Syria war shifting gears as it enters eighth year

2018-03-13

BEIRUT - Syria enters its eighth year of war on Thursday, free of the jihadist "caliphate" but torn apart by an international power struggle as the regime presses its blistering reconquest.

The conflict that started on March 15, 2011 as the government of President Bashar al-Assad cracked down on mostly peaceful protests is raging on relentlessly and getting more complex.

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, nearly 354,000 people have been killed in seven years. More than half of Syria's pre-war population of 20 million has been displaced.

International efforts have consistently failed to stop one of the deadliest wars of the century: hundreds of children are still being killed and thousands of people forced from their homes.

Assad, who once looked on the brink of losing the office he has held since 2000, was given a new lease on life by Russia's 2015 military intervention and is sealing an unlikely recovery.

"Today, the regime controls more than half of the territory. He holds the big cities... it's clear that he has won," said Syria analyst Fabrice Balanche.

The government's latest operation to retake the ground it lost in the early stages of the war is being conducted in Eastern Ghouta, at the gates of the capital Damascus.

Government and allied forces have waged an intense air and ground offensive on the rebel enclave, killing more than 1,100 civilians -- a fifth of them children -- in an assault whose ferocity has shocked the world.

Deadly barrel bombs and suspected chemical munitions have been dropped on civilian areas, forcing families to cower in basements and turning entire towns into fields of ruins reminiscent of World War II.

- 'Scramble for Syria' -

The past few months had seen the death of the Islamic State group's "caliphate", an experiment in jihadist statehood that temporarily gave rival forces a shared goal and shifted the focus away from Assad's fate.

The proto-state IS declared in 2014 in swathes of Syria and Iraq it controlled was gradually defeated by a myriad different forces, and 2017 saw the caliphate's final collapse.

The organization that once administered millions of people still has a few fighters hunkering down in desert hideouts, but its territorial ambitions have been dashed.

"It is very difficult for IS to get its feet back on the ground," said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

He warned that jihadists would retain the ability to carry out spectacular attacks and suicide bombings.

As they invested forces and equipment in the war on the jihadists, world powers were also staking their claim to increased influence in the region.

After foreign militaries finished wresting back one IS bastion after another, parts of Syria that had seen a relative lull in fighting became the focus once again.

"What we are seeing is the scramble for Syria right now," said Landis.

"The main trend is going to be the division of Syria" into three blocs, he said, with the lion's share going to the regime, which is backed by Russia and Iran.

- Faltering talks -

US-backed Kurds hold oil-rich territory in northeastern Syria covering 30 percent of the country and a motley assortment of Turkey-backed Arab rebels are carving a third haven in the northwest.

"Turkish and American influence on the ground, inside of Syria, will continue to spread," predicted Nicholas Heras of the Center for New American Security.

"In this way, 2018 will continue the trend of consolidating Syria into zones of control, even as Bashar al-Assad's forces make gains in some areas of the country," he said.

The regime is now bent on breaking any resistance in Eastern Ghouta, which lies on the capital's doorstep, within mortar range of key institutions.

Balanche predicted that the rebel enclave will not hold out very long and that evacuation deals will be reached.

"For the regime, 2018 is the year it fully retakes Damascus and its agglomeration," said Balanche, a visiting fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

UN-sponsored talks in Geneva as well as Russian-brokered negotiations in Sochi have failed to raise any credible prospect of a political solution to the conflict.

The assault on Ghouta marks one of the seven-year conflict's darkest episodes, with the international community apparently powerless to stop the bloodshed.

It has left the United Nations virtually speechless, with its children agency UNICEF issuing a blank statement last month to demonstrate its outrage at the carnage in Ghouta.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=87652.

Turkish-backed rebels poised to encircle Afrin city after days of swift advances

MAR. 12, 2018

AMMAN: Turkish-backed Syrian rebels are moving to “surround and isolate Afrin city,” the eponymous capital of a Kurdish-held enclave that has been the target of a months-long military operation, a rebel spokesman told Syria Direct on Monday.

Free Syrian Army fighters “are now on the outskirts of Afrin city,” Suheil al-Qasim, the spokesman for Failaq a-Sham, a rebel faction participating in the Turkish-backed offensive on Afrin canton, told Syria Direct on Monday.

Ankara-backed rebels seized control over a series of “strategic hills” overlooking Afrin city in recent days, the spokesman added.

Less than two kilometers currently separate Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions from Afrin city, following three days of swift advances against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Afrin is the capital of an eponymous canton in northwestern Aleppo that is mainly governed by the Kurdish-led Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing, the YPG. Ankara considers both groups to be offshoots of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey for decades.

On January 20, Turkey launched a military operation dubbed “Operation Olive Branch” in coordination with allied Syrian rebel groups with the stated goal of “eliminating terrorists” near Turkey’s border with northwestern Syria.

FSA factions supported by Turkish airstrikes and artillery fire seized the Kurdish-held enclave’s entire border region with Turkey from YPG fighters by early February, Syria Direct reported.

Olive Branch factions advanced towards the canton’s capital along two major axes over the past week after capturing cities and villages southwest and northeast of Afrin city.

Today, roughly six kilometers separate the two FSA salients. By joining the two frontlines, Olive Branch forces would encircle Afrin city as well as large swathes of countryside to the east.

Syria Direct contacted Nouri Mahmoud, official spokesman for the YPG, on Monday for confirmation of Operation Olive Branch advances. He said YPG fighters inflicted “heavy losses and destroyed military vehicles” belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces, but did not elaborate on the advances. 

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported “rapid advances” by the rebel factions of Operation Olive Branch on Monday, claiming that 1,100 square kilometers of Afrin were “cleared of terror threats” since the operation began in January.

