GAZA CITY: The Gazan residence of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat stands in ruins, like most other buildings in the devastated territory, but the remains of the once-lavish villa now also host several displaced families.
AFPTV footage shows the house, converted into a museum after the Palestinian leader’s death in 2004 and bearing murals in his honor, surrounded by rubble.
Located in the Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, the house was heavily damaged by Israeli strikes during the two years of war that followed Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Ashraf Nafeth Abu Salem, a university professor who found shelter in the residence with his own and other families, said he had decided to clean up the rubble inside the house’s courtyard, which was “largely destroyed and burned.”
A metal door that opens from the villa onto the street is adorned with a poster of Arafat, wearing his trademark keffiyeh and sunglasses. Behind him in the image is a smaller picture of the current president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abbas.
Abu Salem leafed through an old, yellowed book bearing Arafat’s portrait.
“We belong to the generation of the first intifada (in 1987). We grew up throwing stones,” he said.
“For us, President Abu Ammar was a model and a symbol of the Palestinian national struggle,” the professor said, referring to Arafat by the affectionate name used by supporters.
Three-quarters of the buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed in the two-year war, producing over 61 million tons of debris, according to UN data analyzed by AFP.
Displaced Gazans find shelter in Yasser Arafat’s dilapidated villa
https://arab.news/929sb
Displaced Gazans find shelter in Yasser Arafat’s dilapidated villa
- Located in the Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, the house was heavily damaged by Israeli strikes during the two years of war
- Ashraf Nafeth Abu Salem found shelter in the residence with his own and other families
Soleimani warned Al-Assad about ‘spy’ Luna Al-Shibl: Al-Majalla
LONDON: The late Iranian General Qassem Soleimani confronted Syria’s National Security Bureau chief Ali Mamlouk in late 2019 after seeing Luna Al-Shibl leaving his office. Al-Majalla magazine claims its reporters reviewed a document containing the full Arabic transcript of their exchange.
Soleimani reportedly asked, “Who is this?” and Mamlouk replied, “She is Louna Al-Shibl, the president’s adviser.”
The Quds Force commander pressed further: “I know, I know… but who is she really? Where did she work?”
According to Al-Majalla, a sister publication of Arab News, he said her former salary was “ten thousand dollars,” compared with her current salary of “five hundred thousand Syrian pounds,” before asking: “Does it make sense for someone to leave ten thousand dollars for five hundred thousand pounds? She is a spy.”
Both Soleimani and Maher Al-Assad, commander of the Syrian army’s powerful Fourth Division, had warned the ousted president’s inner circle about Al-Shibl, Al-Majalla reported.
‘Suspicious’ car crash
On July 2, 2024, Al-Shibl was involved in what officials described as a traffic accident on the Damascus-Dimas highway. She was hospitalized and died four days later.
But Al-Majalla reported that photos of her armored BMW showed only minor damage, raising immediate questions among those close to the case.
Eyewitnesses told the magazine that the crash was intentional. One said, “a car approached and rammed her vehicle,” and before her bodyguard could exit, “a man attacked her and struck her on the back of the head,” causing paralysis that led to her death.
She was first taken to Al-Saboura clinic, then transferred to Al-Shami Hospital. Several senior regime-linked figures, including businessman Mohammed Hamsho and an aide to Maher Al-Assad, were present when her condition deteriorated. One witness told Al-Majalla that when her bodyguard tried to explain what had happened, “he was arrested immediately in front of the others.”
The presidency later issued a brief statement announcing her death. Her funeral was attended only by a handful of officials. Then president Al-Assad did not attend.
