27/02/2026

FRIDAY | FEB 27, 2026 9 New aid flotilla to set sail for Gaza in April ISTANBUL: A new Freedom and Resilience Flotilla of humanitarian aid for Palestinians will set sail for the Gaza Strip from Barcelona on April 12, according to the organisers, said Sputnik/RIA Novosti. In October, the Israeli navy intercepted ships bringing aid to the enclave and detained activists for deportation. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Israel’s actions were “an act of piracy“, stressing that the attack on peaceful activists was a gross violation of international law. The new flotilla will include about 100 ships and boats with activists from about 150 countries, the organisers estimated. The flotilla is scheduled to make stops in Italy, Tunisia and several Mediterranean ports. On Wednesday, Dilek Tekocak, a spokesperson for Turkish activists, told a press conference in Istanbul that humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain dire despite the ceasefire, during which 477 Palestinians have been killed. “This is not just a humanitarian aid campaign that arose after existing international mechanisms proved unsuccessful. It is also peaceful civil resistance to an illegal blockade on a global scale.“ At a separate event, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrived on Wednesday in Jordan, where they met Syrian refugees at the Zaatari camp and Palestinian children evacuated from Gaza. King Charles III’s younger son and his wife “met young refugees and joined children in football, art and music”, the United Nations (UN) refugee agency UNHCR said in a post on X. Jordan opened the Zaatari camp located north of Amman in 2012, a year into the war in neighbouring Syria, to host people fleeing the conflict. Today it is home to some 45,000 refugees. The UN said about 680,000 Syrians were registered in Jordan from 2011, although the kingdom said it welcomed 1.3 million. Some 200,000 Syrians went back to their country after the ouster of former president Bashar al-Assad in late 2024. Invited to Jordan by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Prince Harry and his wife also visited a hospital in Amman, where they met children evacuated for medical reasons from Gaza, ravaged by more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas. The couple’s office said the two-day visit was to “focus on humanitarian health response, mental health and support for vulnerable communities affected by conflict and displacement”. In a statement released by WHO, Prince Harry said: “We remain deeply committed to advancing awareness, reducing stigma and expanding access to mental health support for all those affected by conflict and crisis.” The couple stepped back from royal duties and moved to California in 2020 over rifts with the royal family and concerns about Meghan’s treatment by the British press. – AFP

Russia raises questions on Board of Peace

buildings, a smashed balcony window in a high-rise and a blaze at a two-storey house. No casualties were reported, and emergency crews and investigators worked to secure the sites and document the damage. The bombardment extended well beyond the capital. In the northeast city of Kharkiv and a nearby village, 14 individuals were wounded, among them a seven-year-old boy, said regional chief Oleg Synegubov. Towards the south, Zaporizhzhia also came under heavy fire. Regional head Ivan Fedorov said seven people were wounded following strikes that damaged 19 apartment blocks, four houses and other buildings. In Kryvyi Rig in the Dnipropetrovsk region, two people were wounded, according to Dnipropetrovsk region chief Oleksandr Ganzha. – Reuters

Its will wield extensive executive power, including the ability to veto decisions and remove members, subject to some constraints. In another development, Russian strikes in Ukraine wounded 23 individuals, officials said yesterday, ahead of talks between Ukrainian and US negotiators in Geneva aimed at ending the war. Washington is pushing to bring an end to the conflict, which has left hundreds of thousands dead, displaced millions and destroyed swathes of territory. The Ukrainian air force reported high-speed targets heading towards the capital shortly before Kyiv’s military administration head Tymur Tkachenko said Russia was striking the city with drones and ballistic missiles. Kyiv police said debris sparked fires and damage in three districts, including fires at non-residential chairman Trump

board. Other council members are Russia, China, Britain and France. “The charter of the Board of Peace defines itself as a new international structure designed to replace ‘mechanisms that have too often proved ineffective’,” said Russian Foreign Ministry official Kirill Logvinov. The Board’s mandate never mentions Gaza, said the Foreign Ministry International Organisations Department director. “It is clear that this approach raises questions about how the Board of Peace will coexist with the UN and its Security Council, which is the only universally recognised body for maintaining international peace and security.” He said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has not been invited to the Board’s meetings. The Board’s charter says it will undertake “peace-building functions in accordance with international law”.

o Group’s mandate never mentions Gaza: Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW: yesterday

Russia

questioned

how President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace would work with the United Nations (UN) Security Council, which has served as the fulcrum of collective international peacemaking since the end of World War II. Trump first proposed the board in September, when he unveiled his plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza. Later, he said its remit would expand to address other conflicts globally, efforts traditionally overseen by the UN. The United States is the only permanent member of the UN Security Council to have joined the US

Ukrainian firm opens drone factory in UK LONDON: Ukrainian drone Other Ukrainian

The UK has purchased 80 of these for Ukrainian forces. “Ukrspecsystems’ new factory is a vote of confidence in UK support and underlines the cooperation between our nations’ defence industries,“ added British Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard, who inaugurated the site on Wednesday. – AFP

defence companies have opened or have plans for production sites in Europe, such as in Denmark and Germany. It was unclear what type of drones would be produced at the United Kingdom (UK) factory but the company, founded in 2014, notably manufactures surveillance drones.

project, which includes a production facility in Mildenhall and a testing site in Elmsett, both in eastern England, the Defence Ministry said. “This factory delivers what matters... secure supply, secure resource and sustained support for Ukraine,“ said Ukrspecsystems UK director Rory Chamberlain.

manufacturer Ukrspecsystems has opened a new factory in England that is expected to help secure supplies of the vital equipment needed by the Ukrainian army, the British government said yesterday. The company has invested £200 million (RM1.05 billion) in the

Israeli restrictions hamper NGO operations

ISTANBUL: The government in Gaza has warned that restrictions imposed by Israel are putting the operations of US-based non-profit organisation World Central Kitchen at risk of suspension, Anadolu Ajansi reported. The Government Media Office in Gaza said reports have emerged indicating that World Central Kitchen may halt its activities in the coming days, adding that the situation appears to stem from “serious obstacles imposed by Israel on the ground”. It said the restrictions have become evident through a reduction in the number of aid trucks permitted to enter daily with food supplies, falling from 25 to five. Officials said the decrease has weakened the organisation’s operational capacity and threatens the continuity of food services relied upon by thousands of people each day. The office also said pressure has been identified as the purchase of raw materials from inside Israel instead of relying on shipments previously delivered from Egypt. This shift alters the nature of the humanitarian supply chain, increases costs and creates additional barriers to maintaining aid operations under existing mechanisms, it added. Calling on journalists and media organisations to approach the issue with professional responsibility, it urged coverage that reflects the humanitarian dimension in a balanced manner “without exaggeration or causing public panic”, emphasising

A Palestinian family breaking fast amid the ruins of a building near the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza. – AFPPIC that the root cause of a potential crisis lies in restrictions on the entry of aid. It added that continued limitations on humanitarian deliveries could push the Gaza Strip into a deeper crisis and stressed that responsibility for preventing such an outcome rests with Israel, accusing it of “restricting humanitarian aid in violation of international humanitarian law provisions and its obligations towards civilians”. World Central Kitchen has previously said it provides roughly one million free meals daily in Gaza amid severe humanitarian conditions and

widespread food shortages. It added that operations could not continue indefinitely without a regular and sustainable flow of aid, stressing the need for safe and consistent humanitarian access to deliver food supplies from Egypt into Gaza. – Bernama-Anadolu