GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: Afaf Al-Najar had found a way out of Gaza.
The 19-year-old won a scholarship to study communications in Turkey, secured all the necessary travel documents and even paid $500 to skip the long lines at the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
But when she arrived at the border on Sept. 21 she was turned back — not by Israel or Egypt, which have imposed a 14-year blockade on the Gaza Strip — but because of a male guardianship law enacted by the Hamas group, which rules the territory.
“I honestly broke down,” she said, describing the moment border officials removed her luggage from the bus. “My eyes started pouring, I could not even stand up. They had to bring a chair for me... I felt my dream is being robbed.”
Travel in and out of Gaza, a coastal territory that is home to more than 2 million Palestinians, has been severely restricted since 2007, when Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces. Israel, which has fought four wars with Hamas, most recently in May, says the blockade is needed to keep the militants from rearming. Critics view it as a form of collective punishment.
Hamas has repeatedly demanded the lifting of the blockade. But in February, an Islamic court run by Hamas issued a notice saying that unaccompanied women must get permission from a male “guardian” — a husband, relative, or even a son — to travel outside the territory.
After a backlash led by human rights groups, Hamas authorities amended the ruling to drop the requirement. Instead, it said that a male relative can petition a court to prevent a woman from traveling if it would result in “absolute harm.” Women cannot prevent men from traveling.
Hamas has only taken sporadic steps over the years to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, on already conservative Gaza, and even then has usually backed down in the face of criticism. It does not share the extreme ideology of more radical factions such as the Daesh group.
But the amended law has remained in effect.
Al-Najar’s father filed a petition, and the court prevented her from traveling so that it could consider it. She lives with her mother, who is separated from her father, and says he cut off all contact with her in May. He could not be reached for comment.
Hamas officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group that is deeply critical of the blockade, called on Hamas to lift its restrictions.
“Hamas’s authorities should lift the travel ban on Afaf Al-Najar and the Supreme Judicial Council should withdraw its notice, so that women in Gaza can travel without discriminatory restrictions,” it said.
After being turned back at the border, Al-Najar appealed to a number of local human rights groups, but said they appeared reluctant to assist her, fearing reprisal from Hamas. Eventually, she filed a petition against the ban.
Her father failed to show up at the first hearing, causing it to be postponed. Before it adjourned, the judge asked her why she was going abroad and suggested she could just as easily study in one of Gaza’s universities.
Al-Najar, who speaks fluent English and teaches the language, aspires to be a journalist. She says a multi-cultural country like Turkey provides opportunities that don’t exist in Gaza, which is largely cut off from the outside world.
The hearing was postponed a second time because her father’s attorney was sick. It was postponed a third time on Wednesday because his new lawyer said he needed time to study the case.
The scholarship’s validity was extended until the end of the year, but if Al-Najar does not make it to Turkey by then, she will lose it.
But she’s not giving up.
“I realized no one is going to help me but myself, and I realized that I have to be strong now to fight for my rights,” she said. “Instead of crying in my room and letting myself down, I decided to fight. I chose to fight for the first time in my life.”
Hamas ‘guardian’ law keeps Gaza woman from studying abroad
https://arab.news/9829c
Hamas ‘guardian’ law keeps Gaza woman from studying abroad
- When Afaf al-Najar arrived at the border on Sept. 21 she was turned back — not by Israel or Egypt, but because of a male guardianship law enacted by Hamas
- "My eyes started pouring, I could not even stand up. I felt my dream is being robbed,” she said
Houthi official says US offered to recognize Sanaa government; US official denies claim
- The remarks came a day after a Houthi ballistic missile reached central Israel for the first time
CAIRO: The US offered to recognize the Houthi government in Sanaa in a bid to stop the Yemeni rebel group’s attacks, a senior Houthi official said on Monday, in remarks that a US official said were false.
The Houthi official’s remarks came a day after a ballistic missile from the Iran-aligned group reached central Israel for the first time, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say Israel would inflict a “heavy price” on them.
“There is always communication after every operation we conduct,” Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi movement’s political bureau, told Al Jazeera Mubasher TV. “These calls are based on either threats or presenting some temptations, but they have given up to achieve any accomplishment in that direction.”
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the remarks “a total fabrication.”
