Through four wars, toll mounts on a Gaza neighborhood
By ADAM GELLER and FARES AKRAM

LONG READ

1 of 29

Palestinians walk along Al-Baali Street next to debris of homes heavily damaged by airstrikes during an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, June 16, 2021. Since 2008, more than 4,000 Palestinians have been killed in four wars, according to the United Nations. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip (AP) — The electricity is out again tonight in what’s left of Zaki and Jawaher Nassir’s neighborhood. But from the shell of their sitting room, its wall blown open by Israeli missiles, twilight and a neighbor’s fire are enough to see by.

Here, down a narrow lane called Al-Baali, just over a mile from the heavily fortified border separating northern Gaza and Israel, cinderblock homes press against each other before opening to a modest courtyard below the Nassirs’ perch.

Until this neighborhood was hammered by the fourth war in 13 years between Israel and Hamas militants, the Nassirs often sipped coffee by a window, watching children play volleyball using a rope in place of a net. Other days, the couple looked out as relatives pulled fruit off the yard’s fig and olive trees.

Now they spend day after day surveying the wreckage of the May 14 airstrike from broken plastic chairs while awaiting building inspectors, the gaping holes in surrounding homes serving as windows into their neighborhood’s upheaval.

In the skeleton of one building, children play video games atop a slab of fallen concrete. In another, a man stares out from beside a bed covered in debris, ignoring the ceiling fan drooping overhead like a dead flower. The smell of pulverized cement and plaster dust hangs in the air.

Each afternoon, demolition workers arrive to hack away at this real-life stage set so that the Nassirs and their neighbors can start rebuilding -- again.

“We have no peace in our lives and we expect that war can happen again at any time,” says Zaki Nassir, who lost a nephew from the household across the yard in the first war, another from next door in this year’s war, and whose home is still scarred by shelling during the third war.

The story of the Nassirs, their neighbors and the toll of four wars is Gaza’s story.

___

New visual analysis by The Associated Press and SITU Research spotlights the magnitude of damage from airstrikes in Gaza and the scope of efforts to rebuild. The Nassir family and their neighbors live in the ruins left by the fourth war. (Aug. 25)

TO VIEW an enhanced interactive version of this story, click here.

___

Since 2008, more than 4,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflicts, according to the U.N. While many were fighters for Hamas or other militant groups, more than half were civilians. Thousands have been injured. On the Israeli side, the death toll from the four wars stands at 106, officials say.

The Islamic militants, who reject Israel’s right to exist, have fired thousands of rockets across the border during the conflicts, operating from a maze of underground tunnels. Israel, one of a number of countries that label Hamas a terrorist organization, has repeatedly hit the Strip with overwhelming firepower that, despite its high-tech precision, continues to kill civilians.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has likened Israel’s periodic offensives to mowing an unruly lawn. But Israel’s policy of degrading Hamas -- and inflicting a toll designed to undermine its public support -- makes little pretense of resolving Gaza’s deepening crisis. And international efforts focus only on relief and reconstruction. Meanwhile, each war has boosted approval of Hamas, often when it was flagging.

All told, the wars have done more than $5 billion in damage to Gaza’s buildings, roads, electrical and water systems, roughly double the Strip’s annual economic output. Nearly 250,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed.

The wars, coupled with a crippling blockade and the fallout of infighting between Palestinian factions, also have scarred Gaza in ways that can be difficult to quantify.

“It’s not (just) about you are losing a building. You are losing the hope that things will get better,” says Omar Shaban, an economist who runs a think tank in Gaza City. “Forty percent of the population was born under siege.”

Gaza’s crisis is rooted in events that came long before Hamas seized control in 2007. More than half of those packed into the Strip are from Palestinian families who fled or were driven from what is now Israel during the 1948 war over its formation. But the recurrent fighting and the blockade of recent years have made life in Gaza far worse.

Six years ago, U.N. officials warned that wars and economic isolation had done so much to intensify Gaza’s “de-development” that it risked becoming uninhabitable by 2020. Since then, the Strip’s 2 million residents have endured yet another war, even as the economy teeters, with unemployment close to 50 percent, among the world’s highest.

“Every year we write that, OK, Gaza hit rock bottom,” says Rami Alazzeh, a U.N. economist who has studied the long-term costs. “And every year we repeat the same sentence because, actually, it gets worse and worse.”

The Nassirs and their neighbors, many holding on to memories of life before Gaza was so embattled, are all too familiar with that narrative of despair. But they resist it, even after a fourth war.

“This is what we have,” Zaki Nassir says. “We have to live.”

___

Palestinians walk at night along Al-Baali Street, next to homes heavily damaged by airstrikes during an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, May 31, 2021.

 (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Five decades ago, Zaki Nassir’s father moved his family to a plot of farmland in what was then a village. Today, three- and four-story homes along Al-Baali Street -- at the heart of that tract and named after Zaki’s father -- are filled with Nassirs.

“There were not a lot of residents here like there are today,” says Nassir, 47, recalling the family’s citrus trees, greenhouses and cattle. Some of his brothers were among the tens of thousands of Gaza residents who crossed daily to work in Israel. “Things back then were way better in those days.”

Even then, though, it was no paradise. Since the 1967 war that saw Israel take control of Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the rights and movements of Palestinians have been dictated by Israeli security concerns. Critics call it a form of apartheid. That infuriates Israel, where Gaza is often spoken of as a foreign country, separate from the larger Palestinian conflict.

Over the years, the Nassir family -- 13 daughters and 12 sons born to two wives -- grew with Beit Hanoun, which today has a population of 57,000. Beyond the archway marking the entrance to town, an ever-present Israeli surveillance balloon hovers over the border wall, keeping the community under watch.

As the Nassir siblings married, they built homes on much of the family’s land, still a few minutes by donkey cart from fields of grain and fruit trees.

Until he was sidelined by a heart condition and the pandemic, Zaki Nassir’s job with the Palestinian Authority had him inspecting area farms and, more recently, working part-time at an agricultural college. Jawaher, 46, is expecting their ninth child in September.

Life in Beit Hanoun deteriorated sharply after Israel withdrew settlers and troops in a 2005 disengagement, isolating Gaza. Hamas, which had killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, filled the vacuum.

In 2006, militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier, prompting an Israeli incursion that destroyed roads in northern Gaza and flattened groves. After winning Palestinian legislative elections, Hamas prevailed over the rival Fatah party in a clash for control of the Strip. Israel and Egypt imposed a strict economic blockade.

Then, in the last days of 2008, Israel launched a major military offensive after heavy rocket and mortar fire by militants across the border. Soon the first war came to Al-Baali Street.

On an afternoon about 2½ weeks into the war, Israel’s military declared a brief pause so residents could gather needed supplies. Khaldiya Nassir was preparing the family’s remaining vegetables when her husband, Adham -- Zaki Nassir’s nephew -- announced he was taking his donkey and cart out to replenish the family’s supply of flour.

