Tag: InternationalNews

{As offensive against ISIL continues, 150,000 people from besieged city may soon be in need of urgent humanitarian aid.}

About 2,300 families have fled the Iraqi city of Fallujah over the past 24 hours, according to an international aid group, as government forces and their allies push forward with an offensive to retake the city from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) group.

The Iraqi army said on Saturday it had gained control of Fallujah’s main hospital, a day after recapturing the government compound in the centre of the city.

Fighters belonging to ISIL, also known as ISIS, still hold roughly 20 percent of the city and are entrenched on its northern districts.

Battle for Fallujah: More than 300 soldiers killed in two days
Humanitarian agencies working on the outskirts of Fallujah, located 50km west of the capital Baghdad, said they were struggling to cope with the heavy flow of displaced civilians fleeing the violence as the offensive continues, pressing on towards ISIL-held Mosul .

“In the last 24 hours, more than 2,300 families have actually managed to leave Fallujah, and to be honest, there’s very little space for them in Amariyat al-Fallujah, Habbaniyah Tourit City and Khaldiyah, which is where they are escaping to,” Nasr Muflahi, Iraq country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Erbil, told Al Jazeera on Saturday.

More than 20,000 people have fled Fallujah in the past two days alone, according to the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR).

“We are now finding it difficult to cope with the numbers that are coming out of Fallujah, especially in terms of delivering safe drinking water. We’re down to the bare minimum of three litres per person, and we’re not really sure how long we can continue to do that,” said Muflahi.

The UN and the Iraqi government have set up camps for 60,000 displaced civilians in Anbar province, but have warned there is little capacity to absorb any more people.

New arrivals, many of whom have been trapped by fighting for weeks, reach relative safety to find overcrowded camps and settlements.

“The people coming out of Fallujah are telling us horrific stories of how they were treated – the lack of food, no services, no electricity,” said Muflahi.

“We are doing our utmost, with other agencies, to respond to their needs, which is shelter, water and food,” said Muflahi.

“These are things that we need to prioritise, and we need to now rather than later.”

Some 70,000 people are estimated to have fled Fallujah, and another 60,000 are expected to leave over the next several days, according to the UNHCR . The agency estimates that up to 150,000 displaced people may soon be in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

“Thousands of families may also remain trapped in Fallujah,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said on Saturday.

“These are estimates … however, we remain very concerned about the safety and the wellbeing of the people still in Fallujah.”

{{Rising cases of abuse
}}

Rights groups have voiced concern over reports of abuse, mistreatment and extrajudicial killings. And Sunni politicians have called on Haider al-Abadi, Iraq’s prime minister, to investigate the rising number of alleged abuses.

Iraqi security forces fear that ISIL fighters may be hiding among the displaced.

Shia units known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces fighting alongside government troops have been separating males from their families, detaining the men to put them through a security screening process.

The government lost control of Fallujah in 2014, months before ISIL took Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, and swept across large parts of the country.

As a result of escalating violence over the past two years, more than 3.4 million people are now displaced across Iraq – more than half of them children.

{State of Rio de Janeiro has requested federal funds, less than two months away from the Olympic Games.}

Rio de Janeiro’s governor has declared a state of financial emergency and requested federal funds to help fulfill obligations for public services during the Olympics that start on August 5.

Emergency measures are needed to avoid “a total collapse in public security, health, education, transport and environmental management,” a decree in the state’s Official Gazette said on Friday.

Rio de Janeiro state is in financial straits due to the fall in global oil prices, while Brazil overall is floundering through a deep recession.

Police, teachers and other government workers in Rio state have seen paychecks delayed because of the cash crunch. Retirees have protested because of unpaid pensions.

Since late last year, the state has also been forced to shutter some schools and hospitals, where crucial supplies, including medicines and syringes, are lacking.

“There are occupations, protests and demonstrations every day here,” Al Jazeera’s Adam Raney reported from Rio de Janeiro.

“People come out, block streets, do sit-ins because they are fed up with the corruption and deterioration of all of their public services.”