Coinciding with the latest advances by Turkish-backed rebels, pro-government militias that entered Afrin in support of the YPG last month withdrew from the canton, the state-funded news outlet Russia Today reported on Sunday. 

YPG spokesman Nouri Mahmoud did not confirm that pro-government militias withdrew from Afrin canton, but said that the fighters were “evading their duties.”

“The groups belonging to the Syrian Army are not capable of protecting the unity of Syrian territory,” the spokesman said.

‘Brink of catastrophe’

Olive Branch forces are now closing in on a capital city teeming with displaced people, as tens of thousands of residents are taking shelter there after fleeing ground battles, shelling and Turkish airstrikes elsewhere in Afrin in recent weeks.

Afrin city and its surrounding villages are now home to 800,000 people, one canton official told Syria Direct. YPG spokesman Nouri Mahmoud claimed “more than one million Syrian citizens” are currently in Afrin. Syria Direct could not independently verify either statistic.

“The city is overcrowded with a huge number of displaced residents who came here,” a member of Afrin’s Executive Council told Syria Direct from inside the city on Monday. He asked to not be identified by name as he is not authorized to speak to the media.

In the first two weeks of the Turkish military operation alone, up to 30,000 residents fled their homes, with the majority seeking shelter in Afrin city, Syria Direct reported at the time.

Now, civilians in the enclave’s capital are fleeing deeper into the city center after FSA forces reached the outskirts, two residents on the ground told Syria Direct on Monday.

Some Afrin residents are taking shelter underground, resident Jano told Syria Direct on Monday. He said he fears “a massacre” if Turkish airstrikes hit the packed urban center. Jano asked that his full name and personal details not be published, fearing reprisals if Turkish-backed rebels seize the area.

“The city is on the brink of catastrophe,” he said.

Resident Jano and the council member said some Afrin city residents are fleeing towards the Kurdish-held countryside to the east, but both estimated that most residents remain in the city center.

“It is difficult to leave as the roads leading out [of the city] are being bombed,” the council member said, adding that Turkish air and artillery fire struck the outskirts of Afrin city on Monday. The Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported Turkish airstrikes near Afrin city on Monday.

Syria Direct contacted the Kurdish Red Crescent on Monday for statistics regarding Afrin city’s current population and rates of displacement, but were told that those figures were not available.

A report by Anadolu Agency on Monday claimed that YPG fighters are barring civilians from leaving the city and accused the Kurdish militia of using civilians as “human shields.”

The same report added that YPG “shelters are largely located in Afrin’s city center.”

Source: Syria Direct.
Link: http://syriadirect.org/news/turkish-backed-rebels-poised-to-encircle-afrin-city-after-days-of-swift-advances/.

More civilians leave Syrian rebel enclave as army advances

March 12, 2018

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian TV says another group of civilians has left the rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta outside Damascus through a corridor established by the Syrian army The state-run TV broadcast footage showing a small group of men, women and children it says left the town of Madyara on Monday. The town was captured by Syrian troops on Sunday.

Syrian government forces split eastern Ghouta in two amid rapid weekend advances, dealing a major setback to the rebels and threatening to exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation at the doorstep of the country's capital.

The advances also cut off key towns of Douma and Harasta from the rest of the enclave, further squeezing the residents inside them. The U.N. estimates nearly 400,000 civilians are living under a crippling siege in eastern Ghouta.

Government forces split East Ghouta apart, leaving residents with 'nowhere to go'

MAR. 11, 2018

AMMAN: Syrian government forces advanced and cut East Ghouta in two on Sunday, state media reported, while residents said they have “nowhere” to seek safety from a barrage of aerial and ground attacks in the rebel enclave.

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) captured the central East Ghouta town of Mudayra on Sunday after “fierce battles with terrorist organizations,” state media outlet SANA reported.

The advance severed rebel supply routes and movement between the pocket’s northern and southern sections, SANA said.

Syria Direct could not independently confirm the capture of Mudayra by government forces, which pro-opposition media outlets did not immediately report on Sunday.

In an earlier advance, Syrian government forces captured the central East Ghouta town of Misraba on Saturday, effectively “cutting off” the enclave’s largest city, Douma, from the rest of of the pocket, Hamza Beriqdar, the spokesman for the rebel faction Jaish al-Islam told Syria Direct.

Jaish al-Islam is one the two major rebel factions in control of East Ghouta.

Today, East Ghouta is divided into two main pockets: a northern section, where Douma lies, and a southern section containing a cluster of other cities and towns. The town of Harasta, near Douma, sits in a third pocket of its own, surrounded on three sides by government forces. Roads connecting Harasta to the rest of East Ghouta are within range of government fire and therefore impassable.

“There’s nowhere to go,” Khadeja Homs, a resident of the East Ghouta town of Hamouriyah told Syria Direct on Sunday.

Pro-government forces have encircled and bombarded East Ghouta, where an estimated 400,000 people live, since 2013. Damascus intensified attacks on the enclave last month in an ongoing aerial and ground campaign that has left approximately 1,100 civilians dead and many more injured.

SAA units and their allies have captured more than half of East Ghouta since the escalation began, Iran’s Fars New Agency reported on Sunday, citing Syrian military sources. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the same statistic last week.

As government forces advanced in East Ghouta over the weekend, “the bombing increased in its strength, intensity and duration” Douma resident and journalist Haytham Bakkar told Syria Direct on Sunday from a bomb shelter in the city. “The bombing hasn’t stopped since the morning,” he said.

Airstrikes and shelling over cities across East Ghouta killed at least five civilians on Sunday, according to the Civil Defense.

Increasingly hemmed in by advancing government frontlines, civilians told Syria Direct that their options for places to seek safety from the bombing are narrowing.

“We are now running from neighborhood to neighborhood, street to street and building to building,” journalist Bakkar said.

