
Clashes in Syria ‘have killed 1,200 and triggered humanitarian crisis'
Syria
between Druze and Bedouin factions and assaults on civilians in the country's southern Sweida province have killed 1,200 and displaced at least 93,000 people, according to the
United Nations
.
The violence, exacerbated by Syrian government intervention and
Israeli
air strikes, has triggered a humanitarian crisis,
Human Rights Watch
(HRW) said on Tuesday, with widespread disruption to electricity, water and healthcare.
A Sweida city resident said: 'All our food spoiled, we had to throw it out. We're showering in our own sweat. I scraped mould off a carton of yoghurt and fed it to my children. What we need most now is water and electricity.'
While communities in Sweida are suffering, 'political obstacles and deep mistrust are holding up humanitarian aid', HRW deputy Middle East director Adam Coogle said.
READ MORE
'No matter who controls the territory, humanitarian assistance needs to be allowed in immediately and without interference.'
HRW said: 'Most hospitals are out of service due to physical damage, staff shortages, roadblocks and fuel and supply disruptions.'
Displaced families face 'growing public health risks, including reports of unburied bodies in residential areas', it said.
Conditions at the national hospital in Sweda were 'catastrophic', witnesses told HRW. It cited a local journalist who 'saw many corpses in the hospital and morgue, including children and entire families'.
HRW said that 'armed groups and civilians have been transporting the dead and wounded in private vehicles, while volunteers have documented fatalities'.
This round of v
iolence began on July 12th with heavy fighting between militias
'aligned with Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, a spiritual leader of Sweida's Druze community, and pro-government Bedouin fighters', HRW said.
After Syrian interior and defence ministry units imposed curfews on July 14th and attempted to restore order, 'residents reported looting, home burning, sectarian abuse and summary executions, including of women and children', HRW said. 'Bedouin armed groups and Druze militias have also been implicated in serious abuses.'
When the first Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) convoy entered Sweida on Sunday, the health ministry spokesman said Hijri had barred accompanying government representatives.
The SARC reported on that day assaults on its volunteers, torching of a warehouse, and firing on an ambulance, HRW said. A second, independent SARC convoy was expected on Tuesday.
UN agencies, international humanitarian groups, diplomats and foreign journalists had been barred from entering Sweida, HRW said.
Separately, a Syrian fact-finding committee said on Tuesday that 1,426 people died in March in attacks on security forces and subsequent mass killings of Alawites, but it also said commanders had not given orders for the revenge attacks.
Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa has struggle to stabilise and unify the fragile state eight months after he led a rebel offensive that toppled dictator
Bashar al-Assad's
. regime.
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Irish Times
13 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Israeli gunfire and strikes kill 42 in Gaza as many of the dead sought aid
Israeli air strikes and gunshots killed at least 42 people in Gaza overnight and into Saturday, according to Palestinian health officials and the local ambulance service, as starvation deaths continued and ceasefire talks appear to have stalled. The majority of victims were killed by gunfire as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel, said staff at Shifa hospital, where the bodies were taken. Israel's military said it fired warning shots to distance a crowd 'in response to an immediate threat' and said it was not aware of any casualties. Those killed in the strikes include four people in an apartment building in Gaza City among others, hospital staff and the ambulance service said. READ MORE The strikes come as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have hit a standstill after the United States and Israel recalled their negotiating teams on Thursday, throwing the future of the talks into further uncertainty. Palestinians mourn during the funeral of people who were killed while trying to reach aid trucks. Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Friday his government was considering 'alternative options' to ceasefire talks with Hamas. His comments came as a Hamas official said negotiations were expected to resume next week and portrayed the recall of the Israeli and American delegations as a pressure tactic. Egypt and Qatar, which are mediating the talks alongside the US, said the pause was only temporary and that talks would resume, though they did not say when. The United Nations and experts said that Palestinians in Gaza were at risk of famine, with reports of increasing numbers of people dying from causes related to malnutrition. While Israel's army says it is allowing aid into the enclave with no limit on the number of trucks that can enter, the UN says it is hampered by Israeli military restrictions on its movements and incidents of criminal looting. The Zikim crossing shootings come days after at least 80 Palestinians were killed trying to reach aid entering through the same crossing. During the shootings on Friday night, Sherif Abu Aisha said people started running when they saw a light that they thought was from the aid trucks, but as they got close, they realised it was from Israel's tanks. That is when the army started firing on people, he told The Associated Press. He said his uncle, a father of eight, was among those killed. 