Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
Lebanon detains several suspects for March rocket attacks on Israel |
2025-04-18 |
[IsraelTimes] Lebanese army says Palestinians among those held over incidents that Hezbollah denied responsibility for; Hamas acknowledges detentions, but denies those arrested were involved The Lebanese military said Wednesday it has detained a group of people linked to firing rockets into Israel last month. The army said in a statement that those detained included a number of Palestinians who were involved in firing rockets in two separate attacks toward Israel in late March, to which Israel responded with airstrikes in Beirut and southern Lebanon. The Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group denied at the time that it was behind the firing of rockets. Since the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire in late November ended their 14-month conflict, Israel has withdrawn all its troops from Lebanon, except five strategic posts, but has continued, as is permitted by the deal, to strike Hezbollah targets it deems imminent threats. The Lebanese army said that a vehicle and other equipment used in the rocket attacks were confiscated, and the detainees were referred to judicial authorities. The army said it had carried out raids in different parts of Lebanon to detain the suspects without giving further details. On Thursday, the state-run National News Agency reported that Gen. Rodolph Haikal briefed a weekly cabinet meeting about the security situation along the border and the implementation of the ceasefire deal. Three security officials and one judicial official told The Associated Press that four Palestinians linked to the Hamas terror group are being questioned. A Hamas official told the AP that several members of the group were detained in Lebanon recently and released shortly afterward, adding that they were not involved in firing rockets into Israel. He said in one case, authorities detained a Hamas member who was carrying an unlicensed pistol. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. On Tuesday, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that at least 71 civilians, including 14 women and nine children, have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since the ceasefire took effect. Israel says strikes in Lebanon since the November ceasefire target Hezbollah and other terror operatives violating the agreement, and aim to prevent the terror group from rebuilding its infrastructure in the country. According to the Israeli military, since the ceasefire began, more than 120 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in strikes. Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos said Thursday in a press conference following a cabinet meeting that Lebanon has recorded 2,740 Israeli violations of the ceasefire and that 190 people have been killed and 485 injured in Lebanon by Israeli strikes since the ceasefire began. He did not specify how many were civilians. |
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
Bastrykin: Ukrainian Armed Forces Destroyed More Than 20 Cultural Heritage Sites Near Kursk |
2025-03-03 |
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] After the invasion of the Kursk region, the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) destroyed more than 20 cultural heritage sites. This was reported by the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin. “There is evidence of the destruction of more than 20 cultural heritage sites,” he noted in a conversation with TASS. Bastrykin also added that municipal facilities, large agricultural enterprises, other organizations and individual entrepreneurs of the Kursk region suffered a total damage of more than 26 billion rubles. As reported by the Regnum news agency, in September 2024, the acting Minister of Culture of the Kursk Region Robert Grigoryan reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed the Glushkov Museum of Local History with a missile strike. The museum is effectively lost, confirmed the director of the Kursk Regional Museum of Local History Oleg Pushkarev. According to him, only the frame of the building remains, everything that was inside perished. In October 2024, the then governor of the Kursk region, Alexey Smirnov, reported shelling of the estate of the princes Baryatinsky in the village of Maryino by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. As a result, the administrative building on the estate's territory was damaged. Related from regnum.ru Bastrykin says that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are using civilians as human shields Ukrainian armed forces in the territories of Donbass controlled by the Kiev regime are using civilians as human shields. This was reported by the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin. According to him, eyewitnesses are telling about this. He added that after the liberation of populated areas, the investigative department staff inspects the scenes of incidents and questions witnesses from among civilians. “The civilian population directly points out to investigators the crimes of Ukrainian armed groups, including looting, the use of civilians as human shields, the setting up of firing points in residential buildings and other urban infrastructure structures,” TASS quoted