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GAZA CITY, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES — Balanced calmly on top of what was once a refrigerator door, fisherman Khaled Habib uses a makeshift paddle to propel himself through the waters of Gaza City's fishing port.

Israeli bombardment over more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas has destroyed most of the boats in the harbour, wrecking the fishermen's means of making a living.

"We're in a very difficult situation today, and struggling with the fishing. There are no fishing boats left. They've all been destroyed and tossed on the ground," Habib told AFP.

"I made this 'boat' from refrigerator doors and cork, and thankfully it worked."

So he could continue feeding his family, Habib came up with the idea of stuffing cork into old fridge doors to make them buoyant.

He covered one side with wood and the other with plastic sheeting to help make the makeshift paddleboard waterproof.

Habib also crafted a fishing cage out of wire because of the lack of nets, but admitted that his resulting catch was "small".

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said in December that the conflict had taken Gaza's "once thriving fishing sector to the brink of collapse".

"Gaza's average daily catch between October 2023 to April 2024 dropped to just 7.3 percent of 2022 levels, causing a $17.5 million production loss," the FAO said.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,458 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

The UN considers these casualty figures to be reliable.

 'Learn how to swim' 

Using dough as bait, Habib now fishes mainly inside the small port area.

Despite the fragile ceasefire that came into force on January 19, and which largely halted the fighting, Habib said that fishing outside the port is not allowed. 

"If we go (outside the fishermen's harbour), the Israeli boats will shoot at us, and that's a problem we suffer from a lot."

Habib said he catches enough fish to feed his family and tries to help others by selling the rest at an affordable price.

After dividing his catch into small plastic bags, the fisherman sells some at the harbour market where prices can be high.

The first phase of the Gaza truce, which ended on March 1, had enabled the entry of vital food, shelter and medical assistance into the Palestinian territory.

Israel announced on March 2 that it was blocking aid deliveries to Gaza, where Palestinians say they fear food shortages and price hikes.

Several other fishermen, particularly the younger generation, have also taken to using the new makeshift floating platforms.

Habib sees the home-made paddleboards as having a dual purpose.

"If we wanted to raise a new generation to learn how to swim, boats should be made for them from refrigerator doors, and then everyone would learn how to swim, row and sail," he said.

"Thank God, now they've learned how to swim," he added, looking out over the water at children trying to keep their balance.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/ WASHINGTON — Israel's energy minister Eli Cohen on Sunday said he had given instructions to stop supplying electricity to Gaza, a week after Israel blocked all aid into the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

"I have just signed the order to stop supplying electricity immediately to the Gaza Strip," Cohen said in a video statement, adding: "We will use all the tools at our disposal to bring back the hostages and ensure that Hamas is no longer in Gaza the day after" the war.

Israel's far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that US President Donald Trump's plan to remove Palestinians from war-battered Gaza was "taking shape", despite widespread rejection by governments in the region.

"This plan is taking shape, with ongoing actions in coordination with the (US) administration," Smotrich told an event in the Israeli parliament, adding that preparations were underway to form a managing body that would oversee displacement.

"This has the potential to create a historic change in the Middle East and for the state of Israel," said Smotrich, who has repeatedly backed resuming the war against Hamas and has expressed support for re-establishing permanent Israeli presence in the territory.

The plan proposed by Trump would require finding countries willing to take in at least some of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million people, Smotrich noted.

"It involves identifying key countries, understanding their interests -- both with the US and with us -- and fostering cooperation," he said.

Implementing the plan, which other Israeli leaders have welcomed but Palestinians, Arab governments and some world leaders have condemned, would be a massive logistical operation, said Smotrich.

"Just to give you an idea -- if we remove 10,000 people a day, seven days a week, it will take six months," he said.

"If we remove 5,000 people a day, it will take a year. Of course, this is assuming we have countries willing to take them, but these are very, very, very long processes."

Experts have said that forcibly removing Gazans would amount to a violation of international law.