Separately, a US State Department official said: “Houthi propaganda is rarely true or newsworthy. Coverage like this puts a guise of credibility on their misinformation.”
Al-Bukhaiti said the calls after attacks included some from the US and the United Kingdom indirectly through mediators and that the threats included direct US military intervention against countries that intervene militarily “in support of Gaza.”
Beside attacks on Israel, the Yemeni group has also continued to launch attacks on ships they say are linked or bound to Israel in support of Palestinians amid the war in Gaza.
The Houthis have damaged more than 80 ships in missile and drone attacks since November, sinking two vessels, seizing another and killing at least three crew members.
The war in the Gaza Strip started after Hamas gunmen launched a surprise attack on Israel which left 1,200 people killed and around 250 foreign and Israelis taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s subsequent offensive on Gaza has so far killed 41,226 Palestinians and wounded 95,413 others, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Yemen has been embroiled in years of civil war. In 2014, the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa, and ousted the internationally recognized government. In January, the United States put the Houthis back on its list of terrorist groups.
Returning residents to north Israel is now a war goal, Netanyahu says
- Tens of thousands of Israelis were evacuated from towns along the northern frontier that have been badly damaged by rocket fire and they have yet to return
JERUSALEM: Israel on Tuesday expanded its stated goals of the war in Gaza to include enabling residents to return to communities in northern Israel that have been evacuated due to attacks by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The decision was approved during an overnight meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, Netanyahu’s office said.
Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza. Hezbollah opened a second front against Israel a day later and fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border has since escalated, threatening to ignite a regional conflict.
Tens of thousands of Israelis were evacuated from towns along the northern frontier that have been badly damaged by rocket fire and they have yet to return.
Hamas chief says ready for ‘long war’ in Gaza
- Israel has killed at least 41,226 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry
- Independent UN rights experts meanwhile warned that Israel risked international isolation over its actions in Gaza and called on Western countries to ensure accountability
Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories: Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar said Monday the Palestinian group had the resources to sustain its fight against Israel, with support from Iran-backed regional allies, nearly a year into the Gaza war.
Sinwar, who last month replaced slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, said in a letter to the group’s Yemeni allies that “we have prepared ourselves to fight a long war of attrition.”
Deadly fighting raged on in the besieged Gaza Strip, where medics and rescuers said Monday that Israeli strikes — which the military has not commented on — killed at least two dozen people.
The latest strikes came as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that prospects for a halt in fighting with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon were dimming, yet again raising fears of a wider regional conflagration.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP at the weekend the group “has a high ability to continue” fighting despite losses, noting “the recruitment of new generations” to replace killed militants.
Gallant last week said Hamas, whose October 7 attack triggered the war, “no longer exists” as a military formation in Gaza.
Sinwar, in his letter to Yemen’s Houthis, threatened that Iran-aligned groups in Gaza and elsewhere in the region including Lebanon and Iraq would “break the enemy’s political will” after more than 11 months of war.
“Our combined efforts with you” and with groups in Lebanon and Iraq “will break this enemy and inflict defeat on it,” Sinwar said.
Independent UN rights experts meanwhile warned that Israel risked international isolation over its actions in Gaza and called on Western countries to ensure accountability.
Spain, which recently joined several European countries in formally recognizing the State of Palestine, is due to host Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday, an official in his office told AFP.
Abbas, who is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and holds little sway in Gaza, is set to meet Spanish King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, before heading to New York for the UN General Assembly.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,226 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
Tensions have surged along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, amid fears the violence could explode into an all-out war.
“The possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas and refuses to end the conflict,” Gallant told visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein, a defense ministry statement said.
Israeli media outlets said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was considering firing Gallant, one of several officials who have been at odds with the veteran leader on war policy. Netanyahu’s office denied the reports.
Netanyahu told Hochstein later Monday he seeks a “fundamental change” in the security situation on Israel’s northern border.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces since October in stated support of ally Hamas.
Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said Saturday his group has “no intention of going to war,” but if Israel does “unleash” one “there will be large losses on both sides.”
The violence has killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens of civilians and soldiers on the Israeli side.
In central Gaza, survivors scoured debris Monday after a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Ten people were killed and 15 were wounded when an air strike hit the Al-Qassas family home in Nuseirat in the morning, said a medic at Al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
“My house was hit while we were sleeping without any prior warning,” said survivor Rashed Al-Qassas.