Bastrykin as saying. As reported by the Regnum news agency, the head of the Investigative Committee previously stated that 652 civilians were killed by the actions of Ukrainian armed formations in the border and rear regions of Russia alone. Among them were 23 children. In addition, 2,980 people, including 169 children, were injured. Bastrykin added that all the facts are being investigated; a total of 2,690 criminal cases have been opened. The resistance organization "Russian Kherson" reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are terrorizing civilians in the Kiev-controlled city of Kherson. Ukrainian soldiers launch drones from the roofs of multi-story residential buildings, cowardly hiding behind civilians. And in one of the city's districts, they do not allow people to collect water until they fill their containers to capacity. As a result, many residents do not get water. Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova reported on February 19 that more than 400 appeals regarding crimes committed by Ukrainian neo-Nazis against the civilian population of Russia were sent to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2024. |
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International-UN-NGOs |
Security Council holds emergency session on IDF counter-terror raid of north Gaza hospital |
2025-01-04 |
How many is this now? Most wars don’t even get one. The Somali ambassador must be in hog heaven — finally Somalia gets to actually do something to punish Israel for existing. [IsraelTimes] The UN Security Council has begun another emergency session on the Gaza war, this time discussing the recent Israeli raid of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Strip.Israel says it returned to the hospital after Hamas fighters again resumed operations there under the guise of medical personnel and patients. The IDF said Sunday that it killed 19 terror operatives during the roughly week-long raid and that it was unaware of any civilian casualties. Hamas-run health authorities previously claimed that 50 people had been killed, including hospital staff. The IDF said that, of 940 Palestinians who passed through an army checkpoint outside the hospital, 240 were detained for being alleged members of terror groups. Among those detained was Kamal Adwan director Hussam Abu Safiya who the IDF says is suspected of involvement in terrorist activities. In all, some 600 civilians and another 95 patients, caregivers, and medical personnel were evacuated from Kamal Adwan. Testifying before Security Council members at today’s hearing is the World Health Organization’s representative for the Palestinian territories Rik Peeperkorn and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. Rik Peeperkorn? You gotta be making that shit up The session was requested by Algeria, the Arab representative on the Security Council. Each country’s ambassador presents their capital’s stance regarding Israeli operations in Kamal Adwan along with the war more broadly. Most statements are critical of Israel, while some envoys highlight Hamas’s continued operations from hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon is expected to place particular emphasis on the latter point. There’s not expected to be any practical implications from the meeting, though some members may have tried to push for a symbolic joint statement condemning Israel for the raid, which would have surely been blocked by the United States. Related: After 54 Years, Somalia Rejoins the UN Security Council. Somalia joins Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, and Panama in the newly elected group of non-permanent members. Related: UN Security Council: 2024-12-19 At the UNSC: US envoy criticizes Israeli conduct in West Bank, settler violence, failure to cooperate with UN on Gaza aid UN Security Council: 2024-12-18 UN monitor says reviving Iran deal now irrelevant, since Tehran on cusp of nuke UN Security Council: 2024-12-15 New Israeli strikes said to target Syrian military sites, underground missile bunkers, 60 more Sat.evening |
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International-UN-NGOs |
UN probe claims Israel seeking to ‘destroy’ Gaza healthcare system |
2024-10-11 |
Whining. Because of course it’s Israel being bad instead of them aiding and abetting the Hamasniks on their payroll. [IsraelTimes] Investigators assert Israel has carried out ‘relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities,’ conflate Palestinian security detainees with Gaza hostagesA United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... inquiry claimed Israel has carried out a concerted policy of destroying 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 oppressionand disproportionate response... ’s healthcare system in the ongoing war with Hamas ![]() , actions amounting to both war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination. A statement Thursday by ex-UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay released ahead of a full report accused Israel of "relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities" in the war, triggered by the Hamas terror group’s massacres in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. "Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system," said Pillay, whose report will be presented to the