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Recent Appearances...

International-UN-NGOs

Trump’s sanctions on ICC prosecutor said to have halted tribunal’s work

2025-05-16

[IsraelTimes] Key organizations paused cooperation with International Criminal Court, chief prosecutor Karim Khan lost email access; US measures response to arrest warrants issued for Israeli leaders

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has lost access to his email, and his bank accounts have been frozen.

The Hague-based court’s American staffers have been told that if they travel to the US they risk arrest.

Some non-governmental organizations have stopped working with the ICC and the leaders of one won’t even reply to emails from court officials.

Those are just some of the hurdles facing court staff since US President Donald Trump
...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party...
in February slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, according to interviews with current and former ICC officials, international lawyers and human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
advocates.

The sanctions will "prevent victims from getting access to justice," warned Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

Trump sanctioned the court after a panel of ICC judges in November issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his then-defense minister, Yoav Gallant. The US and Israel are not members of the court.

Judges found there was reason to believe that the pair may have committed war crimes by restricting humanitarian aid

and intentionally targeting civilians in Israel’s campaign against the Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
terror group in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
— charges Israeli officials deny.

Israel says it goes to great lengths to avoid harming civilians as it targets Hamas and other terror groups who have built a warren of fortified tunnels under Gaza and routinely use civilian infrastructure like schools and hospitals as command centers and to carry out attacks.

Staffers and allies of the ICC said the sanctions have made it increasingly difficult for the tribunal to conduct basic tasks, let alone seek justice for victims of war crimes or genocide.

A spokesperson for the ICC and for Khan declined to comment. In February, ICC President Judge Tomoko Akane said that the sanctions "constitute serious attacks against the Court’s States Parties, the rule of law based international order and millions of victims."

ORDER TARGETS CHIEF PROSECUTOR
The February order bans Khan and other non-Americans among the ICC’s 900 staff members from entering the United States. It also threatens any person, institution or company with fines and prison time if they provide Khan with "financial, material, or technological support."

The sanctions are hampering work on a broad array of investigations, not just the one into Israel’s leaders.

The ICC, for example, had been investigating atrocities in Sudan
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
and had issued arrest warrants for former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir
...Former President-for-Life of Sudan. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself head cheese. He fell out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. He was overthrown by popular consent in 2019. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it...
on charges that include genocide. That probe has ground to a halt even as reports mount of new atrocities in Sudan, according to an attorney representing an ICC prosecutor who is fighting the sanctions in US courts. The prosecutor, Eric Iverson, filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking protection from the sanctions.

Her client "cannot do, what I would describe as, basic lawyer functions," said Allison Miller, who is representing Iverson in the suit.

American staffers at the organization, like Iverson, have been warned by its attorneys that they risk arrest if they return home to visit family, according to ICC officials. Six bigwigs have left the court over concerns about sanctions.

One reason the court has been hamstrung is that it relies heavily on contractors and non-governmental organizations. Those businesses and groups have curtailed work on behalf of the court because they were concerned about being targeted by US authorities, according to current and former ICC staffers.

Microsoft, for example, cancelled Khan’s email address, forcing the prosecutor to move to Proton Mail, a Swiss email provider, ICC staffers said. His bank accounts in his home country of the United Kingdom have been blocked.

Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.

Staffers at a non-governmental organization that plays an integral role in the court’s efforts to gather evidence and find witnesses said the group has transferred money out of US bank accounts because they fear it might be seized by the Trump administration.

Senior leadership at two other US-based human rights organizations told the AP that their groups have stopped working with the ICC. A senior staffer at one told the AP that employees have even stopped replying to emails from court officials out of fear of triggering a response from the Trump administration.

The cumulative effect of such actions has led ICC staffers to openly wonder whether the organization can survive the Trump administration, according to ICC officials who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.

Said one such official: "It’s hard to see how the court makes it through the next four years."

TRUMP ALLEGED ICC&RSQUO;S ACTIONS WERE BASELESS
Trump, a staunch supporter of Netanyahu, issued his sanctions order shortly after retaking office, accusing the ICC of "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel." Washington says the court has no jurisdiction over Israel.

Trump’s order said the ICC’s "actions against Israel and the United States set a dangerous precedent, directly endangering current and former United States personnel, including active service members of the Armed Forces." He said the court’s "malign conduct" threatens "the illusory sovereignty of the United States and undermines the critical national security and foreign policy work of the United States Government."

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Netanyahu has dismissed the ICC’s allegations as "absurd," and Israel’s Knesset is considering legislation that would make providing evidence to the court a crime.

Israel launched its offensive after Hamas-led turbans stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 as hostages to Gaza. Of those, 57, over half of whom are believed dead, are still in captivity, plus the body of a soldier held for the past decade.

COPING WITH DARK HUMOR
Inside the court, staffers have been coping with dark humor, joking about how they cannot even loan Khan a pen or risk appearing on the US radar.

This is not the first time the ICC has drawn Trump’s ire. In 2020, the former Trump administration sanctioned Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, and one of her deputies over the court’s investigation into alleged crimes committed in Afghanistan while the United States military was operating in the country.

US president Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. Joe's wife and daughter weren't killed by a drunk driver. He didn't graduate with three or even two degrees, wasn't in the top half of his law class, and his daddy didn't come home from a hard day's work in the mines and play football with the guys. The NAACP hasn't endorsed him every time he's run....
rescinded the sanctions when he took office several months later.

Three lawsuits are now pending from US court staff and consultants against the Trump administration, arguing that the sanctions infringe on their freedom of expression. Earlier this week Iverson, the lawyer investigating genocide in Sudan, won temporary protection from prosecution but if other US citizens at the court want a similar assurance, they would have to bring their own complaint.

Meanwhile,
...back at the abandoned silver mine, a triangular dorsal fin appeared in the water. Then another...
the court is facing an increasing lack of cooperation from countries normally considered to be its staunchest supporters.

The ICC has no enforcement apparatus of its own and relies on member states. In the last year, three countries — including two in the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
— have refused to execute warrants issued by the court.

The renewed assault from the Trump administration comes as the court was already facing internal challenges. Last year, just weeks before Khan announced he was requesting arrest warrants for the Israeli officials, two court staff reported the British barrister had harassed a female aide, according to reporting by the News Agency that Dare Not be Named.