“We told him not be deceived. There is no truce. They are lying,” says Khaldiya Nassir, sitting at the entranceway of her house, a pale pink structure that runs the length of the courtyard.

Adham -- a cart driver prone to working long hours, often returning with boxes of mangoes for his six children -- went anyway.

On his way home that afternoon, a woman flagged him down, pleading for help with her wounded daughter. As the 38-year-old Adham carried the girl from their house, he was wounded in the neck and back by a spray of gunfire. Moments later, a rocket obliterated his cart.

Evacuated to an Egyptian hospital, Adham died three weeks later.

His wife blames Israeli special forces. The Israeli military said at the time that he had been carrying rockets, but he was only carrying what they needed to eat, Khaldiya says.

For five years afterward, Khaldiya Nassir set aside much of the orphans’ assistance her family received through the Palestinian Authority, the Fatah-led government that still administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. With it, she built a home filled with personal touches, like kitchen tiles illustrated with coffee cups and doors decorated with floral patterns.

This Ramadan, days before the war erupted, her children hand-cut paper hearts to celebrate. They still hang from the ceilings of rooms littered with chunks of concrete. Much of the house will have to be torn down, U.N. inspectors say.

“Everything is gone,” she says. “We cannot afford any more fear.”

___


THE FIRST WAR’S TOLL: About 1,400 Palestinians killed and 13 on the Israeli side. Homes damaged or destroyed: 60,000. Fifteen hospitals and 41 primary health care centers were damaged, two destroyed.

Among the casualties were two boys, killed when shells loaded with white phosphorous hit a United Nations-run school where 1,600 people were sheltering.

Phosphorous, used to create smoke screens, was a signature weapon of the first war, which ran from Dec. 27, 2008 to Jan. 18, 2009. Because it burns at up to 1,500 degrees, it caused devastating injuries.

Israel renounced its use in 2013.

___

With food and construction materials in short supply after the war, Israel continued its blockade, increasing pressure on residents confined to an area less than a tenth the size of the smallest U.S. state.

Israel bars nearly all Palestinians from exiting through its lone crossing for travelers -- a building faced with glass on its side of the border, but with steel doors and a caged enclosure on the Gaza side that give it the feel of a cattle run.

Undeterred by the restrictions, Zaki’s brother Jamal and wife Munira took savings from his job driving a taxi and opened the Abu Nashat Grocery, across the street from the courtyard. Jamal, once a construction worker in Israel, ran the shop along with Munira and two of their 12 children, while others drove the taxi.

As neighbors flocked in for cold drinks and other items, earnings grew to $3,000 a month, paying for family outings to Gaza beaches.

But peace was fleeting. In 2012, after months of Palestinian rocket fire into Israel, an Israeli air strike killed Ahmed Jabari, the leader of Hamas’ military wing. The war that followed lasted just eight days, beginning on Nov. 14; this time, the Nassirs and their neighbors were largely spared. But the conflict was never far away.

On Nov. 19, an Israeli bomb dropped on a home in the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp killed a 46-year-old school janitor and his children, ages 4 and 2. A day later, a missile strike killed a farmer and his two children as they gathered mint from their garden in the neighboring town of Beit Lahiya.

“We are the owners of this land, so why does this always happen?” says Kemal Al Kafarna, whose home a few minutes walk from Al-Baali’s courtyard had been strafed in 2008, then occupied by Israeli troops.

“We are not against Israeli people, the normal ones. We are against those who come to our country to take it.”

___

THE SECOND WAR’S TOLL: 168 people in Gaza, six Israelis. About 450 homes destroyed between Nov. 14 to 21, along with two stadiums and eight sport clubs; 10,000 homes and more than two dozen schools damaged.

The war marked the first time rockets fired from Gaza reached Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
___

The remains of a building destroyed by airstrikes during an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, sit at night on Al-Baali Street, in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, Friday, June 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In July 2014, three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped from a bus stop in the West Bank and found dead weeks later. Members of Hamas eventually claimed responsibility and Israel arrested scores of the group‘s leaders in the West Bank.

Militants responded by firing rockets from Gaza into southern Israel, igniting a crackdown that exploded into yet another war, from July 8 to Aug. 26. At seven weeks, it was by far the longest and most deadly. Israel launched scores of air attacks on targets throughout the Strip, then sent in ground forces.

In Beit Hanoun, residents were told to evacuate and seek shelter. On Al-Baali street, though, some were reluctant.

Jawaher Nassir, seven months pregnant, worried she might not be strong enough to flee on foot. Three doors down, neighbors Fauzi and Neama Abu Amsha told their sons that they were staying put, insisting that at 63 and 62, the Israeli military would never see them as a threat.

There was little time to argue. With Israeli tanks firing on Beit Hanoun, residents of Al-Baali street joined a tide of people coursing toward a U.N. school providing shelter in Jabaliya. Every few minutes, Jawaher stopped to rest on the side of the road, her strength sapped by Ramadan fasting.

“But when we got to the school we found there was no room for us,” she recalls. “We had to stay in the stairwell.” The others assigned her the bottom step, while they crowded the floor.

The space became the family’s home for the next 51 days. Some 3,000 people took refuge at the school, including one of Zaki’s sisters, Wafaa Sihueil, and her husband Thaer.

Two weeks later, a barrage of Israeli artillery shells hit the building around 4:45 a.m. Parents and children lost each other in the smoke.

“We didn’t know what was happening,” Thaer Sihueil says, visibly upset by the recollection. “After the bombing stopped I started searching for my children. I found them screaming, ‘Here I am, Dad!’ And then I found my nephews.”

One of the teens was dead, his head bloody and disfigured. The other, his shoulder pierced by shrapnel, would survive for three months before dying of infection. More than 20 people died in the attack, one of seven on U.N. schools being used as shelters.

When the war ended in late August, the Sihueils and others returned to a war-scarred neighborhood. Zaki and Jawaher found their home littered with shrapnel, with cracks crossing the ceiling and a hole that funneled in rainwater. In his brother’s home next door, an incendiary shell had scorched the ceiling black.

Down the street, neighbor Akram Abu Amsha and his brothers also returned home. But their parents were not in the spot under the stairs where they’d promised to hide. Then the men turned to a narrow space between the buildings -- the most direct escape route, but one readily visible to drones.

“We found them in pieces,” Akram says.

___

THE THIRD WAR’S TOLL: 2,251 Palestinians dead -- about three out of four of them civilians, according to the U.N. Seventy-four people on the Israeli side were killed, including 6 civilians. More than 11,000 Palestinians and 2,400 Israelis injured.