UN General Assembly on October 30. Israel has said that while it seeks to avoid civilian fatalities in its fight against Hamas, the Gaza terror group is deeply embedded within the civilian population, and operates from the cover of built-up populated areas including private homes, schools and hospitals. Captured Death Eaters have confirmed the claims, explaining that Hamas believes Israel will not target them if they hide inside medical facilities. The UN inquiry’s statement also accused Israeli forces of deliberately killing and torturing medical personnel and targeting medical vehicles — something which Israel has consistently denied doing. As an example, it cited the death of a Paleostinian girl, Hind Rajab, in February along with family members and two medics who came to rescue her, which was blamed on Israel by the Paleostinian Red Islamic Thingy Society. The IDF said that an initial investigation into the death of the six-year-old suggested that no troops had been in the area at the time. The case was then handed off to the General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism, an independent military body responsible for investigating unusual incidents amid the war. The UN inquiry further accused Israel of restricting permits for patients to leave the war-torn Gaza Strip. Following the October 7 terror onslaught, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were seized as hostages, Israel closed the heavily damaged Erez Crossing, which prior to the war had served as a medical corridor for sick Gazooks in need of treatment. While it has since reopened for the delivery of aid to the enclave, along with the Kerem Shalom border crossing, it has not reopened for individual use. Throughout the first months of the war, close to 5,000 sick and injured Gazooks were able to evacuate via the Rafah Crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border. But the crossing was shuttered in May after the IDF launched an offensive in the southernmost Gaza city, as Egypt said it refused to reopen its side of the crossing until the Gaza side is returned to Paleostinian control. The World Health Organization has said that over 10,000 patients requiring urgent medical evacuation have been prevented from leaving Gaza since then. Medical evacuations have nevertheless continued to take place — albeit in a limited and irregular fashion — and in September, the WHO evacuated nearly 100 people, including dozens of children, from Gaza to the United Arab Emirates for treatment. Conflating the treatment of Paleostinian security detainees in Israel and the 101 hostages held by Hamas Death Eaters in Gaza, the UN statement said that its investigation found both sides to have been involved in carrying out torture and sexual violence. Hamas has prevented the International Committee of the Red Thingy from visiting the hostages in Gaza since their abduction, and the Red Thingy has in turn said that unless the terror group changes its stance, it cannot access them independently. In the wake of October 7, Israel banned the Red Thingy from visiting Paleostinian prisoners in Israeli facilities without offering an explanation as to why, or an alternative option. In addition, numerous reports have emerged of abuse by Israeli officials against Paleostinian detainees at the Sde Teiman detention facility close to Beersheba. However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... dozens of investigations are being conducted into the allegations. So far, one soldier has been indicted for abusing detainees at the facility, while another five are under investigation for the alleged The Commission of Inquiry (COI) has a broad mandate to collect evidence and identify suspected perpetrators of international crimes committed in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It bases its findings on a range of sources including interviews with victims and witnesses, submissions and satellite imagery. The COI has previously alleged that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war and that Israel’s actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses cited by the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. The term is reserved for the most serious international crimes knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians. The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry has said that since the outbreak of war, more than 42,000 people have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,000 Death Eaters inside Israel on October 7. Israel has not cooperated with the inquiry, which it says has an anti-Israel bias. The COI has accused Israel of obstructing its work and preventing Sherlocks from accessing both Israel and the Paleostinian territories. Sometimes, the evidence gathered by such UN-mandated bodies has formed the basis for war crimes prosecutions and could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court. |
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
Ukrainian perspective: Operation in Kursk region |
2024-08-14 |
