GAZA: Days after the end of a brief bout of fighting last month, Gazan workers were already returning to work across the border under a permit scheme launched as part of Israel’s strategy of using economic inducements to help stabilize the volatile enclave.
For those lucky enough to obtain a permit, a job in Israel can bring in 10 times what they could earn at home, a powerful incentive in an impoverished area where 2.3 million people live squeezed into a narrow coastal strip.
“I have paid my debts, renovated the house and brought some things I had needed,” said Omar Abu Sidu, 31, who has been working in a car wash company in the southern Israeli town of Sderot for the past six months.
According to the World Bank, unemployment in Gaza runs at about 50 percent and more than half the population lives in poverty, exacerbated by repeated bursts of fighting and a years-long economic blockade imposed by both Israel and Egypt.
The application process for permits is often tangled up between offices run by the Islamist Hamas movement and the official Palestinian Authority, which lost control of Gaza in 2007 but which deals with Israeli authorities on the issue.
Some workers also complain that the permits do not give them many normal employment rights, including pensions and accident compensation insurance.
But that has done little to curb demand and the Hamas-run Labour Ministry in Gaza said it had received 100,000 applications for permits since March, when it began to be involved in the application process.
“It has made a big difference,” Abu Sidu said, who had arrived several hours early to go back across the Erez crossing into Israel, where he earns 350-400 shekels ($102-$117) a day, compared with the 40 shekels ($11.60) he was making in Gaza.
The permits were introduced as part of Israel’s twin strategy of enforcing military control while offering some economic benefits to reduce tensions following an 11-day war last year with Hamas, which controls Gaza.
UNCERTAINTY REMAINS
As well as the permits, which analysts say bring in around 7 million shekels ($2 million) a day into Gaza’s economy, Israel has also promised further loosening of economic restrictions, depending on positive signs from Hamas.
Aware of the economic benefits to Gazans but wary of being trapped into making concessions to what Palestinians see as the occupying power, Ehab Al-Ghsain, the Hamas-appointed deputy of the Labour Ministry said Israel’s demands “will not influence our political positions.”
Israeli officials say the permits have forced Gaza’s rulers in Hamas to face a choice between maintaining their fundamental opposition to Israel and giving Palestinians access to well-paying jobs.
“The leadership in Gaza must take a decision,” said Moshe Tetro, head of the Israeli military’s Coordination and Liaison Unit with Gaza. “Do they want civil and economic openness or devastation and destruction?“
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who faces a re-election battle in November, said the government may increase the number of permits to 20,000 from some 15,000 at present.
Any further increase would depend on Hamas agreeing to return the remains of missing Israeli soldiers believed to have been killed in Gaza.
For Gazans on the street, the political dispute leaves them exposed to both sudden and unpredictable border closures by Israel and an opaque and difficult-to-understand application process.
“I applied a year ago,” said Hussein Nabhan, a 33-year-old father of six. “Some people applied one or two months ago and they got permits, but we don’t have connections,” he said.
Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority separately deny there are any bribes or the influence of connections in how people are selected to obtain the permits.
Even for those who navigate the process successfully, much uncertainty remains and while the benefits are welcome, workers are constantly aware that they can be withdrawn at any time.
Last month’s fighting between Israel and the militant Islamic Jihad faction was limited in scope and there was no full blown confrontation with Hamas. But after at least six bouts of conflict since Israel evacuated its forces from Gaza in 2005, there is constant awareness that things can change quickly.
“When there is an escalation, we fear we might not be issued permits again and that we would stop working. We’re on our toes all the time,” said Abu Sidu. ($1 = 3.4258 shekels)
Gazans caught between hope and mistrust as Israel offers work
https://arab.news/b878a
Gazans caught between hope and mistrust as Israel offers work
- Workers can earn 10 times what they make in Gaza
- Some workers also complain that the permits do not give them many normal employment rights
Houthis claim 5th US drone shoot-down since November
- The Houthi military launched “a locally made surface-to-air missile” at the US MQ-9 Reaper drone
- The Houthi claim on Tuesday was the second in less than a week concerning an MQ-9 Reaper shoot-down, and the fifth since November
AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s Houthis claimed on Tuesday to have shot down another US drone over the central province of Al-Bayda, marking the fifth such claim by the militia since the start of their Red Sea campaign in November.
Spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised broadcast that the Houthi military launched “a locally made surface-to-air missile” at the US MQ-9 Reaper drone, which crashed in Al-Bayda province.
Sarea did not disclose when the shoot-down took place, but said the military action came in support of the Palestinian people and as retribution for US and UK bombings of Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces continue to enhance their defensive capacities in order to face the American-British aggression against our nation and carry out military operations in triumph for the oppressed Palestinian people,” Sarea said.
The Houthi claim on Tuesday was the second in less than a week concerning an MQ-9 Reaper shoot-down, and the fifth since November.
On Friday, the militia said its forces shot down a US drone over the central province of Marib while conducting “hostile operations,” soon after locals reported hearing a loud blast and finding wreckage of a drone resembling an MQ-9 Reaper.
