Region

LOD — An Israeli court on Monday found a Jewish settler guilty of three murders in an arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents — a verdict that did little to ease the bereaved family's pain.

Amiram Ben-Uliel, 25, from the West Bank settlement of Shilo, was also convicted of two counts each of attempted murder and arson, along with conspiracy to commit a hate crime in the 2015 attack.

The court did not set a date for sentencing on the charges, which carry a maximum term of life in jail, and the defence team announced an appeal.

Hours after the verdict, the Palestinian family devastated by the attack told AFP that justice was incomplete, having long insisted that there were several attackers.

Ahmed Dawabsha was four when his parents and brother were killed by Ben-Uliel, who threw a firebomb through a window of their home while they slept in Duma, a village in the occupied West Bank. He was severely burned.

When told by his grandfather that a man had been convicted of the murders, nine-year-old Ahmed cried out, "Just one!"

The 2015 killings shone a spotlight on Jewish extremism and sparked accusations Israel had not done enough to prevent such violence.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has labelled such attacks acts of "terrorism", a word more commonly used by Israelis to refer to violence committed by Palestinians.

The verdict came a day after Netanyahu said Israel's new government should push ahead with annexing West Bank Jewish settlements, a move likely to further inflame tensions in the territory.

'Horrific terror attack'

Ahmed, who suffered severe burns, was the sole survivor in his immediate family of the arson attack that killed his 18-month-old brother Ali, his mother Riham and father Saed.

After the verdict, the prosecution described the "horrific terror attack in Duma" as a premeditated act of revenge for the fatal shooting of settler Malachi Rosenfeld by a Palestinian near Shilo a month earlier.

"The court found that the accused planned the attack in advance, equipped himself with two petrol bombs and threw one in the middle of the night through the window of the bedroom where the Dawabsha family was sleeping at the time," it said.

During the investigation Ben-Uliel had confessed to the attack, given details not known to the public and reconstructed the incident, it added.

Ben-Uliel refused to testify at his trial and his lawyer sought to disqualify the confession and other prosecution evidence which he said Shin Bet security service interrogators had extracted by force.

The court ruled the evidence was admissible but defence lawyer Asher Ohayon sought to undermine it.

"This was testimony given after continuous torture for three weeks," he told Israeli public radio before Monday's verdict.

 No celebration 

The Dawabsha family's one-storey house remains the charred ruin it was after the fire, with a small poster showing the family stuck on one wall.

Furniture is burned out and a blackened child's bike lies on the floor.

"Any time I come into this house I relive the moment when it was burned down," said Ahmed's uncle, Nasser Dawabsha, gesturing at the rubble.

He insisted Ben-Uliel's accomplices had escaped justice, telling AFP that "the decision for us is incomplete".

"After five years of deliberations and more than 70 court sessions, today they convicted one person -- witnesses saw more than one."

Israel last May accepted a plea bargain in which a young Israeli confessed to a racially motivated conspiracy to commit a crime and vandalism.

It later convicted the same man of membership in the "hilltop youth", a loosely affiliated group of Jewish extremists who the court said had sought "to instil fear among Arabs while damaging their property and risking lives".

He has not been named as he was 17 at the time of the arson killings and tried as a minor.

The youth had admitted to staking out Duma ahead of the attack with Ben-Uliel, but was said not to have participated in it.

When Ahmed's grandfather Hussein sat him down to explain what had happened at court, Hussein said the conviction was no cause for celebration as "it won't bring back Saed, Riham and Ali".

"For the last five years we haven't been living."

ADEN — Deaths in Aden have surged to at least five times higher than normal, an NGO and medics say, igniting fears that the coronavirus is spreading unhindered in the Yemeni port city.

Six years of war against the Houthis -- and a widening fault-line among forces opposed to that rebel outfit -- have left authorities ill-equipped to control the spread of the virus.

The first coronavirus case in Aden, the government's interim capital, was only recorded about a month ago.

But since then, the total number of deaths registered in the city has "increased seven-fold", according to Saddam Al Haidari, a physician at a public hospital.

Hospitals have stopped admitting patients with symptoms of the COVID-19 disease caused by the novel coronavirus in recent days, several health sources told AFP, since they are not equipped to deal with the virus.

Many doctors in Aden have deserted their posts because they don't have access to protective gear, these sources added, while several hospitals have even closed down, according to Save the Children.

