7 International Wednesday, October 10, 2018 Qatari fuel enters Gaza amid fears of flare-up with Israel Power plant delivery bypasses Palestinian leader Abbas

GAZA: A truck brought fuel across Israel’s border into the for Gaza, of “seeking to make gains on two counts: by Gaza Strip yesterday in what sources said was a Qatari- encouraging a conflict in which Israel will clobber Hamas and UN-backed drive to ease conditions in the enclave and over which he will then be able to clobber Israel on and stem any escalation in Palestinian-Israeli violence. The the world stage”. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars shipment was a potential slap to the Western-backed since 2008. Months of Egyptian-mediated reconciliation administration of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which opposed the foreign relief plan. Gaza is controlled by Abbas’s rival, the Islamist Hamas group and the Palestinian president has been using economic pressure in Qatar seeks order to wrest back control. Under a blockade by Israel and Egypt designed to iso- to prevent late Hamas, Gaza has plunged into poverty. Over the last half year it has seen weekly, often violent Palestinian bor- escalation der protests and lethal counter-fire by the Israeli military. The truck that entered Gaza brought the first delivery out of violence of a $60 million fuel donation by Qatar meant to provide the power plant with enough fuel to operate for six months, local sources said. The cash-starved plant has been providing Gazans with only around four hours of talks between Hamas and Abbas have been held up by electricity daily. A spokesman for the Abbas-appointed power-sharing disputes. “Abbas believes that if he keeps Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, who is based the Gaza closure tight, it will make Hamas accept his in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, voiced disapproval of reconciliation plan, which would give the Abbas govern- the fuel delivery. ment full control - or the people in Gaza will launch a “Any international financial aid to the Gaza Strip revolution against Hamas,” said Palestinian political ana- should be through, or with the coordination of, the lyst Hani al-Masri. Palestinian government,” he said, in order “to preserve “This is making it easy for others to bypass the Palestinian unity” and to stop any plans to separate Gaza Palestinian Authority ... They are trying to give them from the West Bank. A Qatari official, speaking to (Gazans) a sedative, sometimes through Egypt, and this Reuters on Sunday, said Doha planned to help with time through Israel.” Palestinians launched the border Gaza’s power crisis “at the request of donor states in the protests on March 30 to demand an easing of the Gaza United Nations, to prevent an escalation of the existing blockade and the right of return to lands that Palestinian humanitarian disaster”. UN officials could not immediate- families fled or were driven from on Israel’s founding in ly be reached for comment. Israel’s energy minister, Yuval 1948. Israeli forces have killed at least 195 Palestinians Steinitz, told Reuters on Monday that Qatar “was trying since. Israel has lost a soldier to a Gaza sniper and tracts to help” prevent a Gaza flare-up. of forest and farmland to fires set in cross-border incendi- Steinitz accused Abbas, who has restricted PA funding ary attacks. — Reuters GAZA: Palestinians ride a donkey cart near the Gaza power plant in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip yesterday. — AFP

when the attacker blew himself up inside Saleh 8 killed as suicide Mohammad Asikzai’s campaign office in the southern city Syria’s Idlib: From of Lashkar Gah, Helmand provincial governor spokesman Omar Zhwak said. Syria issues pardon ‘bloodbath’ fears bomber targets Asikzai was among the injured, Zhwak added. Provincial police spokesman Salam Afghan confirmed for army deserters to buffer deal Afghan candidate the attack. “We are investigating,” he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Helmand is a Taleban stronghold. It is not clear how and draft dodgers BEIRUT: A horseshoe-shaped zone around Syria’s oppo- KANDAHAR: A suicide bomber targeting an Afghan elec- many people were inside the room at the time of the sition stronghold of Idlib is expected to avert a massive tion candidate yesterday killed at least eight people, offi- blast, which comes a day after the Taleban warned can- DAMASCUS: Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad issued government assault on the area, which would have put sev- cials said, days ahead of a parliamentary vote that militants didates to pull out of the “bogus” election scheduled for a general amnesty yesterday for army deserters and eral million people at risk. The U-shaped buffer, agreed by have vowed to disrupt. Another 10 people were wounded October 20. — AFP those who have avoided compulsory military service regime ally Russia and rebel-backer Turkey, will separate during the country’s seven-year civil war, state media opposition and government forces and is meant to be free said. Tens of thousands of Syrian soldiers have desert- of both heavy weapons and jihadists by October 15. ed since the start of the war in 2011, some of them join- ing rebel factions and others either hiding at home or ‘Bloodbath’ escaping abroad. A similar number is estimated to have In May, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura warned that a avoided completing compulsory military service. regime assault on Idlib would be “six times” more destruc- The fear of being sent to the front line has kept tive than the battle to recapture Eastern Ghouta, a rebel