Displaying items by tag: Middle East

Last week UNHRC issued five resolutions against Israel, including accusations against its activities in the Golan Heights. The British ambassador to the UN said, ‘Israel has a population of eight million, in a world of seven billion. Yet since its foundation UNHRC has adopted 135 country-specific resolutions; 68 of them have been against Israel. Justice is blind and impartial. The selective focus on Israel is neither. So today we put the Human Rights Council on notice. If things do not change, in future we will adopt a policy of voting against all resolutions concerning Israel’s conduct in the occupied Syrian and Palestinian territories.’ He added, ‘Peace is built through trust and goodwill on all sides. Human rights violations break down that trust. By continuing an unacceptable pattern of bias, the Council discredits its voice and hardens positions on both sides.’

Exploring Mosul, RT news reporters have gathered more evidence in support of the Amnesty International report which accuses the US-led coalition and Iraqi government of indiscriminately bombing civilian homes along with IS targets. The debris of destroyed houses, schools and hospitals has turned the city into an urban graveyard. On Tuesday, with explosions and gunfire heard in the distance, RT's crew saw coalition jets heading to and from Mosul every 5–10 minutes. They heard chilling stories of how IS terrorists use civilians as human shields during airstrikes. The Iraqi government isn’t organising humanitarian corridors for civilians to leave Mosul, they’re urging them to stay inside. The perceived safety of their homes becomes their graves as bombs continue to rain down (although less intensively since a severe loss of civilian life which is being investigated).

Many refugee children are abandoned, abused, or lost to trafficking because of neglect or being orphaned. They are forced to work or beg for money on the streets where refugees currently live. One child said: ‘Because my father died in the war, I was forced to work selling things on the streets. One day, some people visited my mother, sisters and me. They helped me go to a school for refugees and learn about Jesus.’ The compassion expressed in the story of the prodigal son gives us insight into the heart of God. He is the compassionate God who weeps over those who are lost and despairing. His desire is that those who have lost their way will return to Him and know the great love He has for them. Pray for refugee street children in the Middle East and Europe.

The fighting in Syria grows more complex as Turkey aims to interrupt the line of territory held by Kurdish forces along its border and the US works with the Kurds to prevent battle escalation and focus on IS. Pray for this tense situation where Turkish and US goals are in disagreement. Pray also for the third round of peace talks sponsored by Russia and Turkey that began on 14 March. In Iraq, the campaign to retake Mosul from IS progresses despite fierce resistance. Iraqi commanders are hopeful they can overcome IS within six months. Many civilians have been prevented from fleeing by IS, and horrific sites of mass burials have been uncovered in captured areas. Pray for the future for Mosul, for peace-building and reconstruction to be given as much thought as the current military campaign. The two-year conflict in Yemen has killed 7,700 people, including 1,500 children. The fallout is that over 18 million people need food aid.

‘Are you a Christian?’ These were the last words 45-year-old Medhat Saad Hakim heard before he was shot in the head on his doorstep last month. The gunmen dragged Hakim's screaming mother outside the house before going back inside and shooting his father dead. The attackers then looted the house before torching it. Medhat Saad and Saad Hakim are the sixth and seventh Christians killed in the town of Al-Arish in a month. All are targeted by Al Wilayat Sinai, a local affiliate of IS waging a low-level insurgency on the peninsula. The two killings, followed by another one 48 hours later, prompted Christians to flee the coastal town; over 500 have arrived in Ismailia, 200 km away, since 21 February. Those who cannot leave have sent their children away to relatives outside Sinai. Terrorists have threatened taxi and minibus drivers with death if they take fleeing Christians from Al-Arish.

Gush Etzion is a cluster of communities at the centre of the political controversy surrounding Jewish settlements. It supposedly consists only of right-wingers who consider all Arabs to be enemies, but there is a very different side to the community. Once a fortnight, trucks arrive to collect supplies donated by local residents. The supplies are taken north for the Amalia ‘buses of angels’ to distribute to Syrian children across the border. The activity looks like any other charity activity, but the teenagers organising it are Orthodox Jews and the recipients of the boxes are Arab refugees. The teenagers have also contacted Rabbi Shivi Froman, a resident of another Orthodox community and the founder of ‘Syrians on the Fences’ (SoF). SoF has collected over a million shekels to buy equipment for Syrian children, in collaboration with Israel Flying Aid (IFA). Froman’s late father was a leading Israeli voice for peace and reconciliation with the Arabs in the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian president Vladimir Putin met in Moscow yesterday. Netanyahu opposes what he says are Iran's attempts to establish a permanent military foothold in Syria. He told his cabinet, ‘In the framework of a future peace agreement or without one, Iran is attempting to base itself permanently in Syria - either through a military presence on the ground or a naval presence - and also through a gradual attempt to open a front against Israel on the Golan Heights’. Israel's arch-enemy, has been Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's backer and has provided militia fighters to help him; Russia, also Assad's ally, is seen as holding the balance of power in a deal on Syria's future. Geneva’s UN-led Syria peace talks last Friday ended without a breakthrough.

The Syrian Arab Army has been kept busy in the eastern countryside of Homs since they liberated Palmyra, attacking several areas controlled by the IS forces north of the city. Among these areas are the Jazal Mountains, situated 10 km northwest of Palmyra. On Sunday, the Syrian Arab Army’s newly-formed 5th Legion entered the gas fields in this mountain region, liberating the entire site after 24 hours of fierce combat. The army now controls two of the four gas fields that are situated near the Palmyra-Homs highway.

‘People knock on doors begging for food,’ said a man who fled north Mosul with family still trapped there. ‘People will start dying of starvation. There are no doctors or food. No flour, no bulgur wheat, no rice, no milk, nothing to eat.’ As fighting continues, thousands of families have already fled Mosul for their lives, and many more are expected to do so. UNHCR anticipate 250,000 displaced who will need shelter, food and water - including distressed children and those requiring urgent medical care. ‘What we're hearing from inside western Mosul right now is deeply concerning,’ said Save the Children’s director in Iraq. Meanwhile, since December, four million letters of hope and love, written by civilians, have been dropped over IS-held parts of Mosul. Volunteers gathered 2,000+ letters, photocopied them and then showered them from a transport plane. See:

Qatar is hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup. There are thousands of migrants - from India, Nepal and the Philippines - working on the project. God is at work and many are meeting Jesus. One convert from Buddhism said, ‘I would never have expected to become a Christian in a strict Muslim country. But it happened.’ Evangelism is forbidden - but that isn't stopping the Christians. ‘We can't go to people with the gospel. But they are coming to us. I have many conversations with colleagues about Christianity, and they just keep asking questions. The only thing we have to do is answer them. There is no law against that.’