The longest and most devastating of the four conflicts, it destroyed 17,800 homes in Gaza and damaged 150,000. It displaced 100,000 people and inflicted an especially harsh toll on Gaza’s children, killing 550, destroying 22 schools and damaging 118 others.

___

In the aftermath of the 2014 war, Khaldiya Nassir spent $12,000 mending holes in the ceiling of the house she’d only just finished building.

“This is where we find comfort, in our own place,” she says.

With the U.N. giving priority to rebuilding homes that had been destroyed, many neighbors had to pick up the bill for lesser repairs.

A few blocks closer to the border, Kemal Al Kefarna had difficult choices to make. Shelling had perforated the facade of his three-story home with scores of holes, from the front steps to the parapet.

With only enough to replace windows and fix the interior, he left the outside as is: “I will fix it in the future when I get money. Even if they destroy it again and again. And if they destroy it after that, my children will fix it.”

Seven years passed. But as he forecast, war returned to Beit Hanoun.

This May protests erupted over the anticipated eviction of Palestinian families from homes in east Jerusalem and Israeli restrictions on Ramadan gatherings. That led to a clash with Israeli police at the holy city’s Al-Aqsa mosque. Hamas demanded the forces withdraw by 6 p.m. on May 10.

An hour before the deadline, the home of Zaki’s older brother, Ali, buzzed with excitement over the imminent birth of his new grandchild. With a couple of hours of light left, another of Ali’s sons, 24-year-old Mohamed, told his parents he was going out to pick up grain his employer sought for his horses.

Just outside town, Mohamed pulled his cart alongside the field farmed by 23-year-old Mohamed al-Masri and his family. The men settled on a price for a few bags of grain as the al-Masri children played.

As al-Masri filled the bags, he says, he “heard the rocket coming.” A moment later, it exploded into the gathering, killing Mohamed Nassir, a companion and six members of al-Masri’s family.

Al-Masri, his right eye, abdomen and leg injured, says he “looked to the right and to the left and I saw the body parts of children. We had all been together just seconds before and now there were just (body) parts all around me.”

The Israeli military says the victims were hit by a rocket, fired by militants, that missed its target. Indeed, Hamas and other militant groups fired more than 4,300 rockets toward Israeli cities during the 11-day conflict. But Human Rights Watch recently concluded that the strike was delivered by an Israeli missile.

A half hour after Mohamed Nassir was killed, his brother’s wife gave birth to a son -- “a gift from God to mitigate the sadness,” Ali Nassir says. They named the baby Mohamed.

Three nights later, the Nassirs and their neighbors hunkered down, the sound of shelling cutting through the dark. In Zaki and Jawaher’s second-floor home, the couple and their children clustered in an interior room, away from any windows, the youngest boys sleeping while their oldest daughter studied for a college medical studies test.

Across the yard, dozens of relatives of Itzhak Fayyad packed into the four-story building he shares with his brothers, many sleeping on mattresses they’d carted from homes near the border susceptible to artillery fire.

A little after 12:30 a.m. on May 14, shouts from outside the Fayyad home warned of military fire to the east. Itzhak, 46, ran upstairs to reassure those sleeping on the roof, just as the first of seven Israeli missiles exploded into the courtyard.

The force flung Fayyad to the ground from a fourth-floor window, shattering his right leg. (Hospitalized in Egypt, his family says Fayyad faces at least two months of recovery.) Two buildings away, shrapnel and debris lacerated 27-year-old Shaima Nassir, who relatives say has since required four rounds of surgery to reconnect severed nerves.

Across the yard, the shockwaves flattened the Nassirs’ grocery and killed several horses and donkeys. Inside, bricks shaken loose from the wall fell on Jalal Nassir, leaving his back twisted in pain.

“I put my fingers in my ears and we were screaming,” says Lama Sihueil, Zaki’s 14-year-old niece.

“May nobody, neither Jews nor Arabs, ever experience such a night,” Fayyad’s brother, Khalil, says.

The Israeli military told The Associated Press it targeted Al-Baali because the area sat atop an underground tunnel belonging to Palestinian militants. The Air Force had used “precision weapons” to demolish the tunnel, while avoiding civilian casualties, it said.

It is true that Israeli missiles did not hit any of the homes directly. But the force blew walls and ceilings apart and left deep craters in the street and yard.

Residents have returned to what’s left. Inspectors, though, say most of the buildings facing the courtyard will have to be torn down and rebuilt or require major repairs. Looking over the damage, they recall visiting some of the same homes after previous wars.

U.N. engineer Sayeed Abu Shaban has inspected destroyed or damaged homes since the first conflict. “You see the same thing every couple of years,” he says. “Unfortunately, only civilians pay the price. That’s here and in Israel.”

___

THE FOURTH WAR’S TOLL: More than 250 dead in Gaza, including 129 civilians, according to the U.N.; 13 deaths in Israel. More than 4,000 homes destroyed or severely damaged, and thousands more requiring repair.

Worst hit was densely populated Gaza City, where airstrikes destroyed a number of high-rise apartment buildings and 122 were killed.

___

Zaki Nassir walks with his sons to an apartment he rented after their house was heavily damaged by airstrikes in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, June 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

If his father was alive to see what has become of Al-Baali Street, he would surely weep, Zaki Nassir says. Still, it’s home.

“Our memories are here,” Jawaher Nassir says, sitting beside a bare wall that used to hold photos of her children and of her husband receiving his diploma in agriculture.

U.N. inspectors say the building will have to come down. The Nassirs and their neighbors say they’ll rebuild. Until then, most sleep in apartments rented nearby or at the homes of relatives, returning each morning despite inspectors’ warnings not to spend time in the wreckage.

“They said it’s not safe, that we should be afraid,” Zaki says. He grins, reassuring a visitor that if the house begins to collapse, “I’ll hold it up so you can get out.”

But even after four wars in 13 years, and with every expectation that conflict will erupt again, he is staying put.

“We’ve been here for a month,” he says, “and so far, nothing bad has happened.”

___

Associated Press reporters Helen Wieffering in Washington, Wafaa Shurafa and Felipe Dana in Gaza and Josef Federman and Joseph Krauss in Jerusalem contributed to this story.

DENYING ACCESS TO REFUGEE'S

EXPLAINER: What’s next for the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy?

By ANITA SNOW and AMY TAXIN

1 of 5

FILE - In this Jan. 29, 2019, file photo, migrant Carlos Catarldo Gomez, of Honduras, center, is escorted by Mexican officials after leaving the U.S., the first person returned to Mexico to wait for his asylum trial date as part of a new program "Remain In Mexico" policy in Tijuana, Mexico. The Supreme Court has ordered the reinstatement of the policy, saying that the Biden administration likely violated federal law by trying to end the Trump-era program that forces people to wait in Mexico while seeking asylum in the U.S. The decision immediately raised questions about what comes next for the future of the policy, also known as the Migrant Protection Protocols. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)


PHOENIX (AP) — The Supreme Court’s decision to order the reinstatement of the “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy is sparking criticism from advocacy groups and praise by former President Donald Trump. It’s also prompting promises by the Biden administration to keep pushing back against a lower court’s decision to reactivate the policy, which forced people to wait in Mexico while seeking asylum in the U.S.

