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GAZA CITY — When Jacqueline Shahada was blinded in one eye during a Palestinian demonstration along the Gaza border, she never thought she would lose her husband and children too.

It was November 2018 and like every Friday for more than six months, thousands of Palestinians gathered along the Gaza-Israel border demanding the right to return to lands their ancestors fled in 1948 with the creation of Israel.

Protesters burned tyres and threw stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers on the other side of the heavily-guarded border, who responded by opening fire.

Amid the thousands of onlookers was Jacqueline, a slight, veiled woman in her early 30s. Even though the protests were male-dominated, she told herself women also had a right to participate.

"Suddenly, I felt something burning in my eye and I lost consciousness," she said. She had been hit by a rubber bullet, and despite medical attention, doctors couldn't save her left eye.

Her injury is hardly visible now — just a slight glossiness from a tear in the iris — but her life in Hamas-controlled Gaza was destroyed.

"I wish I had been killed, it would have been easier," she told AFP.

Her experience has become all too common, and AFP met with 10 Palestinians who lost an eye after being shot by the Israeli army, in Gaza, Jerusalem or the West Bank.

Some were taking part in clashes, others were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. All were left scarred and with their lives wrecked, even though in Palestinian society being wounded while standing up to Israeli occupation is often lionised.

Along the border of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army uses snipers who, according to instructions, open fire only when the soldiers are at risk from intensifying violence from Palestinian rioters.

Asked about Jacqueline’s case as well as the use of live fire, the Israeli army highlighted the “security challenge” they faced.

It said “it took every possible measure to reduce the number of injuries among Gaza residents participating in these violent riots”.

“There is smoke from burning tires, gas and moving crowds. Snipers are at a distance, it’s difficult,” said a senior Israeli military official.

‘Broken inside’ 

Jacqueline, who studied maths, found herself stigmatised. Her children were teased at school about their disabled mother and her husband grew colder and angry.

“Society and people blame me, they say: ‘Why [as a woman] did you go to the protest?’”

“I expected my family and husband would be proud of me, but I paid a high price,” she told AFP in Gaza. “My husband divorced me and I lost my kids.”

“If I lost an arm it would be OK, but without an eye, how can you continue with your life?

“I want to challenge the whole world, to remain strong, but inside I am broken,” she said.

In the Gaza Strip, the cramped territory of two million people controlled by Hamas and under Israeli blockade, residents have grown accustomed to traumatic wounds after the three Israeli aggressions in 2008, 2012 and 2014.

But even when there is no full-blown conflict, violence erupts. More than 8,000 Palestinians were hit by Israeli fire during the often violent “March of Return” protests which began in March 2018, according to UN figures.

Of those injuries, 80 per cent were to the lower body, with only around 3 per cent to the head.

In occupied Jerusalem, despite there being no full-scale conflict, tensions remain in neighbourhoods like Shuafat and Issawiya, parts of the predominantly Palestinian eastern part of the city Israel captured in 1967.

There residents complain of increasing violence from the Israeli police, which says it is responding to growing unrest by the population.

In recent years police there have used spongy synthetic rubber bullets, deemed in theory to be less lethal. But when fired at close range, they have been known to cause deaths.

‘I want my eye back’ 

In February, Malek Issa, a nine-year old boxing enthusiast, was hit by a rubber-tipped bullet after buying a sandwich at a shop in Issawiya.

He was on his way home from school and his older sister, Tala, immediately rang their father, Wael, to say Malek had been shot in the forehead.

“I immediately thought ‘no, he must have been shot in the eye’,” Wael said. “I stayed there, paralysed for a few minutes.”

Malek was rushed to hospital where his parents found him, head gaping and his left eye hollowed out.

“My son is polite, clever and got good grades at school. But this soldier came and shot him. He didn’t shoot just my son, he shot the whole family,” said Wael.

Malek, who now has a glass eye, sprawled disinterestedly on a sofa next to his father.

“This is not the Malek that we knew, he changed a lot,” added Wael, who works in a restaurant in Tel Aviv. “At night Malek cries out ‘I want my eye, I want my eye back.’”