Khan has categorically denied the accusations that he groped and tried to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship. A United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
investigation is underway, and Khan has since been accused of retaliating against staff who supported the woman, including demoting several people he felt were critical of him.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syrian militants continue abuses in north Syria despite integration: HRW

2025-05-15

[Rudaw] Syrian National Army (SNA) Death Eaters continue to detain and extort civilians in northern Syria despite a decline in arrests in recent months, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report said on Wednesday, warning that commanders complicit in serious human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
abuses are now being integrated into Syria’s official military structure.

"These fighters are being integrated into Syria’s Armed Forces, with their commanders appointed to key government and military positions, despite their past involvement in serious abuses," HRW said, calling on the transitional government in Damascus to "end and investigate ongoing abused and exclude those with records of abuse from the Syrian security forces."

The report cited Syrian for Truth and Justice (STJ) - a local human rights organization - which last month documented dozens of arrests by SNA factions in January and February. Despite the removal of most SNA checkpoints in the vicinity of the Kurdish city of Afrin in northern Syria, "hundreds remain detained in SNA-run, Ottoman Turkish-supervised prisons."

The watchdog also cited a December attack by fighters from the SNA’s notorious Suleiman Shah Brigade, who allegedly took control of a village in Aleppo province, beat residents, stole personal belongings, and arrested seven men "under the pretext of searching for weapons." Two of the men "remained in detention" as of early May, according to the HRW.

It also referred to earlier reports that detail "abductions, arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions, including of children, sexual violence, and torture by the various factions of the SNA, the Military Police, a force established to curb such abuses, and members of the Ottoman Turkish Armed Forces and Ottoman Turkish intelligence agencies."

"The primary targets were Kurds and those linked to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Turkiye considers part of the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK], which announced its dissolution on May 12," HRW said.

"Turkiye, which still oversees former SNA factions and continues to provide weapons, salaries, training, and logistical support to these factions, also bears responsibility for their abuses and potential war crimes," it added.

In 2018, ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
and its allied Syrian militias seized control of Afrin, a Kurdish enclave in Rojava. Thousands of Kurds fled, with many settling in the nearby Shahba region. International organizations have recorded widespread violations in Afrin since then, including killings, kidnappings, looting of crops, and extortion of Kurdish farmers.

In December, the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else

Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else

...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
(HTS) launched a blistering offensive from their stronghold of Idlib in northwest Syria and marched on Damascus, overthrowing Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
’s regime. HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa set up a transitional government and appointed himself as interim president.

But Syria’s new authorities have faced backlash, particularly from the Kurds, for appointing militia leaders complicit in serious human rights abuses, including Ahmad al-Hayes, better known as Abu Hatem Shaqra, the former leader of the SNA’s Ahrar al-Sharqiya, and Mohammad Hussein al-Jassim (Abu Amsha), the notorious commander of the Suleiman Shah Brigade.

In 2021, the US sanctioned Hayes, accusing him of serious human rights violations, including trafficking Yazidi women and kiddies, and connections with the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS). He is also accused by Syrian Kurds of killing popular Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf during Turkey’s 2019 military offensive against the Kurdish-led SDF in northern Syria.

Washington has also sanctioned Abu Amsha for "serious human rights abuses" in the Afrin region and for ordering his Death Eaters to "forcibly displace Kurdish residents and seize their property" in northern Syria.

"The fall of Assad’s abusive government has meant decades of atrocities by that government have come to an end," said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "But Syrian National Army factions are continuing to detain, extort, and torture residents with impunity."

Notably, Damascus has also faced criticism over a deadly crackdown in the Alawite-majority coastal areas, where at least 1,500 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In late April, over 100 were also killed in southern Syria’s Druze-majority areas after sectarian violence erupted

like lava from a volcano following a fake audio clip insulting the Prophet Muhammad, initially blamed on a Druze holy man.

Sharaa met with locals in Afrin in February and pledged to remove gangs and end abuses. In March, he signed a landmark agreement with SDF chief Mazloum Abdi to integrate the SDF into Syria’s state institutions, declare a nationwide ceasefire, and facilitate the return of displaced Syrians under government protection.

The deal resulted in a prisoner swap and a joint security arrangement in Kurdish-majority neighborhoods north of Aleppo previously held by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) - the SDF’s backbone.

Ahmed Hassan, head of Afrin’s council of the Kurdish National Council (ENKS), told Rudaw in March that the number of Kurds returning to Afrin has significantly increased since the deal, with some Arab settlers reportedly leaving the city.

However,
denial ain't just a river in Egypt...
Nadine Maenza, president of the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Secretariat and former chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), told Rudaw in April that many displaced Kurds and Yazidis are still afraid to return due to militia presence.

"The Syrian transitional government should urgently unify its military under an accountable command with civilian oversight and ensure adherence to international human rights standards. It should take steps to prevent further abuses against Kurdish and other residents in northern Syria, ensure the release of all arbitrarily detained people, and investigate past abuses with fair legal proceedings," HRW said, also calling on Ankara to suspend its support to abusive SNA commanders and factions and provide reparations to victims.

The human rights watchdog also called on the international community to provide assistance to ensure that civilians are protected under the new transitional authorities, "including supporting an independent judiciary to ensure lawful detention and treatment of detainees."

"As Syria’s transitional government is integrating into its ranks SNA factions and other gangs, it must exclude those in the SNA that are responsible for abuses and hold them accountable," Coogle said. "If it doesn’t do so, the Syrian people will not be able to trust their armed forces and will be vulnerable to yet more abuse."

Link

Africa North

Tunisia opposition figures get jail terms in mass trial; defense pans ‘masquerade’

2025-04-21

[IsraelTimes] Court hands out sentences of up to 66 years for 40 defendants, including prominent opponents of President Saied; French intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy said ordered jailed in absentia

A Tunisian court has handed down jail sentences of up to 66 years to multiple defendants, including prominent opposition figures, in a mass trial criticized by rights groups.

The trial, decried by a defense lawyer as a "masquerade," is of unprecedented scale with around 40 defendants including vocal critics of President Kais Saied.