The high court’s decision, which came late Tuesday, said the Biden administration likely violated federal law by trying to end the Trump-era program, known as the Migrant Protection Protocols. The ruling raised many questions, ranging from whether a legal challenge would prevail to the practical effects of reinstatement if it stands.

___

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION?

The Department of Homeland Security said it was taking steps to comply with the high court’s decision while the Biden administration appeals.

The administration could try again to end the program by having the department provide a fuller explanation for its decision to end Migrant Protection Protocols.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday the administration had appealed a district court decision that the Supreme Court’s order sprang from, and would continue to “vigorously challenge” it.

Trump, meanwhile, welcomed the court order and said the Biden government must now reinstate “one of my most successful and important programs in securing the border.”

During Trump’s presidency, the policy required tens of thousands of migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to turn back to Mexico. It was meant to discourage asylum seekers, but critics said it denied people the legal right to seek protection in the U.S. and forced them to wait in dangerous Mexican border cities.

U.S. immigration experts note that no matter what happens over the long term, the Biden administration has wide discretion on how much it would reimplement the policy if appeals are unsuccessful.

“It could reimplement it on a very small scale for families who meet certain criteria from very specific nationalities, or it could do something broader,” said Jessica Bolter, associate policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington.

___

HOW IS MEXICO REACTING?

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department refused to say late Wednesday whether the government will allow the U.S. to reinstate the policy of sending asylum seekers back across the border to wait for hearings on asylum claims.

Roberto Velasco, Mexico’s director for North American affairs, said the court ruling is not binding on Mexico. He stressed that Mexico’s “immigration policy is designed and executed in a sovereign manner.”

“The Mexican government will start technical discussions with the U.S. government to evaluate how to handle safe, orderly and regulated immigration on the border,” Velasco said.

Mexico is not legally obligated to receive returning migrants who are not Mexican citizens, and most of the asylum seekers are not.

During the Trump administration, the Mexican government said it was cooperating with the program for humanitarian reasons. Although migrants were granted humanitarian visas to stay in Mexico until they had their U.S. hearings, they often had to wait in dangerous areas controlled by cartels, leaving them vulnerable to being kidnapped, assaulted, raped or even killed. Others were transported by bus to parts of southern Mexico or “invited” to return to their home countries.

Mexico technically could block the program by refusing to accept migrants asked to stay in Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP. But analysts like Tonatiuh Guillén, former head of Mexico’s migration agency, consider that unlikely given the country’s history of cooperation with the U.S.

Guillén said Mexican officials will probably go along even though the country doesn’t have sufficient resources to deal with an influx of asylum seekers at the border and nonprofit shelters south of the border are overwhelmed.

Still, more than 70 Mexican, U.S. and international NGOs have sent a letter asking President Andrés Manuel López Obrador not to accept the U.S. court decision.

“I don’t think either Mexico or the Biden administration want to reimplement MPP at its maximum capacity right now,” Bolter said. “If it is reimplemented at a low level, it will have serious consequences for the families or other migrants who are subjected to it. But overall, I think it’s unlikely to drastically change the policy landscape at the border.”

___

HOW ROBUST WAS THE PROGRAM IN RECENT YEARS?

Immigration specialists note that Migrant Protection Protocols already had been significantly scaled back during the pandemic as officials began using public health protocols to swiftly expel migrants.

The Trump administration placed roughly 6,000 migrants into the program from April 2020 to January 2021 — a fraction of the more than 71,000 migrants placed into the program overall, said Bolter. It launched the program in January 2019.

“Clearly, it wasn’t operating at the level it had been operating before, but there definitely were still people being placed into it,” said Bolter. She added that the program was largely being used for migrants who Mexico refused to take back under pandemic-era health protocols known as Title 42.

Victoria Neilson, managing attorney with CLINIC’s defending vulnerable populations program, noted that since the pandemic far fewer migrants have been placed in the MPP program, with many expelled from the border under the health protocols initiated under the Trump administration and continued by President Joe Biden.

____

WHAT ABOUT TITLE 42 EXPULSIONS?

The State Department is holding talks with the Mexican government as the administration reviews the Trump-era protocols to determine how they can be implemented while Title 42 is in effect, said a Homeland Security official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention renewed the Title 42 public health powers early this month. The administration has emphasized that Title 42 is not an immigration authority, but a public health authority, and its continued use is dictated by the CDC’s analysis of the public health situation.

While Title 42 expulsions continue, the U.S. for now has suspended the processing into the U.S. of people who were returned to Mexico under Migrant Protection Protocols during the Trump administration.

In recent weeks, Central American migrants expelled under Title 42 have been flown by the U.S. into Mexico’s south, sparking concerns by U.N. agencies about vulnerable migrants who they say need humanitarian protection.

The U.S. government has intermittently flown Mexicans deep into Mexico for years to discourage repeat attempts, but flights that began this month from Brownsville, Texas, to the Mexican state capitals of Villahermosa and Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border, appear to be the first time that Central Americans have been flown deep into Mexico.

___

Taxin reported from Orange County, California. Maria Verza in Mexico City and Ben Fox and Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.

SEE    https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/08/haitian-women-left-homeless-by-quake.html

NRA cancels annual meeting, citing surging COVID-19 cases in Texas

NO MASKS, NO VACCINE, NO NRA SHOW

The National Rifle Association on Tuesday canceled its annual meeting that was scheduled to run Sept. 3-5 in Houston, Texas. File Photo by Sergio Flores/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 25 (UPI) -- The National Rifle Association has canceled its annual meeting that was scheduled next month for Houston amid surging COVID-19 cases in Texas.

"Due to concern over the safety of our NRA family and community, we regret to inform you that we have decided to cancel the 2021 Annual Meeting & Exhibits," the gun rights organization and lobbyist said Tuesday in a statement.

It added that it made the decision to cancel its Sept. 3-5 event as "[w]e realize that it would prove difficult, if not impossible, to offer the full guest experience that our NRA members deserve."

The organization said its top priority is the health and well-being of its members, staff and sponsors who were to travel across the nation to attend its annual event that attracts thousands of gun enthusiasts a year

"So any impacts from the virus could have broader implications," it said.

The organization said its decision came after analyzing COVID-19 data from Harris County, which is home to Houston, where health officials have issued a severe threat warning, the highest on its four-level scale, urging residents unless fully vaccinated to stay home as outbreaks have either strained or exceeded public health capacity.

According to county data, it reported more than 1,000 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, which is a significant drop compared to the more than 3,000 it registered on Thursday.