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Korrespondent] 22:47 The United States was not involved in planning the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region, said Deputy State Department Spokesman Vedant Patel. "Our role is to support Ukraine in its ability to defend itself. We remain focused on ensuring that our Ukrainian partners have everything they need to do that," Patel added. ![]() 21:55 Russia is transferring troops from Kaliningrad to the Kursk region, said Lithuanian Defense Minister Laurynas Kasciunas. 20:16 Zelensky said in an evening video address that in the Kursk region "hundreds of Russian soldiers have already surrendered, and all of them will receive humane treatment - they have not seen such treatment even in their own Russian army." The president also emphasized that "the more the Russian military presence is destroyed in the border regions, the closer peace and real security will be for our state." 19:38 Russia has withdrawn some units from the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions due to the operation in the Kursk region, Dmitry Likhoviy, spokesman for the Tavria operational group of forces, told Politico. At the same time, he noted that this was a "relatively small" number of units. 19:32 Ukraine controls 74 settlements in the Kursk region, Zelensky said following a conversation with Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky. "Despite the difficult, intense battles, the advance of our forces in the Kursk region continues, the exchange fund for our state is replenished. Inspections and stabilization measures are being carried out there. The development of humanitarian solutions for these territories continues," the president added. 17:32 The Kursk region authorities announced the cancellation of the previously introduced regional emergency regime, since a federal emergency regime has now been introduced in the region. 17:18 The Ukrainian Armed Forces are 40 km from Kursk, writes the Russian opposition publication Astra, citing official data from the Russian Defense Ministry. According to the agency, Russian aircraft struck Ukrainian Armed Forces units in the areas of Mikhailovka, Korenevo, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Oleshnya, Sudzha, and Nikolayevka - this settlement is 40 km from Kursk in a straight line. In addition, it is claimed that the Russian Armed Forces allegedly "carried out a cleansing operation" of the settlement of Ozerki in the Belovsky District. 16:49 Russians are massively transporting humanitarian aid intended for temporarily occupied territories to Kursk Oblast, the National Resistance Center of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports. According to the resistance, this is being presented as an initiative of the TOT population, and locals are being denied delivery so far. 14:51 The Russian Defense Ministry announced attempts by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to break through in the areas of the settlements of Obshchy Kolodez, Snagost, Kauchuk, Alekseevsky in the Kursk region. 14:43 Ukraine does not intend to annex the territories of the Kursk region over which the Ukrainian Armed Forces have established control, confirmed Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgy Tikhyi. 13:30 The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has asked Moscow for access to the Kursk region to verify data on alleged human rights violations, Russian media reports. 13:16 Displaced persons from the border areas of the Kursk region will be placed in sanatoriums and boarding houses in the occupied territory of the Zaporizhia region - on the shores of the Sea of Azov from Berdyansk to Kirillovka, said the head of the Russian region, Alexey Smirnov, following a conversation with the Gauleiter of the occupied part of the Zaporizhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky. In addition, according to him, "Zaporozhye volunteers" and "lawyers" have arrived in the Kursk region, who will provide assistance to residents on the spot. 12:37 Recently, the Ukrainian OSINT project DeepState reported that the 225th Separate Assault Battalion successfully defeated Akhmat's unit in the Kursk region. The fighters provided evidence by demonstrating photos with Kadyrov's IDs. "It is difficult to determine exactly which fighters were eliminated (visual identification is complicated by the condition of the bodies) and who retreated from the battlefield, but it is important that people know their names," the statement from the Separate Assault Battalion reads. 10:44 Ukraine and Russia will maintain gas supplies to Europe through the Sudzha gas metering station in the Kursk region despite the fighting in the region, Bloomberg writes, citing sources. They explained that both sides have a financial incentive to continue gas supplies. For Kiev, transit provides critical funds for its war-torn economy - about $ 1 billion in 2021, while Europe remains one of the largest consumers of Russian pipeline gas. 06:32 The United States supports the advance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region, since this operation is aimed at self-defense, said Deputy Spokesman for the State Department Vedant Patel. He emphasized that Putin launched an illegal invasion of Ukraine, and if he does not like how the country defends itself, he can simply withdraw troops and end the war. At the same time, Patel added that Washington still does not allow the use of American weapons for strikes deep into Russian territory. |
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
