Rocket attack targets Iraqi military air base in Kirkuk, security sources say
One person was wounded and no fatalities were reported, the sources added.
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Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Aid truck drivers face increasing danger from desperate crowds, armed gangs
GAZA CITY: Truck drivers trying to deliver aid inside Gaza say their work has become increasingly dangerous in recent months as people have grown desperately hungry and violent gangs have filled a power vacuum left by the territory's rulers. Crowds of hungry people routinely rip aid off the backs of moving trucks, the local drivers said. Some trucks are hijacked by armed men working for gangs who sell the aid in Gaza's markets for exorbitant prices. Israeli troops often shoot into the chaos, they said. Drivers have been killed in the mayhem. Since March, when Israel ended a ceasefire in its war with Hamas and halted all imports, the situation has grown increasingly dire in the territory of some 2 million Palestinians. International experts are now warning of a 'worst-case scenario of famine' in Gaza. Nahed Sheheibr, head of the Special Transport Association, accused Israel of detaining drivers and using them as human shields. Under heavy international pressure, Israel last week announced measures to let more aid into Gaza. Though aid groups say it's still not enough, getting even that amount from the border crossings to the people who need it is difficult and extremely dangerous, the drivers said. Thousands of people packed the road around them on Monday as two trucks entered southern Gaza, as shown in AP video. Young men overwhelmed the trucks, standing on the cabs' roofs, dangling from the sides, and clambering over each other onto the truck beds to grab boxes even as the trucks slowly kept driving. 'Some of my drivers are scared to go transfer aid because they're concerned about how they'll untangle themselves from large crowds of people,' said Abu Khaled Selim, vice president of the Special Transport Association, a nonprofit group that works with private transportation companies across the Gaza Strip and advocates for truck drivers' rights. Selim said his nephew, Ashraf Selim, a father of eight, was killed July 29 by a stray bullet when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds climbing onto the aid truck he was driving. Shifa Hospital officials said they received his body with an apparent gunshot to the head. Earlier in the war, aid deliveries were safer because, with more food getting into Gaza, the population was less desperate. Hamas-run police had been seen securing convoys and went after suspected looters and merchants who resold aid at exorbitant prices, Now, 'with the situation unsecured, everything is permissible,' said Selim, who appealed for protection so the aid trucks could reach warehouses. The UN does not accept protection from Israeli forces, saying it would violate its rules of neutrality, and said that given the urgent need for aid, it would accept that hungry people were going to grab food off the back of the trucks as long as they weren't violent. Flooding Gaza with renewed aid would ease the desperation and make things safer for the drivers, said Juliette Touma, communications director at UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Ali Al-Derbashi, 22, had been an aid truck driver for more than a year and a half, but he quit after his last trip three weeks ago due to the increasing danger, he said. Some people taking aid off the trucks are now carrying cleavers, knives, and axes, he said. He was once ambushed and forcibly redirected to an area designated by Israel as a conflict zone in its war against Hamas. There, everything was stolen, including his truck's fuel and batteries, and his tires were shot out, he said. He was beaten and his phone was stolen. 'We put our lives in danger for this. We leave our families for two or three days every time. And we don't even have water or food ourselves,' he said. In addition to the danger, the drivers faced humiliation from Israeli forces, he said, who put them through 'prolonged searches, unclear instructions, and hours of waiting.' The war began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 others. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to the latest figures by Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians and operates under the Hamas government. The threats come from everywhere Nahed Sheheibr, head of the Special Transport Association, said the danger for the drivers comes from everywhere. He accused Israel of detaining drivers and using them as human shields. In recent days, men linked to a violent Gaza clan fired at drivers, injuring one, and looted a convoy of 14 trucks, he said. They later looted a convoy of 10 trucks. Hossni Al-Sharafi, who runs a trucking company and was an aid driver himself, said he is only allowed to use drivers who have no political affiliation and have been approved by Israel to transport aid from crossings. Al-Sharafi said he was detained by Israeli forces for more than 10 days last year while transporting aid from the southern Kerem Shalom crossing and interrogated about where the truck was headed and how the aid was being distributed. Israeli officials did not comment on the accusations. Some drivers spoke of being shot at repeatedly by armed gangs. Others said their trucks were routinely picked clean — even of the wooden pallets— by waves of desperate people, many of whom were fighting each other for the food, while Israeli troops were shooting. Hungry families who miss out on the aid throw stones at the trucks in anger. Anas Rabea said the moment he pulled out of the Zikkim crossing last week, his aid truck was overwhelmed by a crowd. 'Our instructions are to stop, because we don't want to run anyone over,' he said. 'It's crazy. You have people climbing all over the cargo, over the windows. It's like you're blind, you can't see out.' After the crowd had stripped everything, he drove another few hundred meters and was stopped by an armed gang that threatened to shoot him. They searched the truck and took a bag of flour he had saved for himself, he said. 'Every time we go out, we get robbed,' he said. 'It's getting worse day by day.'
Arab News
7 hours ago
- Arab News
Jordan seizes 2 drug-laden drones on western border
LONDON: Jordanian border and anti-narcotics authorities intercepted two drug-laden drones on Tuesday. The General Command of the Jordan Armed Forces said that the Southern Military Region, in coordination with Military Security and the Anti-Narcotics Department, intercepted the drones along the western border. Border Guard units detected and neutralized both drones within Jordanian territory, with the seized drugs handed over to the relevant authorities for investigation, it added. The Jordanian Armed Forces have intercepted 310 drug-laden drones and thwarted multiple smuggling attempts from January to mid-July, seizing more than 14.1 million narcotic pills, 92.1 kg of illegal drugs and more than 10,600 slabs of hashish, with a street value amounting to tens of millions of US dollars. General Command said that Jordan will combat infiltration and smuggling decisively, quashing any threat to national security.
Al Arabiya
12 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Iran says detains sabotage cell linked to exiled opposition
Iran has arrested three members of a suspected sabotage cell linked to the exiled opposition for attempting to disrupt public order, Iranian media reported Tuesday. The suspects, who are allegedly linked to banned former rebel group the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (MEK), were detained by the Revolutionary Guard in the county of Pakdasht, southeast of Tehran, the ISNA news agency said. 'Three members of MEK-linked sabotage cells who sought to disrupt public order and security were identified and arrested,' prosecutor Mohammad Hassanpour told ISNA. He accused the MEK of using underground propaganda networks to recruit individuals to form 'sabotage cells' aimed at disrupting public order. Security forces dismantled the cell and arrested all its members, he added. Hassanpour said the suspects were undergoing 'specialized interrogation' and the investigation was ongoing. Their arrest comes after the execution late last month of two alleged long-term members of the group. They had been found guilty of producing improvised mortars to attack civilians, homes and public institutions. Founded in the 1960s to oppose the Western-backed shah, the MEK was outlawed after the Iranian Revolution of 1979 for fighting alongside Saddam Hussein's troops in the Iran-Iraq war. Disarmed by a US-led coalition following its invasion of Iraq in 2003, the group now advocates a change in Iran's system from abroad. In recent weeks, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has accused the group of seeking to foment 'unrest' with the aim of toppling the system during Israel's June 13 attack, which triggered a 12-day war with Iran.
