Gaza Aid-Site Stampede Leaves 20 People Dead at Khan Younis Hub
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said 19 people died after being trampled during a 'chaotic and dangerous surge' at an aid point in the southern city of Khan Younis, one of Gaza's largest. One person was fatally stabbed, the foundation added in a statement.
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Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
As Iran deports a million Afghans, ‘Where do we even go?'
'I worked in Iran for 42 years, so hard that my knees are broken, and for what?' Mohammad Akhundzada, a construction worker, said at a processing center for returnees in Islam Qala, a border town in northwestern Afghanistan, near Herat. Advertisement The mass expulsions threaten to push Afghanistan further toward the brink of economic collapse with the sudden cutoff of vital remittance money to Afghan families from relatives in Iran. The sudden influx of returnees also piles on Afghanistan's already grim unemployment, housing, and health care crises. More than half of Afghanistan's estimated population of 41 million already relies on humanitarian assistance. Advertisement Iran hosts the world's largest refugee population, and about 95 percent — estimated to be around 4 million — are Afghans, according to the UN refugee agency. Iran says the real number is closer to 6 million, after decades of war and upheaval in Afghanistan. Iran limits where Afghans can live and work — only in 10 of the country's 31 provinces — and they are usually allowed only arduous, low-skill work. Iran's government has said it can no longer absorb Afghan refugees given its own economic crisis and shortage of natural resources, including water and gas. In March, the government said Afghans in the country without authorization would be deported and set a July 6 deadline for voluntary departures. But after last month's 12-day conflict with Israel, the crackdown intensified. Security forces have raided workplaces and neighborhoods, stopped cars at checkpoints set up throughout big cities, and detained scores of Afghans before sending them to overcrowded deportation centers in sweltering heat. Officials and state media, without providing evidence, have claimed that Afghans were recruited by Israel and the United States to stage terrorist attacks, seize military sites, and build drones. Kadijah Rahimi, 26, a cattle herder, echoing many Afghans at the border crossing, said that when she was arrested in Iran last month, the security agent told her, 'We know you're working for Israel.' Abolfazl Hajizadegan, a sociologist in Tehran, the Iranian capital, said Iran's government was using Afghans as scapegoats to deflect blame for intelligence failures that enabled Israel to infiltrate widely within Iran. 'Mixing Afghan deportations with the Iran-Israel conflict underscores the regime's reluctance to acknowledge its security and intelligence shortcomings,' Hajizadegan said in an interview. Advertisement The spying accusations have fueled racist attacks on Afghans in Iran in recent weeks, according to interviews with more than two dozen Afghans living in Iran or those who have recently returned to Afghanistan, reports by aid and rights groups, and videos on social media and news media. Afghans have been beaten or attacked with knives; faced harassment from landlords and employers who are also withholding their deposits or wages; and have been turned away from banks, bakeries, pharmacies, schools, and hospitals. Ebrahim Qaderi was riding his bicycle to work at a cardboard factory in Tehran one morning last month when two men stopped him. They shouted 'Dirty Afghan' and demanded his smartphone. When Qaderi refused, they kicked him in the leg and slashed his hand with a knife, he recounted at a relocation center in Herat. His mother, Gull Dasta Fazili, said doctors at four hospitals turned him away because he was Afghan, and that they left Iran because of the attack. Jawad Mosavi and nine of his family members stepped off the bus from Iran last week, scrambling under the sweltering heat of Islam Qala to gather his thoughts and the family's dozen suitcases, rugs, and rucksacks. 'Where do we even go?' he called out. His son Ali Akbar, 13, led the way to the building where they could get their certificates of return. His half-open backpack carried his most precious belongings — a deflated soccer ball, a speaker, and some headphones to listen to his favorite Iranian hits, in Persian. 'The only kind of music I understand,' he said. Like the Mosavi family, between 20,000 and 25,000 people were left to navigate a maze of luggage, tents, and fellow returnees every day last week, trying to find their way through crowded buildings and warehouses run by Afghan authorities and UN agencies. Advertisement Mothers changed their babies' diapers on filthy blankets amid relentless gusts of wind. Fathers queued for hours to get their fingerprints taken and collect some emergency cash under temperatures hovering over 95 degrees. Outnumbered humanitarian workers treated dehydrated returnees at a field clinic while others hastily distributed food rations or dropped off large cubes of ice in water containers. Afghanistan was already grappling with cuts in foreign aid from the United States and other donors before Iran began expelling Afghans en masse. Even before then, nearly a million Afghans had been ejected from or pressed to leave Pakistan. Organizations have been able to fund only a fifth of humanitarian needs in the country this year, and more than 400 health care centers have been shut down in recent months. Afghan officials have pledged to build 35 townships across the country to cope with the influx of returnees, many of whom have been deported without being allowed to collect belongings or cash from the bank. In Islam Qala, many Afghans said they were coming back to a country they hardly recognized since the Taliban took control and imposed strict rule in 2021. Zahir Mosavi, the patriarch of the family, said he dreaded having to halt education for his four daughters because the Taliban have banned girls' education above sixth grade. 'I want to keep them busy, I want them to learn something,' he said. Advertisement
