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Displaced Gazan Marwan al-Masri, sheltering in Rafah, said on Wednesday “life has completely ceased” since Israeli tanks and troops entered the city’s east, sending desperate Palestinians fleeing north in the besieged territory.

More than 1.4 million people had crammed into Rafah, a city on the Gaza Strip’s southern border with Egypt, as Israeli forces pushed their way southward from the coastal territory’s north during months of war against Hamas militants.

Many in Rafah have been displaced multiple times during the seven-month war, and are now heading back north after Israeli forces called for the evacuation of the city’s eastern past, which hosts tens of thousands of people.

“Life has completely ceased in the downtown area of Rafah”, said 35-year-old Masri, who has been displaced from northern Gaza.

“The streets are empty of people, and markets are in a state of paralysis”, he told AFP.

“We all feel fear of any advancement in the invasion, as happened in the eastern areas, which are now completely empty of residents”.

Masri said he and his relatives “are all tense and frightened” by the incessant shelling that they feel is getting closer to them.

Ibtihal al-Arouqi, who was displaced from Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, said she has found herself once again homeless.

“We emerged from under the rubble of our house in Al-Bureij, and now due to intense shelling in Rafah, my children and I are in the street”, she said.

The 39-year-old said that only two weeks ago she gave birth by Caesarean section.

“We don’t know where to go. There is no safe place”, Arouqi added.

She spoke from west Rafah, where many Palestinians remain.

While it is relatively calmer than the city’s heavily bombarded east, the west has also been hit by shelling, an AFP journalist reported.

Both Arouqi and Masri said incessant shelling has filled the air with dust and smoke that make it hard to breathe.

“The situation in Rafah is chaotic,” said Mohammed Abu Mughaiseeb, a medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity in Rafah.

Himself displaced from Gaza City, he described “people carrying their things, mattresses, blankets, kitchen items on trucks” to flee east Rafah.

But “there’s no space anymore in the west of Rafah,” Abu Mughaiseeb told AFP.

The city’s Al-Najjar hospital was “closed, evacuated by the medical team to avoid what happened in Al-Shifa or Nasser”, he added, referring to two other Gaza medical facilities raided by Israeli forces during the course of the war.

– ‘No room’ –

Caught between Israeli shelling from the east, an Egyptian border to the south and the Mediterranean to the west, many fleeing Rafah went north.

They headed towards the nearby city of Khan Yunis as well as Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where thousands of tents filled up the coast.

Ahmed Fadel, 22, is one of many retracing his steps, returning to the northern parts of Gaza he had fled earlier on in the war.

Originally from Gaza City, he was first displaced to Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, and then ordered to leave when Israeli troops entered the nearby Al-Bureij camp.

“We left and moved to Rafah but they pummelled and threatened the city, so we came to Deir al-Balah — which is already crammed,” he told AFP.

AFP journalists witnessed long lines of displaced Palestinians fleeing Rafah on cars, trucks, donkey-pulled carts, tuk-tuks or by foot, carrying what belongings they could.

AFP footage on Wednesday showed thousands of tents and shelters packed along Deir al-Balah’s coastal area.

On the ground streets were packed with people unloading belongings or selling wares.

“Deir al-Balah is a small city”, local merchant Abdelmajid al-Kurd told AFP.

“It’s a very small town that is now extremely overcrowded”, he said.

“There’s no room or facilities to accommodate these people.”

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Israeli warplanes struck Gaza’s crowded southern city of Rafah Thursday after US President Joe Biden vowed to stop supplying artillery shells and other weapons to Israel if a full-scale assault goes ahead.

It was the starkest warning yet from the United States, Israel’s main military provider, over the civilian impact of its war against Hamas.

An AFP correspondent and witnesses on Thursday reported Israeli strikes on several parts of Rafah, where the United Nations said 1.4 million people were sheltering.