Abu Anas, another Douma resident who spoke to Syria Direct on Sunday just before the capture of Mudayra, listed a number of towns that were once available to him, should the need to flee his city arise: Misraba, Saqba, Hamouriya. Now, those towns are inaccessible.

“Today, it’s impossible for me to flee,” he said. “There’s only Douma.”

East Ghouta residents moved underground in recent weeks, seeking to ride out government bombings in basements and cellars. But as thousands of East Ghouta residents pack into shrinking pockets of rebel territory, not everybody can find shelter underground.

“There are some who have no place in a shelter,” journalist Bakkar said, “especially after the wave of displacement to Douma that took place after [the fall of] Misraba, Otaya and Bayt Sawa,” all towns captured by pro-government forces over the past two weeks.   

‘Fear of the unknown’

Jaish al-Islam spokesman Beriqdar told Syria Direct on Sunday that his faction is not in negotiations with the Syrian government to leave East Ghouta.

On Friday, Jaish al-Islam released 13 militants with Hay’at Tahrir a-Sham (HTS)—previously part of Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat a-Nusra—from rebel prisons in East Ghouta. The fighters then departed East Ghouta with their families and headed for rebel-held Idlib province.

The departure followed “consultations” between Jaish al-Islam, the United Nations and “a number of international actors,” the faction said via a statement published to its official Twitter account.

Expelling “Jabhat a-Nusra” and its affiliates from East Ghouta is often cited by the Syrian government as the reason for its campaign on the pocket.

Further negotiations regarding the evacuation of a second group of militants are underway, Major General Vladimir Zolotukhin, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry’s Center for Syrian Reconciliation said on Sunday, Russian state media outlet Sputnik reported. The center is a party to the talks.

HTS fighters who departed East Ghouta on Friday left via the al-Wafideen crossing northeast of Douma, TASS reported. Russia designated the crossing as a “humanitarian corridor” in a unilateral decision last month.

The corridor is meant to facilitate civilian departures from the enclave, but few civilians have been able to leave East Ghouta through it so far, Syria Direct recently reported. Russia and the Syrian government accuse rebels of shelling the area to prevent civilians from leaving. Rebels deny the claims. 

Underground in East Ghouta, civilians waiting out the fighting know little about any negotiations to decide their fate, said journalist Bakkar.

“The fighters aren’t telling us what’s going on,” he said from his Douma shelter, “and the politicians aren’t saying where they’re headed.”

“Fear of the unknown is ruling the situation now.”

Source: Syria Direct.
Link: http://syriadirect.org/news/government-forces-split-east-ghouta-apart-leaving-residents-with-%E2%80%98nowhere-to-go%E2%80%99/.

Turkish army, FSA 'capture Jinderes town' in Syria's Afrin

March 08 2018

The Turkish military and Free Syrian Army captured Jinderes town in Syria's northwestern Afrin district from People’s Protection Units (YPG) militants on March 8.

Turkey launched “Operation Olive Branch” on Jan. 20 along with elements of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) to clear Afrin of the YPG.

Turkey sees the YPG as a terror group for its ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terror group by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union.

More than 3,000 YPG militants ‘neutralized’ in Turkey’s Afrin op: Army

Some 3,055 YPG militants have been “neutralized” in Turkey’s ongoing cross-border operation in Syria’s northwestern Afrin district, the Turkish Armed Forces said in a statement on March 8.

“In ‘Operation Olive Branch,’ so far 112 villages, 30 critical positions, and a total of 142 spots have been taken under control,” Bekir Bozdag, Deputy Prime Minister said on March 5.

Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said on March 2 that 41 Turkish soldiers and 116 FSA militants have been killed since the start of “Operation Olive Branch.” Another 119 have been wounded, state-run Anadolu Agency reported the following day.

The army announced on March 6 that another soldier succumbed to his wounds.

Source: Hurriyet.
Link: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-army-fsa-capture-jinderes-town-in-syrias-afrin-128422.

Gaza residents pray near Israel, as Muslims mark major feast

June 15, 2018

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza worshipers knelt on prayer rugs spread on sandy soil, near the perimeter fence with Israel, joining hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world Friday in marking the holiday that caps the fasting month of Ramadan.

The three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday is typically a time of family visits and festive meals, with children getting new clothes, haircuts and gifts. In the Middle East, celebrations were once again marred by prolonged conflict in hot spots such as Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen.

In the Gaza Strip, some worshipers performed the traditional morning prayers of the holiday in areas several hundred meters (yards) away from the heavily guarded fence with Israel. Friday's prayers marked the continuation of weeks-long protests against a blockade of Gaza, imposed by Israel and Egypt after the 2007 takeover of the territory by the Islamic militant group Hamas. Since late March, more than 120 protesters have been killed and more than 3,800 wounded by Israeli army fire in the area of the fence.

Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas leader, joined worshipers in an area east of Gaza City. At one point, as the faithful bowed their heads on their prayer mats in unison, a young man on crutches — presumably injured in previous protests — followed the ritual while he remained standing. Some activists later approached the fence, burning tires.

Protest organizers said they planned to release large numbers of kites and balloons with incendiary materials rags throughout the day Friday, in hopes they will land in Israel. Such kites with burning rags attached have reportedly burned hundreds of acres of crops and forests in Israel.

Protest organizer Mohammed al-Tayyar, a member of a group calling itself the "burning kites unit," said Friday larger balloons with greater potential for damage would be released after 10 days unless the blockade is lifted. Israel's defense minister has said Israel is determined to stop such kites and balloons.

The protests have been organized by Hamas, but turnout has been driven by growing despair in Gaza about blockade-linked hardships; unemployment now approaches 50 percent and electricity is on for just a few hours every day.