“I tried to explain to him this is the will of God,” he said, although the family struggles to understand why Malek was shot when there were no protests going on.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli justice ministry said it had opened an “internal investigation” into the case.

‘Eye of Truth’

For years freelance cameraman Muath Amarneh covered numerous protests in the occupied West Bank.

On November 15 last year, he grabbed his video camera and, wearing his helmet and a vest inscribed with the word “Press”, rushed to a Palestinian demonstration in the southern village of Surif.

“There was a sniper on the ground readying his weapon, saying something to the officer I didn’t understand, but they were laughing,” he said.

“I felt that something was going to happen to one of us. The soldiers were provoking us journalists.

“Then I felt something hit my face, I thought my head had been knocked off,” he said.

“I saw there was blood on my face. I fell to my knees.”

Witnesses said he was hit by a rubber bullet which had metal inside. And scans show some metal remains inside the excavated eye cavity, which now holds a glass eye.

Israeli authorities say they did not target the journalist, but Muath is convinced his injury is a metaphor for a conflict others don’t want to see.

“My injury sends a message that our lives depend on the pictures we take. ‘Either you will work as we like or you might die’.”

The injury sparked protests, with Palestinian and Arab journalists filming themselves with a eyepatch using the slogan “eye of truth”.

Months later, Muath, who is in his 30s, hasn’t returned to work, still suffers from mysterious migraines and feels his “life is finished”.

“As a cameraman it is impossible to work with one eye. You need one eye on the camera lens and one outside,” he said.

KHARTOUM — Sudan on Sunday warned against escalation and urged further negotiations with Egypt and Ethiopia over Addis Ababa's controversial dam on the Nile.

Tensions are running high between the three countries after recent talks failed to produce a deal on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

"We do not want escalation. Negotiations are the only solution," Sudan's irrigation and water resources minister, Yasser Abbas, told reporters on Sunday.

"Signing an agreement is a prerequisite for us before filling the dam. Sudan has the right to demand it," he said.

Ethiopia has declared plans to start filling the dam next month, regardless of whether a deal has been reached.

Egypt, which views the massive hydro-electric barrage as an existential threat, on Friday urged the United Nations Security Council to intervene in the dispute, citing Ethiopia's "non-positive stances".

On Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi said in a televised address that his country had remained committed to a political solution.

"When we resorted to the Security Council... it stemmed from our keenness to take the diplomatic and political path until the end," he said.

Cairo fears the dam could severely reduce its water supply from the Nile, which provides nearly 97 per cent of Egypt's freshwater needs.

Addis Ababa says the dam is indispensable for its development and insists Egypt's water share will not be affected.

The Nile is a lifeline supplying both water and electricity to the 10 countries it traverses.

Egypt says the dam threatens the Nile's flow, most of which originates in the Blue Nile, with damaging implications for its food supply and economy.

MOULAY BOUSSELHAM, Morocco — A new field hospital in eastern Morocco will from Sunday receive around 700 COVID-19 patients following a sharp spike in infections in the kingdom, the government said.

Morocco reported a record single-day rise in novel coronavirus cases on Friday after an outbreak was detected in fruit packing plants in eastern Kenitra province, prompting Rabat to tighten restrictions in the region.

The north African kingdom reported more than 500 cases on Friday, mainly in Kenitra, having recorded on average fewer than 100 new COVID-19 infections daily since confirming its first cases in early March.

Authorities closed facilities, tested workers and launched an investigation to "establish responsibility" for the outbreak, Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit said, as cited by official news agency MAP.

The field hospital will receive from Sunday "around 700 registered cases", he added.

Strawberry fields in Kenitra — usually busy with workers harvesting at this time of year — were deserted at the weekend, an AFP photographer said.

Several towns in the region were placed under quarantine and screenings were carried out among residents, who were asked to go out only in cases of "extreme necessity".

A dozen ambulances were stationed in Moulay Bousselham, one of the quarantined towns, ready to be dispatched to pick up confirmed cases.

