Northern Gaza at grave risk of Israeli atrocities of ‘the most serious nature,’ UN warns

Northern Gaza at grave risk of Israeli atrocities of ‘the most serious nature,’ UN warns
Ilze Brands Kehris, UN assistant secretary-general for human rights, speaks during a meeting of the Security Council to discuss the growing risk of famine in Gaza. (X/@UN_News_Centre)
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Updated 13 November 2024
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Northern Gaza at grave risk of Israeli atrocities of ‘the most serious nature,’ UN warns

Northern Gaza at grave risk of Israeli atrocities of ‘the most serious nature,’ UN warns
  • ‘Horrific possibility’ of famine cannot be separated from unrelenting Israeli attacks on the human rights of Palestinians, Security Council hears
  • Systematic destruction of Palestinian infrastructure is directly contributing to threat of starvation, human rights official tells council members

NEW YORK CITY: Not only are Israeli authorities seeking to clear northern Gaza of Palestinians by displacing them to the south of the territory, but their actions pose a grave risk of atrocities of “the most serious nature,” the UN warned on Tuesday. 

Ilze Brands Kehris, the organization’s assistant secretary-general for human rights, urged all states to assess their arms sales or transfers “with a view to ending such support if this risks serious violations of international law.”

Speaking during a meeting of the Security Council to discuss the growing risk of famine in Gaza, she described the humanitarian and human rights situation for Palestinians across the battered enclave as “catastrophic.”

The meeting followed an alert issued at the weekend by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Famine Review Committee, which said there was “a strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas within the northern Gaza Strip.” It called for the international community to act “in days, not weeks” to address this threat.

Figures verified by the UN Human Rights Office reveal that almost 70 percent of those killed in Gaza since the war began in October last year were children, mostly between the ages of 5 and 9 years old, or women. According to the Palestinian health ministry, the total death toll from the conflict stands at least 43,000 Palestinians, and more than 100,000 have been injured.

However, these figures are likely to be “a serious understatement,” Brands Kehris told the Security Council, because the bodies of many other victims are thought to be buried under rubble.

Nearly 1.9 million people in Gaza have been displaced, many of them repeatedly, including pregnant women, people with disabilities, the elderly and children, she said. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes on shelters and residential buildings continue to kill unconscionable numbers of civilians, she added: women, men, young and old.

“Attacks on so-called ‘safe zones’ prove that nowhere in Gaza is safe,” Brands Kehris said.

The destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure by the Israeli military — including facilities that enjoy protected status under international law, such as hospitals, schools and vital services such as including power supplies, water and sewage — is directly contributing to the risk of famine, she added.

In addition, Israeli forces have killed hundreds of medical personnel, civilian police officers, journalists and humanitarian aid workers, including more than 220 UN staff, she said, and thousands of Palestinians have been taken from Gaza to Israel, usually shackled and blindfolded, where they are held incommunicado.

“Meanwhile, there is constant and continued interference with the entry and distribution of humanitarian assistance, which has fallen to some of the lowest levels in a year,” Brands Kehris added.

“The cumulative impact of more than a year of destruction in Gaza has taken an enormous toll. Basic services for Palestinians in Gaza, the fabric of society, have been decimated. Conditions of life, particularly in northern Gaza, are increasingly not fit for survival.

“This horrific possibility cannot be separated from the unrelenting attacks on the human rights of civilians there.”

Over the past five weeks, she said, Israeli strikes have resulted in massive civilian fatalities in northern Gaza, particularly among women, children, the elderly, the sick and people with disabilities, many of whom are reportedly “trapped by Israeli military restrictions and attacks on escape routes.”

She added: “The pattern and the frequency of these reported attacks suggest the systematic targeting of locations known, or which should have been known, as sheltering significant numbers of civilians, coupled with the continued use of weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas.

“The Israeli military has also conducted repeated attacks on the three major hospitals in the area and on other vital infrastructure, while unlawfully restricting the entry and distribution of humanitarian assistance to northern Gaza.”

Brands Kehris echoed a call by the high commissioner for human rights for an end to the war, the release of Israeli hostages, and the urgent delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid to Gaza “by all routes.”