The announcement followed this week’s visit to Rio by Brazil’s Interim President Michel Temer, who said the federal government would ensure all obligations are met for a successful Games.

Rio is expecting about 500,000 foreign visitors during the Olympics, which has coincided with Brazil’s worst recession since the 1930s and a political crisis that last month led to the suspension of President Dilma Rousseff.

“The state’s financial emergency in no way delays the delivery of Olympic projects and the promises assumed by the city of Rio,” Mayor Eduardo Paes said on Twitter.

The financial pinch resulted in a 30-percent cut in the state’s security budget – just as Rio has seen a jump in homicides and assaults in recent months, raising concerns about safety ahead of the Olympics.

Amnesty International expressed concern at the cuts to social services, which could affect the training of security agents to work in the crime-ridden slums known as favelas.

The decision to cut services and security ahead of the Olympic Games “is not only a shock but is also incredibly worrying, especially given the bad history of police killings and murders,” Amnesty’s Brazil director, Atila Roque, said in a statement.

Rio’s state budget shows a $5.6bn shortfall for 2016. Royalties from oil – the state’s main revenue-earner – are projected to collapse from $3.5bn in 2014 to just $1bn this year.

But the federal budget is in no better shape.

Brazil’s primary fiscal deficit is forecast to be around $47bn. And the government is confronted with double-digit inflation, unemployment at a record 11 percent.

On Wednesday, Fitch Ratings downgraded Rio’s debt rating to “B-” from “B+”, saying the state was suffering “a fast-deteriorating liquidity position”.

Brazil is also facing an outbreak of the Zika virus, which has been linked to the birth defect microcephaly in which babies are born with abnormally small heads frequently associated with developmental issues.

The August 5-21 Olympics and September 7-18 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro will be the first to be held in South America.

{White House hosts Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in talks focusing on conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.}

US President Barack Obama has hosted Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House in a move aimed at thawing relations between the two countries after Washington’s apparent rapprochement with its main regional rival, Iran.

The 30-year-old prince – who has become the driving force behind Saudi foreign policy – discussed a host of challenges facing stability in the Middle East region on Friday after meeting Obama in the Oval Office – a rare honour for a non-head of state.

The two men called for an adherence to a cessation of hostilities in Syria and a political transition to end the reign of Bashar al-Assad. They also discussed the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group and the conflicts in Iraq and Yemen.

Briefing journalists after talks at the White House, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir repeated the kingdom’s desire to arm Syria’s “moderate opposition” with ground-to-air missiles and repeated an offer to deploy Saudi special forces in any US-led operation.

Jubeir noted that from the start of the crisis, Riyadh had pushed for “a more robust policy, including air strikes, safe zones, a no-fly zone, a no-drive zone”.

Obama has been reluctant to see US forces drawn into another conflict in the Middle East, and many in Washington are concerned that weapons sent to the rebels fighting Assad could fall into the wrong hands.

The leaders also discussed the conflict in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is backing a government in exile against the Houthi movement, which has been accused of receiving backing from Iran.

The Saudi-led campaign against Houthi rebels has resulted in large numbers of civilians casualties, according to the United Nations and human rights groups.

Obama “welcomed Saudi Arabia’s commitment to concluding a political settlement of the conflict” and the Gulf Cooperation Council’s efforts to address the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the White House said.

Saudi Arabia has long perceived a lack of US engagement in the region, particularly in the face of what they see as Iran’s “interference” in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere.

Those sentiments reached a new level in January after a landmark deal lifted crippling international sanctions on Iran in return for a scaling back of its nuclear program.

{Security forces carry out raids across country and arrest suspects believed to be plotting attack in Brussels.}

Belgian security forces have carried out multiple raids across the country, arresting 12 suspects believed to be planning attacks.

Flemish public broadcaster VTM said on Saturday that the people arrested overnight were suspected of planning an attack in Brussels this weekend during one of Belgium’s matches in the Euro 2016 football tournament.

The federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement that police targeted about 40 locations in a case that needed “immediate intervention”.

“In connection with a criminal investigation concerning terrorism… 40 persons were taken for questioning. Twelve among them were arrested. The investigating judge will decide on their possible detention later today,” the statement said.