Texas as a whole has been experiencing climbing cases since the end of June when it reported around 1,400 infections compared to 13,666 on Monday.

Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots organization against gun violence, said the the decision to cancel its event due to COVID-19 "is probably the only time the NRA has put public health and safety before profits."

"The NRA claims to have analyzed data and consulted with medical professionals and local leaders about the dangers of the pandemic in Texas, but seems to have completely ignored this exact process when it pushed permit-less carry through the state's legislature two months ago," she said in a statemen

John Feinblatt, preside to Everytown for Gun Safety, also chastised the organization, saying now that it has acted in the name of public health it should do more.

"It's time for them to extend that concern beyond their members, and stop throwing gas on another raging health crisis: gun violence," Feinblatt said.

The NRA said it "looks forward" to its "Celebration of Freedom" planned for May of next year in Louisville, Ky.

ADVERTISEMENT

"In the meantime, we will support many other NRA local events and smaller gatherings -- in a manner that is protective of our members and celebrates our Second Amendment freedom," it said.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

U.S. sanctions Paraguayan money laundering network

On Tuesday morning, Paraguayan authorities arrested Kassem Mohamad Hijazi on charges of laundering drug trafficking money.

Paraguayan authorities Tuesday morning arrested Kassem Mohamad Hijazi as the United States sanctioned him over perpetrating corruption. Photo courtesy of SENAD Paraguay/Twitter

Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Amid the Biden administration's crackdown on corruption worldwide, the Treasury sanctioned a money laundering network operating in the tri-boarder area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

The federal department sanctioned Kassem Mohamad Hijazi and two of his partners, Khalil Ahmad Hijazi and Liz Paola Doldan Gonzalez, along with five of their companies for their involvement in the scheme to launder hundreds of millions of dollars obtained through illicit means through the complex but vulnerable bureaucracies of the three nations' financial systems.

Kassem, 48, was identified by the Treasury as the leader of the money laundering organization based in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. The department said he has worked from at least 2017 as a despachante who navigate the expensive, expansive and lengthy governmental process to import and export goods.

The Treasury accused Kassem of maintaining "strong ties" with Paraguayan politicians, police officers, district attorneys and money exchange brokers to provide him with assurances and security to operate his businesses in the tri-boarder area, which is known to contain a large number of unregistered money exchange houses that launder money through export-import and retail electronic and automotive businesses.

Kassem, a Brazilian of Lebanese descent, uses Espana Informatica S.A., which was one of the five businesses sanctioned Tuesday as it's run by the 60-year-old Khalil, to coordinate with American and Chinese suppliers to import U.S. electronic equipment into Paraguay through companies and other despachantes to avoid taxation and to launder money.

"Kassem coordinated with a company located in Florida for shipments of goods, for which he altered invoices and submitted them to a Paraguayan bank for a wire transfer payment back to the Florida-based company," the Treasury said. "The altered invoice greatly reduced the stated value of the goods shipped to avoid taxation and allowed Kassem to further launder the profits of his import/export operations."

The value of the goods was estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Paraguay's National Anti-Drug Secretariat announced authorities arrested Kassem Tuesday morning in Ciudad del Este from where he was transferred by the Paraguayan Air Force to the capital Asuncion.

In a statement, the SENAD said he has been charged with money laundering drug proceeds and was wanted by the U.S. Justice Department.

Kassem "would skillfully permeate the weaknesses of the national and international financial system to place and stratify funds from illicit activities including drug trafficking generating fraudulent commercial transactions," it said in a statement.

The SENAD called his arrest of "high strategic value for the United States and Paraguay."

It also said he and his brother, Chadi Mohamad Hijazi, were investigated and charged in 2004 with similar crimes, which were eventually dropped.

The investigation found he operated six money laundering houses in Ciudad del Este that moved millions of dollars of illicitly obtained funds.

The Treasury on Tuesday also sanctioned Doldan, 34, an associate of Kassem, and her company Mobile Zone International Import-Export S.R.L., which was used to purchase cell phones from a Miami-based company that were shipped to Paraguay as cheaper printers or printer toner.

The sanctions, which freeze all U.S. property and interests in property under their names while also barring U.S. citizens from doing business with them, comes after President Joe Biden named corruption as a target of his administration.

In early June, he issued a memorandum that said corruption was a threat to democracies and to U.S. national security while directing agencies to crack down on perpetrators with the Global Magnitsky Act.

In a statement Tuesday, the State Department said the actions taken by the administration represent a whole-of-government effort to combat corruption in the tri-boarder area.

"The United States is committed to supporting Paraguay's efforts to combat corruption and promote accountability for those who undermine government institutions," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. "Corruption degrades the rule of law, weakens economies and stifles economic growth, undermines democratic institutions, perpetuates conflict, deprives innocent civilians of fundamental human rights and is intrinsically linked to money laundering and the lack of financial transparency."

U.S. Naval battalion becomes first to use battlefield acupuncture

WHY NOT THEIR DOCTORS ARE CHIROPRACTORS AFTER ALL

Cmdr. Andrew Olsen, left, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5’s commanding officer, receives battlefield auricular acupuncture therapy from Lt. Jeffrey Moy, NMCB-5’s medical officer, onboard Camp Shields, Okinawa, Japan.

 Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Stephane Belcher/U.S. Navy


Aug. 25 (UPI) -- A form of acupuncture developed for military settings is now available for the first time to members of a deployable command in the U.S. Navy, the branch said on Wednesday.

Members of the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5, known as "Navy Seabees," can receive "battlefield auricular acupuncture treatments" for pain and other ailments, according to a Navy press release.

Unlike regular treatments, which involve long needles left in patients for 20 minutes, "battlefield auricular acupuncture" involves inserting small gold needles into servicemember's ears.

The treatment focuses on the ear because servicemember's bodies are often covered by uniforms, protective gear and packs.

RELATED Docs to learn battlefield acupuncture

The smaller needles are left in for three to 14 days and can treat pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, nausea and addictions, including tobacco cessation.

The treatment doesn't sideline servicemembers, unlike some medications for pain, PTSD, anxiety, depression and substance abuse, according to the Navy.

"The really interesting thing is, when we all learned how to do this, we practiced on each other," Lt. Jeffrey Moy, the battalion's medical officer, said in the release.

RELATED Study: Veterans with acupuncture before surgery have less pain

"Some people felt things happen very, very quickly. They didn't have to take medicine and wait 30 minutes for a potential medication to work. You almost get a very, very quick, very sudden release of adrenaline, almost," Moy said.

Moy said that the treatment will be used in limited circumstances. For instance, it wouldn't be used if it was unclear why a service member was in pain to prevent masking symptoms.

However, in a circumstance where a servicemember sprained a knee or twisted an ankle, acupuncture would be used to ease pain while treating the injury, he said.