A prosecutor cited on Saturday by local media announced sentences ranging from 13 to 66 years for the defendants, accused of "conspiracy against state security" and "belonging to a terrorist group."

However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
a list communicated to AFP by several lawyers, and "subject to official confirmation," indicates minimum sentences of four years.

Among those sentenced were well-known opposition figures, lawyers and business people, with some already in prison for two years while others were in exile or still free.

Appeals are planned, defense lawyer Abdessatar Messaoudi said.

Bassam Khawaja of Human Rights Watch posted on X: "The court did not give even a semblance of a fair trial." The charges, he said, "appear unfounded and based on no credible evidence."

According to the list supplied by lawyers, those accused who are abroad, including French intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy, received 33-year jail terms.

The same penalty was handed down to feminist activist Bochra Belhaj Hmida and the former head of the presidential office, Nadia Akacha.

Issam Chebbi and Jawhar Ben Mbarek of the opposition National Salvation Front coalition, as well as lawyer Ridha Belhaj and activist Chaima Issa, were sentenced to 18 years behind bars, Messaoudi told AFP.

HARSHEST PENALTY
Activist Khayam Turki was handed a 48-year term while businessman Kamel Eltaief received the harshest penalty — 66 years in prison, the list showed.

Turki’s cousin, Hayder Turki, told AFP he was "very saddened" by the verdict, saying: "He doesn’t deserve this — he’s a great man, his crime was being involved in politics."

Two former leaders of the Islamist Ennahdha party,

...the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia...

which was Saied’s main rival, were also sentenced. Abdelhamid Jelassi and Noureddine Bhiri received 13 and 43 years respectively, according to the list.

Kamel Jendoubi, a rights advocate and former minister tried in absentia, decried a "judicial liquidation" by the courts.

"This is not a judiciary ruling, but a political decree executed by judges under orders, by complicit prosecutors and by a justice minister" who all serve "a paranoid autocrat," Jendoubi charged.

Since Saied launched a power grab in the summer of 2021 and assumed total control, rights advocates and opposition figures have decried a rollback of freedoms in the North African country where the 2011 Arab Spring began.

Late Friday, defense lawyers denounced the trial after the judge finished reading the accusations and began deliberation without hearing from either the prosecution or the defense.

One lawyer, Samia Abbou, told AFP there were "flagrant violations of judicial procedure" with the accused "not heard" during the "masquerade."

Friday’s hearing lasted much of the day and was held amid tight security. Media and foreign diplomats were barred from the proceedings.

Since the trial began on March 4, defense lawyers have repeatedly called for all the defendants to appear in court, including at least six who went on a hunger strike.

The lawyers denounced the case as "empty," while HRW said the trial was taking place in the context of repression with Saied "weaponizing the judicial system to target opponents and dissidents."

Analyst Hatem Nafti posted on X that any acquittal in the mass trial "would have negated the conspiratorial narrative that the regime has relied on since 2021" and "accepted by a large part of the population" relying on restricted media coverage.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Despite withdrawing, US still managing to influence UN Human Rights Council

2025-04-06

Consequences guide choices, even after Uncle Sugar stopped paying for the thing.

[IsraelTimes] Diplomats say US lobbying succeeds in blunting Pakistani effort to set up highest-level UN investigation on Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza

Two months after US President Donald Trump
...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried....
announced a halt to American engagement with the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
Human Rights Council, Washington is influencing its work by applying pressure publicly and behind the scenes, seven diplomats and rights workers said.

The United States left its seat empty during a six-week session of the 47-member council ending on Friday, but its lobbying and pressure had some success, the sources told Rooters.

They said the US, which has accused the council of an anti-Israel bias, had focused on blunting a proposal by Pakistain on the creation of an International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM),

…the name most definitely not being an accurate description of the thing, but the Pakis were a tad overexcited and the words just erupted…

the most rigorous type of UN investigation, on Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
The version of Pakistain’s proposal that was passed on Wednesday by the council, whose mission is to promote and protect human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state...
worldwide, did not include the creation of the IIIM.

The council already has a commission of inquiry on the Paleostinian Territories, but Pakistain’s proposal would have created an additional probe with extra powers to gather evidence for possible use in international courts.

A March 31 letter sent by Brian Mast, Chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, and James R. Risch, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cautioned against voting the proposal through.

"Any HRC member state or UN entity that supports an Israel-specific IIM...will face the same consequences as the ICC faced," the letter said.

It appeared to be referring to sanctions approved by the House of Representatives on the International Criminal Court in protest at its arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and former defense minister over Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

The final version of Pakistain’s proposal referred only to an invitation to the UN General Assembly to consider an IIIM in the future.

Two Geneva-based diplomats said they had received messages from US diplomats before the change of wording asking them to oppose the new investigation.

"They were saying: ’back off on this issue’," said one, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Rooters could not establish whether the revision was a direct result of US actions.

A US State Department spokesperson said it was complying with the executive order signed by Trump on Feb. 4, withdrawing the US from the council and would not participate in it, adding: "As a matter of policy, we do not comment on private diplomatic conversations."

Pakistain’s diplomatic mission in Geneva did not respond to a request for comment.

"The US seems to be trying to have it both ways. It doesn’t want to pay for or participate in the UN but it still wants to boss it around," said Lucy McKernan, Deputy Director for United Nations at Human Rights Watch’s Geneva office.

The US was once the top donor to the UN rights system, but Trump has said the UN is "not being well run," and aid cuts by his administration have forced scalebacks.

The US and Israel are not members of the council but, like all UN member states have informal observer status and a seat in the council’s meeting chamber.

Link

India-Pakistan

Pakistan begins forced deportation of Afghan migrants after March 31 deadline ends

2025-04-03

[KhaamaPress] Pakistain has started deporting Afghan ~~migrants~~ colonists after the March 31 deadline, with no extension granted for voluntary departure.

The Pak government has begun deporting Afghans living in the country without legal documents, starting today, Tuesday, April 1st, after the deadline for voluntary departure expired.

Pak media reports that after the expiration of this deadline, the process of deporting Afghan ~~migrants~~ colonists has formally begun. Despite widespread concerns, international organizations and human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state...
groups had urged the government to extend this deadline.