Gaza’s civil defense said six Palestinians were killed in a similar strike at night on a house belonging to the Bassal family in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighborhood.
Emergency services later reported six more deaths, with Al-Awda Hospital saying it received the bodies of three people killed in Israeli strikes on Nuseirat.
The Gaza war has drawn in Iran-backed Hamas allies across the Middle East, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis, whose maritime attacks have disrupted global shipping through vital waterways off Yemen.
On Sunday the rebels claimed a rare missile attack on central Israel which caused no casualties, prompting Netanyahu to warn that they would pay “a heavy price for any attempt to harm us.”
In a televised speech, the Houthis’ leader said the rebels and their regional allies were “preparing to do even more.”
“Our operations will continue as long as the aggression and siege on Gaza continue,” Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said.
Israeli airstrikes destroy residential buildings in Hula as casualties rise
- Israel minister tells visiting US envoy time ‘running out’ to stop Lebanon war
- Hezbollah says Netanyahu is incapable of expanding the southern front
BEIRUT: One Hezbollah member was killed, and three were wounded in intense Israeli airstrikes on Monday on the border town of Hula.
The airstrikes destroyed several buildings, adding to the destruction of other residential areas that were leveled in the town, which has seen its residents flee.
The escalation of Israeli hostilities in southern Lebanon coincided with the arrival of Amos Hochstein, US envoy to the Middle East, in Tel Aviv.
His visit aims to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Hezbollah and avoid a full-scale war after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intent to “expand military operations in the north.”
BACKGROUND
Hezbollah has traded regular cross-border fire with Israeli forces since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack sparked war in the Gaza Strip, in a campaign the movement has said was in support of its Palestinian ally.
The explosions from the missiles “felt like an earthquake,” Samer, a resident living near the targeted border area, told Arab News.
“The ground shook under our feet, even though we were dozens of kilometers away from the airstrikes.
“Now, the strikes target groups of houses at once, unlike before when it was just a single building or home.”
Israeli artillery also shelled the outskirts of the towns of Kfarkela, Kfarchouba, Aita Al-Shaab, and Hanine in the Bint Jbeil district.
Ali Shbib Shehab, the mayor of Hanine, told Arab News: “The town is being destroyed daily. It is a town about 2,000 meters from the border and has lost four civilian martyrs so far, women and children, while eight other civilians were injured. Around 50 homes have been destroyed either partially or entirely.
“It is a small town, and those who remain are farmers who hold on to their land and insist on staying despite the daily shelling.”
A security source stated: “The area from Odaisseh to Kfarkela is now empty of residents, while in the Bint Jbeil — Mays Al-Jabal — Hula axis, some residents remain in their homes, relying on aid.”
Israeli leaflets were dropped on Saturday over the Lebanese agricultural border area of Wazzani, calling on the remaining residents to evacuate by 4 p.m.
However, the Israeli army denied dropping the leaflets, claiming it was an “individual act” by an officer in the northern brigade.
An Israeli artillery shelling on the border town of Adaisseh on Sunday evening resulted in injuries to four residents of the city, who were in the process of transporting household items outside the area.
Previously, owners of commercial establishments storing their goods in warehouses located in border towns, particularly in Mays Al-Jabal, coordinated with the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, which in turn liaised with the Israeli side.
Over the past two weeks, goods and household items from homes and shops were evacuated in phases to prevent damage, as the conflict approaches a year since its inception.
Israeli media reported on Monday that “the commander of the Northern Command of the Israeli army, Ori Gordin, recommended during closed sessions that the military be permitted to take control of a security buffer zone in southern Lebanon.”
The Israeli side aims to distance Hezbollah forces to ensure they do not pose a threat to the northern residents while also exerting pressure on Hezbollah to reach a lasting settlement.
Netanyahu has threatened to carry out a large-scale military operation against Hezbollah.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the visiting Hochstein on Monday that prospects were dimming for a halt to nearly a year of fighting with Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Gallant on Monday met with Hochstein to discuss Israeli military operations against Hezbollah and the plight of Israelis displaced by the cross-border strikes, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
He “emphasized that the possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to ‘tie itself’ to Hamas and refuses to end the conflict,” the statement said.