The raids took place in 16 communes in Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia and “passed off without incident,” the statement said, adding that “no arms or ammunition have been found up to now”.

Europe is on high alert as the Euro 2016 tournament is under way in France.

France has deployed 90,000 security forces for the tournament, but French President Francois Hollande has said that the threat of attacks will not stop the event from being successful.

In March, Brussels’ Zaventem airport and the Maelbeek metro station were attacked, leaving 31 people dead, including the bombers, and wounding at least 270 in the worst such incident in Belgian history.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group said it was responsible for the bombings. The group also claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks in Paris in November which killed 130 people.

{Man accused of murdering British parliamentarian Jo Cox has appeared in court for the first time.}

The man accused of murdering British opposition MP Jo Cox has appeared in court for the first time.

When asked to confirm his name at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, 52-year-old Thomas Mair said “Death to traitors, freedom for Britain”.

Cox was attacked with a knife and a firearm on Thursday outside her constituency surgery in the village of Birstall, northern England.

Mair has been charged with a string of crimes, including grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm and murder.

Police have previously said the suspect’s possible far-right links are a priority line of inquiry for detectives.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a US advocacy group, previously said that Mair, who had lived in Birstall for decades, was a “dedicated supporter” of National Alliance, once the primary neo-Nazi organisation in the United States.

The advocacy group said he had spent over $620 on reading material from the National Alliance, which advocated the creation of an all-white homeland and the eradication of Jewish people.

The murder of Cox, a pro-EU advocate, has left Britain in shock and campaigning for the June 23 referendum on European Union membership has been suspended as a mark of respect.

On Friday, British Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn jointly paid tribute to the slain MP, and called for greater tolerancein public debate.

“Where we see hatred, where we find division, where we see intolerance, we must drive it out of our politics and out of our public life and out of our communities,” Cameron said from Birstall, where he and Corbyn laid bouquets at the scene where Cox was shot.

“She was taken from us in an act of hatred, in a vile act that has killed her. It’s an attack on democracy what happened yesterday. It’s the well of hatred that killed her,” Corbyn, the leader of the main opposition Labour Party, said.

Many commentators have speculated whether the killing could be linked to the referendum on the so-called Brexit, which has stoked tensions by touching on issues of national identity and immigration.

Cox, a former aid worker and pro-EU campaigner, was an advocate for Syrian refugees.

{ {Haider al-Abadi says security forces have retaken most of Fallujah and only “small pockets” of ISIL remain within city. }

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says Iraqi forces have retaken most of Fallujah from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as clearing operations are under way to flush out the armed group’s remaining fighters in the city.

The government lost control of Fallujah in 2014, months before ISIL, also known as ISIS, took Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, and swept across large parts of the country.

“We promised you the liberation of Fallujah and we retook it. Our security forces control the city except for small pockets that need to be cleared within the coming hours,” Abadi said on Friday in a brief address on state TV.

“Fallujah has returned to the nation and Mosul is the next battle,” Abadi also said on Twitter. “Daesh will be defeated,” he added, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL.

Earlier on Friday, Iraqi forces said they had entered the centre of Fallujah, nearly four weeks after the start of a US-backed offensive to retake the city 50km west of the capital, Baghdad.

“The counterterrorism service and the rapid response forces have retaken the government compound in the centre of Fallujah,” the operation’s overall commander, Lieutenant-General Abdulwahab al-Saadi, told the AFP news agency.

The Iraqi flag is now raised on top of the building, symbolising government control.

Commanders said their forces had met limited resistance from ISIL fighters during the push into the city centre.

“This is a very significant development,” said Al Jazeera’s Omar Al Saleh, who has reported extensively on the conflict in Iraq.

“It is a big moral boost for Iraqi soldiers.”

Matthew Henman, from the Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, said that even with the “breakthrough”, it would take “much longer” to completely get rid of ISIL in Fallujah, and prevent future attacks.

He also said that if the fight over Fallujah wraps us quickly, then more troops would be realigned to help the government push against ISIL in Mosul.