Geo News reported on Tuesday, April 1st, that officials in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province confirmed the operation to expel Afghan ~~migrants~~ colonists will proceed without extending the previous deadline.

From the morning of Tuesday, April 1, reports from major cities in Pakistain, including Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
, Lahore, Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire...
, and Islamabad, indicated the start of security forces’ operations to identify and detain illegal ~~migrants~~ colonists.

Illegal Afghan ~~migrants~~ colonists, after being arrested, are transferred to temporary centers and then deported through border crossings to Afghanistan. Eyewitnesses report that police and security forces are conducting patrols in areas with large migrant populations and carrying out house-to-house inspections.

The United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
, through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), has repeatedly warned about the humanitarian consequences of these deportations.

These organizations have assessed that many Afghan ~~migrants~~ colonists, who fled to Pakistain after the Taliban
Taliban

...Arabic for students...
’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, face serious risks such as harassment, insecurity, and lack of basic necessities if returned to their home country.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have also criticized the forced deportations, arguing they violate international laws, particularly the principle of "Non-Refoulement." Amnesty has called on Pakistain to halt this process.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas issues worldwide 'call to arms' to fight Trump's plan to relocate two million Gazans

2025-04-01

Goody. Happy hunting, IDF!

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A senior Hamas leader has called for supporters worldwide to pick up weapons and fight Donald Trump's plan to relocate Gazans to neighbouring countries.

'In the face of this sinister plan - one that combines massacres with starvation - anyone who can bear arms, anywhere in the world, must take action,' Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement on Monday.

'Do not withhold an explosive, a bullet, a knife, or a stone. Let everyone break their silence.'

Abu Zuhri's call comes a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to let Hamas leaders leave Gaza but demanded that the Palestinian group disarm in the final stages of the war in Gaza.

Netanyahu said Israel was working towards a plan proposed by Trump to displace Gazans to other countries, which could include Egypt and Jordan.

Netanyahu said that after the war, Israel would ensure overall security in Gaza and 'enable the implementation of the Trump plan' - which had initially called for the mass displacement of all 2.4 million people living in the Palestinian territory - calling it a 'voluntary migration plan'.

Trump's plan for the region risks inflaming deep underlying tensions, and has been met with fury from Palestinians and American allies alike. The UN has warned it was tantamount to 'ethnic cleansing'.

But the call from Hamas comes at an uncertain time, with thousands of Gazans defying fear of reprisal to march against the group in anti-war demonstrations.

One protestor was this week alleged to have been kidnapped, tortured and left at his family's doorstep as a warning.

Days after taking office in January, Trump had proposed that Gazans be removed from the territory with no right of return.

He later appeared to backtrack, saying he was 'not forcing' the widely condemned plan for the United States to take over the territory and redevelop it.

Trump said that the U.S. should take control of Gaza to ensure its stability, and suggested the population could be relocated elsewhere, where he said they would be 'better off'.

'The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the US by Israel at the conclusion of fighting' he said.

On February 9, the American president said he was 'committed to buying and owning Gaza'.

Two days later, he told a news conference with Jordan's King Abdullah II: 'We're not going to buy anything.'

'We're going to have it and we're going to keep it and we're going to make sure that there's going to be peace and there's not going to be any problem.'

An AI-generated clip of 'Trump Gaza', redeveloped into the 'Riviera of the Middle East', was then posted to his Truth Social social media platform, met with horror.

The video showed high-rises and beachside resorts, with a giant gold statue of Trump towering over the enclave.

Trump and Netanyahu featured in the AI video, drinking by a pool. The clip was widely condemned as being 'tone deaf'.

Palestinians in Gaza argued the proposal ignores their rights and ties to their ancestral land.

The right of return remains a sensitive issue for Palestinian diaspora displaced by the long conflict with Israel.

About 750,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes on land which became Israel after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

As many as 531 Palestinian towns were razed by Israeli militias by 1949, according to the West Bank-based Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, and thousands were killed in clashes.

Many refugees today remain in camps in neighbouring countries, unable to return to the places they were born.

Outrage at the loss of life in Gaza since Hamas launched its shock October 7, 2023 incursion into Israel saw a rise in support for the group among Palestinians, reflecting anathema towards Israeli policy and lack of progress towards a lasting solution.

This was in spite of the 1,170 lives taken during the massacre, and some 250 hostages taken back into Gaza.

A group of independent human rights experts warned earlier this month that Israel had resumed weaponising starvation in Gaza with the decision to break from the fragile ceasefire agreement and block aid into the Palestinian enclave.

More than 400 Palestinians were killed as Israel resumed its bombardment of the strip on March 18. More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict since October 2023, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza reports.

Israel warned its attacks were 'only the beginning'.

Earlier this month, defence minister Israel Katz also threatened to permanently occupy parts of the Gaza Strip unless Hamas releases the hostages still held in captivity.

Since coming to power, Hamas has done little to move towards a lasting solution with Israel, launching attacks across the border that rights groups say have killed civilians and even landed back in Gaza.

'The unpredictable nature of the crude rockets has meant that rockets have struck areas not only inside Israel but also inside Gaza,' Human Rights Watch observed in 2009.

The group has also done little to alleviate poverty in the Gaza Strip, despite receiving plenty of money from foreign backers.

In 2023, it was estimated to have an investment portfolio of real estate and other assets worth $500mn and an annual military budget of $350mn.

But Gaza remains one of the poorest places in the world. In 2023, the GDP per capita for the West Bank and Gaza sat at just $3,372.3 USD.

In recent days, Palestinians have expressed their ire towards the governing group with mass protests in the beleaguered enclave.

Thousands took to the streets in northern Gaza last weeks for days of anti-war protests, many chanting against Hamas.

The protests, which centered mainly on Gaza's north, appeared to be aimed generally against the war, with protesters calling for an end to 17 months of deadly fighting.

In the town of Beit Lahiya, where a similar protest took place Tuesday, about 3,000 people demonstrated, with many chanting 'the people want the fall of Hamas.' In the hard-hit Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City, dozens of men chanted 'Out, out out! Hamas get out!'