RELATED  Acupuncture may help prevent migraines, trial shows

Battlefield auricular acupuncture was developed in 2001 by Dr. Richard Niemtzow, who found that inserting a small needle in a patient's ear disrupted their brain's pain process, according to the Military Times.

But there has been a lack of physicians trained in the technique.

A 2018 paper published in Medical Acupuncture found growing interest in acupuncture in the military healthcare system.

RELATED Acupunture may help reduce cancer pain, analysis finds

The paper found that acupuncture was commonly used for pain management and an alternative to opioids, but also cited a lack of data on specific uses of the treatment.

Despite the uncertainty, the U.S. military's health care system has steadily embraced acupuncture. In January 2020, the Defense Health Agency issued guidelines and regulations on the use of the treatment.

Feds report most rental assistance has still not gone out

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2021, file photo, tenants' rights advocates demonstrate in front of the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse in Boston. A federal judge is refusing landlords' request to put the Biden administration’s new eviction moratorium on hold, though she made clear she thinks it's illegal. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich on Friday, Aug. 13, said her “hands are tied” by an appellate ruling the last time courts considered the evictions moratorium in the spring. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)


BOSTON (AP) — States and localities have only distributed 11% of the tens of billions of dollars in federal rental assistance, the Treasury Department said Wednesday, the latest sign the program is struggling to reach the millions of tenants at risk of eviction.

The latest data shows that the pace of distribution increased in July over June and that nearly a million households have been helped.

But with the Supreme Court considering a challenge to the federal eviction moratorium, the concern is that a wave of evictions will happen before much of the assistance has been distributed. Some 3.5 million people in the U.S. as of Aug. 16 said they face eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.

Lawmakers approved $46.5 billion in rental assistance earlier this year and most states are distributing the first tranche of $25 billion. According to the Treasury Department, $5.1 billion in Emergency Rental Assistance has been distributed by states and localities through July, up from $3 billion at the end of June and only $1.5 billion by May 31.

Several states, including Virginia and Texas, have been praised for moving quickly to get the federal money out. But many others have still only distributed a small percentage of the rental help.

Housing advocates blame the slow rollout partly on the Treasury Department under President Donald Trump, which they say was slow to explain how the money could be spent. The criteria, while clearer under the Biden administration, was still criticized for a burdensome process that seemed more focused on preventing fraud than helping tenants.

Advocates also said states made things worse — some waited months to set up programs and others created bureaucratic hurdles.

Efforts to use coronavirus relief money for rental assistance last year faced similar challenges.

“Nearly 1 million households assisted is meaningful progress, but the overall rate of spending emergency rental assistance remains much too slow,” said Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

“Some communities are spending the money quickly and well, proving that it’s possible and making the many communities who aren’t all the more glaring and unacceptable” she said. “Seven months after funds were first allocated to them, nine states have spent less than 3% of the money and 16 states have spent less than 5%.”

National Apartment Association president and CEO Bob Pinnegar called the assistance rollout “a disaster, marred with programmatic inefficiencies and difficulties.”

“Americans are hurting and we are on the edge of another financial cliff as distribution deadlines loom and the future availability of rental assistance funds is jeopardized,” he said.

The Treasury Department has repeatedly tweaked its guidance to encourage states and local governments to streamline the distribution of the funds. The Biden administration has also asked states to create eviction diversion programs that aim to resolve disputes before they reach the courts.

On Wednesday, Treasury released additional guidance to try to speed up the process. This includes programs to allow tenants to self-assess their income and risk of becoming homeless among other criteria. Many states and localities, fearing fraud, have measures in place that can take weeks to verify an applicant qualifies for help.

Treasury also said states and localities now can distribute money in advance to landlords and utility providers “in anticipation of the full satisfaction of (the) application and documentation requirement.” And they approved providing money for tenants who have outstanding rental debt in collection, which would make it easier for them to find new housing.

“For those cities and states that wanted even more clarity that they can and should use simpler applications, speedier processes and a self-attestation option without needless delays — this answers that call,” said Gene Sperling, who is charged with overseeing implementation of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package.

“The guidance could not be more clear in expressing that this is a public health and eviction emergency that requires putting quick and sound rental relief above unnecessary paperwork that will not reach families in time.”

The administration also announced measures aimed at averting evictions at federally-back housing, including 400,000 rental units in Department of Agriculture-backed multifamily properties. It also is offering additional rental assistance to at-risk veterans and their families and working to ensure tenants in public housing can access rental assistance.

Slow aid payments to U.S. renters stoking eviction crisis, gov't figures show


The Treasury noted that more needs to be done at the local and state levels to move the payment process along. The program is federally funded, but it's up to states to handle systems to manage the payments. File Photo by PublicCo/Pixabay


Aug. 25 (UPI) -- A federal program funded with almost $50 billion to help struggling Americans pay their rent in the face of COVID-19 hardships is still only slowly paying out money, government data showed Wednesday -- reflecting a national housing crisis that's affecting millions of landlords and tenants.

According to data released by the Treasury Department, just $1.7 billion was disbursed to 340,000 U.S. homes over the month of July, a slight increase over June.

The Emergency Rental Assistance Program was created last year to help Americans affected fiscally by the pandemic stay in their homes. The program has existed with the aid of a national eviction ban that's now being evaluated by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The aid program was funded with $46.5 billion, but Wednesday's data show that only about $5 billion has gone out to struggling Americans so far.

RELATED Supreme Court blocks part of New York State's eviction ban

The Treasury noted that more needs to be done at the local and state levels to move the process along. The program is federally funded, but it's up to states to handle systems to manage the payments.

"Many grantees need to do more to urgently accelerate efforts to prevent harmful evictions of vulnerable families," the department said in a statement.

The department warned that if things don't improve after next month, monies in the fund will go elsewhere.

"After September, programs that are unwilling or unable to deliver assistance quickly will be at risk of having their rental assistance funding reallocated to effective programs in other high-need areas."

Officials said there will be new policies and measures intended to reduce delays and simplify applications.

The national eviction moratorium, issued last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been the target of numerous legal challenges spearheaded by frustrated landlords. Some federal courts have ruled against the moratorium, but none have applied the rulings to all landlords and renters nationwide.

RELATED White House urges landlords to hold off on evictions as moratorium ends

The moratorium expired at the end of July, but the CDC issued a narrower, more targeted eviction ban earlier this month that lasts until October. That order, which was upheld by a federal appellate court last week, has been appealed to the Supreme Court.

Landlords in Alabama and Georgia are leading the effort to get the moratorium removed.

Previously, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 in June to keep the previous moratorium in place. Justice Brett Kavanaugh said at the time, however, indicated that he might not vote to support it a second time.

Antibiotic use in medicine, agriculture led to increasing resistance in animals, study finds


Bacteria resistant to prescription antibiotics were more common in wild animals before the enaction of laws designed to limit use of the drugs, a new study has found.