Just days after he took office, Trump triggered global outrage when he suggested the US take over Gaza and turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East", while forcing its Palestinian inhabitants to relocate to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan.

Last week, an Arab counterproposal to Trump's plan was put forward, with several Islamic nations and European governments endorsing it.

The Arab proposal aims to rebuild Gaza without displacing Gazans, who endured more than 15 months of devastating war before a fragile ceasefire took effect on January 19.

The US envoy who held unprecedented direct talks with Hamas said Sunday the meeting had been "very helpful" and he was confident a hostage release deal could be reached "within weeks."

Speaking to CNN, Adam Boehler -- a Jewish American -- acknowledged it had been "odd" sitting face-to-face with leaders of a group that the United States has listed as a "terrorist" organization since 1997, but did not rule out further meetings with the Palestinian militants.

Boehler said he understood Israel's "consternation" that the US had held talks at all with the group, but said he had been seeking to jump-start the "fragile" negotiations.

"In the end, I think it was a very helpful meeting," he said, adding: "I think something could come together within weeks... I think there is a deal where they can get all of the prisoners out, not just the Americans."

Boehler suggested there was a chance of further talks with the militants, telling CNN: "You never know. You know sometimes you're in the area and you drop by."

LATAKIA, Syria — Syrian President Ahmed Al Sharaa called for national unity and peace on Sunday, after hundreds were reportedly killed along the country's Mediterranean coast in the worst violence since the overthrow of Bashar Al Assad.

"We must preserve national unity [and] civil peace as much as possible and, God willing, we will be able to live together in this country," Sharaa said from a mosque in Damascus.

The interior ministry said on Sunday that government forces were conducting "sweeping operations in Qadmous and the surrounding villages" in Tartus province to "pursue the remnants of the toppled regime".

State news agency SANA quoted a defence ministry source as saying there were violent clashes ongoing in Tanita, another Tartus village.

An AFP photographer in the city of Latakia reported a military convoy entering the Bisnada neighbourhood to search homes.

Defence ministry spokesman Hassan Abdul Ghani said on Saturday the security forces had "reimposed control" over areas that had seen attacks by Assad loyalists.

 Roads blocked 

Education Minister Nazir Al Qadri announced that schools would remain shut on Sunday and Monday in both Latakia and Tartus, while SANA reported a power outage throughout Latakia province due to attacks on the grid by Assad loyalists.

A defence ministry source told SANA that troops had blocked roads leading to the coast to prevent "violations", without specifying who was committing them.

Latakia province security director Mustafa Kneifati told the news agency: "We will not allow for sedition or the targeting of any component of the Syrian people."

BAGHDAD - Washington has declined to renew a sanctions waiver that allowed Iraq to buy electricity from neighbouring Iran, a spokesperson for the American embassy in Baghdad said on Sunday. 

Despite having immense oil and gas reserves, Iraq remains dependent on imports to meet its energy needs, and Iran supplies a third of the country's gas and electricity.

The Baghdad government, which hopes to achieve energy self-sufficiency by 2028, said it had prepared "for all scenarios" regarding the waiver.

"On March 8, the US Department of State did not renew the waiver for Iraq to purchase Iranian electricity," the US embassy spokesperson said.

The decision "ensures we do not allow Iran any degree of economic or financial relief", the spokesperson added.

The statement did not mention Iranian gas imports, which are crucial for Iraq's domestic electricity generation.

The waiver was introduced in 2018, when Washington reimposed sanctions on Tehran after US President Donald Trump abandoned a nuclear deal with Iran during his first term in office.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has reinstated his policy of exerting "maximum pressure" against Iran.

"The President's maximum pressure campaign is designed to end Iran's nuclear threat, curtail its ballistic missile program, and stop it from supporting terrorist groups," the embassy spokesperson said on Sunday.

Calling Iran "an unreliable energy supplier", the spokesperson urged Baghdad "to eliminate its dependence on Iranian sources of energy as soon as possible".

"Electricity imports from Iran do not contribute substantially to power delivered to the Iraqi people," the spokesperson added.

