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Jerusalem's usually bustling Old City becomes a ghost town: Reporter's Notebook_我的网站

A |     JERUSALEM -- It's a far cry from the usual hustle and bustle, so typical of Jerusalem's Old City.The steps of the Damascus Gate have been cleared out. Gone are the fruit and sumac vendors. And inside the Old City: rows and rows of shops have shut down."This is the worst days we've ever seen in our lives. Even when the corona[virus] was here it was better than this," said Adnan Jaffa, who runs the Jaffar Sweets shop. "Because of the war ... the situation. In five minutes we're going to close because there is nothing to do."For those who know the Old City, it's an eerie place to be. Even the Church of the Holy Sepulchre -- where Christ is believed to have been buried and resurrected -- was empty on Sunday but for a handful of worshippers. It felt like we were being given a private tour of one of the world's holiest and most visited sites.Ehab Barakat, who was cycling through the deserted Old City, was one of the few customers out there on the city's streets.Asked about the increasing tensions, he said: "We hope it will be quiet."He added, "This is the time to be united. One."But the latest cycle of violence has come has no surprise, he said."The new government of Israel … you would be stupid if you would not guess what is going to happen. And we are not stupid. We were just waiting for the time.""The people get so tied … like a balloon. With a lot of air inside. And then it will…"His English may have failed him -- but it seemed clear what he meant.Israeli police now stand at the entrance to the Damascus Gate, occasionally searching young men. Orthodox Jews occasionally wander through the Old City to worship at the Western Wall. But there is none of the fervour which people associate with Jerusalem. It's been replaced by a strange quiet.In the words of Abushadi Sinjlawi, another shopkeeper we found closing early for the day, "The city is under lockdown."But away from the eerie quiet and melancholy atmosphere in the Old City, the situation is tense. Jerusalem is said to be the most heavily policed city in the country, and that will likely remain the case as the war in the south rages on.Checkpoints have been set up across East Jerusalem. And videos are spreading online appearing to show the harassment of Palestinians at the hands of the police. Cars are being stopped and searched. There are videos of apparent police beatings. In sporadic, individual incidents where locals have clashed with police, the response appears to have been brute force.Already at least 50 Palestinians have been killed in East Jerusalem and the West Bank since the war broke out -- that's more than the highest ever monthly total since the UN began keeping records in 2005.。    Havana, Oct 20 (UNI) Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called on the US government to lift its decades-long trade embargo, or blockade, against the country.



"The US blockade has caused Cuba losses valued at 3.806 billion US dollars between August 2021 and February 2022," Rodriguez told a press conference in the country's capital Havana on Wednesday.



The call comes ahead of the Cuban government's annual submission to the UN General Assembly of a draft resolution calling for an end to the embargo. The General Assembly is scheduled to discuss and vote on the draft resolution in early November.



US trade sanctions, Rodriguez said, severely limit Cuba's access to food, medicine, technology and inputs on the international market.



"The world would be a better place without the US blockade against Cuba," he added.



First imposed in 1962, the embargo was broadened by former US President Donald Trump, who put in place 243 more sanctions, including banning all flights from the United States to Cuban destinations except for Havana, and capping remittances Cuban Americans can send to their families back home.



The current US administration allowed airlines to resume flights to other Cuban cities and lifted the cap on remittances, but the web of sanctions against Cuba remains largely in place.



For 29 times in a row, the UN General Assembly has voted in favor of the resolution urging the United States to end its embargo against Cuba.

UNI/XINHUA PRT。

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