Government troops and Shia units known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces are leading the campaign to retake the Sunni city from ISIL. They are supported by US-led coalition air strikes.

Al Jazeera’s Saleh said the death toll from the fighting so far is based on estimates by medical sources from the city of Fallujah.

“They say it is in the hundreds,” he said.

Although the Iraqi government previously said it had a particular strategy to establish safe corridors for civilians in the city centre to leave, many have been reluctant to go for fear of how they may be treated by the Shia units.

Thousands have fled the city and its surrounding areas since the military offensive was launched on May 23, but the UN said that tens of thousands are still inside the city – last week, the UN said up to 90,000 people were believed to be inside Fallujah, in a significant revision of a previous estimate of 50,000.

Many escaping the fighting have been detained and kept at detention facilities, with reports of abuse and violations by government forces and Shia fighters.

The UN says detention facilities lack basic services, including medicine and food.

The humanitarian crisis in Iraq has been dubbed one of the world’s worst by the UN.

Since the beginning of the present conflict in 2014, more than 3.4 million people have been internally displaced and 2.6 million have fled Iraq.

{Alleged 20th September 11 attacks hijacker asks review board for freedom as the US admits his torture at naval prison.}

A Saudi national accused of trying to take part in the September 11 attacks who has been repeatedly tortured gets a chance to plead his case in front of a Guantanamo parole-like board on Thursday.

The United States government has admitted that prisoner Mohammed al-Qahtani was tortured, including severe sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, violence and other sadistic interrogation methods carried out for weeks, which were detailed in a log about the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Currently not charged with a crime, Qahtani’s torture and time at Guantanamo is said to have “caused psychotic symptoms that included repeated hallucinations involving ghosts and a talking bird”.

The prisoner “also often soiled himself, cried uncontrollably, and conversed with himself and with others who were not present”, according to his legal team.

{{Alleged hijacker}}

Qahtani tried to enter the US on August 4, 2001, “almost certainly” to be a 20th 9/11 hijacker, according to American officials. Mustafa al-Hawsawi, an alleged organiser and financier, is said to have provided him with money and a ticket to Orlando, Florida.

However, Immigration and Naturalization Service officers denied Qahtani, now 40 years old, entry because officers thought he seemed suspicious and they sent him back to the United Arab Emirates.

Qahtani later returned to Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was captured and then transferred to Guantanamo in February 2002.

Qahtani, who has been described as short and skinny, “wasn’t very intelligent” and did not have a “well-thought-out cover story” about his reason for being in Afghanistan, and about why he had arrived in Florida via a one-way ticket “with almost non-existent English”, according to an account by former FBI special agent Ali Soufan, who interrogated Qahtani and wrote about it in his book, The Black Banners.

Qahtani, who Soufan wrote “evidence indicated” was an intended “muscle” hijacker, would likely only have known about his specific role in a plot, but not other plans. However, the abusive techniques used on Qahtani by others “did not manage to get any valuable information” – let alone “the basic stuff”, according to Soufan.

Mark Fallon, a former special agent in charge of the Criminal Investigation Task Force, told Al Jazeera he too was concerned that the abusive techniques were not going to be effective. Equally important he said he thought they would also be illegal, and “would make Qahtani un-prosecutable after [they] had done things that were tantamount to torture”.

The Saudi prisoner, who wants to return to his family in the Gulf kingdom, has been “mostly compliant,” but has “not cooperated with his interrogators”, according to the US military.

{{Psychiatric disabilities}}

Qahtani suffered from “severe psychiatric disabilities” prior to his alleged criminal acts, according to his lawyers.

Qahtani’s first traumatic brain injury occurred because of a car accident when he was an eight-year-old, a review board was told. Later he had shown “extreme behavioral dyscontrol,” including an episode when he was found naked by Riyadh police in a dumpster.

The legal team cites expert witness Dr Emily Keram, who reviewed Qahtani’s 2,000 records of “involuntary psychiatric hospitalization” in Mecca, and concluded his “pre-existing mental illnesses likely impaired his capacity for independent and voluntary decision-making well before the United States took him into custody, and left him ‘profoundly susceptible to manipulation by others’”.