Russian Federation Council warn the West against allowing the Ukrainian Armed Forces to strike deep into Russia |
2024-08-14 |
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] Permission for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) to strike deep into Russia with Western weapons will be fraught for the West, said Senator and member of the International Committee of the Federation Council Sergei Tsekov. "This decision will be fraught for them, as it will be regarded as a declaration of war against us. A response from our side will definitely follow," RT quotes the senator as saying. At the same time, Tsekov added that the West, by supplying the Kiev regime with weapons, is already participating in the conflict with Russia. As reported by the Regnum news agency, on August 12, the head of the Kiev regime, Volodymyr Zelensky, stated that Ukraine intends to obtain permission from Western allies to strike with their weapons deep into Russia. On the same day, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov stated that Kiev is seeking permission from Paris to strike Russia with French weapons. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are interpreting NATO restrictions on the use of Western weapons supplied to Kiev too freely, the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung noted on August 9. Ukraine has been arguing with its partners for several months now over the scope of use of foreign weapons, the article noted. The situation in the Kursk region shows the reason for the Kiev regime's rejection of Moscow's and mediators' peace proposals, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on August 12. According to him, Ukraine is thus fulfilling the will of its Western masters and seeking to improve its position in future peace talks. The Russian leader added that Ukraine's armed forces will continue to try to destabilize the situation in the border areas. More from regnum.ru UN requests access to Kursk region to verify data on Ukrainian Armed Forces crimes The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has requested Russia to provide access to the Kursk region to verify data on human rights violations by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). This was reported by OHCHR official representative Ravina Shamdassani. "We are trying to gather information about the situation in the Kursk region, but without access it is very difficult. We are asking Russia for access to its territory in order to be able to obtain additional information," Lenta.Ru quotes Shamdassani as saying. Earlier, on August 11, the Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova appealed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and demanded that terrorism on the part of the Kiev regime be condemned. As reported by the Regnum news agency, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Ukrainian Armed Forces' attack on the Kursk region another large-scale provocation by Kiev, emphasizing that Ukrainian armed formations are conducting indiscriminate shooting from various types of weapons, attacking residential buildings, ambulances, and civilian buildings with missiles. In turn, the Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova called the attacks on defenseless people another manifestation of the terrorist nature of the Kiev regime, which cynically kills women and children to intimidate people. She compared these actions with the shootings of civilians in Mariupol, when the Ukrainian Armed Forces shot children in the back, not allowing them to leave the occupied city with their parents. A Ukrainian soldier detained by border guards in the Kursk region said that they were given orders to shoot residents of the region on the spot for resisting, the FSB reported earlier. |
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Africa Horn |
Sudan criticizes UN human rights chief over response to Wad Al-Nurah massacre |
2024-06-12 |
[SUDANTRIBUNE] The Sudan![]() ese government strongly criticized UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, on Monday, alleging that his statement regarding the massacre in Wad al-Nurah lacked a clear condemnation of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who are accused of perpetrating the attack. On June 5th, the RSF allegedly carried out a brutal massacre in Wad al-Nurah, located in Al Jazeera state, resulting in the deaths of over 100 civilians, including women, children, and the elderly. The incident drew widespread condemnation from political forces, gangs, human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedomat the convenience of the state... organizations, and international bodies, who called for an investigation and accountability for those responsible. The National Mechanism for Human Rights, a Sudanese government body, issued a statement expressing "deep regret" over what it perceived as a "brief description" of the incident by the High Commissioner, without explicitly condemning the RSF or calling for their accountability. The mechanism further criticized phrases in Turk’s statement that it interpreted as justifying the attack, suggesting these were based on inaccurate information. It emphasized that targeting civilians is a consistent tactic of the RSF, which it referred to as a "militia." The statement also denounced Turk’s call for the RSF to investigate the incident, arguing that the group lacks the necessary command structure and has devolved into "gangs of looting and killing." The mechanism urged the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to provide an accurate account of the incident, explicitly condemn the RSF, and call for the perpetrators to be held accountable. It stressed the importance of preventing the RSF from justifying its actions and avoiding impunity. |
