Archives for March 2018

A damaged vehicle of the convoy of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was removed after the explosion [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

An explosion has struck the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah upon his entrance into the Gaza Strip, lightly injuring several people.

The explosive device detonated shortly after Hamdallah and his convoy passed through the Israeli-controlled Erez checkpoint, known Palestinians as Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza on Tuesday, an Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza reported.

Hamdallah was unharmed and appeared on live television shortly after the incident at the inauguration of a wastewater treatment facility.

However, five others were lightly injured in the blast.

The Palestinian Authority intelligence chief Majed Faraj was part of the convoy.

Fatah, the West Bank-based political party to which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas belongs, called it a “terrorist attack” and blamed it on Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza.

“This attack is an attempt to kill all reconciliation efforts. It is a dangerous step aimed at spreading disorder and fighting among our people,” said Munir al-Jaghoub, heads Fatah’s information department at the Office of Mobilisation and Organisation.

“We demand that Hamas expedites its investigation. The developments have proven that Hamas has completely failed in providing security in Gaza, just as it has failed in providing a decent life for our people in the strip,” added Jaghoub.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Iyad al-Buzom, Gaza’s interior ministry spokesperson, said the act of placing blame “has a political dimension”.

“Here in Gaza, we take all the security precautions to welcome all the convoys and delegations and particularly the prime minister as he entered Gaza,” he said.

He added that “several suspects were arrested a short while ago,” and that an investigation “to find out who was behind the explosion” is under way.

Hamas and Fatah, the two main Palestinian political parties, signed a reconciliation agreement in October 2017, ending a decade of division that saw two parallel governments operating in Gaza and the West Bank, respectively.

The agreement to form a unity government was signed in the Egyptian capital in Cairo on October 13, but efforts to implement the agreement have faced several obstacles.

Mustafa Ibrahim, a Gaza-based political analyst, believes there are “several sides who are benefitting from this explosion”.

“We will hear Fatah saying that some members of Hamas do not want reconciliation, and likewise, we will hear Hamas saying this could have been a fabricated attack by Fatah’s security services,” Ibrahim told Al Jazeera.

“The ones who will pay the price are the Palestinian people themselves. The Palestinian Authority may impose more punitive measures against the Gaza Strip and it is imperative that Hamas captures those behind the attack as soon as possible,” he continued.

“This explosion will have repercussions for the people in Gaza.”

At least 42 people killed in relentless air raids as Syrian government forces encircle the central town of Douma.

The Damascus suburb, home to some 400,000 people, has been under the control of armed opposition groups since 2013 [File: Anadolu]

by Al Jazeera

At least 42 people have been killed in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta as government forces continue to launch air raids on the rebel-held enclave while edging closer to its central towns.

Activists in Douma, one of the main urban centres, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that Syrian jets have “not stopped bombing towns all over Ghouta”.

Syrian state television reported the town of Mudeira had been seized on Sunday by the army, which was now able to link up with units on the other side of Eastern Ghouta.

Government forces have now surrounded Douma after capturing the neighbouring town of Mesraba, 10km east of Damascus, on Saturday, it said.

The advance on Mudeira has driven a wedge deep inside the rebel-held territory, leaving Douma and Harasta cut off.

Civilians trapped

The UN estimates there are 400,000 civilians trapped in Eastern Ghouta.

Activist Nour Adam said eight people died in Jobar, a town east of the capital Damascus, and 16 people from the same family were killed in an attack on Douma.

The rest died in attacks that hit the towns of Harasta, Zamalka, and Irbin, Adam said.

On Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, told Al Jazeera that Eastern Ghouta had been divided into three – Douma and its surroundings; Harasta in the west; and the rest of the towns further south.

The government’s latest offensive on Eastern Ghouta, which began on February 18, has killed 1,099 civilians over the past 21 days, the Syrian Observatory reported.

The figure includes 227 children and 145 women, while at least 4,378 others have been wounded.

The Syrian Civil Defence, a volunteer rescue group also known as the White Helmets, said on Sunday a government attack on Irbin a day earlier involved “chlorine … phosphorus”. It was the second alleged chemical attack to hit the suburb in a matter of days.

The government denies using either incendiary weapons or chlorine gas bombs and said on Saturday it had information the rebels were planning to stage a fake chemical attack to discredit the army.

Previous pattern

The Syrian government’s offensive follows a pattern of previous assaults on opposition strongholds, deploying massive air power and tight sieges to force rebel fighters to accept “evacuation” deals.

These involve rebels surrendering territory in exchange for safe passage to opposition areas in northwest Syria, along with their families and other civilians who do not want to come back under Assad’s rule.

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Gaziantep along the border in neighbouring Turkey, said Russian-backed Syrian forces tend to use military gains to try and secure a “political advantage”.

“[They do so] by saying to fighters maybe you should move to another part of Syria,” Fisher said.

On Friday, a number of rebel fighters and their families were evacuated from Eastern Ghouta, state media reported.

These include rebels from Jaish al-Islam, one of the main opposition groups in the enclave, which announced it had agreed to the evacuation of several Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham fighters – previously part of al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front – who were detained by the group.

Wael Olwan, spokesman of the rebel group Failaq al-Rahman, with ties to the Free Syrian Army, denied on Sunday that such negotiations were taking place – despite the government’s claims that talks with rebel groups were under way.

Suffocating siege
The Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta has been under the control of armed opposition groups since 2013 – two years after a popular uprising called for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad.

The area has been under a suffocating siege by government forces since then in an attempt to drive out rebels.

The ongoing fighting on multiple fronts, coupled with continuous shelling and air raids, has prevented desperately needed food and medical supplies from being delivered to residents trapped inside.