Morocco, with a population of 34 million, has reported just over 9,800 cases and 213 deaths from the novel coronavirus.

On June 9, authorities announced a gradual lifting of restrictions in force since mid-March, though measures remain in place in major cities and a public health state of emergency has been extended until July 10.

Wearing masks in public is obligatory, gatherings are prohibited and mosques, cinemas and theatres are closed, while restaurants and cafes are open but limited to take-away orders.

The kingdom's borders remain closed "until further notice".

TRIPOLI — Libya's UN-recognised unity government has said it will boycott talks on the conflict in the North African country to be held by Arab League foreign ministers next week.

Foreign Minister Mohamad Taher Siala told the bloc's executive council on Friday that the planned meeting would "merely deepen the rift" between Arab governments on the conflict, his ministry said.

The talks, to be held by videoconference because of coronavirus concerns, were called for by Egypt, a key supporter of the Tripoli government's archfoe, eastern-based strongman Khalifa Haftar.

Siala complained there had been no prior consultation with his government, even though the meeting concerned Libya, and said the virtual format of the meeting was not appropriate for addressing the thorny issues involved.

The head of Tripoli's Government of National Accord, Fayez Al Sarraj, visited Algeria on Saturday and had talks with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the official Algerian Press Service said.

Algeria, which is seeking to mediate a peaceful solution to the Libya war, shares a 1,000-kilometre border with Libya and has repeatedly denounced foreign interference in its eastern neighbour.

Turkey, which backs the GNA, said Saturday that Haftar’s forces must withdraw from the strategic city of Sirte for a lasting ceasefire and accused France of “jeopardising” NATO security.

Ibrahim Kalin, Turkey’s presidential spokesman, told AFP that Sirte and Al Jufra both needed to be evacuated by Haftar’s forces, as demanded by the GNA, for a “sustainable ceasefire”.

“It should be a sustainable ceasefire, meaning that the other side, the LNA (Libyan National Army), should not be in a position to launch another attack on the legitimate Libyan government any time it wants,” Kalin told AFP in an interview in Istanbul.

Kalin said a ceasefire in Libya would be possible if everybody went back to their positions in 2015, referring to a political agreement reached that year in Morocco. That would mean Haftar withdrawing from Sirte and Al Jufra.

“This is the position of the GNA and we support it because right now the Haftar forces are using these strategic locations as their launching pad,” he said.

Kalin also accused France of “jeopardising” NATO’s security by supporting Haftar.

“In Libya we are supporting the legitimate government and the French government is supporting an illegitimate warlord and jeopardising NATO security, Mediterranean security, North African security and Libya’s political stability,” Kalin said.

“Given all this they still blame us, they still criticise us... We are working with the legitimate actors here. It is France that is intervening in all of those areas, working with the wrong actors, supporting illegitimate players and then turning and accusing us.”

Turkey sees no role for Haftar in Libya’s future.

“He has been unreliable from the very beginning. He has spoiled every single ceasefire agreement, every attempt at de-escalation and the GNA will not support any talks that will involve Haftar. This is what we are gathering from their analysis and we support that,” Kalin said.

On Egypt, Kalin said Ankara understands Cairo’s “legitimate” security concerns over the Egyptian-Libyan border but supporting Haftar is a “wrong policy”.

“They should support the GNA, they should support a Libyan-led political process.”

Asked about Turkey’s future in Libya, Kalin said: “We will be there as long as we are requested by the Libyan government to be there.”

GNA forces are now in the ascendancy after defeating Haftar’s forces, driving them out of western Libya earlier this month. It aims to seize Sirte and Al-Jufra.

Egypt responded with a peace initiative was widely viewed as a bid to buy time for Haftar’s force to regroup.

The GNA and Turkey both dismissed the initiative and called for continued ceasefire negotiations under the aegis of the United Nations.

Washington too called for UN-led ceasefire talks.

Oil-rich Libya has been torn by violence, drawing in tribal militias, extremists and mercenaries since the 2011 toppling and killing of longtime dictator Muammar Qadhafi in a Western-backed uprising.