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
Israel begins Rafah offensive after rejecting Hamas ceasefire ploy |
2024-05-07 |
[NYPOST] Israel has begun its military operation into Rafah after rejecting Hamas![]() ’ cease-fire claim as a deception. "The IDF is currently conducting targeted strikes against Hamas terror targets in eastern Rafah in southern Gazoo Islamic 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 an 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 oppressionand disproportionate response. In October of 2023 Gazooks belonging to Hamas invaded Israel, killed over a thousand people, raped a bunch of women. Then they bitched and moaned about genocide when their butts handed to them in the entirely justified retaliation. ," the Israel Defense Forces said Monday night local time. The world’s eyes are now on the southern city in the Gaza Strip, where more than 1 million Paleostinians have taken refuge while fleeing war elsewhere in the territory. President Biden has repeatedly warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to go ahead with the Rafah offensive unless the IDF could secure the safety of the civilians, with the president repeating himself during a call earlier Monday. "The president was consistent again this morning that we don’t support ground operations in Rafah," White House national security front man John Kirby told news hounds prior to the advancement. The announcement came shortly after Israel’s war cabinet unanimously voted to proceed with the attack on Hamas’ final stronghold in an effort to apply military pressure on the terror group, "with the goal of making progress on freeing the hostages and the other war aims," Netanyahu’s office said. The prime minister also slammed Hamas’ latest truce officer as "far from Israel’s obligatory demands." Following Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... ’s announcement that the terror group had accepted a cease-fire deal, Israeli officials told multiple outlets that the deal presented to the terror group was a "softened" version of what was really on the table and is not being taken seriously by Jerusalem. One official told Rooters that the announcement was a clear ruse by the terror group to create backlash against Israel for refusing a deal, and officials told KANN TV that the announcement of a cease-fire agreement was a "Hamas deception." Despite criticizing Hamas’ move, Netanyahu’s office said Israel is still sending a negotiation team to Cairo "to exhaust the possibility of achieving an agreement on terms that are acceptable to Israel." US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the US does not support an intensified military operation in Rafah and believes negotiations in Cairo are the best way to reach a cease-fire. "We continue to believe that a hostage deal is in the best interests of the Israeli people," Miller said. "It’s in the best interest of the Paleostinian people and it would bring increased movement of humanitarian assistance and so we’re going to continue to work to try to reach one." Hamas’ announcement triggered celebrations across Gaza, where Paleostinians cheered and chanted "Allahu Akbar" in the streets. Israel has repeatedly rejected any cease-fire deal that calls for an end to the war, with Netanyahu saying that the conflict will only end once Hamas has been eradicated and Gaza proves to no longer be a threat to the Jewish State. Thousands of Paleostinians are fleeing parts of Rafah after Israel issued warnings it was planning to start military action. Prior to the Israeli military’s attack on Hamas position in Gaza, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned that a battle in southern Gaza’s most populous city would quickly become a humanitarian nightmare. |
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Africa Horn |
UN calls for de-escalation as fighting intensifies for control of North Darfur state capital |
2024-04-27 |
[AFRICANEWS] Fighting has intensified in western Sudan. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed grave concerns over the worsening situation in and around the city of El-Fasher located in North Darfur. The spokesperson for the UN human rights chief briefed reporters Friday (Apr. 26). "Reports indicate that both parties have launched indiscriminate attacks using explosive weapons with wide-area effects, such as mortar shells and rockets fired from fighter jets, in residential districts," X Magango said. |
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International-UN-NGOs |
UN has compiled a vague report on torture in Ukraine - Miroshnik |
2024-03-31 |