“The tanks and jets are striking,” Tarek Bahlul said on a deserted Rafah street. “Every minute you hear a rocket and you don’t know where it will land.”

Israel has already defied international objections by sending in tanks and conducting what it called “targeted raids” in the east of Rafah, the city it says is home to Hamas’s last remaining battalions.

The Hamas authorities’ “emergency committee” in Rafah dismissed as “nothing but lies” Israel’s description of its operation as “limited”.

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Biden warned he would stop some US weapons supplies to Israel if it carried out its long-threatened ground assault.

Israel on Thursday called Biden’s comments “very disappointing”.

Biden told CNN: “If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used… to deal with the cities.”

“We’re not gonna supply the weapons and the artillery shells that have been used.”

– Bomb delivery halted –

The fresh warning came after his administration paused delivery last week of 1,800 2,000-pound (907-kilo) bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs as Israel appeared ready to attack Rafah.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs,” Biden said. “It’s just wrong.”

Ties between the allies have become increasingly strained as Biden and other top Washington officials criticise Israel over its conduct of the war.

Pro-Palestinian protests have flared at universities across the United States with an intensity not seen for decades.

The Gaza war began with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

During their October attack militants seized some 250 hostages, of whom Israel estimates 128 remain in Gaza, including 36 who officials say are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,904 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

– Aid operations ‘crippled’ –

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said 80,000 people have fled Rafah since Monday, but “nowhere is safe”.

On Tuesday, Israel seized Rafah’s border crossing into Egypt, which had been the main entry point for aid.

The White House condemned the aid disruption, and the defence secretary later confirmed Washington had paused the bomb shipment.

In Israel’s first reaction to Biden’s threat, its UN ambassador Gilad Erdan called it a “very disappointing statement”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made no direct mention of the US threat but said in a statement: “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone.”

It has been his repeated refrain in recent days as both international and domestic criticism of his handling of the war have intensified.

Israel’s military said Wednesday it was reopening another aid crossing into Gaza, Kerem Shalom, as well as the Erez crossing into north Gaza.

But the head of the UN humanitarian office in the Palestinian territories, Andrea De Domenico, told AFP that military activity at Kerem Shalom made civilian aid deliveries practically impossible.

He said the closure of the Rafah crossing, the only one equipped for fuel deliveries, had effectively halted aid operations.

“In Gaza there are no stocks” of fuel, he said. That “means no movement. It is completely crippling the humanitarian operations.”

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini announced late Thursday that the agency was closing its east Jerusalem headquarters after the latest in a spate of attacks by “Israeli extremists” put its staff at “serious risk”.

Lazzarini said the compound would remain closed “until proper security is restored”.

– US aid ship leaves for Gaza –

A US container ship loaded with aid for Gaza left Cyprus Thursday in a new test of a maritime corridor to get relief into the besieged Palestinian territory, the Cyprus government said.

US military engineers have been assembling a temporary pier to unload aid deliveries but the work has been delayed by heavy seas.

“The platform is expected to be ready by the time the ship arrives in order for the aid to be unloaded and distributed to Palestinians in need,” Cyprus government spokesperson Yiannis Antoniou said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the pier will “significantly increase” the volume of aid reaching Gaza but said it was not a “substitute” for greater land access via Israel.

Hamas called for an end to aid airdrops Thursday after two Palestinians were killed when an aid pallet crashed into a warehouse after its parachute failed to open.

At least 21 people have now been killed in Gaza airdrops by Arab and Western air forces that have gone wrong, according to the Hamas authorities.

Israeli and Hamas negotiating teams left Cairo Thursday after what the Egyptian hosts described as a “two-day round” of indirect negotiations on the terms of a Gaza truce, Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News reported.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the head of the US delegation, CIA director Bill Burns was also headed home.

“That doesn’t mean there aren’t still ongoing discussions,” Kirby said.

“We still believe that there’s a path forward, but it’s going to take some leadership on both sides.”