'We went because there is no food… and nothing was distributed,' he said. Smoke rises into the sky following an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip (Leo Correa/AP/PA) Israel is facing increased international pressure to alleviate the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza. More than two dozen Western-aligned countries and more than 100 charity and human rights groups have called for an end to the war, harshly criticising Israel's blockade and a new aid delivery model it has rolled out. The charities and rights groups said even their own staff were struggling to get enough food. For the first time in months Israel said it is allowing airdrops, requested by Jordan . A Jordanian official said the airdrops will mainly be food and milk formula. UK prime minister Keir Starmer wrote in a newspaper article on Saturday that the UK was 'working urgently' with Jordan to get British aid into Gaza. Aid group the World Central Kitchen said on Friday it was resuming limited cooking operations in Deir al-Balah after being forced to halt due to a lack of food supplies. It said it is trying to serve 60,000 meals daily through its field kitchen and partner community kitchens, less than half of what it has cooked over the previous month.


Irish Times
13 hours ago
- Irish Times
Words like ‘humanitarian' have lost all meaning. Let the images speak instead
Chapin Fay is the spokesperson for an organisation called – in one of the many grossly Orwellian inversions of language and meaning we have come to associate with the Israeli war on Gaza – the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. An American operation based in Delaware and backed by Israel , GHF – which has no experience in humanitarian aid distribution – has been entirely responsible for it in Gaza since May. The United Nations and major aid groups have refused to co-operate with GHF because they say it prioritises Israeli military objectives over the safe delivery of aid. As such, until a ceasefire holds and the safe flow of aid resumes, GHF has been the only thing standing between 90,000 already seriously malnourished women and children and imminent death by starvation. According to his online biography, Fay is 'one of the best media strategists and Republican operatives in the state' and a 'crisis management expert with a track record of helping Fortune 500 companies'. He is also now the public face of the group operating what has been called by the head of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), ' sadistic death traps ', food hubs staffed by US mercenaries and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). These hubs, which are located in areas Palestinians have been ordered to leave, typically open for an average of 11 minutes at a time, according to a powerful Guardian investigation . As desperate Palestinians, who have trekked long distances and waited many hours, rush towards unattended packages of flour, they risk being shot by the IDF. Since May, more than 1,000 people have reportedly died in the scramble for food from the centres, according to Unrwa. READ MORE During the masterclass in Orwellian Newspeak he delivered at a briefing this week, Fay shrugged this off. 'Civilians are being killed all over the Strip,' he said. But then he went on: 'By Hamas, the IDF and other armed groups. But I'd like to point out that actually, the most violent incidents, the highest casualties have been linked to the UN or other humanitarian convoys. That's a fact.' [ Doctors report wave of hunger deaths in Gaza as US envoy arrives to 'push for ceasefire' Opens in new window ] As words like 'fact' and 'humanitarian' have lost all meaning – have been so violently divorced from their normal use as to now infer precisely the opposite – we may need to start inventing new ones. Like inhumanitarian. Binyamin Netanyahu wants to ethnically cleanse the population of Gaza, removing survivors to an inhumanitarian city. US president Donald Trump wants to create an inhumanitarian transit area . Or we can take the approach of Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, and use the names we already have for these kind of places: concentration camps . Whatever words we use, none can occlude the reality of what is happening in Gaza. No words can adequately capture it either. Language has been so debased that maybe we should abandon it altogether and allow the images to speak instead. One such photograph was published on the front of this newspaper on Wednesday. Taken by Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-Arni, it shows a woman dressed in mauve robes with a stained white headscarf knotted under her chin. Only the lower half of her face is visible. The serene set of her mouth belies the unspeakable horror of what she has seen, and what she wants us to see. Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, a one-and-a-half-year-old child, in Gaza city this week. Photograph: Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini/Anadolu/Getty A little boy of 18 months, Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, clings to her. Her hand is tenderly cradling the back of his head. Instead of a nappy, he is wearing a black bin liner. The outline of his vertebral column, his shoulder blades and his rib cage protrude under his dry, papery skin. Babies normally have dimples at their elbows, but he has the wizened limbs and loose skin of an old man, of someone close to death. Muhammad, you understand instantly from the picture, is very close to death. The images coming in on the wire services from Gaza used to show children playing in the rubble of what was formerly their home. They were very distressing. But the pictures we are now getting are unfathomable: emaciated small bodies who no longer have the strength to stay upright. Children with horribly protruding ribs, hollow eyes, scabbed lips and noses, distended bellies and far off, vacant stares. Toddlers whose features are scarcely recognisable as belonging to children. [ Seeing Israel use hunger as a weapon of war is monstrous to me as someone with a Holocaust legacy Opens in new window ] In the 48 hours before Muhammad's picture was published in this newspaper, 12 children and 21 adults had died of starvation in the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza health ministry. Fay recommends we don't believe the ministry, because it is run by Hamas. Who, then, do we believe? Who does the EU choose to believe? Whose words will be enough for the United Nations Security Council to intervene? What about the evidence of researchers from University of London, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, Princeton, Stanford, Peace Research Institute Oslo and Université Catholique de Louvain and the first independent study of the number of people killed as a result of Israel's military campaign in Gaza? The study was based on household surveys and found that at least 75,200 Palestinians were killed between October 2023 and January 2025. Another 8,540 died due to starvation, disease and the collapse of healthcare systems. The researchers say the Gaza health ministry's figures are, in fact, far too conservative. Do we believe the AFP when it warns that the 10 freelance journalists it has left in Gaza face death by starvation? Do we believe the 109 aid organisations that wrote a letter this week begging Israel to end the blockade? Do we believe the evidence of our own eyes? Or do we believe the Newspeak of Chapin Fay, of Binyamin Netanyahu's government and of Donald Trump, when they insist that freedom is slavery, that concentration camps are humanitarian cities, and that the babies starving to death in front of us are Hamas propaganda?


Irish Times
20 hours ago
- Irish Times
Letters to the Editor, July 26th: On a national day of protest, GAA referees, and pearl clutchers
Sir, – I wish to personally support the call for a national day of protest (Letters, July 24th) over the humanitarian catastrophe which has unfolded in Gaza. The vast majority of Irish people are totally frustrated and appalled that; despite the courageous stance taken by the Irish Government, the situation for the starving and subjugated civilian population is getting worse by the day. A man-made famine is now a reality on top of the mass killing of civilians in the prosecution of this disproportionate war by Israel. Some march and write letters to express our frustration. Many others do not, for fear of being falsely labelled anti-Semitic or supportive of Hamas. READ MORE A national day of protest, at a time designated by the Government, which was purely a condemnation of the atrocities in Gaza and for aid to be allowed in, would allow us, in all of our diversity as citizens to vent our anger and express national solidarity with the people of Gaza. If other countries did the same it would be powerful and perhaps might make a difference. As chair of the Irish Emergency Alliance, which brings together eight Irish agencies who respond to international humanitarian emergencies, it is uniquely frustrating to see thousands of trucks containing life-saving food, water and medicine languishing at the border unused, while suffering civilians and indeed humanitarian workers and doctors are deprived of assistance. Mary Robinson said that what Israel is doing is 'dehumanising' the people of Gaza by the manner of the prosecution of the war against Hamas. Words have lost all meaning in the face of such