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] The report prepared by the UN on torture in Ukraine is formulated rather vaguely, it cannot be called a serious study, said the Ambassador at Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Rodion Miroshnik. “This cannot be called a serious study and an absolutely adequate reflection of reality. We are faced with many facts that are now inaccessible, including to structures such as the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), because they are quite highly politicized, and I would not treat them as the last resort, ” Miroshnik told RIA Novosti. According to him, this is caused by the inability to actively protect Ukraine. According to the reports made, Ukraine is presented as white and fluffy, the country allegedly lives according to international humanitarian law, observes all human foundations and principles. In fact, everything is completely wrong, the diplomat pointed out. Miroshnik added that OHCHR “for political reasons was forced to take at least part of the data,” which in fact quite clearly characterizes Ukraine’s actions. As Regnum reported, the UN OHCHR report said that Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine were tortured from December 2023 to February 2024. It is noted that department employees learned about this after communicating with 44 Russian prisoners. Some of them told how they were held in the basements of houses in the Kharkov region. Some of the prisoners spent several days there, others up to a month and a half. During interrogations, 13 prisoners of war were beaten with wooden sticks and tortured with electric current. Ukrainians also staged executions and, in two cases, threatened Russian soldiers with sexual violence. Commenting on the UN OHCHR report, the Kremlin noted that all war crimes of the Kyiv regime are carefully documented. According to Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, the data contained in the report is not news for Moscow. Russia will seek to punish everyone who is behind the crimes of the Kiev regime, he emphasized. |
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
Israeli targeting terrorists in Jenin hospital may be war crime, Gaza buffer zone ditto, UN experts say |
2024-02-10 |
But given that nobody else was harmed, probably not. [IsraelTimes] Special rapporteurs say Israel appears to have attacked a defenseless injured person in hospital, while practicing deceit“How dare you uppity juices defend themselves against vicious attackers! If you want our approval, you will politely bare your necks and sit quietly with folded hands until it’s your turn to be killed, just like Mahatma Gandhi advised back when it was the Nazis’ turn to wipe you out.” The killing of three Paleostinian men in a hospital in the West Bank last month by Israeli commandos disguised as medical workers and Moslem women may amount to war crimes, a group of UN experts said on Friday. The three wanted bad boyz were potted on January 29 in a joint undercover operation by the army, Shin Bet security service and Border Police in the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin, one of the most volatile cities in the West Bank, Israel’s military said.Paleostinian media published extraordinary surveillance camera footage of the operation, showing many undercover forces dressed as doctors, nurses and Paleostinian women, scouring the hospital corridors while carrying guns. "Under international humanitarian law, killing a defenseless injured patient who is being treated in a hospital amounts to a war crime," the UN experts said in a statement, referring to Basel Ghazawi, a patient being treated for injuries he said were caused by an Israeli air strike. Israel said Ghazawi was a member of the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... terror group, and that he and the two others killed were terror operatives planning imminent terror attacks, inspired by the October 7 Hamas ![]() onslaught 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 an 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 oppressionand disproportionate response... -adjacent Israeli communities. "By disguising themselves as seemingly harmless, protected medical personnel and civilians, the Israeli forces also prima facie committed the war crime of perfidy, which is prohibited in all circumstances," they added, calling for Israel to conduct an investigation. The experts concerned are special rapporteurs engaged by the UN to examine a specific human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... issue. Israel’s military was not immediately available for comment. "I can say no more!" on their statement. CCTV footage from the hospital showed a group of about 10 people, dressed variously in civilian clothes and medical garb, including three in headscarves and women’s clothing, pacing through a corridor, armed with assault rifles. Israel’s military has said that one of the men killed in the hospital, 27-year-old Muhammad Jalamneh, was a terrorist from Hamas, which governs Gaza, and the others were brothers, Muhammad and Basel Ghazawi, who worked for Jenin Brigade and the armed wing of the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad. Many wanted Paleostinians have long been staying in the hospital to plan and carry out terror attacks, hoping the medical center would provide protection from Israeli counter-terror operations, the military said, in "another example of the cynical use by terror groups of civilian spaces and hospitals as cover and as human shields." The comment was an apparent reference to the same tactic used by Gaza terrorists. The