The “severity and long standing of his psychiatric problems” give Qahtani’s lawyers “good reason to doubt the accuracy of the government’s factual account of his past actions”, Shane Kadidal, a senior managing attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights and a lawyer representing Qahtani, told Al Jazeera in an email.

Today, Qahtani is said to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and he would receive the best care if returned to Saudi Arabia, according to Keram.

The Saudi Ministry of Interior is said to have offered “security and humane treatment guarantees”, and expressed a “readiness to welcome him in its rehabilitation and aftercare programme”.

Qahtani “can’t realistically be charged – too much of what they would need to show in his case relates to intent, and there is nothing but torture evidence going to intent”, Kadidal said.

Regarding any potential threat concerns the prisoner may pose if released a “psychiatric commitment in a country with a modern psychiatric resources and an all-seeing secret police ought to satisfy anyone’s concerns”, he added.

{{Closing Guantanamo}}

There are 80 men left in Guantanamo, which US President Barack Obama has consistently promised to close. In addition to 10 men in various stages of military commission proceedings, some 30 prisoners are cleared for transfer while 40 men are not. But they have also not been charged with a crime – it is these later men who are appearing before the Periodic Review Board, compromised of senior officials with a stake in national security, to plead their cases.

Expected later this year is the PRB hearing of Abu Zubaydah, the first “black-site” prisoner who was also subjected to waterboarding 83 times in one month.

On Tuesday, the CIA released documents, some heavily redacted, regarding its torture and rendition programme. In the documents, it is apparent there was awareness that Zubaydah’s interrogation could kill him.

“If subject dies, we plan on seeking assistance for the cremation of subject,” states one of the documents, which were released after lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union and reporter Jason Leopold.

Further, the waterboarding was pointless. “In any event, there was no evidence that the waterboard produced time-perishable information which would have been otherwise unobtainable,” another document stated.

“In the end it confirms what everyone already knows, and there will be no strong justice handed to those who ordered the ‘enhanced interrogation’,” his sister-in-law Jody Abu Zubaydah told Al Jazeera.

“The CIA felt like they were above all laws,” she said, adding she believed it could happen again as there has been no accountability.

Meanwhile, Qahtani should know in about a month if the review board will recommend he be transferred.

“Perhaps more than any other prisoner, Mohammed al-Qahtani’s continuing imprisonment at Guantanamo represents everything about the prison that is inconsistent with our proclaimed national values,” his lawyers said.

“To begin to turn the page on this ugly chapter in our country’s recent history, surely our government must release from its custody the one man whose torture it has officially acknowledged.”

{{Interrogation Log, Detainee 063}}

23 November 2002: The detainee arrives at the interrogation booth at Camp X-Ray. His hood is removed and he is bolted to the floor…

07 December 2002: Corpsman checks vitals and finds the detainee’s pulse is unusually slow. Doctor arrives and decides to perform an EKG…

19 December 2002: Began teaching the detainee lessons such as stay, come, and bark to elevate his social status up to that of a dog.

{Statement leaves open the possibility of keeping troops in Arabian Peninsula nation for “counterterrorism operations”.}

The United Arab Emirates says the “war is over” for its troops in Yemen, though it may continue to keep them there for “counterterrorism operations”.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi’s crown prince and deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces, carried the announcement on his official Twitter account late on Wednesday.

He was quoting Anwar Gargash, UAE’s junior minister for foreign affairs, who had given a speech saying the “war is over for our troops”.

The statement left open the likelihood that Emirati troops would remain in the Arabian Peninsula country, where they operate in the southern province of Hadramawt and the port city of Aden.

The spokesman for the Arab coalition assembled by Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In his remarks, Gargash defended the UAE’s decision to go to war in Yemen, saying that all political means had been exhausted in the crisis and that Iranian “interference” and support for the Houthis required decisive action.

“The military role has ended,” Riad Kahwaji, a military analyst, told Al Jazeera from Dubai.

“Now the Yemeni conflict has to be resolved through political means. Operation Decisive Storm and Operation Restoring Hope have achieved their objectives.”