'Our children have been killed. Our houses have been destroyed,' said Abed Radwan, who said he joined the protest in Beit Lahiya 'against the war, against Hamas, and the (Palestinian political) factions, against Israel and against the world's silence.'

Ammar Hassan, who gave his name after taking part in a protest on Tuesday, said it started as an anti-war protest with a few dozen people but swelled to more than 2,000, with people chanting against Hamas.

'It's the only party we can affect,' he said by phone. 'Protests won't stop the (Israeli) occupation, but it can affect Hamas.'

The militant group has violently cracked down on previous protests. This time no outright intervention was apparent, perhaps because Hamas is keeping a lower profile since Israel resumed its war against it.

Hamas was then accused of torturing a Palestinian protestor to death and leaving him on his family's doorstep as a warning.

Uday al-Rabbay was reportedly kidnapped by the terror group amid the swell of anti-Hamas actions taken by the people of the Gaza Strip, who have in the last week been seen begging the organisation to give up control.

Mazen Shat, a senior police officer affiliated with Fatah from Ramallah and a vocal critic of Hamas, told The Telegraph Uday had been tortured for four hours, and was left with open wounds and bruising.

'Uday was martyred by the criminals of Hamas. And what's his crime? He told the truth, because he refused to be silent on injustice, because he did not kneel to Hamas.

'Hamas is oppressing people in a brutal way. Like a puppy on a rope around his neck, they dragged him to the door of his house and told his family that this is the punishment for those who complain about Hamas.'

Link

Europe

Poland Suspends Migrants' Right To Apply For Asylum

2025-03-27

Aren’t they required to apply for asylum in the first country they arrive to? In this case, that would be Belarus.

[BBC] Poland has temporarily suspended the right of migrants arriving in Poland via its border with Belarus to apply for asylum.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced it would be happening after the controversial bill, which will allow Polish authorities to suspend this right for up to 60 days at a time, was signed into law by President Andrzej Duda.

Tusk had said it would be adopted "without a moment's delay" while Duda said the changes were needed to strengthen security on the country's borders.

But the law has been criticized by rights groups including Human Rights Watch, which said the EU should take legal action against Poland if it was implemented.
The group urged the country's parliament last month to reject the bill, saying it "flies in the face of Poland's international and EU obligations" and could "effectively completely seal off the Poland-Belarus border, where Polish authorities already engage in unlawful and abusive pushbacks".

The government said previously the suspension would only be applied temporarily to people who pose a threat to state security, for example "large groups of aggressive migrants trying to storm the border".

Exemptions will be made for unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, the elderly or unwell, anyone exposed to "real risk of serious harm" by being returned and citizens of countries accused of conducting the instrumentalization of migration - like Belarus

Tusk has dismissed criticism from human rights groups.

"Nobody is talking about violating human rights, the right to asylum, we are talking about not granting applications to people who illegally cross the border in groups organised by Lukashenko," he said in October.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Austria promises Rojava support after USAID cuts

2025-03-02

[Rudaw] A delegation from the Austrian foreign ministry visited the Kurdish administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) on Friday to discuss the humanitarian and security situation, as well as the latest developments in Damascus, and promised European support after Washington made dramatic cuts to its foreign aid.

"The members of the Administrative Body continued their talk about the national dialogue that took place some time ago, that it did not meet the aspirations of the Syrian people, that it did not take into account the sectarian, cultural and ethnic diversity that Syria enjoys, and also the marginalization and exclusion of forces in the areas of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria," read a statement about their meeting from the Democratic Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (DAANES).

The National Dialogue Conference, held in Damascus on Tuesday, was backed by Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and was intended to be a step toward free and fair elections, the formation of an inclusive government, and the drafting of a new Syrian constitution. It has, however, been criticized for marginalizing minority groups. The Kurdish administration and Kurdish forces in Rojava were not invited.

DAANES condemned the conference on Tuesday, calling it "closer to exclusion and marginalization" than a true reflection of the Syrian people’s aspirations and said it ignored Syria's diverse communities and failed to include "the true representatives of the people."

The Rojava administration and the visiting Austrians also discussed the difficult humanitarian situation in camps where Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) members and their families are being kept, especially after USAID funding was cut, according to the statement.

Washington’s decision to suspend foreign aid is worsening conditions in camps holding thousands of people with links to ISIS in Rojava, Human Rights Watch said last month.

Gunter Reiser, who led the delegation and is the deputy head of the security affairs department at the Austrian foreign ministry, said the Austrian government will focus on Syria, Rojava in particular, "to help ensure and obtain everyone's rights."

"European countries will try to provide assistance to the peaceful forces present in this region, after the decision to stop American support for these camps, despite the difficult circumstances that European countries are going through, such as the war in Ukraine," Reiser added, according to the Rojava statement.

The Kurdish administration also informed the Austrian delegation about ongoing attacks by ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
and its militias on Tishreen Dam and Qere Qozaq bridge, "which increases the complexity of the security situation in North and East Syria."

Kurdish forces in northern Syria have been under intensified attacks by Turkey and the Ottoman Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militias since the fall of the Assad regime.

Link

Africa Horn

UN warns Eritrean troops of engagement in Tigray

2025-03-02

[Garowe] The United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
has yet again blamed Eritrea
...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age...
n troops for continued violations of human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
in the Tigray region, adding that the abuses call for accountability and discipline for the sake of transparency.

Ilze Brands-Kehris, Assistant Secretary-General at the UN Human Rights Office, said the Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF) remain in Tigray despite the 2022 Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, which mandated their withdrawal. The agreement was signed in South Africa.

Citing the joint OHCHR—Æthiopia Human Rights Investigations Team in 2023, she said the Eritrean troops were found culpable of serious violations of human rights in northern Æthiopia, within Tigray state.

"This impunity continues to embolden perpetrators of human rights violations," she added.

For two years since the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement was signed, the Eritrean Defence Forces have refused to withdraw from Tigray. The agreement called for the immediate withdrawal of international forces from Tigray.

"Our Office has credible information that the Eritrean Defence Forces remain in Tigray," she said, adding that they are responsible for "abductions, rape, property looting, and arbitrary arrests." She called for their "immediate withdrawal."