"Our teams on the ground are seeing how people are being sent away from hospitals, breathing heavily or even collapsing," said Mohammed Alshamaa, Save the Children's director of programmes in Yemen.

"People are dying because they can't get treatment that would normally save their lives."

'Verge of catastrophe' 

Save the Children said on Thursday that authorities in Aden have reported an average of 50 deaths per day since May 7.

That's five times higher than the baseline average of 10 deaths a day in more normal times, according to the international aid group.

"In the past 24 hours alone, more than 86 deaths have been reported in Aden due to several epidemics and fevers," said Sanad Jamil, who heads the Civil Affairs Department, which issues death certificates in Aden.

Testing for coronavirus is available only at a central public laboratory, but the supply of kits is insufficient.

That means many suspected cases have not been tested, according to Yasser Bamallem, a doctor at the Al Jumhouriya public hospital.

Bamallem is in no doubt about what is driving the rising death rate, because before expiring, many displayed symptoms in line with COVID-19 and distinct from other illnesses.

"With the spread of coronavirus, the death rate surged," he told AFP.

"We were already fighting against dengue fever and chikungunya, which are transmitted by mosquito bites -- but deaths were very few," he explained.

"We are on the verge of a catastrophe in Aden."

Yasser Al Nassiri, director of the private Al Kubi Hospital, said that the closure of other hospitals has put pressure on his facility.

His staff is receiving 400 patients daily, up from 150.

Yemen's health system has all but collapsed since the conflict broke out in 2014, with more than two thirds of the population dependent on aid for survival, according to the UN.

'Out of control' 

The main theatre of Yemen's war pitches an internationally recognised government, supported by a Saudi-led coalition, against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The Houthis stormed the capital Sanaa in September 2014 and Aden was set up as the government's interim seat months later.

But tensions between southern separatists and the central government have further muddied the waters, with the self-proclaimed Southern Transitional Council declaring self-rule in the south on April 26.

Fighting between pro-government troops and separatist forces on the outskirts of Zinjibar, some 60 kilometres from Aden, has killed more than 20 since early May (those numbers don't feed into the death tolls quoted above).

Nassiri said authorities are not paying enough attention to the health crisis, blaming the recent flareup in fighting in the south.

Aden, home to 550,000 people, has taken virtually no preventive measures against the pandemic.

There are no quarantine facilities for those who do test positive in the city.

"The situation in Aden has got out of control and is expected to implode further based on the number of daily deaths and cases," Bamallem lamented.

At least three doctors have died since May 7, the local Al Ayyam daily cited authorities as saying, but without giving the cause of the death.

Yemen's internationally recognised government has so far declared only 122 confirmed novel coronavirus cases, including just 18 deaths.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the country's war, which the United Nations views as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

TRIPOLI — Libya's UN-recognised government scored another battlefield victory on Monday against strongman Khalifa Haftar, capturing a key rear base used by his fighters in a conflict now in its second year.

Haftar, who controls swathes of eastern Libya, launched an offensive in April last year against the capital Tripoli, seat of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).

On Monday, the GNA said its forces had seized the strategic Al Watiya airbase southwest of Tripoli, representing the latest in a string of setbacks suffered by Haftar's camp in recent weeks, including the loss of two key western coastal cities in April.

"We proudly announce the liberation of Al Watiya base," 140 kilometres  southwest of Tripoli, said Fayez Al Sarraj, the head of the GNA, in a statement.

The reported capture of Al Watiya comes after a weeks-long siege by pro-GNA forces of the base, where Haftar had stationed aircraft for bombing runs against his rivals.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Haftar camp.

But Wolfram Lacher, a senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin, said a withdrawal of Haftar fighters from Al Watiya would ease pressure on GNA forces.

"Haftar's forces withdrew from Al Watiya airbase, their last foothold on the [western] coastal plain," Lacher said on Twitter.

In recent weeks pro-GNA forces had stepped up air strikes against Haftar's fighters, targeting their supply lines around Al Watiya.

"Today's success is not the end of the battle but it brings us closer than ever to victory when all cities and regions will be liberated and the tyrannical bid threatening democracy [is] crushed," Sarraj said.

The conflict pitting Haftar against the GNA has been exacerbated by foreign military intervention.

The United Arab Emirates and Russia back the eastern-based strongman while Turkey supplies the unity government.