IDF, Shin Bet and police accused Jalamneh of using the hospital as a hideout while planning attacks to be carried out in "the immediate time frame." Israeli troops have carried out dozens of raids in and around Jenin in recent months. Israel says that the PA has lost control of areas of the northern West Bank, allowing terror groups to entrench themselves and launch attacks on Israelis on both sides of the Green Line. UN rights chief says Israeli effort to create a Gaza ‘buffer zone’ is a ‘war crime’ We seem to have a theme. [IsraelTimes] Volker Turk accuses IDF of needlessly destroying civilian infrastructure, attempting to prevent Gazans’ return to homes; army has confirmed demolishing buildings throughout the areaIsrael’s reported ongoing destruction of all buildings along the border inside Gaza with the aim of creating a “buffer zone” is a war crime, the United Nations rights chief warned on Thursday. In a statement, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk pointed to reports that the Israeli military is working inside the Gaza Strip to destroy all buildings within a kilometer of the border fence with Israel with the objective of creating a “buffer zone.” “I stress to the Israeli authorities that Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits destruction by the occupying power of property belonging to private persons, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations,'” he said. Turk warned that the objective of creating a buffer zone for general security purposes did “not appear consistent with the narrow ‘military operations’ exception set out in international humanitarian law.” He added that such “extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, amounts to a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and a war crime.” Israeli officials have repeatedly said that they seek to have only a temporary security presence in Gaza following the end of the war, with no civilian control of the population. Related: Buffer zone: 2024-02-05 Israel's Gaza 'buffer zone' poses risks to civilians, experts warn Buffer zone: 2024-02-02 'They don’t forgive this kind of thing.' Israeli opposition makes claims against Russia Buffer zone: 2024-01-28 US Officials Are Not Happy With Israel's Latest Security Protocol in Gaza |
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Israel forbids doctors from speaking to UN group investigating Oct. 7 atrocities |
2024-01-17 |
[IsraelTimes] The Health Ministry on Monday instructed members of the healthcare system not to cooperate with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, citing its perceived anti-Israel stance. In recent weeks, senior physicians and hospital staff who treated October 7 victims and released hostages have received letters and emails from the commission, which operates under the UN Council for Human Rights. The commission requested information and interviews for its investigation of international and gender-based crimes since the beginning of the current Israel-Hamas war. The findings of the commission’s investigations will be presented in its reports to the Human Rights Council in June and to the UN General Assembly in October. Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported that the Justice Ministry instructed the legal department of the Health Ministry to tell Israeli doctors and others involved in the care of October 7 victims and released hostages not to speak with the committee of inquiry. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat called the commission "an anti-Israeli and antisemitic body" and said Israel would not cooperate with it. When asked by The Times of Israel what these claims were based on, Haiat said, "The commission of inquiry is there to investigate Israel without any time limits, unlike any other commission of inquiry from the UN system." "Furthermore, the three people chosen to head it are famous antisemitic and anti-Israel people," Haiat added. The commission’s chair is Navanethem (Navi) Pillay from South Africa, who served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014 and is currently a judge ad hoc of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The commission’s other leaders are Miloon Kothari from India, the first UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, and Chris Sidoti from Australia, an international human rights consultant and an expert in national human rights institutions and international human rights law and mechanisms. All three have made statements in the past that Israel has deemed to be incorrect, offensive, or defamatory regarding the Jewish state or the global Jewish community, or both. Muslems start wars. Muslems lose wars they start. The UN saves them from the consequences. Related: Pillay: 2022-02-18 Israel rejects cooperation with ‘morally bankrupt’ UN rights probe into May fighting Pillay: 2017-09-11 Nigerian Police Officers To Leave Somalia Pillay: 2015-03-08 Egypt Carries out first Hanging over Pro-Morsi Violence Related: Miloon Kothari: 2023-01-25 Congress members urge removal of UN official for antisemitism exposed by the Times of Israel Miloon Kothari: 2022-07-30 UN Official Investigating Israel: ‘Jewish Lobby' Controls Social Media' Miloon Kothari: 2005-08-27 Iran Blames Britain for Unrest of Iranian Arabs |
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