 File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Increased use of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture from the 1950s through the 1990s led to a rise in resistance to the drugs among wild Swedish brown bears, a study published Wednesday by Current Biology found.

However, there was a downward trend in antibiotic resistance following the implementation of national policies designed to limit use of the medications, the researchers said.

"We found similar levels of antibiotic resistance in bears from remote areas and those found near human habitation," study co-author Katerina Guschanski said in a press release.

"This suggests that the contamination of the environment with resistant bacteria and antibiotics is really widespread," said Guschanski, a researcher in ecology and genetics at Uppsala University in Sweden and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

RELATEDAntibiotics can be taken for shorter periods, doctors' group says

Pathogens that are resistant to currently available antibiotics pose a significant global health threat.

Hundreds of thousands of people die each year from infections caused by resistant bacteria, including roughly 35,000 in the United States alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Resistant bacteria can escape from hospitals and other settings into the environment through wastewater treatment plants and spread by water and wind over large distances, research suggests.

RELATED Livestock workers at higher risk for 'superbug' infection

From there, they can be picked up by wild animals, which in turn can transmit resistant bacteria to humans during recreational activities or hunting, according to Guschanski and his colleagues.

Sweden was one of the first countries to implement strict control measures governing the use of antibiotics, introducing a ban on antibiotics in agriculture in the mid 1980s and a national strategic program against antibiotic resistance in medicine in 1995.

For this study, the researchers used historical specimens of bacterial communities that live in the mouths of wild animals and remain as solid calculus deposits -- calcified dental plagues -- on teeth from museum collections to study the effects of human-made antibiotics over the entire history of their application.

RELATED  Study: Combination antibiotics may fuel inappropriate use globally

They focused specifically on the bacterial microbiomes, or communities of bacteria, from Swedish brown bears as old as 180 years.

Scandinavian brown bears usually live far away from humans but sometimes approach villages and cities, according to the researchers.

They expected to find more antibiotic resistance genes in bears that lived in more densely populated regions of Sweden, though this was not the case, they said.

However, oral bacteria of bears that were born after 1995 show low antibiotic resistance, albeit not as low as in bears that lived before humans started antibiotic mass-production.

The findings suggest that historical microbiomes such as those used in this research could be a tool to investigate to monitor environmental changes in response to new strategies for reduction of contamination and pollution, according to the researchers.

The study also shows how governmental policies can be effective in mitigating a major health threat on a national level, they said.

The abundance of "bacterial genes that provide resistance to antibiotics ... closely follows human antibiotic use in Sweden, increasing in the 20th century and then decreasing in the last 20 years," study co-author Jaelle Brealey said in a press release.

"We also find a greater diversity of antibiotic resistance genes in the recent past, likely as a result of different kinds of antibiotics being used by humans," said Brealey, a postdoctoral researcher at NTNU in Norway.

Haitian women, left homeless by quake, fear rape

Issued on: 25/08/2021 - 

Haitian women forced to live in makeshift camp after August's powerful earthquake are afraid for their safety Richard PIERRIN AFP

Les Cayes (Haiti) (AFP)

Vesta Guerrier survived Haiti's massive earthquake this month but it flattened her home and she has since been living at a makeshift camp with the fear she could be raped at any time.

"We're not safe," she told AFP, echoing the worry of other Haitian women all too aware of the sexual violence that has followed the disaster-plagued nation's previous calamities.

Home for Guerrier, her husband and three children was a flimsy shelter made of sticks and plastic sheets at a sports center in the hard-hit town of Les Cayes, on the peninsula southwest of the capital Port-au-Prince.

"Anything can happen to us," said Guerrier, 48. "Especially at night, anybody can enter the camp."

The 7.2-magnitude quake that struck on August 14 killed over 2,200 people but also destroyed or heavily damaged tens of thousands of homes in a nation still recovering from 2010's devastating quake.

After the tremor 11 years ago, which killed over 200,000 people, some survivors spent years in makeshift shelters where victims were assaulted by armed men and gangs of youths who roamed the poorly lit, overcrowded camps after dark.

More than 250 cases of rape were recorded in the roughly five months after the 2010 disaster, according to a 2011 Amnesty International report that noted many advocacy groups considered that a fraction of the true number.

About 200 people were living at the same camp as Guerrier, where privacy is next to impossible.

Because of her worries about being attacked, Guerrier does not entirely remove her clothing to bathe and always waits until dark to wash so that others cannot see her.

When light does fall on her in the darkness of the camp she is left wondering if it's just one of her neighbors, or if it's "someone who wants to do what he wants to do," she added.

There were no functioning toilets at the site, which makes Guerrier afraid and embarrassed because "people can see you from every direction."

Vesta Guerrier lives in a makeshift camp where there are no working toilets and no privacy Richard Pierrin AFP

"Only the girls can understand what I'm telling you. We women and the little ones who are here, we suffer a lot," she said.

- 'Our souls are not here' -

Other evacuees at the camp also revealed their fears.

"We are afraid, we are really afraid for our children. We need tents so we can go back to living at home with our families," said Francise Dorismond, who is three months pregnant.

Another makeshift camp has popped up a short distance away from the main site due to the risks of attacks.

Pastor Milfort Roosevelt said "the most vulnerable" have been placed there.

"We protect the young girls. In the evening, we have set up a security team that patrols throughout the night and ensures that no young men commit violence against these women," explained the 31-year-old.

Survivors of Haiti's deadly August quake are left wondering if they will be attacked in the camps where they have taken shelter Richard Pierrin AFP

In the ruins of a former nightclub destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, dozens of people were taking shelter in a tangle of sheets and tarps strung between walls.

In the middle of this maze, young mother Jasmine Noel tried to make make a bed for her 22-day-old baby to sleep in.

"The night of the earthquake, I was going to sleep on the field next door but they told me that with my baby, it was not right so they welcomed me here," said Noel.

"Some people always try to take advantage of these kind of moments to do wrong," she said, adding that her suffering makes it feel like she is no longer "really living."

"Our bodies are here, yes, but our souls are not," said Noel, hoping her mother, a street vendor, would have made enough that day to buy food for them.

© 2021 AFP

Earthquake aid flowing after Haiti gang truce opens up highway

For the first time in months, traffic is moving on a key road through a gang-ravaged neighbourhood near Port-au-Prince.

Police prepare to secure an area in order to distribute humanitarian aid, in Maniche, Haiti, August 24, 2021 [Matias Delacroix/AP Photo]
By Lister Lim
25 Aug 2021

Aid trucks movements are safer this week from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince to areas destroyed by last week’s earthquake thanks to a gang leader calling a truce to help relief efforts.

The death toll from the August 14, 7.2-magnitude quake surpassed 2,200, with more than 340 still missing.