There must also be “due reckoning” over allegations of serious violations of international law, she said, overseen by “credible and impartial judicial authorities.”

She added: “In line with the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion and the General Assembly resolution, Israel must end its continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible, allowing the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination.”


Bahraini king receives call from Egyptian president

Bahraini king receives call from Egyptian president
Updated 11 sec ago
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Bahraini king receives call from Egyptian president

Bahraini king receives call from Egyptian president
  • King Hamad praised Egypt’s efforts that led to Gaza ceasefire agreement
  • Leaders agreed on the need to hold an international peace conference for the Middle East

LONDON: The king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, received a phone call from the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, on Tuesday.

King Hamad praised Egypt’s efforts that resulted in a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, ending more than a year of conflict in the Gaza Strip in January.

The leaders agreed on the need to hold an international peace conference for the Middle East, as proposed by King Hamad during the Arab Summit hosted by Bahrain in September.

During the call, the leaders discussed prospects of cooperation between Manama and Cairo in the economic and investment sectors, the Bahrain News Agency reported.

King Hamad stressed the importance of fully implementing the ceasefire agreement in Gaza and initiating a political process for lasting peace in the region, the BNA added.

El-Sisi said that reconstructing the Gaza Strip after 15 months of Israeli bombardment is vital and highlighted the necessity of a unified Arab stance to support stability in the Middle East.

They also discussed Syria, Lebanon, Libya, and Sudan and the lack of stability in these countries, the BNA added.


Some Palestinian prisoners freed in ceasefire arrive in Turkiye

Some Palestinian prisoners freed in ceasefire arrive in Turkiye
Updated 04 February 2025
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Some Palestinian prisoners freed in ceasefire arrive in Turkiye

Some Palestinian prisoners freed in ceasefire arrive in Turkiye
  • Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the 15 former prisoners had arrived via Egypt
  • “We think it would be beneficial for some regional countries to take a role in this matter,” Fidan said

CAIRO/ANKARA: Fifteen Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel under the Jan. 19 ceasefire agreement with Hamas arrived in Türkiye on Tuesday after being deported first to Egypt, the Turkish foreign minister and the Hamas prisoners media office said.
Among dozens of such former prisoners, they are the first to be taken in by a third country other than Egypt under the terms of the ceasefire, which bar prisoners convicted by Israel of violent attacks from returning to the Palestinian Territories.
Palestinians view those jailed for fighting Israel as resistance heroes.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the 15 former prisoners had arrived via Egypt, after Ankara responded positively to a request under the ceasefire deal provisions.
“We think it would be beneficial for some regional countries to take a role in this matter... Egypt and Qatar would play a role in that respect,” Fidan said at a joint press conference in Ankara with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty.
The first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza has led to Hamas’ release of 18 hostages and Israel’s release of 583 jailed Palestinians, of whom at least 79 were sent to Egypt.
As well as Türkiye, some may be sent on to Algeria or Qatar, Hamas sources say.
Fidan rejected criticism by what he called “Zionist circles” of Turkiye’s decision to take in the former Palestinian prisoners, saying Ankara was acting to help end “the humanitarian drama in Gaza.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to discuss the situation in Gaza and other regional issues with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday.
The Gaza war started with a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, on Israel that killed 1,200 people, and saw more than 250 taken as hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The Israeli military campaign has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians and left the enclave in ruins, Gaza authorities say.


Paramilitary shelling kills five at Sudan hospital: medical source

Paramilitary shelling kills five at Sudan hospital: medical source
Updated 04 February 2025
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Paramilitary shelling kills five at Sudan hospital: medical source

Paramilitary shelling kills five at Sudan hospital: medical source
  • The source said volunteers at Al-Nao Hospital were among the dead in the bombardment by the paramilitary RSF
  • “The shells landed in the garden adjacent to the hospital“