No dispute

Kahwaji ruled out the possibility of a dispute between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, key members of the Arab coalition.

“What we have seen over the past few weeks is Saudis retaliating to violations by the Houthis, who were fighting beyond their borders,” he said.

“We have not seen major operations against Houthi forces from either the Saudis or Emiratis.”

The Arab coalition accuses Iran of arming and supporting the Houthis, while Iran says it has only given the group political support.

Gargash was speaking to a private audience of guests invited by the crown prince to his royal gathering space, or “majlis”, as it is referred to in the Gulf, as part of a nightly series of lectures given during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Gargash was also quoted as saying that the UAE was “monitoring political arrangements” and “empowering Yemenis in liberated areas”.

The UAE has been among the most active members of the Arab coalition that intervened more than a year ago to help forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognised government roll back gains by Shia Houthi rebels, who still control the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen.

Yemeni security officials told the Associated Press news agency that Emirati troops were still guarding the airport and presidential palace in Aden on Wednesday, from where the government of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has been operating.

Hadi’s government was driven out of Sanaa in late 2014. Emirati troops also have a camp in Aden.

Continued fighting on several fronts killed at least 48 people over the past day, according to Yemeni security officials.

Another 65 people were wounded in combat between rebels and government forces around the besieged city of Taiz as well as in Shabwa, Jawf and Marib provinces.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to journalists.

In addition to fighting the Houthis and their allies in Yemen, the UAE helped the Arab coalition drive al-Qaeda from the southern coastal city of Mukalla in April.

The US has provided military support, intelligence, ships and special operations forces to help the ongoing operations against al-Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

American special operations forces have also been advising the Yemeni, Emirati and Arab coalition forces in the region.

The UAE, which has one of the best-equipped militaries in the region, suffered numerous losses over the past year of fighting in Yemen, including four pilots killed in two separate helicopter crashes this week.

Government media reports say more than 80 Emirati soldiers have been killed since operations began there on March 26, 2015.

In September, 45 Emirati troops were killed by a rebel missile attack, marking the deadliest day for its military in its 44-year history.

The government has not made clear the numbers of Emirati troops serving in Yemen.

The United Nations said in February that at least 2,800 civilians have been killed and more than 5,300 wounded since the coalition operation began.

The coalition has been criticised by rights groups and aid organisations for the deaths of hundreds of Yemeni civilians in air strikes.

{Palestinians call Israel’s manipulation of water supplies to large areas of West Bank “inhumane and outrageous”.}

Palestine has decried Israel’s practice of siphoning off water supplies from large areas of the occupied West Bank.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said that Israel was “waging a water war against the Palestinians.

“Israel wants to prevent Palestinians from leading a dignified life and uses its control over our water resources to this end; while illegal Israeli settlements enjoy uninterrupted water service, Palestinians are forced to spend great sums of money to buy water that is theirs in the first place,” Hamdallah said in the statement.

Mekorot, the main supplier of water to Palestinian towns and cities, is accused of manipulating water supplies to the municipality of Jenin, several Nablus villages and the city of Salfit and its surrounding villages, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians without access to safe drinking water during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Jamal Dajani, director of strategic media and communications at the prime pinister’s office, called Mekorot’s practice “inhumane and outrageous.

“It is not enough for Israel to systematically appropriate Palestinian land and usurp Palestine’s natural resources; they also refuse the Palestinians the right to water.”

On Tuesday, the executive director of the Palestinian Hydrology Group, an NGO focusing on water and sanitation issues, told Al Jazeera that “some areas had not received any water for more than 40 days.

“People are relying on purchasing water from water trucks or finding it from alternative sources such as springs and other filling points in their vicinity,” Ayman Rabi said.

“Families are having to live on two, three or 10 litres per capita per day,” he added, pointing out that in some areas they had started rationing water.

The city of Jenin, which has a population of more than 40,000 people, said its water supplies had been cut by half, and warned that it would hold Mekorot solely responsible for any tragedies resulting from water shortages during the hot summer months.