'All scenarios' 

Decades of war have left Iraq's infrastructure in a pitiful state, with chronic power cuts that become worse during the blistering summer when temperatures often reach 50 Celsius.
Many households receive just a few hours of mains electricity per day, and those that can afford it use private generators to keep appliances such as fridges running.

Tehran also regularly cuts off its supply, worsening the power shortages that affect the daily lives of 46 million Iraqis.

Government spokesman Bassem Al Awadi told state media on Saturday that the authorities had prepared "for all scenarios" regarding the waiver, including the use of gas platform vessels via a pipeline connected to power stations in the southern province of Basra.

Gulf Analyst Yesar Al Maleki, of the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES), said "Iranian electricity was never reliable" because of "Iraq's inability to pay the Iranians due to US sanctions on Iran's banking system", and Tehran prioritising meeting its own growing demand.

He added that imports of Iranian electricity "have declined", especially over the past three years. But ending the waiver still means Iraq will face challenges in providing electricity, especially during summer.

To alleviate the impact, Iraq has several options which are mostly connected to the northern autonomous region of Kurdistan, including procuring electricity "via independent power providers" and increasing imports from Turkey.

What's next? 

Iraq hopes to increase its natural gas production to help reduce dependence on imports, and has repeatedly stressed the need to diversify energy sources.

Last year it began importing electricity from Jordan and Turkey, and it also hopes to connect to the electricity grid of Gulf countries.

The government's plans also include recovering flared gas, which is natural gas produced during crude oil extraction.

Gas flaring is the polluting practice of burning off excess gas during oil drilling. The government has made eliminating this a priority, and plans to halt it by the end of 2027.

The cancelled waiver concerns only "electricity imports", Maleki said, adding that "gas imports currently fall under a separate US legislation and it remains to be seen whether Washington would move to cancel that next".

DAMASCUS - Syrian leader Ahmed Al Sharaa called on Sunday for peace and national unity after days of clashes between security forces and loyalists of the former government that have killed more than 1,000 people, most of them Alawite civilians.

"We must preserve national unity (and) civil peace as much as possible and, God willing, we will be able to live together in this country," Sharaa said in a speech delivered from a mosque in a neighbourhood of Damascus where he spent part of his childhood.

He added that as long "the mosques have taught their children morality... and fairness and justice among the people, there is no fear for Syria, God willing".

The clashes along Syria's Mediterranean coast have escalated into the largest challenge to the new government's security forces since Sharaa's Islamist-led coalition toppled Assad in December.

The coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus are the heartland of the country's Alawite minority, the religious group to which the Assad family belonged.

The fighting has killed 125 members of the new government's security forces and 148 pro-Assad fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights figures, taking the overall death toll to 1,018.

Restoring security is a major challenge for the new government after more than 13 years of civil war, while Sharaa has sought to reassure minorities their rights will be protected.

DUBAI — Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has warned that an attack on Iran's Gulf coast nuclear facilities would leave countries across the region without water.

In an interview with United States media personality Tucker Carlson, the premier said Doha had simulated the effects of an attack. 

The sea would be "entirely contaminated" and Qatar would "run out of water in three days", he said.

The construction of reservoirs since then had increased water capacity, he added, but the risk remained for "all of us" in the region. 

"No water, no fish, nothing... no life," Sheikh Mohammed added in the interview published on Friday, the same day that Trump said he had invited Iran to nuclear talks.

Alluding to military action, Trump said he would "rather see a peace deal" but that "the other will solve the problem". 

Qatar, which sits 190 kilometres south of Iran, relies heavily on desalination for its water supply, as do other Gulf Arab countries in the arid desert region. 

Iran has a nuclear power plant at Bushehr on the Gulf coast, though its uranium enrichment facilities, key to building atomic weapons, are located hundreds of kilometres inland.

Referring to sites "on the other side of the coast", Sheikh Mohammed said Qatar had "not only military concerns, but also security and... safety concerns".

He said Qatar opposed military action against Iran and that it would "not give up until we see a diplomatic solution between the US and Iran".