Hamas has also billed the protests as the "Great March of Return," suggesting they would somehow pave the way for a return of Palestinian refugees and their descendants — about two-thirds of Gaza's residents — to return to ancestral homes in what is now Israel.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled or fled in the Mideast war over Israel's 1948 creation. Haniyeh told reporters after Friday's prayers, which were also being held outdoors in another location east of the town of Khan Younis, that protests would continue.

He said a recent U.N. General Assembly resolution blaming Israel for the Gaza violence "shows that the marches of return and breaking the siege revived the Palestinian issue and imposed the issue on the international agenda." The resolution also said Israel had used excessive force against Palestinian protesters.

Israel says it is defending its territory and civilians living near Gaza. It has accused Hamas of trying to use the protests as cover for damaging the fence and trying to carry out cross-border attacks. Israel and Egypt argue that the blockade is needed to contain Hamas which has a history of violence and refuses to disarm.

In Jerusalem, senior Muslim cleric Muhammad Hussein told tens of thousands of worshipers that a plan for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, expected to be unveiled by the Trump administration, is unfair and "aims at the liquidation of the Palestinian cause."

President Donald Trump has promised to negotiate the "ultimate deal" but the plan's reported, though unconfirmed parameters have been dismissed by the Palestinians as siding with Israel. The Palestinian issue also loomed large in Iran.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, addressing worshipers Friday, praised citizens for showing up at massive rallies last week in support of the Palestinians on Jerusalem Day. That day was initiated by Iran in 1979 to express support for the Palestinians and oppose Israel.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in an Eid al-Fitr message that he believes the "land of Palestine will be returned to owners of the land with the help if God." Iran and Israel are bitter foes. In Syria, President Bashar Assad attended Eid prayers in the town of Tartous, part of an area that has remained loyal to him throughout seven years of civil war. The coastal region is home to Syria's minority Alawite population that has been the core of Assad's support. Assad, an Alawite, traces his family's origins to Qardaha, a town in the mountains nearby.

Tens of thousands of men from the coastal region are believed to have been killed fighting for the president since 2011, according to Syrian monitoring groups. Assad is now in control of Syria's largest cities and its coastal region.

In Afghanistan, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani touted a three-day holiday cease-fire with the Taliban, calling for a longer truce and urging the Taliban to come to the negotiating table. The Taliban agreed to the cease-fire but leader Haibaitullah Akhunzada reiterated his demand for talks with the U.S. before sitting down with the Afghan government.

Associated Press writer Karin Laub in Jericho, West Bank and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed reporting.

Hamas extols Turkey's swift response to Gaza massacre

16.05.2018

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania

Hamas on Tuesday expressed its appreciation for Turkey’s rapid response to Monday’s massacre committed by Israeli troops against peaceful Palestinian protesters on the Gaza Strip’s eastern border.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency during a visit to Mauritania, where he will take part in a pro-Palestine conference, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri praised the support of the Turkish government and people for the Palestinian cause.

“The Turkish people hit the streets immediately after Monday’s massacre; this was very encouraging,” he said.

According to Abu Zuhri, Turkey’s role is of especial importance as the country currently holds the rotating presidency of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Israel’s ambassador to Ankara left Turkey on Wednesday -- at the latter’s request -- shortly after the deadly violence on the Gaza-Israel border.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag announced Monday that the Turkish government had declared three days of mourning in solidarity with Gaza’s martyrs.

“We appreciate the Turkish role and hope to strengthen this interaction with the provision of needed humanitarian relief to Gaza, which continues to remain under siege,” Abu Zuhri said.

He also called for opening hospitals to help treat Gaza’s injured, urging Turkish organizations to provide support to struggling Gazan families.

On Monday, at least 62 Palestinian demonstrators were martyred -- and hundreds more injured -- by Israeli troops deployed along the other side of the border.

Monday’s demonstration had coincided with Israel’s 70th anniversary -- an event Palestinians refer to as “The Catastrophe” -- and the relocation of Washington’s Israel embassy to Jerusalem, which also took place Monday.

Since the Gaza rallies began on Mar. 30, more than 100 Palestinian demonstrators have been martyred by cross-border Israeli army gunfire.

Last week, the Israeli government said the ongoing border protests constituted a “state of war” in which international humanitarian law did not apply.

Source: Anadolu Agency.
Link: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/hamas-extols-turkey-s-swift-response-to-gaza-massacre/1147798.

Gaza hospitals struggle to cope with high casualty toll

May 15, 2018

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Patients with gunshot wounds filled wards and hallways in Gaza's under-equipped and overwhelmed main hospital Tuesday, with dozens still waiting in line for surgery a day after Israeli soldiers shot and killed 59 Palestinians and wounded hundreds in mass protests on the Gaza border.

The high casualty toll triggered a diplomatic backlash against Israel and new charges of excessive use of force against unarmed protesters. The U.N. Security Council began its session Tuesday with a moment of silence for the dead, and the U.N.'s special Mideast envoy said there was "no justification for the killing."

Turkey expelled Israel's ambassador, and several European countries called for an international investigation. Israel said it has the right to protect its border and nearby communities, accusing Gaza's ruling militant group Hamas of carrying out several attacks under the guise of the protests. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, came to Israel's defense, saying no member "would act with more restraint than Israel has."

Monday's border confrontation was the culmination of a weeks-long protest campaign to break a border blockade that Israel and Egypt imposed after a Hamas took over Gaza by force in 2007. The protests were led by Hamas, but fueled by the growing despair among Gaza's 2 million people who face worsening poverty, unemployment, 22-hour-a-day power cuts and sweeping bans on travel and trade.

The protests were also driven by anger over the relocation Monday of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to contested Jerusalem. Palestinians seek Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as a future capital.