Several international human rights organizations have documented abuses by Eritrean forces in the Tigray region both during and after the war. In its 2024 annual report, Human Rights Watch cited "ongoing abuses by Eritrean forces," including "rape, sexual violence against women and girls, and looting of civilian property."

A previous report by Addis Standard also documented accounts of abductions in Zalambessa, where residents said they are "living in fear" and avoiding going outside after dark due to the presence of Eritrean troops, Addis Standard reports.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas frees final 6 living hostages in phase 1 of deal; all reunite with family in Israel

2025-02-23

[IsraelTimes] October 7 captives Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen back after over 500 days in Hamas captivity; Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed return after decade in Gaza

Hostages Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed were released from Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
captivity and returned to Israel on Saturday, in the largest single day of releases since the current hostage-ceasefire deal took effect. They are believed to be the final living hostages scheduled for release in the current first phase of the deal, with only four more hostages, all believed to be dead, set for release on Thursday.

The terror group paraded five of the six freed hostages on stages in propaganda-filled ceremonies in two locations in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, handing them over to the Red Thingy, while al-Sayed was released separately to the humanitarian organization later in the day, without a ceremony.

The men all looked frail and many had noticeably suffered dramatic weight loss.

Shoham, Shem Tov, Wenkert and Cohen were all taken captive on October 7, 2023 during the Hamas-led attacks and massacres, and had been held as hostages in Gaza for over 500 days.

Mengistu and al-Sayed both entered Gaza on their own accord in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and had been held captive by terror groups in Gaza for around a decade each.

The releases came hours after Hamas finally returned the body of Shiri Bibas; Israel said she had been brutally murdered by her captors along with her two small sons, Ariel, 4, and baby Kfir, whose bodies were returned on Thursday.

The first of three handovers took place on Saturday morning in Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, during which the terror group handed Shoham and Mengistu over to the Red Thingy after parading the two on a stage decorated with a propaganda poster featuring images of terror leaders and Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was killed in 2014 and whose body is held by Hamas.

There was also a waving guns Hamas said had been taken from Israel on October 7.

Shoham and Mengistu were then taken by the Red Thingy to Israeli forces inside Gaza, who escorted them to an IDF facility inside Israel, near the border.

After brief medical checks and reunions with family members, the two men were taken via helicopter to hospitals in central Israel.

CIVILIANS IN UNIFORMS
Later in the morning, at a second Hamas ceremony in central Gaza’s Nuseirat, Shem Tov, Wenkert and Cohen were paraded on stage holding certificates and gift bags, and wearing approximations of IDF uniforms as if they were soldiers.

The three civilians were kidnapped from the Nova music festival, and are not active members of the military. Hamas considers Israeli men under 50 to be soldiers.

It appeared that Cohen was made to wave by the button men flanking him, while Shem Tov seemed to be directed by a Hamas cameraman to also kiss two of the masked button men on their heads.

They, too, were taken by the Red Thingy to Israeli troops before they were brought to the IDF facility near Re’im for medical checks and emotional reunions with close family members before they were transported to hospitals.

Later on Saturday afternoon, the Red Thingy notified the IDF that Hamas had handed over the sixth hostage, Hisham al-Sayed.

He was released by the terror group without a ceremony, which Hamas said was out of "respect" for the Arab community in Israel, despite having held him for nearly a decade, as well as murdering and abducting several Arab Israelis during the October 7, 2023, onslaught.

Al-Sayed was then handed over to Israeli forces inside Gaza.

Avera Mengistu, 37, spent 3,821 days in captivity before his release.

Mengistu, who suffers from mental illness, crossed into northern Gaza from the beach at Zikim in September 2014.

The then-28-year-old was spotted by IDF security cameras but made it through the fence before troops could reach the scene. He was picked up by a Hamas patrol and was not heard from until the terror group released a video of him in early 2023.

Mengistu’s family has struggled over the years to rally public support or pressure the government to negotiate his release, with some relatives alleging racism.

Reports following the October 7, 2023, massacre indicated that one of the ways Hamas lulled Israel into complacency ahead of the onslaught was by feigning serious interest in a deal for Mengistu and al-Sayed.

Tal Shoham, 39, a dual Israeli-Austrian citizen from the northern town of Maale Tzviya, was taken hostage by Hamas hard boyz on October 7 while visiting his wife’s family on Kibbutz Be’eri for the Simhat Torah holiday.

His wife, Adi Shoham, his daughter, Yahel, 3, and son, Naveh, 8, as well as his mother-in-law Shoshan Haran, his wife’s aunt Sharon Avigdori and her daughter Noam, 12, were also taken hostage, but released in November 25, 2023.

His father-in-law Avshalom Haran was killed during the attack, as were his wife’s aunt and uncle Eviatar and Lilach Kipnis, who lived next door in Be’eri.

The extended family had been hiding in the Haran family home but were forced to flee after Hamas hard boyz set it on fire.

There had been no sign of life from him ahead of his release. It was not known if he was aware his wife and children had also been taken hostage, or that they had survived.

Eliya Cohen, 27, was with his fiancee, Ziv Aoud, at the Nova desert rave when Hamas button men attacked.

The two tried to escape but were chased by hard boyz and both were shot.

They sought safety at a roadside kaboom shelter, but it was attacked by hard boyz and Aboud later said she felt Cohen being pulled up and then placed on a pickup truck and driven away. He was taken along with Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Or Levy and Alon Ohel.

Earlier this month, the family said they heard from recently released captives that Cohen has been chained up throughout his time in captivity and gets very little food or daylight.

A bullet wound in his leg has yet to be properly treated, the freed hostages said.

Omer Wenkert, 23, was also taken captive by Hamas hard boyz at the Nova festival on October 7.

He was in touch with his parents that morning, telling them he was "scared to death." Their last communication with him was at 7:50 a.m.

They later saw a Hamas video of Omer, tied up on the flatbed of a white pickup truck, in his underwear, confirming that he had been taken hostage in Gaza.

Omer Shem Tov, 22, from Herzliya was at the Nova festival with his friends Itay and Maya Regev, who were also taken hostage but were freed in November 2023.

He last spoke to his parents around 10 a.m. on October 7, as he sounded increasingly panicked about what was happening around him while Hamas hard boyz shot hundreds and kidnapped dozens.