KEEP READING‘Absolutely overwhelmed’: Haiti hospitals struggle after quake

Gangs offer aid as Haiti earthquake death toll crosses 2,200

Earthquake relief arrives in Haiti, gangs kidnap two doctors

‘We need help’: Haiti earthquake survivors lack food, shelter

Aid to the earthquake-battered communities in the island’s Southwest has mostly been transported by air due to security concerns as gang violence has flared in the outskirts of Haiti’s capital and prevented national and international efforts to transport essential supplies.

All ground transport seeking to reach the affected areas must travel along a highway that passes through the gang-ravaged Martissant neighbourhood west of Port-au-Prince.

Jimmy Cherizier, who goes by the name “Barbecue” and is a leader of the G9 Revolutionary Forces gang, told Al Jazeera peace had broken out in Martissant and aid was being allowed to flow.

“We know actually that the victims need water, need food, that they need sanitary kits.”

“Do your best to help. Your help will be very appreciated. What we want is to help our brothers and sisters that are in a very difficult situation after the earthquake, that’s why we say, ‘better to give little than nothing,’” he said.

The neighbourhood has been a bloody battleground between two rivals, the Ti Lapli and the Krisla gangs. But last Friday, Prime Minister Ariel Henry told Al Jazeera the situation had improved after the gangs called a truce to let aid pass through. Al Jazeera producer Jeremy Dupin confirmed this development when he spoke to Cherizier.

At the same time, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other organisations partners are urgently working to distribute aid to people in need of assistance. The UN World Food Program (WFP) is transporting 830 metric tonnes of USAID food supplies – enough to feed more than 62,000 people for one month – from Port-au-Prince and distributing it to affected areas.

Tim Callaghan, USAID Assistance Response Team leader, told Al Jazeera planning, coordination and the ‘last mile distribution’ of aid into the earthquake zone were currently underway. This last step in getting aid to affected people can prove to be difficult.

“If you show up with a truckload of food and you don’t have a plan; you haven’t coordinated that with the local authorities and the local police, you can see some things where people will surround the truck, because again, what I’ve seen so far is that most people just want help. They want it quickly,” said Callaghan.

Al Jazeera was on hand to witness as aid trucks travelled through Martissant, and traffic began to flow in a way the area hasn’t seen in months.

Those trucks are bringing aid that is desperately needed by earthquake survivors living in the small towns nestled deep in the mountains of the Tiburon peninsula.


In the department of Grand’Anse, near the town of Duchity, about 100 farmers are living alongside a highway in slender tents constructed with wooden poles and bedsheets. The devastating quake destroyed their homes, crops, and the deep concrete-lined holes used to collect and store rainwater.

Evelya Michele, a mother of five living in the encampment, said, “we are here with our children; I don’t know how many, but we need to feed them, we need food, water, dress. They are crying because they are hungry and thirsty. We need medication, and now we use this place as a shelter, then we really need help to feed our children ourselves.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

VIDEOS Earthquake aid flowing after Haiti gang truce opens up highway | Earthquakes News | Al Jazeera

Cleanup begins of Haiti town’s earthquake-crumbled homes

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and EVENS MARY

yesterday


1 of 14

A woman finishing washing clothes in the Cavaillon River in Maniche, Haiti, Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021, a week after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the area.


MANICHE, Haiti (AP) — At the edge of a pile of rubble, Michael Jules plunged an iron bar over and over into the crumbling concrete of his grandmother’s home. A younger cousin squatted at his feet, pulling away debris with a trowel.

It was Jules’ third day working the spot like an archaeologist, removing layer upon layer of rock. He had established more or less the perimeter of his room. On Tuesday morning he uncovered a corner of his mattress.

While Jules, 21, toiled with hand tools, and at times his bare hands, just down the street heavy-duty earthmovers cleared lots, depositing entire homes into dump trucks or scraping collapsed dwellings into neat piles. For some victims of Haiti’s Aug. 14 earthquake, the necessary prelude to rebuilding has begun.

Joseph Gervain, another of Jules’ cousins, watched from the street. He lived in a house behind that was also damaged. He wondered how the earthmovers decide which lots to clear and which to pass.

“I see people removing debris, but I don’t know what the conditions are,” Gervain said. “Maybe they pay to have the debris removed. I see they skip houses. Someone is giving orders about which house to remove debris from.”

The machines bore the logos of nongovernmental organizations, but who they helped appeared to be guided by Maniche’s mayor.

Jean Favard watched one of the large yellow machines push away the rubble of his vacation home just up the street from Jules’ grandmother’s house. No one had been living at Favard’s home and he said he planned to rebuild once it was cleared.

Meanwhile, Gervain said he had no idea what his family would do on the lot where a two-story house with eight bedrooms — home to 12 people — had been reduced to a one-story pile of concrete and twisted rebar.

Jules kept digging. His goal was twofold: his clothes — he was wearing only borrowed Spider-Man boxers — and his passport.

“I have not found anything yet,” Jules said.

Maniche is a teeth-rattling hour’s drive from paved road, over a mountain pass and settled in a wide, green valley. The town lost 80% to 90% of its homes, according to preliminary estimates. Piles of rubble like Jules’ grandmother’s house dot every street.

Even most of those houses still standing will have to be torn down.

Relatively undisturbed appeared to be Maniche’s riverside market. Even on a Tuesday — market day is Saturday — farmers from surrounding areas crossed the river carrying sacks of beans and peanuts atop their heads. Mules splashed through the water, their woven panniers laden with heavy bunches of plantains.

Gervain, Jules’ cousin, said it was lucky the earthquake occurred on a Saturday because most people were outdoors, at the market.

Jules was not. He had to run out of the house when the magnitude 7.2 quake struck. Now he was desperate to find his passport because he is a professional soccer player for the Haitian League club America des Cayes.

“I need to have my passport if I need to travel with the club for a tournament to the Dominican Republic or Cuba,” Jules said, though such games will have to wait: The current season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Well out of uniform and standing atop a rubble pile, the right fullback was still immediately recognized by a fan.

“You’re from here?” the man, a motorcycle taxi driver from Les Cayes, asked in disbelief. “I didn’t know you were from Maniche.”

Help was slowly arriving to in the town of about 20,000 people.

Philemon Charles, a carpenter, said the top necessity was shelter. His family had been sleeping outside their damaged home for more than a week.

On Tuesday, U.S.-based relief organization Samaritan’s Purse handed out big blue tarps for temporary shelters and small solar lights that also allow people to charge their cell phones. Actor Sean Penn’s Haiti relief outfit, Community Organized Relief Effort, had brought in the heavy machinery. And convoys of various United Nations agencies rumbled into town.

By the time the punishing sun chased Jules from the rock pile Tuesday, he had managed to remove his twin mattress. More crumbling concrete immediately fell into the temporary void he’d just created.