Even before the latest round of bloodshed, Gaza's health system of 13 public hospitals and 14 clinics run by NGOs had buckled under persistent blockade-linked shortages of medicines and surgical supplies. At Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the main health facility in the strip, these woes were magnified this week.

Anticipating a major influx of casualties ahead of Monday's mass march, Shifa had set up an outdoor triage station under a green and blue tarp in the hospital courtyard, setting up 30 beds and stretchers there.

Throughout the day Monday, Shifa received about 500 injured people, more than 90 percent with gunshot wounds, said hospital director Ayman Sahbani. Of those, 192 needed surgery, including 120 who needed orthopedic surgery, he said.

By mid-afternoon Tuesday, overwhelmed surgeons working in 12 operating theaters had only performed 40 orthopedic operations, with 80 others still waiting their turn. In the orthopedics department, nerves were frayed Tuesday as relatives worried about wounded family members amid fears their conditions might deteriorate.

In one room, Ibrahim Ruhmi rested on a bed with bandages on both legs. He had been shot in the right leg, while shrapnel hit his left leg. Outside the room his mother was crying on a chair in the hallway, consoled by his 28-year-old sister, Faten.

Suddenly, the young woman started shouting at nurses in a burst of frustration. "His leg will rot," she yelled. "What are you waiting for? Do you wait for it to rot so you can amputate it?" A Hamas policeman, who was stationed as a security guard on the ward, tried to calm her down, to no avail.

"If you are unable to treat them, why are you letting them go to the protests," she said of her brother and the others who were wounded by Israeli snipers in the dangerous area near the border fence. Nickolay Mladenov, the special U.N. envoy to the region, told the Security Council on Tuesday that hospitals in Gaza were "reporting an unfolding crisis of essential medical supplies, drugs and equipment needed to treat the injured."

He said a U.N. official who visited Gaza, "witnessed first-hand patients being brought in on stretchers and left in the hospital's courtyard, which was being used as a triage area." "There is no justification for the killing, there is no excuse," Mladenov said, adding that Israel had a responsibility to calibrate its use of force. At the same time, he said, "messages by Hamas indicate the intention to use mass protests to infiltrate into Israel and attack Israelis."

On Monday, Israeli forces shot and killed 59 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,300, making it the deadliest single day in Gaza since a 2014 cross-border war between Israel and Hamas. Two more Palestinians were shot dead in scattered border protests Tuesday, bring the total since late March to more than 100, the Health Ministry said.

Israel's military said 14 of those killed Monday were involved in planting explosives or firing on Israeli soldiers. The diplomatic backlash against Israel was swift following the dramatic scenes from the Gaza border of frantic protesters carrying the wounded to ambulances in clouds of putrid black smoke from burning tires and flag-waving women in robes and headscarves defiantly facing Israeli soldiers in the distance.

Turkey expelled Israel's ambassador, and Israel retaliated in kind. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Turkey's president of hypocrisy, saying that a "man whose hands are drenched in the blood of countless Kurdish civilians in Turkey and Syria is the last one who can preach to us about military ethics."

Ireland and Belgium summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their foreign ministries for questioning about the Gaza violence, and the two nations, along with Germany, called for an investigation. China called on Israel to show restraint.

In Brussels, Prime Minister Charles Michel called the Israeli actions "unacceptable violence" and said there was a "clear lack of proportionality." Michel said the violence and killings would be moved onto the calendar of the European Union summit in Sofia on Wednesday and Thursday.

German spokesman Steffen Seibert said the violence "concerns us greatly," but also accused Hamas of cynically escalating the unrest. South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu said he was "deeply distressed and broken-hearted by the massacre perpetrated" by Israel.

Also Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered his envoy to Washington to return to the West Bank in a show of protest against the U.S. Embassy move to contested Jerusalem. Meanwhile, there were no signs Tuesday that Hamas had made a breakthrough in shaking off the blockade.

Hamas has said protests would continue weekly, but it was not clear if it would be able to maintain momentum during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins this week. One leading organizer said the next mass march would be held June 5, to mark the anniversary of the 1967 Mideast war in which Israel captured Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Associated Press writers Karin Laub in Amman, Jordan, Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, and Tia Goldenberg, Ian Deitch and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

1 dead, dozens hurt by Israeli fire in Gaza border protest

May 11, 2018

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Palestinian was killed and 176 were wounded by Israeli army fire Friday as thousands of Gaza residents protested near their sealed border — part of a weeks-long campaign to end a decade-old blockade of the territory.

Later Friday, vandals burned a fuel complex and a conveyor belt on the Palestinian side of Gaza's main cargo crossing with Israel, causing more than $9 million in damages and disrupting the import of diesel fuel and building materials, the military said.

Friday's clashes offered a preview of what will likely be a much larger protest — and possibly a border breach — on Monday when the United States relocates its embassy in Israel to contested Jerusalem amid Palestinian outrage.

President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the embassy there "is causing the volcano to spew," said 25-year-old protester Ahmed Deifallah as he stood near the Gaza border, a Palestinian flag draped around his head.

Deifallah, who is unemployed like almost half the Gaza labor force, said he would also join Monday's protest and is not afraid to die. "We are used to confronting the (Israeli) occupation with our bare chests," he said. "We are used to wars and no one with us but Allah."

Friday marked the seventh weekly border protest since late March. The demonstrations have been organized by Gaza's Hamas rulers, but are fueled by despair among the territory's 2 million people. The vast majority are barred from travel and trade, while the blockade has gutted the economy.

As in previous weeks, thousands flocked to five tent camps near the border — some 15,000 people, according to the Israeli military. From the camps, smaller groups moved closer to the fence. They threw stones, burned tires and flew kites with burning rags attached to them, hoping to steer them into Israel to set fields on fire.