At a makeshift refugee camp in Rafah, Mazen al-Shami said she was fed up.

“We have no money and we don’t have the means to move from one place to another again and again. We have no means at all,” Shami said.

burs-kir/hkb

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Oil tanks

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Crude oil inventories in the US fell lower than analyst estimates last week, while gasoline and distillate stocks rose.

Crude oil inventories in the US declined by 1.4 million barrels in the week ended May 3, compared to estimates for 1 million barrels, data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed.

Meanwhile, gasoline stocks were up by 900,000 barrels. Distillate stocks also increased by about 600,000 barrels.

US Crude & Derivatives Inventories (mln barrels)
Item	Last Year	Last Week	Current	Weekly Change
Crude Oil	462.6	460.9	459.5	(1.4)
Gasoline	219.7	227.1	228.0	+0.9
Distillates	106.2	115.9	116.4	+0.6

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Updated

May 09, 2024, 11:45 AM

Published

May 09, 2024, 11:30 AM

A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire and damaged several storage tanks at a fuel depot in Russia’s Krasnodar region, the region’s crisis administration said on Thursday.

About six drones were destroyed and debris fell on the refinery near the village of Yurovka, the administration said on the Telegram messaging app.

“Several tanks were damaged,” the administration said, adding no one was injured in the attack.

Drone attacks on energy facilities inside Russia’s territory have become more frequent in the past few months. Kyiv officials say that they conduct the attacks to undermine Russia’s war effort and respond to Moscow’s strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

The oil depot was last attacked on May 2, according to Russian state media. REUTERS

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Almost half of all septic tanks inspected last year failed, posing risks to human health and the environment.

This is despite a more than doubling of the grant available to fix faulty systems.

It has led to calls from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for increased enforcement, and prosecutions where warranted, to secure repairs and to protect the environment and public health.

The details are contained in the EPA’s Domestic Waste Water Treatment System Inspections 2023 report.

Domestic wastewater treatment systems, mostly septic tanks, are used by householders to treat sewage. There are nearly half a million such systems in Ireland.

The EPA’s national inspection plan requires local authorities to complete a minimum of 1,200 septic tank inspections annually, particularly those located near rivers and in areas where septic tanks are co-located with household drinking water wells, and which are most at risk of contamination by faulty septic tanks.

The inspections report shows that of the 1,189 systems inspected last year, 532 failed because they were not built or maintained properly.

Where an inspection is failed, local authorities issue advisory notices to householders setting out what is required to fix the problem.

Enforcement

However, the report shows that there were 576 cases where issues notified to the owners of septic tanks over two years previously had still not been addressed. 

This is despite the septic tank remediation grant increasing from €5,000 to €12,000.

The report also shows that local authorities took just eight legal cases last year against householders for alleged failure to resolve faulty sewage treatment systems, with 95% of all legal actions taken by just four local authorities — Wexford, Kerry, Mayo, and Limerick.

The report says the enforcement of advisory notices by local authorities is inconsistent, with significant numbers of failures combined with a low level of resolution found in Waterford, Roscommon, and Kilkenny.

Dr Tom Ryan, the director of the EPA’s office of environmental enforcement, said faulty septic tanks are a risk to human health and the environment and must be fixed.

The grant presents “a significant opportunity” for householders to fix their septic tanks and resolve open advisory notices, he said.

“It is critical that householders protect their family’s health and the environment by fixing the problems identified, drawing on the enhanced grants now available,” he said.

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Key Points

• Gaza health officials say Israeli tanks have moved into Jabalia
• Israel says the operation was to prevent Hamas from regrouping
• Families continue to flee Rafah after new evacuation orders

Israel sent tanks into eastern Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip after a night of heavy aerial and ground bombardments, killing 19 people and wounding dozens of others, Palestinian health officials said.

The death toll in Israel’s military operation in Gaza has now passed at least 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The bombardment has laid waste to the coastal enclave and caused a deep humanitarian crisis.