inhumanity. A national day of protest over Gaza would be a meaningful statement of solidarity by the Irish people. – Yours, etc. LIZ O'DONNELL, (Former TD) Blackrock, Co Dublin. Sir, – Given the horrific suffering of the Palestinian people, surely it is time for all of the leaders of the world to go to Gaza. If they witness what is happening surely they will act? – Yours, etc, (in fading hope), ALICE O'DONNELL, Delgany, Co Wicklow. Sir, – John O'Neill (Letters, July 24th) rightly points out the error in conflating Jewish identity with the actions of the Israeli state. I offer the following comparison: In 2022 almost 74 per cent of the Israeli population identified as Jewish. In Portugal, the 2021 census identified 80 per cent of the population as Catholic. If the government of Portugal embarked on some terrible military action against a part of Spain which action was condemned worldwide, would any sane, rational person say that any criticism of the Portuguese government was anti-Catholic? I think not. – Yours, etc, GERARD CLARKE, Dundrum Dublin Sir, – If you didn't see the interview on RTÉ Prime Time with Bob Geldof on Thursday regarding Gaza, you should find it on the RTÉ player. He spoke the truth, clearly and honestly, a man who has a track record in recognising human suffering. I emailed Prime Time after the programme. Ireland and Israel are both members of the European Broadcasting Union. Could RTÉ Prime Time please share the interview with Bob Geldof with all the members of the union? It might help. – Yours, etc, PAUL MULLIGAN, Vergemount Park, Dublin 6. Sir, – Bob Geldof made a passionate plea to stop Israel's massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the state-sponsored terrorism in the West Bank (RTE 1, Prime Time, July 24th). Bob's humanitarian track record through many decades, which commands respect internationally, together with his communication skills, position him to be an outstanding president of Ireland. – Yours, etc, TOM CARROLL, Ennis Road, Limerick. Don't forget about Sudan Sir, – Dominic Crowley, the CEO of Concern, welcomes the UN secretary general's focus on Gaza ('What did we do to stop this?', Irish Times Letters, July 25th). However, bad as the situation in Gaza is, it is dwarfed by the suffering in the ongoing Sudanese war that broke out in 2023. According to the European Commission some 25 million Sudanese are affected by food shortages with some four million children suffering from acute hunger. Famine has now been confirmed in 10 areas. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that 6.7 million women and girls in Sudan are facing alarming levels of sexual violence. UN health chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has complained that there is less global interest in the conflict in Sudan compared to crises elsewhere in the world. Why are some wars deemed more worthy of our attention than others? – Yours, etc, KARL MARTIN, Bayside, Dublin 13. Bad language Sir, – With reference to Brianna Parkins' article ' People who get up early in the morning for no reason are a menace to society ,' (July 19th), I consider it not so much about vulgarity, but rather normal conversational Jackeen English, spoken by the ordinary denizens of Ireland's capital city. Somehow, 'Upon reflection the exertion proved to be unwarranted,' does not seem quite up to par with 'But I shouldn't have bothered my hole'. – Yours, etc, SEÁN O'BRIEN, Donaghmede, Dublin. Sir, – I usually enjoy Brianna Parkins's articles in Saturday's Magazine but the coarse language used on Saturday July 19th shocked, nay disappointed, me. – Yours, etc, PAT DALY, Kilkenny. Criticism of MetroLink Sir, – A lot of the criticism of the MetroLink project are well founded. That said, there has been very little discussion of problems arising from the practicalities of the whole thing. If, as proposed, the line starts and finishes in Swords the first thing this will do is displace current users of public transport commuting from Swords to the city centre from the bus network to the rail network as happened when Luas was introduced. One can only imagine the scenes at the Dublin Airport stop when a full train arrives from Swords during peak hours and airport passengers attempt to board with accompanying luggage. The same would happen with trains to the airport in the evenings with disgruntled passengers unable to board at stops other than the terminus. This whole thing needs to be reconsidered. – Yours, et, BRENDAN McMAHON, Naaas, Co Kildare. Light rail for Galway Sir, – Anthony Moran (Letters, July 24th) calls light rail in Galway a 'deluded fantasy,' but facts suggest otherwise. The 2024 Gluas feasibility study identified a viable east-west corridor with demand already exceeding 60 per cent of the passenger volumes seen on the initial Luas Red Line. Construction timelines for light rail in cities of similar size – such as Bergen, Norway (population: 280,000) – have been achieved within four years with minimal disruption. Far from being a 'fantasy,' light rail represents a practical, scalable