered.
Explosions were heard in Yiftah and Ramot Naftali, it said.
Israeli Channel 12 said air defenses intercepted a drone launched from southern Lebanon toward Galilee, while another exploded without causing any damage.
According to the Israeli Army channel: “During April, four Israelis were killed by Hezbollah fire on the northern border and 33 others were injured, including five who sustained serious injuries.”
The Israeli military responded to Hezbollah’s actions by conducting raids and using artillery to shell Lebanese border towns, particularly Aita al-Shaab.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry warned against “any escalation by the Israeli occupation forces against the city of Rafah,” which it said would cause a “severe humanitarian disaster for more than 1 million Palestinians who have been displaced to this area as a result of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip that has been ongoing for seven months.”
UK marine agency reports two explosions in Gulf of Aden
The skipper of a ship transiting the gulf notified the UK maritime agency of two explosions ‘in close proximity to’ the ship 82 nautical miles south of Yemen’s southern city of Aden, and that the ship and crew were unharmed
Updated 44 min 17 sec ago
Saeed Al-Batati
AL-MUKALLA: The UK Maritime Trade Operations reported on Tuesday two explosions near a ship in the Gulf of Aden as international marine task forces in the Red Sea shot down drones fired by the Yemeni Houthi militia.
The skipper of a ship transiting the gulf notified the UK maritime agency of two explosions “in close proximity to” the ship 82 nautical miles south of Yemen’s southern city of Aden, and that the ship and crew were unharmed.
The incident prompted the UKMTO to encourage ships traveling in the Gulf of Aden to be cautious and to report “any suspicious activity.”
This comes as the US military and the EU naval operation in the Red Sea said they shot down Houthi drones in the previous 24 hours.
US Central Command announced in a statement on Tuesday that its forces destroyed on Monday one uncrewed aerial system fired by the Houthis from Yemeni territory under their control, targeting foreign commercial and navy ships in the Red Sea.
“It was determined the UAS presented an imminent threat to US, coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region,” USCENTCOM said.
The EU mission in the Red Sea, known as Eunavfor Aspides, said an Italian frigate shot down one drone on Monday while responding to a strike conducted by the Houthis from regions under their control in Yemen.
Until Tuesday afternoon, the Houthis had not claimed responsibility for new strikes on commercial or navy ships in the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden.
Since November, the Houthis have seized a commercial ship, sunk another, and launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles against vessels in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Bab Al-Mandab Strait, and, most recently, the Indian Ocean in support of the Palestinians against Israel’s war in Gaza.
On Friday, the Houthis said they will expand their campaign against Israel to the Mediterranean, targeting Israel-linked ships there and any place within range of their drones and missiles.
Meanwhile, the Houthis claimed on Monday to have uncovered an “espionage” network working for the US and Israel.
Houthi media broadcast images and videos of 10 individuals from the western province of Hodeidah who admitted to being recruited by Yemeni military officers at military locations under government control.
They claimed that these individuals were given the task of gathering information about the locations of missile and drone launchers, boats, weapons storage facilities, trenches, and movements of the Houthi forces, and that their information assisted US and UK strikes at those locations.
The Houthis accused Ammar Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, a former intelligence official and brother of Tareq Saleh, a member of the country’s presidential council, of running the dismantled network from a military base on the country’s western coast.
In 2022, a Houthi court in Sanaa sentenced Ammar Saleh to death in absentia for allegedly damaging Yemeni military missiles and air-defense systems while serving as the deputy director of the National Security Bureau.
Yemen’s Minister of Information Moammar Al-Eryani described the Houthi claims as “fabricated lies,” accusing them of torturing “innocent” people who appeared on the footage to convince them to admit to crimes they did not commit.
He added that the Houthis were using Israel’s war in Gaza to lay the groundwork for a new military operation against the Yemeni government.
“The terrorist Houthi militia’s scapegoating of innocent inhabitants of Tehama (Hodeidah), dictating them these lines as depicted in the false scenes it disseminated, and forcing them to make unfounded confessions through torture, pressure, and coercion,” Al-Eryani said on X.