Israeli denial

Israel’s national water company, Mekorot, denied cutting the water supplies to large parts of the occupied West Bank, saying there was only broad reduction in water supply to the Palestinians.

“As a result of the shortage of water supply in the West Bank … we have made a broad reduction of the supply to all residents in the area,” Mekorot told Al Jazeera late on Wednesday.

“All the facilities are working and the capability to supply is less than the rate of consumption. The water authority recently approved a master plan for the water sector and accordingly we will build the systems that will meet the West Bank’s required consumption.”

Israel’s COGAT agency, a main body of the Israeli army that regulates the occupation in the West Bank, also pointed to a burst pipe, which was said to have disrupted supplies to the villages of Marda, Biddya, Jammain, Salfit and Tapuach.

“The water flow has been regulated and is currently up and running,” COGAT told Al Jazeera.

“The water supply to Hebron and Bethlehem has been expanded a further 5,000 cubic metres per hour in order to meet the needs of the residents,” COGAT said.

According to the UN, 7.5 litres per person per day is the minimum requirement for most people under most conditions but in some areas of Palestine – where temperatures exceed 35C – the minimum requirement is much higher.

Israel has limited the water available to Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since its forces occupied the territories in 1967.

Israelis, including settlers, consume five times more water than Palestinians in the West Bank: 350 litres per person per day in Israel compared with 60 litres per Palestinian per day in the West Bank.

{Campaigning for Britain’s EU referendum suspended after Labour politician Jo Cox, 41, was shot dead in northern England.}

Jo Cox, a member of the British parliament, died after being shot in northern England, UK police have said.

West Yorkshire Police said on Thursday a 52-year-old man had been arrested following the incident, which prompted the suspension of campaigning for next week’s referendum on the country’s EU membership.

The attack took place in Birstall, near the city of Leeds. It happened outside the library where she regularly held meetings with her constituents.

“Jo was attacked by a man who inflicted serious and sadly, ultimately fatal injuries,” Dee Collins, acting chief constable of West Yorkshire Police, told reporters.

Police said a 77-year-old man was also assaulted in the incident and suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.

One witness told the Press Association that Cox had intervened in a scuffle between two men, one of whom pulled a gun from a bag and then fired twice.

“She was taken by air ambulance from Birstall library near Leeds. Witnesses say she was shot and stabbed and taken by air ambulance to Leeds General Infirmary,” Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Phillips, reporting from London, said.

Officers said weapons, including a firearm, had been recovered from the scene.

“This was a localised incident, albeit one which has a wider impact,” West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson told reporters.

{{‘Dreadful news’}}

The news of Cox’s death caused deep shock across Britain.

“The whole of the Labour Party and Labour family – and indeed the whole country – will be in shock at the horrific murder of Jo Cox today,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the killing of Cox, who was a mother of two, was a tragedy.

“We have lost a great star,” Cameron said in a statement. “She was a great campaigning MP with huge compassion, with a big heart. It is dreadful, dreadful news.”

“Today is the beginning of a new chapter in our lives. More difficult, more painful, less joyful, less full of love,” Cox’s husband, Brendan, said in a statement after the slaying of his wife.

“She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now, one that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her,” he said. “Hate doesn’t have a creed, race or religion, it is poisonous.”

Cox was a leading campaigner for Britain to remain in the 28-member bloc and chaired the all-party parliamentary committee on Syria.

A University of Cambridge graduate, she was the Oxfam aid agency’s policy chief before entering parliament and a prominent campaigner for refugee rights.

She became a Labour MP for Batley and Spen in the May 2015 general election and was also known for her work on women’s issues.

{{Campaigning suspended}}

Following the attack, both sides in Britain’s June 23 referendum on leaving or staying within the EU said they were suspending campaigning, while Cameron pulled out of a planned rally in Gibraltar.

The Stronger in Europe camp said it was “suspending all campaigning” for Thursday and Friday, while a spokesman for the rival Vote Leave group, which is backing a so-called Brexit, said that their “battle bus” was returning to headquarters.

Britain’s flag was flying at half-mast over the Houses of Parliament in London, while in Birstall hundreds of people attended a vigil at a local church.