'Unwinnable war' 

Prior to seizing Al Watiya, GNA forces pounded it from the air using drones supplied by Turkey, while also bombarding the town of Tarhuna.

GNA forces spokesman Mohamad Gnounou said loyalists had destroyed three Russian-made anti-aircraft systems in the airbase since Sunday, before the missile defences could be deployed by Haftar's forces.

According to the GNA, these systems were provided to Haftar by the United Arab Emirates.

GNA commander Mohamad Gammoudi said the final attack on Al Watiya was launched at dawn Monday, with air support, in a context where the base was surrounded on three fronts.

"We did not meet with much resistance. A few armoured vehicles tried to slow down our advance while providing cover for retreating Haftar militiamen," he added.

Haftar's forces had occupied Al Watiya since 2014, and used it as a launchpad for air attacks on GNA positions.

But according to military sources all his aircraft have been destroyed in battle for Tripoli.

Lacher said the capture of the base "frees up GNA forces from western cities to move to frontlines south of Tripoli.

"It also strengthens the sense among anyone except Haftar's true believers that his war is unwinnable," he added.

The battle for Tripoli has left hundreds dead and displaced more than 200,000 people.

Strikes have targeted civilian infrastructure and hospitals. Tripoli's only working airport, Mitiga, has repeatedly come under attack since Haftar launched his offensive last year.

In January, world leaders committed to ending foreign meddling and to upholding a 2011 weapons embargo, but the UN has warned that both sides have continued to receive arms and fighters.

Libya has been in chaos since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted and killed veteran dictator Muammar Qadhafi.

BEIRUT — A Lebanese prosecutor on Monday charged a top central bank official with manipulating the exchange rate, a judicial source said, as the country struggles with a major currency crisis.

The director of monetary operations at the central bank, Mazen Hamdane, was arrested on Thursday, as part of a currency crisis probe that has seen dozens of money changers detained in recent weeks.

The Lebanese pound had been pegged to the dollar at 1,507 since 1997 but the country's worst economic crisis in decades has seen its value plunge by more than half on the black market.

The central bank has sought to stem the fall by ordering exchange offices to cap the rate at 3,200 to the dollar, but the pound has continued to tumble.

Financial Prosecutor Ali Ibrahim "charged Hamdane with manipulating the national currency and breaching the pound's stability through directly buying dollars from money changers", a judicial source told AFP.

The prosecutor has referred his case to an investigative judge, the source said.

These are "the first charges against a central bank official", it said.

On Friday, the central bank issued a statement denying it was behind "any manipulation in the money changing market".

Lebanon is in the midst of its worst economic crunch since the 1975-1990 civil war.

As part of a severe liquidity crisis, banks have since last autumn imposed crippling capital controls, limiting then stopping dollar withdrawals and halting transfers abroad.

Security forces have detained around 50 money changers accused of selling dollars at too high a rate in recent days, though some have been released.

The head of the money changer syndicate has also been arrested.

In late April, Lebanon's government approved a rescue plan aimed at redressing the country's crumbling economy.

The deeply indebted Mediterranean country last week started negotiations with the International Monetary Fund towards obtaining billions of dollars in financial aid.

ALGIERS  —  A leading figure in Algeria's "Hirak" anti-government protest movement has been released from jail after a court late Sunday cut his prison sentence, one of his lawyers told AFP.

Abdelouahab Fersaoui, who heads the civic group Youth Action Rally (RAJ), was arrested in October during a demonstration and in April was sentenced to one year in jail for an "attack on the integrity of the national territory".

Lawyer Hocine Benissad, speaking after the appeal, said Fersaoui's sentence was reduced to six months, adding: "He will therefore be released from prison since he has already served his sentence."

The 39-year-old academic was released overnight, according to Said Salhi, vice president of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH).

"We are really relieved. We are delighted with this release because Fersaoui has endured a long detention. This is only the reparation for a serious injustice," Salhi said.

The prosecution had asked for a tougher sentence at the appeal hearing, which was organised by videoconference and held behind closed doors because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Fersaoui was arrested on October 10 last year during a demonstration in support of "Hirak" detainees in front of the capital's main court.

During his trial in March, Fersaoui denied the charges, which he said were based on his Facebook posts that had contained no incitement to violence.