The area was quickly engulfed in thick black smoke from the burning tires. Israeli soldiers, some crouching behind sand berms, fired live bullets and tear gas volleys from the other side of the fence.

The Israeli military said protesters also threw pipe bombs and grenades toward Israeli soldiers and damaged the fence. Later Friday, Palestinians vandalized a fuel complex and conveyor belt on the Palestinian side of Gaza's main cargo crossing, Kerem Shalom, the army said. It said the fuel installation is the only way to bring diesel fuel into Gaza for operating generators for hospitals and other key facilities.

The military distributed a video showing Palestinians cheering as a fire was set. It was the second such attack on the facility in a week. "Hamas continues to lead the residents of Gaza to destroy the only assistance they receive," the army said.

Nissim Jan, the director of an Israeli company that operates Kerem Shalom in partnership with private Palestinian companies, said he spent large sums to repair last week's damage. "This time I can't repair and will not repair it. Where shall I bring money from?" he said.

The Gaza Health Ministry said a 40-year-old protester was killed and 176 were wounded by Israeli fire Friday. Ten of the wounded were in serious condition, including a 16-year-old boy who was shot in the head. Nearly 800 others were overcome by tear gas or suffered other types of injuries.

Friday's death brought to 41 the number of protesters killed since March 30. In the same period, more than 1,800 were wounded by Israeli fire. Despite such risks, Gaza's Hamas leader, Yehiyeh Sinwar, has said he expects tens of thousands to participate in Monday's protest. He has raised the possibility of a mass border breach, comparing protesters to a "starving tiger," unpredictable and full of pent-up anger.

Israel has said it will prevent any border breach and has stuck to its open-fire policies, including targeting "main instigators" and those approaching the fence, despite growing international criticism.

Israel says it has a right to defend its border and has accused Hamas of using the protests as a cover for attacking the border. Rights groups say the use of potentially lethal force against unarmed protesters is unlawful.

There are growing concerns that if Israel and Hamas dig in, a widespread border breach could lead to large numbers of casualties. The protests are part of a campaign to break the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant Hamas overran Gaza in 2007.

On Monday, they are also aimed at the inauguration of the U.S. Embassy, which comes five months after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital — a decision that outraged Palestinians as blatantly pro-Israel.

The Israeli-annexed eastern sector of Jerusalem is sought as a future Palestinian capital — at least by those supporting Hamas' political rival, West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas seeks an Islamic state in the entire historic Palestine, including what is now Israel, but has said it is ready for a long-term truce.

Another large-scale protest is planned for Tuesday, when Palestinians mark their "nakba," or catastrophe, referring to their mass uprooting during the Mideast war over Israel's 1948 creation. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven out or fled homes in what is now Israel. More than two-thirds of Gaza residents are descendants of refugees.

Meanwhile, Gaza government officials announced that Egypt will open its border with Gaza for four days starting Saturday. Helping reinforce the Israeli blockade, Egypt has kept the Rafah crossing point, Gaza's main gate to the outside world, closed most of the time since the Hamas takeover.

Egypt opens the crossing from time to time, mainly to allow people in special categories, including medical patients and Gaza residents studying abroad, to leave the territory or return to it. The upcoming opening was framed as a humanitarian gesture ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins next week.

In Jordan, about 7,000 people participated in a "nakba" rally in an area close to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestinian refugees and their descendants now number several million people in the region, including more than 2 million in Jordan.

Friday's rally took place before a large stage with a view of the Dead Sea and the West Bank. One man walked onto the stage with an effigy of Trump dangling from a noose.

Laub reported from Amman, Jordan. Associated Press writers Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Alice Su in Sweimeh, Jordan, contributed to this report.

Claiming to mistrust Italy, aid group sets sail for Spain

July 18, 2018

MADRID (AP) — An aid group says it won't dock its boat in an Italian port and that instead it's seeking a go-ahead to disembark in Spain with the woman who survived a migrant boat wreck and the dead bodies of another woman and a toddler.

Spanish rescue group Proactiva Open Arms has accused Libya's coast guards and the Italian authorities financing and training them of abandoning the three people in the Mediterranean Sea on Monday after taking 158 other migrants from the boat and destroying it.

Proactiva said on Wednesday that it can't trust how Italian authorities will handle the investigation into the event after the country's interior minister, Matteo Salvini, referred to the group's claims and account of the rescue operation as "lies and insults."

Italy's new populist government has vowed to halt the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean.

Montenegro more puzzled than affronted by Trump's attention

July 19, 2018

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — World War III? Not us, say the puzzled people of Montenegro. Public officials in this tiny European nation didn't know what to say initially when U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that NATO's newest and smallest member, which has a military with fewer than 2,000 members, could be the spark that sets off a global Armageddon.

That the leader of the world's dominant superpower would characterize the 620,000 or so Montenegrins as "very strong" and "very aggressive people" rendered their government speechless. It found its voice Thursday, and what came out was less a battle cry than a chorus of "Kumbaya."

"We build friendships, and we have not lost a single one," read a statement issued in the capital, Podgorica, in response to the media's clamoring for comment. "It does not matter how big or small you are, but to what extent you cherish the values of freedom, solidarity and democracy."

Living in a region that has seen more than its share of volatile conflicts, Montenegrins say they are much more interested in tourism than war. Montenegro, a former Yugoslav republic like Slovenia, the home country of U.S. first lady Melania Trump, is known for its long Adriatic Sea beaches.

"I laughed when I heard that and figured it could be a good advertisement," retiree Slavka Kovacevic, 58, said of Trump's depiction while taking a break from her morning shopping. Trump ventured his thoughts on Montenegro during an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson conducted Monday after the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. They were discussing NATO's mutual defense pact.