Israel has bombarded Gaza since

, according to the Israeli government.

The 7 October attack was a significant escalation in the

Israel says 620 soldiers have been killed in the fighting, more than half of them during the initial Hamas assault.

Jabalia is the biggest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps and is home to more than 100,000 people, most of whom were descendants of Palestinians who were driven from towns and villages in what is now Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that led to the creation the state of Israel.

The Israeli military said forces operating in Jabalia were preventing Hamas, which rules Gaza, from re-establishing its military capabilities there.

Israeli military’s spokesperson Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters Israeli forces operating in Gaza City’s Zeitoun district killed about 30 Palestinian militants.

Israeli forces thrust deep into Jabalia camp, deeper than the first time when they invaded northern Gaza, with tanks close to the local market, residents said.

“They were bombing everywhere, including near schools that are housing people who lost their houses,” Jabalia resident Saed, 45, told Reuters via a chat app. “War is restarting, this is how it looks in Jabalia.”

The army sent tanks back into Zeitoun, as well as al-Sabra, where residents also reported heavy bombardments that destroyed several houses, including high-rise residential buildings.

The army had claimed to have gained control of most of these areas months ago.

The Israeli Defence Forces said air sirens had sounded in the southern Kerem Shalom area and it had successfully intercepted two rockets launched from the vicinity of Rafah.

Palestinians search for bodies and survivors among the rubble of the Jabalia refugee camp. Source: AAP / Mohammed Saber

It said there were no injuries and no damage reported.

Sirens sounded in the Israeli city of Ashkelon as a result of incoming rocket fire from Gaza, which signalled militants there were still able to launch rocket attacks after over seven months of war.

Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV said on its telegram account, the rockets were launched from Jabalia, despite the active army raid.

The armed wing of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their fighters attacked Israeli forces in several areas inside Gaza with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, including in Rafah, previously the Palestinians’ last refuge where more than a million people were sheltering.

On Sunday, more families, estimated in the thousands, were leaving Rafah as the Israeli military pressure intensified.

Israel’s military said it had opened a new crossing in northern Gaza, called “Western Erez”, to transfer humanitarian aid to the strip.

Burai, a Palestinian businessman, said the Palestinians had been abandoned by the world, with world powers failing to end hostilities and international mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire collapsing over Hamas and Israel disputes.

Egypt’s foreign minister Sameh Shoukri said Cairo would continue its mediation between Israel and Hamas and urged the two sides to show the flexibility and the will needed to reach a deal.

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Huettenhoelscher & Sascha Schuermann/Getty & undefined

Nations began building tanks during WWI; since then, tanks have dominated battlefields worldwide. While many nations produce their own tanks, far more purchase or receive tanks from other countries and modify them. This is certainly true of Germany’s Leopard 1 and 2 Main Battle Tanks (MBT). The Leopard 1 and 2 are relatively old compared to some of the tanks operating today, but that doesn’t make them any less deadly. 

Because their development began in the mid to late 20th century, the Leopard 1 and 2 are often considered legacy models when compared to today’s modern armor. While this is a factor, both Leopard models have an extensive track record of success in modern conflicts. Several nations used them in support of NATO operations in Afghanistan, and each model succeeded in taking on a variety of threats. This was possible thanks to Germany’s modernization program and the fact that the Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 are beasts on the battlefield.

While newer tank models exist, both versions of Germany’s Leopard MBT are incredibly versatile and deadly on the battlefield. The tanks are very similar, but their design has several notable differences; the many upgrades they’ve each had over the years and their operational combat histories differentiate the Leopard 1 from the Leopard 2. Despite their age, both tank models are equally deadly war machines that are more than capable of taking on comparable older models and contemporary armor employed throughout the world.

What is the Leopard 1?