Tehran was "willing to engage", he said. 

"They are willing to get to a level that creates comforts for everybody. And most importantly, they are focused on mending their relationship with the region, and that's something in itself."

Western powers have long accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, which it denies. In 2015, it signed a deal to lift sanctions in exchange for reining in its nuclear programme, but Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 during his first term.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel will send a delegation to Doha on Monday in an "effort to advance negotiations" on the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.

"Israel accepts the invitation from US-backed mediators, will send a delegation to Doha on Monday in an effort to advance negotiations," a statement from Netanyahu's office said Saturday.

Hamas said on Saturday that there were "positive" signs regarding the start of negotiations for the second phase of the fragile Gaza ceasefire, as a delegation from the Palestinian militant group met with mediators in Cairo.

“The efforts of the Egyptian and Qatari mediators are ongoing to complete the implementation of the ceasefire agreement," Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Al Qanoua said in a statement, adding that "the indicators are positive regarding the start of negotiations for the second phase," without providing further details. 

DAMASCUS — Syria's leader Ahmed Al Sharaa on Friday urged insurgents loyal to ousted president Bashar Al Assad to lay down their arms and surrender after the fiercest attacks the the war-torn country has yet seen. 

"You attacked all Syrians and made an unforgivable mistake. The riposte has come, and you have not been able to withstand it," Sharaa said in a speech broadcast on Telegram by the Syrian presidency. 

"Lay down your weapons and surrender before it's too late." 

Restoring security has been one of the most complex tasks for Syria's new authorities, installed after Islamist-led forces ousted Assad in a lightning offensive in December.

The clashes that broke out on Thursday were the fiercest since Assad was toppled in a lightning rebel offensive in December, and came after days of tensions in Latakia province that forms part of the heartland of the religious minority.

In his Friday address, Sharaa, who headed the coalition that forced out Assad, also vowed to keep working towards "monopolising weapons in the hands of the state".

"There will be no more unregulated weapons," he pledged.

Western powers and Syria's neighbours have emphasised the need for unity in the new Syria, which is seeking funds for reconstructing a nation ravaged by years of war under Assad.

‘Premeditated' 

The United Nations envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, decried "very troubling reports of civilian casualties".

He called on all sides to refrain from actions which could "destabilise Syria, and jeopardise a credible and inclusive political transition".

An interior ministry source quoted by official news agency SANA said isolated incidents had occurred on the coast and pledged to put a stop to them.

Authorities launched a sweeping security operation after Thursday's clashes, which the Observatory said left 78 people dead, including gunmen, security force members and civilians.

Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia, said pro-Assad militia fighters carried out "a well-planned and premeditated attack" on government forces' positions and patrols around the coastal town of Jableh.

Curfews 

A curfew was imposed until Saturday in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus, heartland of the ousted president's Alawite religious minority, and authorities on Friday announced a security sweep in the Jableh area, between the two provinces.

Officials blamed "sabotage" for a power outage that affected much of Latakia province.

A curfew has also been imposed in Syria's confessionally divided third city Homs.

The security operation "targeted remnants of Assad's militias and those who supported them", an official cited by SANA said, as he called on civilians to stay in their homes.

"All night, we heard the sounds of gunfire and explosions," said Ali, a farmer living in Jableh, describing the urban battles in his area.

"Everyone's afraid... we are trapped at home and we can't go out."

‘Under attack' 

Forces led by Sharaa's Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham launched the offensive that toppled Assad on December 8, when he fled to Russia with his family.

Syria's new security forces have since carried out extensive campaigns seeking to root out Assad loyalists from his former bastions.

Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey have reaffirmed their support for the new authorities.

Germany meanwhile urged Syria's authorities to avoid a "spiral of violence".

The 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Friday readmitted Syria, which was suspended in 2012, early in the civil war under Assad, following the long-time ruler's toppling.

"This decision represents an important step towards Syria's return to the regional and international communities as a free and just state," a Syrian foreign ministry statement said.