The latest escalation has been marked by an uptick in foreign involvement.

Recent weeks have seen tensions rise between Turkey and France, which despite public denials has long been suspected of favouring Haftar until his recent setbacks.

The United Nations has urged outside powers to respect a deal reached at a January conference in Berlin, calling for an end to foreign meddling and upholding a much-violated arms embargo.

CAIRO — Egypt appealed on Friday for the United Nations Security Council to intervene in a deepening dispute with Ethiopia over its gigantic Nile dam that Cairo fears would cut its vital water share.

The move comes as tensions run high after multiple rounds of talks over the years between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan failed to produce a deal over the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

Addis Ababa has declared plans to start filling the dam next month, regardless of whether a deal was reached.

Egypt has called on the UN Security Council "to intervene to emphasize the importance that three countries... continue negotiations in good faith", the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said the three-way talks have hit an impasse due to Ethiopia's "non-positive stances" and its "insistence to proceed with filling the dam unilaterally".

Egypt views the hydro-electric barrage as an existential threat that could severely reduce its water supply.

Ethiopia says the dam is indispensable for its development and insists Egypt's water share will not be affected.

The Nile, which provides nearly 97 percent of Egypt's freshwater needs, is a lifeline supplying both water and electricity to the 10 countries it traverses.

Ethiopia broke ground on the dam in 2011, When completed, it is set to be Africa's largest hydroelectric project.

TUNIS — Tunisia's president has become a surprise champion of Arabic calligraphy in his country, shining a light on the artistic tradition as Arab states lobby for its recognition by UNESCO.

President Kais Saied sparked both admiration and mockery on social media when images emerged of hand-written presidential letters on official paper not long after he took office in October last year.

An academic with a keen interest in the art form, Saied had studied with well-known Tunisian calligrapher Omar Jomni.

To prove that Saied had penned the documents himself, the presidency released a video showing him writing in a guest book.

The president "writes official correspondence in maghrebi script and private letters in diwani", Jomni said, referring to two forms of Arabic calligraphy.

Maghrebi script is a form of the older, angular style of Kufic calligraphy, while diwani is a more ornamental Ottoman style popular for poetry.

The president's "recognition" of calligraphy has warmed artists' hearts, Jomni said, giving them hope for a brighter future for an art form that was like "a closed book".

Not just a 'technical skill'

Calligraphy in Tunisia lacks the prominence it enjoys in some other Arab countries -- such as in the Gulf -- and its National Centre of Calligraphic Arts, created in 1994, risks closing its doors.

With a lack of instructors, courses will likely have to end this year, according to the institute's head, Abdel Jaoued Lotfi.

"There are not enough professional calligraphers in Tunisia," said calligraphy master Jomni, who is in his sixties.

"You can count them on one hand and they are working in precarious conditions."

Sixteen Arab countries, including Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, have prepared a proposal to have Arabic calligraphy inscribed on the UNESCO list of humanity's intangible cultural heritage.

It's a chance to consider calligraphy "as a whole culture and living heritage... and not just as a simple technical skill", said Imed Soula, a researcher overseeing Tunisia's submission to the UN cultural body.

He said Tunisia's fading calligraphy practice, which traditionally saw artists tackle surfaces like copper or stone, was also linked to the growing use of new technologies, some of which have moved it away from its performing-art dimension.

But Jomni said calligraphy in Tunisia suffered from "the brutal and chaotic marginalisation of Islamic culture during the '60s, whose repercussions we still feel today".

Updating tradition

The country's first president, Habib Bourguiba (1957-1987), dismantled and divided up the Islamic University of Ez Zitouna after a power struggle with its clerical leadership.

Books and manuscripts from the institute, then Tunisia's main Arab-language university and one of the most important in the Muslim world, were seized.

Tunisian calligrapher Mohamed Salah Khamasi studied there at the start of the 20th century and laid down the foundations for calligraphy in the country, passing his knowledge on to several generations.

Following the 2011 revolution that set Tunisia on the road to democracy, a young generation of calligraphers is now calling for a reinvention of the art form to reflect the spirit of the times -- "so that it doesn't get rusty and outdated", Karim Jabbari told AFP.