The Houthis had previously claimed to have shot down the same drone model on April 26 and Feb. 19 this year, as well as on Nov. 8 last year, over Saada, Hodeidah and the Red Sea, respectively.
Since November, the Houthis have attacked ships in international waters around Yemen, mainly the Red Sea, using drones, ballistic missiles and drone boats.
The militia claims its campaign is solely targeting Israel-linked ships in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The US has responded to the Houthi attacks by identifying the militia as a terrorist organization, organizing a coalition of marine task forces and carrying out strikes on Houthi sites in Yemen.
In an attempt to revive peace talks stalled by the Houthi Red Sea campaign, the US State Department said on Monday that Yemen envoy Tim Lenderking will return to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman.
He will meet officials in those countries to discuss the Houthi Red Sea campaign and its implications on Yemen’s peace process.
“The Houthis’ continued attacks threaten progress toward achieving a durable resolution to the conflict in Yemen and obstruct the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Yemenis and people in need across the region,” the US State Department said.
UNRWA says food distribution in Rafah suspended due to insecurity
- Food distribution in Rafah suspended due to lack of supplies and insecurity
DUBAI: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday that food distribution in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah were currently suspended due to lack of supplies and insecurity.
Simultaneous Israeli assaults on the southern and northern edges of the Gaza Strip this month have caused a new exodus of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, and sharply restricted the flow of aid, raising the risk of famine.
Cyprus says maritime aid shipments to Gaza ‘on track’
- 1,000 tons of aid were shipped from Cyprus to the besieged Palestinian territory between Friday and Sunday
- The vessels were shuttling between Gaza and the east Mediterranean island
NICOSIA: Four ships from the United States and France are transporting aid from Larnaca port to the Gaza Strip amid the spiralling humanitarian crisis there, the Cyprus presidency said on Tuesday.
Victor Papadopoulos from the presidential press office told state radio 1,000 tons of aid were shipped from Cyprus to the besieged Palestinian territory between Friday and Sunday.
He said the vessels were shuttling between Gaza and the east Mediterranean island, a distance of about 360 kilometers (225 miles).
Large quantities of aid from Britain, Romania, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and other countries have accumulated at Larnaca port.
Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides told reporters on Tuesday the maritime aid effort was “on track.”
“We have substantial assistance from third countries that want to contribute to this effort,” he said.
The aid shipped from Cyprus is entering Gaza via a temporary US-built floating pier, where the shipments are offloaded for distribution.
The United Nations has warned of famine as Gaza’s 2.4 million people face shortages of food, safe water, medicines and fuel amid the Israel-Hamas war that has devastated the coastal territory.
Aid deliveries by truck have slowed to a trickle since Israeli forces took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt in early May.
The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Two days after the war broke out, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 35,647 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Daesh attack in Syria kills three soldiers: war monitor
- The militants “attacked a site where... regime forces were stationed“
- The Syrian army had sent forces to the area, where Daesh attacks are common
BEIRUT: Daesh group militants killed three Syrian soldiers in an attack Tuesday on an army position in the Badia desert, a war monitor said.
The militants “attacked a site where... regime forces were stationed,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that a lieutenant colonel and two soldiers died.
The Syrian army had sent forces to the area, where Daesh attacks are common, ahead of an expected wider sweep, said the Britain-based Observatory which has a network of sources inside the country.
In an attack on May 3, Daesh fighters killed at least 15 Syrian pro-government fighters when they targeted three military positions in the desert, the Observatory had reported.
Daesh overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a so-called caliphate and launching a reign of terror.
It was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019, but its remnants still carry out deadly attacks, particularly against pro-government forces and Kurdish-led fighters in Badia desert.
Syria’s war has claimed more than half a million lives and displaced millions more since it erupted in March 2011 with Damascus’s brutal repression of anti-government protests.
At least 9 Egyptian women and children die when vehicle slides off ferry and plunges into Nile River
At least 9 Egyptian women and children die when vehicle slides off ferry and plunges into Nile River
- The accident, which happened in Monshat el-Kanater town in Giza province, also injured nine other passengers
CAIRO: At least nine Egyptian women and children died Tuesday when a small bus carrying about two dozen people slid off a ferry and plunged into the Nile River just outside Cairo, health authorities said.
The accident, which happened in Monshat el-Kanater town in Giza province, injured nine other passengers, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Giza is one of three provinces forming Greater Cairo.
Six of the injured were treated at the site while three others were transferred to hospitals. The ministry didn’t elaborate on their injuries.
A list of the nine dead obtained by The Associated Press showed four were minors.
Giza provincial Gov. Ahmed Rashed said the bus was retrieved from the river and rescue efforts were still underway as of midday Tuesday.
The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.
According to the state-owned Akhbar daily, about two dozen passengers, mostly women, were in the vehicle heading to work when the accident occurred. It said security forces detained the vehicle driver.
Ferry, railway and road accidents are common in Egypt, mainly because of poor maintenance and lack of regulations. In February, a ferry carrying day laborers sank in the Nile in Giza, killing at least 10 of the 15 people on board.