If Montenegro, for example, were provoked, having NATO behind it could embolden "a tiny country with very strong people" to engage, the president said. "They are very strong people. They are very aggressive people, they may get aggressive, and congratulations, you are in World War III," he added.

The comment was not the first time Trump had taken notice of Montenegro in a way that attracted oversized attention. At a NATO summit last year, his first as president, Trump shoved Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic out of the way while trying to get in front for a leaders' group photo.

Back then, Markovic refused to make a fuss over the American president's manners. Markovic also took the high road regarding Trump's comments this week. He noted in a parliamentary debate Wednesday that Trump spoke within the context of questioning NATO financing and was not trying to put down a particular ally.

"Therefore, the friendship and the alliance of Montenegro and the United States of America is strong and permanent," Markovic's government said in its statement Thursday. Trump's views have some basis in history. Montenegro, which means "Black Mountain," does boast of a heroic warring tradition forged over centuries of conquest and contemporary conflicts in the troubled Balkans.

Montenegro was a rare country in the region to retain a level of autonomy during the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Its past ties to Russia, with whom Montenegro shared a predominantly Slavic and Orthodox Christian culture, were so strong that its leaders were said to have declared a war on Japan in 1904 just to support Russia.

Montenegro became part of Yugoslavia after World War I. During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Montenegro was bombed by NATO forces in 1999 before it split from Serbia in 2006. "I just want to remind all the American public opinion and President Trump that Montenegro was an ally with American soldiers in two wars, in the first world war and the second world war," former parliament speaker Ranko Krivokapic told The Associated Press.

"Montenegrins are not aggressive ... but the nation of brave warriors," he said. As it happens, the governor of the U.S. state of Maine, Paul LePage, was visiting Montenegro in hopes of strengthening ties with business and political leaders when the president's interview aired. Maine is six times as big as Montenegro and has had a partnership with the country since 2006. LePage says it originally focused on disaster relief, emergency management and border security.

The Balkans have a difficult history, but "everybody likes Montenegro," the governor said in a video the U.S. Embassy in Montenegro posted Tuesday. The embassy followed up Thursday with its own statement, saying "the United States is proud to call Montenegro an ally."

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters seeking clarification of the president's thoughts on NATO commitments in general and Montenegro in particular Wednesday that any elaboration would have to come from the White House.

"I can tell you that the president reiterated our ironclad commitment to NATO's collective defense last week" at a NATO leaders' meeting in Brussels, Nauert said. "Their summit declaration that came out at the end of the summit stated clearly that any attack against one ally will be regarded as an attack against all."

Although its land mass and military are small, Montenegro was seen as an important addition to NATO when it defied Russia and joined last year. Along with having been a Russian ally in the Balkans, the country sits on a southern stretch of the Adriatic Sea that Moscow has been keen to control.

Montenegrin authorities accused Russia of being behind a foiled coup in 2016 that was intended to kill the country's pro-NATO prime minister. Russia has denied the allegation. Given the recent tensions, some Montenegrin observers worried Trump's comments might need to be taken seriously.

Former parliament speaker Krivokapic described Trump's remark as "very strange." "I hope (it was) just a mistake, nothing else," Krivokapic said. "And I hope that Montenegro was not part of (the) Helsinki talks."

The reaction of Miljan Kovacevic, 34, a lawyer in Montenegro, was more akin to his prime minister's post-shove aplomb. "He is the president of America, but he has not done too well with his statements lately," Kovacevic shrugged.

Jovana Gec contributed from Belgrade.

EU urging members to step up plans for no-deal Brexit

July 19, 2018

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is urging member states to step up preparations for a possible disorderly British exit from the bloc, in which no deal on future relations has been agreed. With Brexit negotiations at an impasse largely because the British government is struggling to command a majority in parliament, there is growing concern that the country could end up crashing out of the EU without a deal.

"We need to be prepared for all eventualities," Mina Andreeva, spokeswoman at the EU's executive Commission, said Thursday. The European Commission published a document warning over the potential impact of no deal, from the ability to travel to the collection of tariffs and the need to safeguard EU standards and regulations.

The document was published ahead of the first meeting between EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and the British government's new Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab. His predecessor David Davis resigned less than two weeks ago after disagreeing with the latest plan of Prime Minister Theresa May that would see Britain maintain extremely close links with the EU in terms of trading goods, including the use of a "common rule book."

Britain and the 27 EU nations both say they want a smooth Brexit when it officially takes place in March, but talks over the past year have got bogged down amid deep political divisions in London on what strategy to take.

"We have a lot of work to do with our teams," said Barnier as he welcomed Raab to EU headquarters, highlighting there were only 13 weeks left before an October target for a full deal. The remaining months would be needed for ratification in the European Parliament and national legislatures.

Raab said that after the slow progress to get a clear British position on the future relations with the EU, he was now full of "renewed energy vigor and vim" to close down the remaining differences. "Michel has told us the clock is ticking. And so I'm looking forward to intensifying heating up the negotiations," Raab said.

N. Korea puts reunion of war separated families in doubt

July 20, 2018

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Friday that an August reunion of Korean families separated by war may not happen if South Korea doesn't immediately return some of its citizens who arrived in the South in recent years.

The 2016 arrival of a group of 12 female employees from a North Korean-run restaurant in China has been a source of contention between the rival Koreas. North Korea has accused South Korea of kidnapping them, while South Korea says they decided to resettle on their own will.

North Korea has often used the women as a reason to rebuff South Korea's repeated request to allow elderly citizens split during the 1950-53 Korean War to reunite with each other briefly. But Friday's statement is the North's first attempt to link the fate of the women to the August reunion and comes amid worries that a global diplomacy to push the North to give up its nuclear weapons is making little headway after a detente of the past several months.

The North's state-run Uriminzokkiri website said that the reunion and overall inter-Korean ties will face "obstacles" if Seoul doesn't send back the women. Seoul's Unification Ministry said it has no comment on the Uriminzokkiri dispatch.