The artist in his thirties is known internationally for his large-scale calligraphy works, often created with light using long-exposure photography, or in mural form.

In 2011, in his marginalised hometown of Kasserine, which saw deadly clashes before the fall of Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, Jabbari used light to write the names of protesters in the places where they were killed.

"Through this form of calligraphy, I want to highlight the beauty of the Arabic language and bring it closer to people," Jabbari said -- and "keep our heritage firmly anchored in our memory".

Calligraphy in Tunisia lacks the prominence it enjoys in some other Arab countries

The president's 'recognition' of calligraphy has warmed artists' hearts, Jomni said

Jomni said calligraphy in Tunisia suffered from 'the brutal and chaotic marginalisation of Islamic culture during the '60s'

BAGHDAD — Baghdad on Thursday demanded Ankara immediately halt its assault in northern Iraq, where Turkish special forces and helicopters have been targeting Kurdish rebel hideouts.

Turkey early Wednesday launched a cross-border operation into the mountainous regions of northern Iraq where the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), considered by Ankara to be a "terrorist" group, is thought to be hiding out.

Iraq's foreign ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador on Thursday and handed him a "strongly-worded memorandum calling for a halt to such provocative actions".

"We stress that Turkey must stop its bombardment and withdraw its attacking forces from Iraqi territory," the ministry said in a statement.

"We affirm our categorical rejection of these violations."

Iraq on Thursday also summoned Iran's envoy Iraj Masjedi in protest over its shelling of Kurdish areas on Tuesday.

The foreign ministry statement urged Iran "respect Iraq's sovereignty and stops these types of actions".

"This ministry affirms Iraq is keen to maintain and develop the historical ties between the two countries, and also stresses its condemnation of these actions," the ministry said.

Tehran has cultivated close political, military and economic ties with Iraqi leaders over decades, including with top Kurdish officials.

Iran, which has its own minority Kurdish population, has also been fighting Kurdish rebels who use neighbouring Iraq as a base to mount attacks inside the country.

Its Revolutionary Guards last month mounted an operation against rebels in Iran's western province of Kurdistan.

Turkey doubles down

Thursday marked the second time in a week that Baghdad summoned Turkish ambassador Fatih Yildiz.

He was also called to the foreign ministry on Tuesday following Turkish bombardment in northern Iraq, also against PKK hideouts.

After that meeting, Yildiz said he had told Iraqi officials that if Baghdad did not take action against the rebels, Ankara would continue to "fight the PKK wherever it is".

The PKK has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, using the rugged mountains of neighbouring northern Iraq as a rear base.

It has a tense relationship with the semi-autonomous Kurdish government in Iraq's north (KRG), which see the PKK as a rival but have been unable to uproot it from the area.

Analysts say the Turkish operation, dubbed "Claw-Tiger", could not have taken place without the KRG's tacit approval.

There has been no comment from Iraq's new Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, himself a Kurd who is close to top KRG authorities.

TEHRAN — Iran test-fired a "new generation" of cruise missiles on Thursday, the navy said, in the first such military exercises since 19 sailors were killed last month in a friendly fire incident.

The armed forces' website published pictures of the drill in the Gulf of Oman showing missiles being fired from a warship and the back of a truck, and a vessel exploding out at sea.

A statement said both short- and long-range missiles were test-fired.

They "destroyed the designated targets 280 kilometres away, and their range can be increased even further", said the statement.

The missiles were designed and produced by the defence ministry and the navy, it said, without giving any further details.

A video released by state television on its website said some of the missiles were based on "older platforms that have been updated".

They were "missiles with deadly precision and power for Iran's enemies", said an IRIB reporter at a beach where they were fired from a truck.

The naval exercises come after an "accident" during a similar drill on May 10, involving a warship being hit by a missile in the same waters.

Nineteen crewmen were killed and 15 injured in the incident, the army said at the time.

Tasnim news agency said the missile was fired by another Iranian warship, in a "friendly fire" incident.