GAZA STRIP: Jordan’s air force launched on Tuesday the biggest air bridge so far to bring urgent medical supplies to Gaza under a US-sponsored deal to step up deliveries following a ceasefire, officials said.
The operation involves 16 helicopter flights a day that will at first deliver at least 160 tons of life-saving medical supplies over a week to hospitals and medical centers, army officials said.
Under an agreement sponsored by the US, Israel had allowed Jordan to deliver aid to a designated location near Israel’s Kissufim border crossing with the devastated Gaza Strip.
A helicopter pad in a spot that lies in a central area connecting the northern and southern parts of the enclave would help facilitate speedier deliveries, according to aid officials.
UN agencies led by the World Food Programme would then deliver them directly to medical centers and hospitals.
“More aid is needed for the Palestinian people in Gaza. There is a terrifying state of destruction. There is a terrifying state of suffering that the Palestinian people are living,” Jordan’s Minister of State for Communications Mohamed Momani told reporters at an air base where Black Hawk helicopters were taking off. Throughout the 15-month war, the UN has described its humanitarian operation as opportunistic — facing problems with Israel’s military operations, access restrictions by Israel, and more recently looting by Gazan armed gangs.
Since an agreement on a ceasefire, Jordan has sent seven overland convoys with at least 540 trucks through a corridor across the Israeli-occupied West Bank to Gaza, officials said.
“In this air corridor we deliver that urgent aid that could be damaged by their transport on trucks,” Brig. Gen. Mustafa Al-Hayari said.
The staunch US ally has arranged at least 147 convoys comprising 5,569 trucks since the conflict and also spearheaded 391 air drops by its air force alongside a coalition of Western and Arab countries.
King Abdullah has been lobbying Washington to push Israel to expand the aid corridor from Jordan to allow large volumes of aid to quickly cross.
The monarch has said Israel is to blame for delaying aid by hurdles and delaying tactics that have worsened the humanitarian plight of over 2 million people who live in the enclave. Israel denies it impedes aid flows.
Jordan launches air corridor for life-saving medicines into Gaza
https://arab.news/4yymb
Jordan launches air corridor for life-saving medicines into Gaza
- Jordan’s air force launches 16 helicopter flights daily for medical aid
- King Abdullah blames Israel for aid delays, Israel denies impeding flows
Syrian government and SDF agree to de-escalate after Aleppo violence
- Turkiye views the US-backed SDF, which controls swathes of northeastern Syria, as a terrorist organization and has warned of military action if the group does not honor the agreement
DAMASCUS: Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces agreed to de-escalate on Monday evening in the northern city of Aleppo, after a wave of attacks that both sides blamed on each other left at least two civilians dead and several wounded.
Syria’s state news agency SANA, citing the defense ministry, said the army’s general command issued an order to stop targeting the SDF’s fire sources. The SDF said in a statement later that it had issued instructions to stop responding to attacks by Syrian government forces following de-escalation contacts.
HIGHLIGHTS
• SDF and Syrian government forces blame each other for Aleppo violence
• Turkiye threatens military action if SDF fails integration deadline
• Aleppo schools and offices closed on Tuesday following the violence
The Syrian health ministry said two people were killed and several were wounded in shelling by the SDF on residential neighborhoods in the city. The injuries included two children and two civil defense workers. The violence erupted hours after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said during a visit to Damascus that the SDF appeared to have no intention of honoring a commitment to integrate into the state’s armed forces by an agreed year-end deadline.
Turkiye views the US-backed SDF, which controls swathes of northeastern Syria, as a terrorist organization and has warned of military action if the group does not honor the agreement.
Integrating the SDF would mend Syria’s deepest remaining fracture, but failing to do so risks an armed clash that could derail the country’s emergence from 14 years of war and potentially draw in Turkiye, which has threatened an incursion against Kurdish fighters it views as terrorists.
Both sides have accused the other of stalling and acting in bad faith. The SDF is reluctant to give up autonomy it won as the main US ally during the war, which left it with control of Daesh prisons and rich oil resources.
SANA, citing the defense ministry, reported earlier that the SDF had launched a sudden attack on security forces and the army in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah neighborhoods of Aleppo, resulting in injuries.
The SDF denied this and said the attack was carried out by factions affiliated with the Syrian government. It said those factions were using tanks and artillery against residential neighborhoods in the city.
The defense ministry denied the SDF’s statements, saying the army was responding to sources of fire from Kurdish forces. “We’re hearing the sounds of artillery and mortar shells, and there is a heavy army presence in most areas of Aleppo,” an eyewitness in Aleppo told Reuters earlier on Monday. Another eyewitness said the sound of strikes had been very strong and described the situation as “terrifying.”
Aleppo’s governor announced a temporary suspension of attendance in all public and private schools and universities on Tuesday, as well as government offices within the city center.