solution to Galway's worsening congestion and climate obligations. Dismissing it out of hand serves no one – least of all the people of Galway. – Yours, etc. RICHARD LOGUE, Moville, Co Donegal. Bye, bye, summer? Sir, – When summer comes can autumn be far behind? The leaves on one of the trees in the green area opposite my house are beginning to turn. – Yours, etc, JANE MEREDITH, Dublin 18. Blair apology to Guildford Four Sir, – I refer to the article ' Tony Blair's letter saying sorry to Guildford Four was not intended as an apology ' (July 22nd). The article ignores the letter of public apology made by Mr Blair to myself and the other members of The Guildford Four as well as the Maguire Seven on February 9th, 2005. This letter stated that: 'There was a miscarriage of justice in the case of Gerard Conlon and all of the Guildford Four…' The then prime minister goes on to acknowledge 'the trauma that the conviction caused the Conlon and Maguire families and the stigma which wrongly attaches to them to this day' and unreservedly apologises when he says 'I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and injustice. That is why I'm making this apology: they deserve to be publicly and completely exonerated.' While it came 16 years after our release, Mr Blair's apology meant a great deal to me and my family and many others. I hope this is what will be remembered and not some internal correspondence which suggests a government nervous about making such a public apology. – Yours ,etc. PADDY ARMSTRONG, (Guildford Four) Clontarf, Dublin 3. Women's GAA and referees Sir, – Having watched many of the games in the women's championship this year it's impossible not to pull your hair out at the constant referees' decisions on what is a foul. If a player breathes on an opposition player the referee blows the whistle. While we all acknowledge the contribution referees make to our Gaelic games it seems they are instructed not to allow any tackling at all in the women's game. If the same was applied to the men's game, the games would be a farce. I watched the women's semi-finals and it was infuriating to see the constant stoppages for what were perceived to be fouls. I hope the final between Meath and Dublin will not be marred by these constant stoppages for innocuous 'fouls'; where even the advantage rule is not applied. It's ruining the women's game and you can see the frustration among the players. It's a great competition. Let's not ruin it by making it a non-contact sport altogether. – Yours, etc, KEVIN BYRNE, Bantry, West Cork. Sir, – Apropos Frank McNally's catechism of GAA clichés (An Irishman's Diary, July 24th), I propose the following addition: How do commentators and analysts react when the referee doesn't see or ignores a number of fouls? The ref is having a good game, he's letting it flow. –Yours , etc, JOHN SHORTEN, Balbriggan, Co Dublin. Sir, – Frank McNally has found every GAA commentator's script. Who was a pundit in a past life? Either way, everyone should take notes. – Yours, etc, JAMES CLEAR, Dún Laoghaire Co Dublin. Winding down the clock Sir, – It is interesting that when TV stations broadcast matches like the All-Ireland football final live the match clock counts up showing the amount of time that has passed. Surely the clock should count down, showing the time remaining as this is what really matters? – Yours, etc, PAT KENNEDY, Navan, Co Meath. The housing crisis Sir, – The article by John McManus (' We need to face reality that housing cannot be solved, ' July 23rd) sets out the issue central to the so-called housing crisis faced by the Government. The population of this country is racing ahead of any possibility of either the private or public sectors building enough units to house all over the coming decade. He goes on to suggest that official estimates of the population are 'wildly underestimated' at 5.45 million in 2023. With the brokers Davy expecting the population to hit some 5.9 million by 2030, the task of meeting the demand for accommodation ( estimated by Davy at 120,000 units per annum) is entirely beyond us. It's time the Government came clean with the reality of the challenge being faced and accepted that housing production cannot keep pace with population growth. The only alternative is to control migration, thus cooling the housing market. In that regard it may well be that the Trump tariffs will actually do us a favour through us being forced to press the pause button on foreign direct investment (FDI) and the obsession with jobs growth. – Yours, etc, MICHAEL GILMARTIN, Blackrock, Co Dublin. Pearl clutchers Sir, – To say, as Stephen Wall does (Letters, July 24th), that the new 22-storey College Square tower on Tara Street has a 'catastrophic impact on the historic urban landscape' seems pearl-clutching in the extreme. The tower is more of a harbinger of a future Dublin when its current detractors (and supporters) will have left the stage. The edifice is tall, imposing, majestic even. Please can we have more of this type of thing? – Yours, etc, BRIAN AHERN, Clonsilla, Dublin.