PORT SUDAN: Shelling by Sudanese paramilitaries killed five people outside one of the last medical facilities still operating in Khartoum’s sister city of Omdurman on Tuesday, a medical source told AFP.
Requesting anonymity for safety reasons, the source said volunteers at Al-Nao Hospital were among the dead in the bombardment by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been at war with the regular army since April 2023.
“The shells landed in the garden adjacent to the hospital,” the source said.
Al-Nao Hospital, which is supported by medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF), lies in an area controlled by the Sudanese army and has been repeatedly attacked since the start of the war.
Greater Khartoum has been one of the main battlegrounds of the struggle for power between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy. RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million.
Both sides have been accused of indiscriminately shelling health facilities and residential areas.
Gains by the army in Khartoum in recent weeks prompted the RSF to announce a counteroffensive last week.
On Saturday, at least 60 people were killed in an RSF bombardment that hit a busy market in Omdurman.
The RSF holds much of western and southern Sudan while the army retains control of the east and north.


NGOs, civil society groups urge EU to end trade with Israeli settlements

NGOs, civil society groups urge EU to end trade with Israeli settlements
Updated 04 February 2025
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NGOs, civil society groups urge EU to end trade with Israeli settlements

NGOs, civil society groups urge EU to end trade with Israeli settlements
  • Bloc is violating ICJ ruling by allowing goods to enter European market, letter warns
  • Human Rights Watch: EU should ‘live up to its obligations under international law’

LONDON: More than 160 NGOs, civil society groups and trade unions have urged the EU to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories.

The appeal came in a letter addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

She was urged to take action to ensure that Europe complies with international law by ending its support for Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.

It comes amid renewed international attention on the Palestinian question in the wake of the Gaza ceasefire.

Palestinians “continue suffering” in the enclave despite the “fragile” ceasefire, while in the West Bank Israeli authorities have “expanded their illegal settlements and intensified their repression of Palestinians,” Human Rights Watch said.

EU member states have repeatedly condemned Israeli settlements through unanimous voting. Two rounds of targeted sanctions against Israeli settlers were also launched by the bloc.

Last July, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s occupation is illegal, and called for the dismantling of settlements.

States have an obligation to prevent trade “that assists in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” the court said.

Existing EU policies breach this obligation, groups said in the letter, warning that goods exported from Israeli settlements are not excluded from entering the European market.

HRW said: “Amid sharp divisions, the EU has been unable to adopt measures that respond to Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide in Gaza.

“But the bloc should at least be coherent with its own statements, and live up to its obligations under international law, by banning trade and business with settlements, which are inexorably linked to egregious rights abuses.”


Syrian president arrives in Turkiye for talks with Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) meets with Syrian president Ahmed Al-Sharaa, at the Presidential Palace in Ankara.AFP
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) meets with Syrian president Ahmed Al-Sharaa, at the Presidential Palace in Ankara.AFP
Updated 17 min 41 sec ago
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Syrian president arrives in Turkiye for talks with Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) meets with Syrian president Ahmed Al-Sharaa, at the Presidential Palace in Ankara.AFP
  • Despite being constrained by its own economic crisis, Turkiye is offering to help with Syria’s recovery after a devastating civil war
  • In return, Turkiye is keen to secure Damascus’s support against Kurdish militants in northeastern Syria

ANKARA: Syrian president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, arrived in Turkiye on Tuesday for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his second international trip since ousting President Bashar Assad, an official told AFP.
Al-Sharaa was to meet the Turkish leader in the capital Ankara after flying in from Saudi Arabia, where he was seeking help from Gulf countries to finance the reconstruction of his war-ravaged nation and revive its economy.
Turkiye, which has close ties with Al-Sharaa, reopened its diplomatic mission in the Syrian Arab Republic and sent its spy chief and foreign minister for talks with him soon after the HTS overthrew Assad on December 8.
The pair will discuss “joint steps to be taken for economic recovery, sustainable stability and security,” Erdogan’s communications chief Fahrettin Altun said on Monday.
Despite being constrained by its own economic crisis, Turkiye is offering to help with Syria’s recovery after a devastating 13-year civil war.
In return, Turkiye is keen to secure Damascus’s support against Kurdish militants in northeastern Syria, where the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been battling Ankara-backed forces.