There has been mounting speculation that some of the 12 North Korean women might have been truly duped into coming to South Korea. After meeting some of the women earlier this month, Tomas Ojea Quintana, the United Nations' independent investigator on human rights in North Korea, told reporters in Seoul that they told him they did not know they were heading to South Korea when they departed China.

"Some of them, they were taken to the Republic of Korea without knowing that they were coming here," Quintana said, referring to South Korea by its formal name. "If they were taken against their will, that may (be) considered a crime. It is the duty and responsibility of the government of the Republic of Korea to investigate."

South Korean media had earlier carried a similar report, citing interviews with some of the women and their North Korean male manager who came to South Korea with them. The women's arrival happened when South Korea was governed by a conservative government, which took a tough stance on the North's nuclear program. South Korea's current liberal President Moon Jae-in wants to expand ties with North Korea, but repatriating any of the women would be a delicate matter, with many experts saying relatives of those who decide to stay in the South will certainly face reprisals by the North Korean government.

Since the end of the Korean War, both Koreas have banned ordinary citizens from visiting relatives on the other side of the border or contacting them without permission. Nearly 20,000 Koreans had participated in 20 rounds of face-to-face reunions since 2000. The last reunion was held in 2015.

According to Seoul's Unification Ministry, more than 75,000 of the 132,000 South Koreans who have applied to attend a reunion have died. None of the past participants has had a second reunion. South Korea uses a computerized lottery to pick participants for the reunions, while North Korea is believed to choose them based on loyalty to its authoritarian leadership. While the South wants more reunions, analysts say North Korea allows only infrequent meetings for the fear of wasting what it sees as an important diplomatic bargaining chip. The North's government may also worry about increasing North Koreans' awareness of the outside world.

Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.

Netanyahu greets Hungary's Orban as 'true friend of Israel'

July 19, 2018

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday welcomed Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, calling him a "true friend of Israel" despite the outcry over the visiting leader's past remarks that have been interpreted as anti-Semitic.

Orban and Netanyahu held a joint press conference in Jerusalem following the Hungarian premier's arrival in Israel the day before. The four-time Hungarian prime minister drew criticism last year for praising Miklos Horthy — Hungary's World War II-era ruler who introduced anti-Semitic laws and collaborated with the Nazis — and employing tropes that were anti-Semitic in tone against billionaire philanthropist George Soros during his re-election campaign.

Orban evoked anti-Semitic language in denouncing Soros, saying that Hungary's enemies "do not believe in work, but speculate with money; they have no homeland, but feel that the whole world is theirs."

Despite global Jewish condemnation of those remarks, Netanyahu praised Orban for combatting anti-Semitism and thanked him for Hungary's pro-Israel stance. Netanyahu said the two leaders shared an understanding "that the threat of radical Islam is a real one. It could endanger Europe. It could endanger the world. It certainly endangers us and our Arab neighbors."

Orban has cast himself as champion of a Christian Europe and adopted an aggressive stance to halt the flow of African and Muslim migrants through Hungary. The populist, right-wing politician campaigned earlier this year for re-election on a staunchly anti-migrant platform.

Orban chalked up his country's strong bilateral ties with Israel to the two leaders' "excellent personal ties" and "because the two countries have patriots as leaders." Netanyahu visited Hungary last year — the first visit by an Israeli premier since the 1980s — and was warmly received by Orban. During the trip, Orban said the European Union's ties with Israel were "not rational enough," criticizing its stipulation that closer ties would follow resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Israeli premier has taken flak in Israel for embracing Orban amid the Hungarian leader's increasing authoritarianism, as well as for striking a deal with Poland over a controversial Holocaust speech law. Critics of the compromise with Poland contend Netanyahu appeared to capitulate to the claim that Poles were only victims of the Nazis. Historians say anti-Semitism was prevalent in pre-war Poland and that some Poles collaborated with the Nazis in the Holocaust.

Opposition lawmaker Yair Lapid, whose father was a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, scorned Netanyahu ahead of his meeting with Orban. "After he disrespected the memory of Holocaust victims in the agreement with Poland, today Netanyahu will pay honors to Hungarian Prime Minister Orban, who hailed and praised the anti-Semitic ruler who collaborated with the Nazis in destroying the Jews of Hungary," Lapid wrote on Twitter. "Shame!"

Lapid and fellow opposition politician Tamar Zandberg, head of the Meretz party, called for a boycott of Orban's visit. "Netanyahu has a thing with anti-Semitic leaders around the world, from Hungary and Poland, to the head of the Philippines, (Rodrigo) Duterte, who compared himself to Hitler, and instead of suffering condemnation, was invited as well for a state visit with the prime minister of Israel," Zandberg wrote on Facebook.

Protesters were later expected to demonstrate at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, during Orban's visit there. Amnesty International in Israel organized a protest against Orban's visit to the memorial, rejecting "restraint toward the words of praise for anti-Semitism, for racism and anti-democratic persecution."

Russians protest retirement age rise, in challenge for Putin

July 19, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — Russians are protesting government plans to hike the retirement age, in a rare challenge to President Vladimir Putin's leadership. The State Duma is voting on the bill Thursday, which would raise the age at which retirees can receive state pensions from 60 to 65 for men, and from 55 to 63 for women. The rise would occur in stages over the next 15 years.

Activists from both Communist and pro-free market parties held demonstrations ahead of the vote. Several arrests were reported at an unauthorized rally in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. The government argues Russia needs pension reform to boost economic growth, but Putin's approval rating slipped after the announcement.

The government was criticized for announcing the move on the day of the grandiose opening of the Russia-hosted World Cup. The average current pension is 14,000 rubles ($230) a month.