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Pro-Palestinian demonstrator arrested at Tour de France
A protestor wearing a t-shirt reading "Israel out of the Tour" was arrested on Wednesday after running onto the final straight of the Tour de France 11th stage. The protestor, who was also holding a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, got past security barriers and ran towards the finish line in Toulouse as Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen won a sprint finale. The man was intercepted by a race staff member and arrested, the local prefecture said. Several police officers have been assigned to protecting the Israel-Premier Tech team during the Tour. The team was set up by Israeli-Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams, but there are no Israeli riders in this year's race. With the Gaza war causing international controversy, last year the team said it had asked its riders not to wear jerseys with any reference to Israel while out training as a precaution. The Gaza war sparked by Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 58,573 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. bur-dmc/chv/mw/tw
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
At least 20 killed in crush at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food hub
July 16 (UPI) -- At least 20 people were killed Wednesday in a stampede at a food distribution hub run by the U.S.-Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the south of the besieged Palestinian enclave. Calling it a tragic incident, GHF said 19 people were crushed to death and one was fatally stabbed in "a chaotic and dangerous surge" at the center in the Khan Younis district, for which it blamed Hamas. The foundation said it believed the stampede by Palestinians attempting to collect food packages was "driven by agitators in the crowd" allied to Hamas. "We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd -- armed and affiliated with Hamas -- deliberately fomented the unrest," GHF said in a statement. "For the first time since operations began, GHF personnel identified multiple firearms in the crowd, one of which was confiscated. An American worker was also threatened with a firearm by a member of the crowd during the incident." GHF blamed misinformation widely circulated on social media regarding its Wadi Gaza facility and another in the Tal Sultan district of Rafah that ceased operating some time back for "fueling confusion, driving crowds to closed sites, and inciting disorder." However, Israel's Haaretz newspaper said the crush was triggered by GHF workers lobbing tear gas canisters into the crowd. GHF employs armed private security contractors to maintain order and protect its facilities. On Tuesday, the United Nations' office for human rights said 674 people had been killed in the vicinity of the sites operated by GHF since the group began its operations in Gaza in May. Many had been caught in shelling or sustained fatal gunshot wounds. Wednesday's incident came as another senior GHF official quit after his businesses were the target of a boycott. Israeli restaurateur and entrepreneur Shahar Segal left his role as the foundation's spokesperson on Tuesday following backlash against eateries he owns in Melbourne, Australia, and another inside a popular club in Tel Aviv's nightlife district. Shahar's food empire, which includes the Michelin-starred Shmone in New York City, was targeted by protestors earlier this month who attacked his Miznon restaurant in Melbourne, throwing chairs, shattering a glass door and hurling anti-Israel slogans. Three people are facing criminal charges. The Teder nitespot in Tel Aviv criticized Segal's involvement with GHF and attempted to distance itself. "In recent weeks, we've become aware of our partner Shahar Segal's involvement with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. We want to make it unequivocally clear: Teder has no connection to GHF, and we strongly oppose the existence of such an organization. Humanitarian aid must never serve as a tool of control over civilians, and people shouldn't die trying to get a little flour to what's left of their families," Teder said in a social media post. GHF told NPR in a statement that Segal's departure from his role, which was unpaid, was due to an internal reorganization involving expanding its communications operation. Segal did not immediately comment. Executive Director and former U.S. Marine Jake Wood and Chief Operating Officer David Burke, GHF's top two officials, both resigned in the days before the scheme began operating. Wood said he resigned because the scheme was out of step with the key humanitarian principles of "humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence." Israel insists the GHF project is aimed at preventing aid from being stolen and resold by Hamas to fund military operations against Israel, but the U.N. and traditional aid agencies reject the scheme, saying it goes against humanitarian ethics and "weaponizes" the issue of aid. Solve the daily Crossword