Another "Hirak" activist, Ibrahim Daouadji, who in April was sentenced to six months in prison, also appeared before the Algiers court on Sunday for "incitement to unarmed assembly".

"Mr Daouadji was given a six-month suspended prison sentence. He too will be released," Benissad told AFP.

Despite the COVID-19 outbreak that has forced the popular movement to suspend its protests since mid-March, a crackdown has continued against regime opponents and independent media.

Vast demonstrations broke out in Algeria in February last year after then-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced a bid for a fifth term after 20 years in power.

He stepped down in April after losing the support of the army, but protesters had continued to hold mass rallies demanding a sweeping overhaul of the ruling system.

DOHA — Qatar on Sunday began enforcing the world's toughest penalties of up to three years' imprisonment for failing to wear masks in public, as it battles one of the world's highest coronavirus infection rates.

More than 30,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the tiny Gulf country -- 1.1 per cent of the 2.75 million population -- although just 15 people have died.

Only the micro-states of San Marino and the Vatican had higher per-capita infection rates, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Violators of Qatar's new rules will face up to three years in jail and fines of as much as $55,000.

Drivers alone in their vehicles are exempt from the requirement, but several expats told AFP that police were stopping cars at checkpoints to warn them of the new rules before they came into force.

Most of the customers who gathered outside money lenders on Doha's Banks Street on Sunday wore masks, while those that didn't produced a face covering when asked.

"From today it's very strict," said Majeed, a taxi driver waiting for business in the busy pedestrian area, who wore a black neoprene mask.

Wearing a mask is currently mandatory in around 50 countries, although scientists are divided on their effectiveness.

Authorities in Chad have made it an offence to be unmasked in public, on pain of 15 days in prison. In Morocco similar rules can see violators jailed for three months and fined up to 1,300 dirhams ($130).

Qatari authorities have warned that gatherings during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan may have increased infections.

Abdullatif Al Khal, co-chair of Qatar's National Pandemic Preparedness Committee, said on Thursday that there was "a huge risk in gatherings of families" for Ramadan meals.

"[They] led to a significant increase in the number of infections among Qataris," he said.

Neighbouring Saudi Arabia will enforce a round-the-clock nationwide curfew during the five-day Eid Al Fitr holiday later this month to fight the coronavirus.

Labourers at risk 

Mosques, along with schools, malls, and restaurants remain closed in Qatar to prevent the disease's spread.

But construction sites remain open as Qatar prepares to host the 2022 World Cup, although foremen and government inspectors are attempting to enforce social distancing rules.

Officials have said workers at three stadiums have tested positive for the highly contagious respiratory virus. Masks have been compulsory for construction workers since April 26.

A 12-strong team of masked labourers kept their distance from one another as they worked under baking sun on a road project in Doha's blue-collar Msheireb district on Sunday.

Tens of thousands of migrant workers were quarantined in Doha's gritty Industrial Area after a number of infections were confirmed there in mid-March, but authorities have begun to ease restrictions.

Khal said that most new cases were among migrant workers, although there has been a jump in infections among Qataris. He said the country had not yet reached the peak of its contagion.

Rights groups have warned that Gulf labourers' cramped living conditions, communal food preparation areas and shared bathrooms could undermine social distancing efforts and speed up the spread of the virus.

ADEN — Fourteen combatants died in Yemen on Saturday, as fighting between pro-government troops and separatist forces entered a sixth day in the southern province of Abyan, according to sources on both sides.

Separatist forces of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) are resisting an offensive by pro-government troops launched on the outskirts of Zinjibar, some 60 kilometres from the main southern city of Aden.

"Fourteen fighters, including ten pro-government soldiers, were killed on Saturday," a government military official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The toll was confirmed by a separatist military source, who also claimed the capture of "40 pro-government soldiers and the seizure of military equipment".

"They [pro-government soldiers] were unable to advance toward Zinjibar and they will only get there over our dead bodies," a separatist commander on the front line told AFP.

The offensive was being carried out by the military wing of the Islamist party Al Islah -- allied to the government -- according to several sources.

The fighting is the first major confrontation since the separatists declared self-rule in southern Yemen on 26 April, accusing the government of failing to carry out its duties and of "conspiring" against their cause.

At least ten fighters were killed and many were wounded on both sides in fighting on Monday.

The clashes complicate Yemen's war between the government -- backed by a Saudi-led military coalition -- and Iran-backed Houthi rebels who control much of the north, including the capital Sanaa.