Huettenhoelscher/Getty Images

The Leopard 1 entered active service in 1965, so it’s an old tank, to be sure. That said, like most Western nations, Germany continued developing its Leopard 1 MBTs throughout their service history, and they’ve been significantly upgraded to keep pace with more modern designs. The tank’s design traded heavier armor for greater lethality, making it fast, agile, versatile, and powerful, and more than 6,400 rolled off assembly lines over the decades.

Germany’s Leopard 1 program saw the system updated five times, making the Leopard 1A5 the current operational platform. This upgrade swapped the turret, moved the ammunition stores, included two new sights, improved ammunition, and introduced polycarbonate armor panels to ensure the Leopard 1A5 maintained dominance on the battlefield. The tank’s primary gun is a 105 mm rifled Royal Ordinance L7 accompanied by two machine guns.

Since its introduction, numerous nations purchased Leopard 1 MBTs, though Germany phased them out to make way for the Leopard 2. Despite this, they’re still used in utility roles in Germany and in combat operations by other nations, which now include Ukraine. While it’s easy to assume an older model tank like the Leopard 1A5 isn’t comparable to its successor, it has an operational history that cements its status.

What is the Leopard 2?

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Germany began producing the successor to the Leopard 1 in 1978 and had produced over 3,500 as of January 2023. The Leopard 2 MBT is a highly sought-after weapon system operated by numerous European allies and Canada. The Leopard 2 incorporates numerous modern advances initially absent in its predecessor. These include appliqué armor, a digital fire control system, enhanced night vision and other optical capabilities, and a 120 mm smoothbore cannon capable of firing modern armor-piercing and high explosive ordnance.

Like its predecessor, the Leopard 2 MBT has undergone numerous upgrades to keep it combat-capable in the 21st century. After all, its development began in the early 1970s, so it’s been around for a while. Tanks upgraded to the current Leopard 2A5 altered the shape of the turret, included upgraded composite armor capable of stopping various forms of impact, improved optics, and its main gun has increased pressure, upping its lethality.

Leopard 2s are battle-tested, having served various nations in operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere, so they’re a proven commodity. Thanks to modernization efforts, the Leopard 2A5’s continued use in combat makes it as reliable as it is lethal. That said, Germany will phase out the Leopard 2 in the near future, making way for another German MBT. Until that happens, the Leopard 2 will continue operations in Ukraine and elsewhere throughout the West.

The verdict

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

It’s easy enough to say the Leopard 2 is the more advanced tank, but that doesn’t necessarily make it better. Battle performance is a significant factor in determining a weapon system’s viability, and the Leopard 2’s combat record has been spotty in recent conflicts, while the Leopard 1’s function in combat excelled. Though the Leopard 2’s performance history has generally been positive, several factors weaken its ability to operate successfully when compared to the Leopard 1.

A significant problem for the Leopard 2 has been making and maintaining parts to keep the tanks operational. The more complex the tank, the more challenging it is to keep it rolling, and a lack of spare parts to replace and repair the Leopard 2 has hindered its combat effectiveness. Conversely, the Leopard 1 doesn’t have as much of a problem in this area, so simply being able to operate for extended periods gives the Leopard 1 a leg-up over its successor.

That said, the Leopard 2’s main gun and its armor are superior to the Leopard 1, though experiments mounting the Leopard 2’s gun to the Leopard 1 can eliminate the advantage. This effectively levels the playing field, so looking at everything from each model’s combat performance, the ability to keep them operational in adverse and austere conditions, and their survivability on the battlefield, the Leopard 1 takes the lead. Ultimately, the Leopard 1’s maintenance capabilities give it the edge, though this should favor the Leopard 2 as time passes.

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Russian forces in Ukraine have lost 54 tanks and more than 4,400 soldiers since Sunday, according to data released Friday by Kyiv’s military.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that in addition to 4,410 casualties, Russia also lost 100 armored fighting vehicles, 137 artillery systems and 143 drones during the same period.