many male Syrian refugees from returning to their stronghold near Damascus. Ghouta was retaken by home country. Yesterday, Assad declared “a general President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in April after an offen- amnesty from any penalties for military deserters sive in which more than 1,700 civilians were killed, accord- inside and outside the country,” SANA said. Those ing to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Assad, who had been charged with deserting but who were backed by Russian air strikes, then set his sights on Idlib, on the run inside the country would have to hand the largest piece of territory still held by Syria’s belea- themselves in within four months to Syrian authorities. guered rebels. Charged deserters who fled outside Syria would have For weeks, regime forces massed on the edges of the six months to present themselves to authorities, province, stepping up bombardment since early SANA said. September and dropping leaflets calling on residents to It did not specify whether defectors who then went surrender. That prompted a chorus of international warn- on to fight the Syrian army were included in the par- ings against an offensive. US President Donald Trump don. While it mentions being exempt from “penalties”, cautioned that “the world is watching,” as Turkish yesterday’s decree did not specify if defectors or draft dodgers would ultimately be sent to serve. The decree President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he feared a includes “a general amnesty from any penalties for “bloodbath”. On September 10, the United Nations crimes under Law 30 for Military Service”, which warned that an assault could create the century’s “worst governs the country’s conscription. Before Syria’s humanitarian catastrophe”. A day later its Secretary conflict erupted in 2011, men aged 18 and older had to General Antonio Guterres urged that Idlib “must not be serve up to two years in the army, after which they transformed into a bloodbath”. became reserves available for call-up in times of crisis. In the past seven years, fatalities, injuries and defec- Russia-Turkey accord tions are estimated to have halved the once 300,000- On September 17, Erdogan and Russian President strong army. — AFP Vladimir Putin, meeting in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, agreed to create a 15-20 kilometer buffer zone ringing Idlib. According to the deal, the zone would sepa- rate rebel and regime zones under the supervision of the two sponsor countries. The buffer would include parts of Australia seeking Idlib province and the neighboring regions of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia. All factions in the planned demilitarized area must hand over their heavy weapons by October 10, to settle migrants and radical groups must withdraw by October 15, accord- outside major cities ing to the agreement. Rebel disharmony SYDNEY: Australia is drawing up plans to require On September 23, the National Liberation Front (NLF), migrants to temporarily settle in regional and rural areas to a powerful Turkish-backed rebel alliance in Idlib, cautious- ease congestion in major cities, the government announced ly welcomed the deal. But it later said it was opposed to yesterday. While much of the vast continent is sparsely populated, Australia is growing at an annual rate of 1.6 the deployment of Russian forces in the buffer, and said percent-one of the highest among OECD countries. Ankara promised them that patrols by Moscow would be Sydney, Melbourne and southeast Queensland are among dropped. On September 29, a formerly US-backed Syrian the fastest-growing urban areas in the world thanks in part rebel group, Jaysh al-Izza, active in northern Hama to overseas migration, said population minister Alan province, became the first rebel faction to reject the deal. Tudge. The resulting strain on infrastructure in Australia’s It said the buffer zone should be carved out equally from eastern cities cost the economy Aus$15 billion (US$10.6 both rebel-held territory and nearby zones controlled by billion) last year, with annual forecast losses of Aus$40 bil- forces loyal to Assad. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which lion by 2030 if left unchecked, Tudge told an audience at along with other jihadists controls nearly 70 percent of the the Menzies Research Centre think-tank in Melbourne. planned demilitarized zone, has not yet commented. — AFP “This (congestion) is a serious challenge for families and a serious economic challenge for the nation,” he said. “We are working on measures to have more new arrivals go to the smaller states and regions and require them to be there for at least a few years.” Other parts of the country “have barely grown and (are) crying out for more people”, he added. Tudge did not outline how new immigrants would be forced to remain in regional areas, saying this was still to be determined by the government. He flagged a number of other schemes to ease population pressure, including a bigger infrastructure spend and moving public servants out of the big cities. Critics such as former Australian Border Force chief Roman Quaedvlieg said requiring migrants to live in regional areas could be difficult to enforce. “Migrants will gravitate to opportunities & amenities in cities,” he tweet- IDLIB: A Syrian rebel-fighter from the National Liberation ed yesterday. “It’s not possible to police the condition Front (NLF) secures a tank, part of heavy weapons and without substantial resources, both identifying breaches & equipment withdrawn yesterday from a planned buffer zone sanctioning them.” — AFP around Idlib. — AFP