After getting into a friend’s car, he sent his family his live location, but they eventually noticed that it was headed toward Gaza, and contact with him was lost.

Hisham al-Sayed, a 37-year-old Bedouin Israeli from the village of Hura in the Negev desert, entered the Strip near the Erez Crossing in April 2015.

Like Mengistu, al-Sayed suffers from mental illness.

According to his father, this was not his first time going into Gaza, but in this case, he was stopped by Hamas and taken into its custody.

By the time he was released on Saturday, he spent nearly 3,600 days in the hands of the terror group.

According to Human Rights Watch, in the years prior to his entering Gaza, al-Sayed was "diagnosed with schizophrenia and a personality disorder, among other conditions" and was repeatedly institutionalized.

Al-Sayed was not heard from until 2022, when Hamas released a video showing him looking sick and depleted in a bed and hooked up to an oxygen tank.

In a statement Tuesday, al-Sayed’s family said they had been waiting for him for a decade, and added that their happiness would not be complete until all hostages returned home.

"It cannot be that the fate of other hostages will be a decade in captivity," they said.

The six hostages released Saturday were the final living hostages slated for release under phase one of the deal. The last four phase one hostages are set to be freed on Thursday.

Of the four, only one has been confirmed by Israel as dead, Shlomo Mantzur, but it is believed that the other three, Ohad Yahalomi, Itzik Elgarat and Tsahi Idan were also killed.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 63 hostages, including 62 of the 251 kidnapped by Hamas-led hard boyz on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 36 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas has so far released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of four slain Israeli captives — Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, and Oded Lifshitz — during a ceasefire that began in January. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war.

Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.

The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas, and is counted among the 63 hostages.

At handover spot, Hamas displays weaponry it claims was stolen from Israel on Oct. 7

[IsraelTimes] On the stage prepared by Hamas in Rafah are the usual placards with messages including “We are the flood,” as well as military weapons and equipment the group claims were stolen from the IDF on October 7, 2023.

The strap of one of the guns is branded with the word “Ravshatz,” the Hebrew acronym for the head of a community’s local security team, indicating it was taken from such an individual killed by terrorists during the October 7 attack.

مصادر صحفية: على منصة الإفراج.. أسلحة إسرائيلية لجنود الاحتلال اغتنمتها كتائب القــــسام في عملية طـــوفان الأقصى. pic.twitter.com/La5y6Z82b1
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) February 22, 2025

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

These are the six living hostages set to be released Saturday

2025-02-19

[IsraelTimes] Roster includes two men who wandered into Gaza a decade ago, a father kidnapped while visiting his in-laws on Kibbutz Be’eri, and three young men abducted from the Nova rave

Israel confirmed Tuesday that the final six living hostages slated for release under phase one of a ceasefire deal would all be freed on Saturday, after the Hamas terror group announced that it would expedite the handovers.

The six include Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who have been held by Hamas since entering the Strip on their own in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

The other four, all of whom were taken on October 7, 2023, include father Tal Shoham and three young men kidnapped from the Nova music festival: Omer Shem-Tov, Omer Wenkert and Eliya Cohen.

Hamas is also slated to release the bodies of eight slain hostages over the next two weeks.

Families of all six living hostages confirmed that they were on the list of captives slated for release.

“I see Omer’s name on TV and I don’t believe it,” Shem-Tov’s mother Shelly said after receiving word, according to Channel 12 news. “Now I can say that we can breathe, and I’m just waiting to hug my Omer.”

AVERA MENGISTU, 37
Mengistu will have spent 3,821 days in captivity by the time he is released on Saturday, according to the Hostage Families Forum.

According to his family and Israeli officials, Mengistu crossed into northern Gaza from the beach at Zikim in September 2014. The then-28-year-old was spotted by IDF security cameras, but made it through the fence before troops could reach the scene. He was picked up by a Hamas patrol and was not heard from until the terror group released a video purporting to show him alive in early 2023.

Mengistu hails from Ashkelon’s working-class Ethiopian-Israeli community. According to his family, he suffered from mental illness, and was given an exemption from military service. Mengistu’s family has struggled over the years to rally public support or pressure the government to negotiate his release, with some relatives alleging racism and contrasting his plight with that of soldier Gilad Shalit, a cause celebre who was freed in 2011 in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian inmates.

“We know that he is alive and in a bad mental and physical condition,” a relative told a Tel Aviv rally in August. “He’s been there not for a month or a year but for 10 years.”

Reports following the October 7, 2023, massacre indicated that Hamas lulled Israel into complacency by feigning serious interest in a deal for Mengistu and al-Sayed.

HISHAM AL-SAYED, 37
Al-Sayed, a 28-year-old Bedouin Israeli from the village of Hura in the Negev desert, entered the Strip near the Erez Crossing in April 2015. According to his father, this was not his first time going into Gaza, but in this case he was stopped by Hamas and taken into its custody. By the time he is released on Saturday, he will have spent nearly 3,600 days in the hands of the terror group.

Like Mengistu, al-Sayed suffered from mental illness, though he briefly served in the military before being discharged. According to Human Rights Watch, in the years prior to his entering Gaza, al-Sayed was “diagnosed with schizophrenia and a personality disorder, among other conditions” and was repeatedly institutionalized. In one instance, he escaped a hospital and nearly made it inside Gaza before being stopped, according to the group, which examined his medical records.

Al-Sayed was not heard from until 2022, when Hamas released a video showing him looking sick and depleted in a bed and hooked up to an oxygen tank. In a statement Tuesday, al-Sayed’s family said they had been waiting for him for a decade, and added that their happiness would not be complete until all hostages returned home.

“It cannot be that the fate of other hostages will be a decade in captivity,” they said.

TAL SHOHAM, 39
Tal Shoham, a dual Israeli-Austrian citizen from the northern town of Maale Tzviya, was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7 while visiting his wife’s family on Kibbutz Be’eri for the Simchat Torah holiday.

His wife, Adi Shoham, his daughter, Yahel, 3, and son, Naveh, 8, as well as his mother-in-law Shoshan Haran, his wife’s aunt Sharon Avigdori and her daughter Noam, 12, were also taken hostage, but released on November 25, 2023.