“Therefore, the only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes will be via military action.”
Earlier on Monday, the ministry said Gallant delivered a similar message by phone to his US counterpart Lloyd Austin about time “running out” for an agreement to end the conflict.
Israel “is committed to removing Hezbollah from southern Lebanon and ensuring the safe return of Israeli residents to their homes in the northern and border areas,” Gallant said.
In response to Netanyahu’s remarks on Monday concerning the potential expansion of the conflict to the northern front, Hezbollah MP Hussein Ezzedine asserted that Israel was “unable to extend the war to any additional front.”
He said the exhausted and worn-out army in Gaza had not yet reached an end to the current operations and could not assert victory in Gaza.
“Therefore, how can it contemplate opening a new front with Lebanon or any other location?”
Ezzedine affirmed that “the resistance is strong, capable, and prepared for any unexpected developments that the enemy may attempt to surprise us with, and it continues its daily operational activities that deplete the capabilities of the Israeli army.”
Israeli Channel 12 reported on Monday that several rockets launched from Lebanon struck the Metula settlement, resulting in damage to a building and the outbreak of fire.
Hezbollah announced that it targeted the positions of Israeli enemy soldiers in the vicinity of the Metula site using missile weapons.
It also targeted the Birkat Reisha site with artillery shells and the Israeli army’s artillery positions in Za’oura with rockets.
On Sunday, Hezbollah executed military operations against 10 Israeli military installations, which included an assault on the headquarters of the 188th Brigade’s armored battalions located in the Rawiya barracks with numerous Katyusha rockets.
Additionally, an attack drone was deployed to strike a technical system at the Al-Malikiyah site, achieving a direct hit. Another attack drone targeted Israeli soldiers at the Metula site.
Espionage equipment at the Ruwaysat Al-Alam site in the occupied Kfar Shuba hills was struck with a guided missile, while Israeli positions in Za’oura and further espionage equipment at the Ramya site were also targeted using guided missiles.
The Samaka site in the occupied Kfar Shuba hills was attacked with rocket weaponry, and buildings utilized by soldiers in the Shlomi settlement were also hit.
Furthermore, Hezbollah conducted an aerial assault employing a squadron of suicide drones on the headquarters of the Golan Division’s military assembly battalion in the Yarden barracks, accurately targeting the positions and settlements of their officers and soldiers, resulting in multiple casualties.
Additionally, Israeli artillery positions in Dishon were targeted with rockets.
Iran will never give up on its missile program: president
- Former US President Donald Trump reneged on that deal in 2018, arguing it was too generous to Tehran, and restored harsh US sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to gradually violate the agreement’s nuclear limits
DUBAI: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that Tehran would never give up on its missile program as it needs such deterrence for its security in a region where Iran’s arch-foe Israel is able to “drop missiles on Gaza every day.”
Tehran has for years defied Western calls to limit its missile program.
“If we don’t have missiles, they will bomb us whenever they want, just like in Gaza,” Pezeshkian said, referring to the conflict in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
He reiterated Tehran’s official stance, calling on the international community “to first disarm Israel before making the same demands to Iran.”
During a press conference, the president said Iran could hold direct talks with the US if Washington demonstrates “in practice” that it is not hostile to Tehran.
Former US President Donald Trump reneged on that deal in 2018, arguing it was too generous to Tehran, and restored harsh US sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to gradually violate the agreement’s nuclear limits.
“We are not hostile toward the US, they should end their hostility toward us by showing their goodwill in practice,” said Pezeshkian, adding: “We are brothers with the Americans as well.”
After taking office in January 2021, US President Joe Biden tried to negotiate a revival of the nuclear pact under which Iran had restricted its nuclear program in return for relief from US, EU and UN sanctions.
However, Tehran refused to directly negotiate with Washington and worked mainly through European or Arab intermediaries.
The president also said his government had not transferred any weapons to Russia since it took office in August, after Western powers accused Tehran of delivering ballistic missiles to Moscow in September.
Pezeshkian told a televised news conference: “It is possible that a delivery took place in the past ... but I can assure you that since I took office, there has not been any such delivery to Russia.”
It was reported in February that Iran had provided Russia with a large number of powerful surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, deepening the military cooperation between the two US-sanctioned countries.