The government and the STC have technically been allies in the long war against the Houthis.

But the separatists in the south, which used to be an independent country, have agitated to break away again -- a campaign that was temporarily put to rest with a power-sharing deal signed in Riyadh last November.

Over the past six years, the Yemen conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, and triggered what the United Nations considers to be the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

BEIRUT — Lebanon will gradually lift a coronavirus lockdown that has compounded its economic crisis, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Sunday, despite an uptick in cases that prompted a four-day lockdown.

Speaking on television, Diab said that the country would "reopen based on the five-stage plan" as of Monday, referring to a government roadmap aiming to completely lift restrictions by early June.

"We realise that continuing the lockdown has serious economic and social repercussions," he added. "We are trying, as much as we can, to minimise these repercussions."

Lebanon has recorded 911 cases of Covid-19, including 26 deaths.

The prime minister spoke on the last day of a four-day lockdown that went into force Wednesday night, following an uptick in infections.

He said the number of cases had spike late last week, increasing almost five-fold over a period of 10 days.

Prior to the four-day lockdown, restaurants and cafés had reopened at 30 per cent capacity, prayers had resumed at mosques and many people were back at work.

Diab also said that authorities will impose quarantines on "neighbourhoods and regions with high infections rates" to stem the spread of the virus.

Lebanon is in the thick of its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.

Forty-five per cent of Lebanon's population now lives below the poverty line, and tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs or seen salaries slashed because of the downturn.

The Lebanese pound -- pegged to the dollar at 1,500 since 1997 -- has seen its value plunge by more than half on the black market.

CAIRO — Egypt on Sunday announced a lengthening of its night-time curfew and other measures to prevent large gatherings during Eid Al Fitr holidays marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"All shops, malls, restaurants, entertainment facilities, beaches and public parks will be closed for six days from May 24-29," said Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli.

Public transport will be halted and the nationwide curfew in force from 5 pm during that period, he told a Cairo press conference.

During the fasting month of Ramadan, the curfew ran from 9 pm to 6 am.

Eid Al Fitr is normally marked by mass morning prayers, visits of family and friends and large gatherings in public spaces and parks.

Egypt has since late March banned prayer gatherings and suspended air traffic among other steps to slow the spread of coronavirus among the country's 100 million people.

The health ministry has so far recorded 11,719 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 612 fatalities.

On Sunday, the prestigious Islamic institution of Al Azhar urged worshippers to perform the Eid prayers at home.

Madbouli said the measures will be eased following the week of Eid celebrations and the curfew will start at 8 pm from May 30.

"People will be required to wear face masks in public, closed and crowded places," he said, adding that violators will face penalities, without elaborating.

Egypt has since early May allowed a gradual resumption of some suspended government services.

On Sunday, the premier said the government will announce relaxed restrictions on some activities including sports and the opening of restaurants with precautionary measures from mid-June.

Restaurants have been closed since late March, offering only delivery and take-away services.

Authorities have been carrying out sweeping disinfection operations at archaeological sites, museums and other sites across the country.

PARIS — More than 250 global artists and writers including rocker Peter Gabriel, director Ken Loach and actor Viggo Mortensen have appealed to Israel to stop the “siege” of Gaza, saying the coronavirus epidemic could have a devastating effect in “the world’s largest open air prison.”

“Long before the global outbreak of COVID-19 threatened to overwhelm the already devastated health care system in Gaza, the UN had predicted that the blockaded coastal strip would be unlivable by 2020,” the online letter said.

“With the pandemic, Gaza’s almost two million inhabitants, predominantly refugees, face a mortal threat in the world’s largest open-air prison,” it added.

Other signatories included poet Taha Adnan, Canadian writer Naomi Klein and British group Massive Attack.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007 when the Islamist movement Hamas started controlling the enclave.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since but reached a truce in late 2018 that was renewed after successive flare-ups last year.

“Well before the ongoing crisis, Gaza’s hospitals were already stretched to breaking point through lack of essential resources denied by Israel’s siege. Its health care system could not cope with the thousands of gunshot wounds, leading to many amputations,” the artists said.

“Reports of the first cases of coronavirus in densely-populated Gaza are therefore deeply disturbing,” they said.

“We back Amnesty International’s call on all world governments to impose a military embargo on Israel until it fully complies with its obligations under international law.”