Bamiyan officials said this week that an Italian organization, Vento, in collaboration with the University of Florence in Italy, will build 100 houses for local cave dwellers.

The cost of the project will total $300,000 and work on the houses will start soon, officials said.

For hundreds of years people have lived in the caves, situated around the giant Buddha niches carved out of sandstone cliffs. Currently some estimates say there are about 700 families who call caves their home.

But for years, the situation has been a concern for authorities, especially as the cliffs form part of the Bamiyan UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Officials and experts have said that the longer the caves are occupied, the more damage is done to the site, as families install front doors and windows, build makeshift extensions, and rig up satellite dishes and solar panels.

In a meeting this week with the Bamiyan governor Abdullah Sarhadi, visiting Italian officials from Vento and the university said the houses will be modern and that upgrades will also be done to Zargaran town, in the center of Bamiyan.

The officials said this includes improvements to roads, to alleys and to control of water.

Sarhadi welcomed the initiative and said he supports initiatives on the development and implementation of infrastructure projects in the province.

This project will meanwhile be implemented under the full supervision of the Department of Urban Development and Housing in Bamiyan Province.

Mawlavi Abdul Kabir, the political deputy prime minister, visited the Iranian embassy in Kabul on Wednesday to pay his respects over the passing of President Ebrahim Raisi.

Kabir signed the condolence book at the embassy after expressing his condolences on the death of Raisi and other officials who were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday.

During his visit, Kabir said: “The Islamic Emirate and the people of Afghanistan consider themselves partners with the Islamic Republic of Iran and its people in this great sadness.”

He added: “Ebrahim Raisi had established good relations [with Afghanistan] and it is hoped that the friendly relations between Afghanistan and Iran will be further strengthened from now on.”

U.S. President Joe Biden believes a Palestinian state should be achieved through negotiations, not unilateral recognition, the White House said on Wednesday after Ireland, Spain and Norway said they would recognize a Palestinian state this month, Reuters reported.

Washington’s reaction appeared to signal U.S. dismay that the three European nations announced an intent to proceed with unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, which does not exist in practice.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told a regular news briefing each country could make its own decision on recognition of a Palestinian state, but that Biden thinks direct negotiations by the parties is the best approach.

“President Biden believes that a two-state solution that guarantees Israel’s security and also a future of dignity and security for the Palestinian people is the best way to bring about long-term security and stability for everyone in the region,” Sullivan said.

“President Biden … has been equally emphatic on the record that that two-state solution should be brought about through direct negotiations through the parties, not for unilateral recognition.”

Sullivan had been asked if the United States was concerned that other nations might follow suit in recognizing a Palestinian state. He said the U.S. would communicate its consistent position to partners “see what unfolds.”

WAR IN GAZA

Decades of U.S. efforts have failed to achieve a “two-state solution” with Israel living alongside a Palestinian state encompassing the West Bank, ruled by the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Gaza, ruled by the Hamas Islamist movement since it seized the coastal strip from the PA in a brief 2007 civil war, read the report.

Israel began an offensive in Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli figures.

More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since then, health officials in the Hamas-run enclave say.

Israel is now attacking Rafah in southern Gaza, saying it wants to root out Hamas militants. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled Rafah since the start of the assault, and the main access routes for aid into Gaza have been blocked, Reuters reported.

Sullivan said he was briefed on Israeli plans to minimize civilian harm in Rafah during a weekend visit to the region, and Washington will track whether the assault causes widespread death and destruction or is more precise and proportional.

“We now have to see what unfolds from here,” he said.

He said aid was flowing in from a pier in Gaza, and that it was wrong for Israel to withhold funds from the West Bank.

The Biden administration also hopes to broker an arrangement leading Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize relations. As part of that process, Saudi Arabia has demanded the Gaza conflict end and a path to a Palestinian state, something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be likely to find hard to accept.