His father-in-law Avshalom Haran was killed during the attack, as were his wife’s aunt and uncle Eviatar and Lilach Kipnis, who lived next door in Be’eri.

According to Shoham’s father, Gilad Korngold, the extended family had been hiding in the Haran family home but were forced to flee after Hamas terrorists set it on fire.

According to Korngold, a person on Kibbutz Be’eri saw Shoham in restraints but walking on his own feet before being shoved into the trunk of a stolen car by his captors. Little is known about his condition.

Adi Shoham said last year that she had been collecting questions asked by their two kids in his absence, including “When is dad coming home?” and “Mom, are we going to die?”

ELIYA COHEN, 27
Eliya Cohen was with his fiancé, Ziv, at the Nova desert rave when Hamas gunmen attacked, said his mother, Sigi Cohen. The two tried to escape but were chased by terrorists and both shot.

They attempted to hide among a pile of dead bodies in a bomb shelter, but Aboud, who escaped, told Cohen’s mother that she felt him being pulled up and then placed on a pickup truck and driven away. It was later discovered that Cohen was in the same vehicle with hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Or Levy and Alon Ohel, who were also abducted from the shelter.

The family eventually found a photo showing Cohen in Gaza.

Earlier this month, the family said they heard from recently released captives that Cohen has been chained throughout his time in captivity and gets very little food or daylight. A bullet wound in his leg has yet to be properly treated, according to the accounts, which were relayed by Sigi Cohen to Hebrew language media.

OMER WENKERT, 23
Omer Wenkert was also taken captive by Hamas terrorists at the Nova festival on October 7. He was in touch with his parents that morning, telling them he was “scared to death.” Their last communication with him was at 7:50 a.m.

They were later sent a Hamas video of Omer, tied up on the flatbed of a white pickup truck, in his underwear, confirming that he had been taken hostage in Gaza.

Wenkert suffers from colitis and can have very dramatic attacks, said his parents in a video posted on the website that was put together about him.

In October, Wenkert’s mother Niva told Hebrew language media that they had not received any sign of life from him since the release of hostage Liam Or, who had been held with him, in November 2023. At the time, Wenkert was described as dangerously underweight, with almost no attention paid to his medical needs.

“His diet was three dates a day. Dates may be quite healthy, but for Omer they can be fatal,” she said. “Dates have dietary fiber and colitis sufferers cannot consume dietary fiber.”

The Gedera resident was described as vibrant and social with a wide circle of friends. He works as a restaurant manager and plans to become a restaurant critic.

OMER SHEM-TOV, 22
Omer Shem-Tov last spoke to his parents around 10 a.m. on October 7, as he sounded increasingly panicked about what was happening around him while Hamas terrorists shot hundreds and abducted dozens at the Nova rave.

After getting into a friend’s car, he sent his family his live location, but they eventually noticed that it was headed toward Gaza, and contact with him was lost. They later saw a Hamas video that had been posted on Telegram showing Shem-Tov and his friend lying on a floor in Gaza. They were able to identify Omer from his tattoos, said his mother.

Little is known about the condition of the computer programmer.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Attack on Tishreen Dam ambulance ‘apparent war crime’: Watchdog

2025-02-01

[Rudaw] Protests against strikes on Tishreen Dam continue amid growing international criticism of Syrian militias carrying out the attacks, most recently from Human Rights Watch, which on Thursday said a recent dronezap on an ambulance was "an apparent war crime."

"A dronezap by the Turkiye-Syrian National Army (SNA) coalition that hit a Kurdish Red Islamic Thingy ambulance on January 18, 2025, in northern Syria is an apparent war crime," said Human Rights Watch.

The ambulance was transporting an injured protester from Tishreen Dam when it was hit, the Kurdish Red Islamic Thingy wrote in a statement following the attack. The driver, a nurse, and the injured person were all able to escape.

"According to international law, targeting the injured, paramedics, ambulances, and civilians constitutes a flagrant war crime. This is precisely what the Ottoman Turkish state and its allied factions have been committing openly before the world since the beginning of the campaign targeting
Manbij and its eastern countryside," said the Kurdish Red Islamic Thingy.

Tishreen Dam, located on the Euphrates River near the northern Syria city of Manbij, has for weeks come under attacks by ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
and the SNA militia groups it supports. Strong resistance from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has so far prevented their advance.

"On Thursday, Ottoman Turkish warplanes launched several ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
<del>Arclight</del> airstrike

...KABOOM!...
s near the Tishreen Dam, southeast of Manbij, while also subjecting the area to heavy artillery bombardment," the SDF wrote in a Friday statement about recent attacks around the dam.

A takeover of the dam could help Ankara and the SNA easily advance to other parts of the Kurdish-held northeast Syria (Rojava).

Rojava authorities have warned that constant attacks on the dam could lead to the collapse of the structure, causing a humanitarian catastrophe.

Groups of civilians have traveled to the dam to stage protests. Fifty-one civilians have been killed, according to conflict monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Yet the protests continue with hundreds of people traveling to the dam on Friday morning, reported ANHA news agency.

Human Rights Watch also condemned the attacks on the civilian protests.

"Drone footage published by an SNA-affiliated Telegram channel on January 22, verified by Human Rights Watch, shows two small air-dropped munitions explode in a crowd of men and women at Tishreen Dam, where they were protesting and doing a traditional Kurdish dance in a line. A caption says: ’The armed drone sends congratulations and blessings to the SDF celebrations at Tishreen Dam,’" the watchdog stated, adding that Turkey is obligated to "rein in" the SNA.

Earlier this month, the International Committee of the Red Thingy, said dams have special protection under international humanitarian law and should not be attacked.

Ankara has labeled the armed Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) in northeast Syria as Lions of Islam and a branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and considers them a threat to Turkey’s security.

"Our heroic Ottoman Turkish Armed Forces neutralized 6 PKK Lions of Islam it identified in the Gara region of northern Iraq and 7 PKK/YPG Lions of Islam it identified in the Peace Spring and Euphrates Shield regions of northern Syria," the Ottoman Turkish defense ministry said on Friday.

Link

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