According to Ukraine’s tally, Russia has lost a total of 479,710 troops since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion on February 24, 2022. Putin’s military has also lost 7,434 tanks, 14,313 armored fighting vehicles and 9,826 drones during the course of the war.

Newsweek has not been able to verify these figures independently, and the Russian Ministry of Defense was contacted on Friday night via email for comment.

Tallies for Russian casualties have been difficult to confirm throughout the war, and Ukraine’s figures are higher than many other estimates. The Kremlin rarely releases its own numbers, and when it does, the figures are thought to be undercounted.

Kyiv’s latest figures on Russian losses come as Putin’s forces launched a new cross-border offensive into northeastern Ukraine on Friday. Military analysts have said the new offensive could signal the start of a new major operation from Moscow’s military.

The Associated Press (AP) reported that Kharkiv’s regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said overnight strikes hit the city of Vovchansk, which lies approximately 3 miles from the Russian border.

“The barrage, which used powerful guided aerial bombs, artillery, rockets, tanks and mortars, killed at least one civilian and wounded five others, prompting authorities to begin evacuating about 3,000 people,” the AP wrote.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said Russian infantry attempted to break through Kyiv’s defenses near Vovchansk, but they were reportedly met with Ukrainian reserve units.

In a Friday address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his military will deploy additional forces to Kharkiv.

“Today, Russian troops tried to expand operations against Ukraine. We are aware of the size of the invaders’ forces and see their plan. Our soldiers, our artillery, our drones are retaliating against the invaders,” Zelensky said, according to a translation by Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda. “I am grateful to each of our soldiers, each sergeant, each officer who are defending our positions in the best way possible.”

The president continued, “We are adding more troops to Kharkiv fronts. Both along our state border and along the entire front line, we will invariably destroy the invaders to disrupt any Russian offensive intentions.”

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby on Friday acknowledged to reporters that the attacks at Ukraine’s northeastern border may be the beginning of a larger offensive.

“It is certainly possible that the Russians are setting themselves up for a larger assault on Kharkiv,” Kirby said. “… It is very interesting and certainly concerning that they now appear to be setting themselves up to—at the very least—use long-range fires to try to range into Kharkiv. And one has to presume that you’re not going to do that if you’re not also thinking about some other larger assault directly on the city.”

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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• Photos
• Russia’s Victory Day Parade
• Drafting Ukrainian Convicts
• Zelensky Assassination Plot

Analysts say Ukraine is trying to disrupt the Russian military’s logistical routes and combat operations by targeting the facilities that supply fuel for its tanks, ships and fighter jets.

Ukrainian drones struck two oil depots and a refinery across Russia in a 24-hour period, including one deep in Russian territory, officials on both sides said Thursday, as Kyiv presses a campaign aimed at hampering the country’s military operations and putting strain on its most important industry.

Radiy Khabirov, the head of Russia’s Bashkiria region, near Kazakhstan, said a drone hit the Neftekhim Salavat oil refinery, one of the country’s largest, around midday on Thursday, sending plumes of smoke into the sky. The facility is more than 700 miles from the Ukrainian border, in a sign that Ukraine is increasingly capable of striking further into Russia.

An official from Ukraine’s special services, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters, said Ukraine was behind the assault. The official said Ukraine was also responsible for two other drone strikes overnight that hit oil depots in Russia’s Krasnodar region, southeast of Ukraine.

The strikes follow some 20 similar attacks since the beginning of the year. Military analysts say they are an attempt by Ukraine to disrupt the Russian military’s logistical routes and combat operations by targeting the facilities that supply fuel for its tanks, ships and planes.

Ukrainian officials also hope the strikes can undermine the Russian energy complex, which is at the core of the country’s economy and war effort — accounting for about a third of Russia’s federal budget revenue — although it is too early to say whether they can have any serious impact.

The United States government has publicly urged Kyiv to stop its attacks on Russian oil refineries out of concern that they could affect global oil markets.

