GAZA: Authorities in Gaza have appealed for help to put out a fire that has been burning for days in a waste landfill site, sending foul-smelling smoke spiralling across the blockaded enclave which already suffers from severe environmental problems.
“We are working day and night, but unfortunately fires may go on for at least till the end of the week,” said municipality spokesperson Hosni Mhana.
Boosted by a severe heatwave, the fire, southeast of Gaza City, close to the separation fence with Israel, has been burning in an area of roughly 50,000 square meters (539,000 sq. ft) of a landfill site which has swollen in the absence of recycling facilities.
“We have been unable to tolerate the smell of the fires for three days, it is not normal, you can’t breathe,” said Salem Abeid, 64, who lives around 1 km (0.6 mile) away from the landfill.
Citing security concerns, Israel and Egypt have enforced a blockade of Gaza since the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the densely-populated coastal enclave in 2007, restricting the movement of people and goods.
Palestinians say these restrictions have severely impeded their ability to respond to emergencies.
Mhana said the lack of ways to recycle the garbage made the problem chronic, and the landfill only got bigger and bigger over the years.
“The environmental impact is huge because while some materials degrade, some other materials such as plastic do not and they stay in the soil,” he said.
Gaza landfill fire rages for days, officials appeal for help
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Gaza landfill fire rages for days, officials appeal for help
- “We are working day and night, but unfortunately fires may go on for at least till the end of the week,” said municipality spokesperson Hosni Mhana
- Fire has been burning in an area of roughly 50,000 square meters (539,000 sq. ft) of a landfill site
The UN says Al-Hol camp population has dropped sharply as Syria moves to relocate remaining families
The UN says Al-Hol camp population has dropped sharply as Syria moves to relocate remaining families
- Forces of Syria’s central government captured the Al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade
DAMASCUS: The UN refugee agency said Sunday that a large number of residents of a camp housing family members of suspected Daesh group militants have left and the Syrian government plans to relocate those who remain.
Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR’s representative in Syria, said in a statement that the agency “has observed a significant decrease in the number of residents in Al-Hol camp in recent weeks.”
“Syrian authorities have informed UNHCR of their plan to relocate the remaining families to Akhtarin camp in Aleppo Governorate (province) and have requested UNHCR’s support to assist the population in the new camp, which we stand ready to provide,” he said.
He added that UNHCR “will continue to support the return and reintegration of Syrians who have departed Al-Hol, as well as those who remain.”
The statement did not say how residents had left the camp or how many remain. Many families are believed to have escaped either during the chaos when government forces captured the camp from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces last month or afterward.
There was no immediate statement from the Syrian government and a government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
At its peak after the defeat of IS in Syria in 2019, around 73,000 people were living at Al-Hol. Since then, the number has declined with some countries repatriating their citizens. The camp’s residents are mostly children and women, including many wives or widows of IS members.
The camp’s residents are not technically prisoners and most have not been accused of crimes, but they have been held in de facto detention at the heavily guarded facility.
Forces of Syria’s central government captured the Al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade. A ceasefire deal has since ended the fighting.
Separately, thousands of accused IS militants who were held in detention centers in northeastern Syria have been transferred to Iraq to stand trial under an agreement with the US
The US military said Friday that it had completed the transfer of more than 5,700 adult male IS suspects from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody.
Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation said a total of 5,704 suspects from 61 countries who were affiliated with IS — most of them Syrian and Iraqi — were transferred from prisons in Syria. They are now being interrogated in Iraq.