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Inside his Abu Dhabi gastro pub, Chad McGehee inspects shiny steel tanks fermenting a special brew: the first beer made in the conservative Arab Gulf, where alcohol has long been taboo.

The 42-year-old American is one of the founders of Craft pub in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the only licensed microbrewery in a region that is generally as dry as its desert climate.

As they seek to overhaul their image and economies in preparation for a post-oil future, some Gulf petro-states are relaxing alcohol restrictions, with entrepreneurs such as McGehee looking to benefit from the changes.

Just a few hours’ drive from Abu Dhabi lies Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, which has just one licensed alcohol store, open only to non-Muslim foreign diplomats.

Alcohol sales are heavily restricted in Oman and Qatar and are outright banned in Kuwait, and in Sharjah, one of the UAE’s seven emirates and a neighbour to cosmopolitan Dubai.

“We hope that we can make Abu Dhabi a destination people come to for beer, like Germany, New York or San Diego,” McGehee told AFP on a recent visit to Craft, as patrons sipped beer nearby.

“We want to be part of that.”

The UAE has steadily loosened laws around alcohol. Last year, Dubai scrapped a 30 percent tax on alcohol and removed charges on the permits that allow non-Muslims to use its licensed stores.

In 2021, Abu Dhabi became the only emirate to allow licensed venues to brew on-site, stipulating that the beer be served only on the premises.

Rules are slowly changing elsewhere: Saudi Arabia opened its store in the capital Riyadh this year, prompting speculation it may further relax alcohol laws in the future.

However, Tourism Minister Ahmed Al Khateeb told AFP last month that the national ban will remain in place.

– ‘Whatever we find at the souq’ –

McGehee founded Side Hustle Brews and Spirits in 2019, at that point offering the UAE’s first home-branded — albeit imported — beer.

After Abu Dhabi allowed brewing, he co-founded Craft, which offers between eight and 14 beers at a time, many of them rich in local flavours such as karak tea, a popular drink in the Gulf.

“Whatever we find at the local souq (market), we try to make something out of it,” McGehee said at Craft, where beer taps are linked directly to the brewing tanks.

“We have used local honey, local dates, and coffee… we have another (beer) that uses black tea and saffron and cardamom,” added McGehee, referring to the ingredients of karak tea.

In the UAE, whose population of around 10 million is 90 percent foreign, the sale and consumption of alcohol was once confined to hotel bars frequented by expatriates.

According to Alexandre Kazerouni, associate professor at France’s Ecole Normale Superieure, the Gulf monarchies began to skew heavily towards conservatism and a commitment to religion after Iran’s shah was toppled in the Islamic revolution of 1979.

It was only in the 2000s that Abu Dhabi, the dominant emirate in a country with more than 9,000 mosques, began to cultivate a more liberal image, gradually relaxing social curbs including those around alcohol, which is forbidden in some interpretations of Islam.

The change of alcohol regulations “breaks with the bans that were consolidated in the ’80s and ’90s,” Kazerouni said.

“There is competition… with Qatar and Saudi Arabia over who will embody change in the region,” he added.

– Party hub –

Abu Dhabi, which aims to attract nearly 40 million tourists by 2030, up from 24 million last year, is also competing with Dubai, renowned as the UAE’s holiday and party hub which commands a higher international profile.

Craft customer Andrew Burgess, a Briton who has lived in the UAE for 17 years, said he has watched the country transform before his eyes.

When he first moved there, expatriates were barred from eating or drinking in public during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.

“To come to a bar, you had to go at night-time after everything was covered,” he said.

All that has since changed, but Western attitudes towards Gulf countries have yet to catch up.

“If I go back to England, my friends say ‘How do you live in a Muslim country? Your wife must be suppressed and you can’t drink’,” Burgess told AFP.

Microbreweries like Craft “will just open their eyes”, he added.

“It’s about reconstructing people’s mindsets.”

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