Israel’s new army chief says mission against Hamas ‘not accomplished’

TUNIS: A Tunisian court opened a high-profile trial Tuesday in which 40 people, including leading opposition figures, stand accused of conspiring against state security. Activists protested outside, calling it a baseless case and part of a politically driven crackdown.
Nine of the defendants were not allowed to appear at the trial, deemed by the court as too dangerous to release from custody. Their lawyers demanded the right of their clients to appear before a judge, as did the protesters outside.
In addition to opposition politicians, the accused include former diplomats, business leaders, journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders, and some have spent more than two years in pre-trial detention. Others have fled abroad.
According to lawyers, some defendants risk capital punishment if convicted. The charges include plotting against state security and belonging to a terrorist group for some, while others are suspected of illegal connections with foreign parties and diplomats.
Critics of Tunisian President Kais Saied say the charges are fabricated and the trial is politically motivated. The North African country’s president, who was re-elected for a second term last year, says the defendants are “traitors and terrorists,” as they accuse him of staging a coup in 2021.
The birthplace of the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings, Tunisia has seen a significant rollback of freedoms under Saied. Critics, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, have accused Saied’s government of using the judiciary to stifle dissent since his 2021 power grab, which dissolved parliament and expanded executive authority.
Saied’s supporters argue his crackdowns are necessary to stabilize a nation grappling with inflation, unemployment, and corruption. Many Tunisians blame political elites for economic mismanagement.
Global rights groups condemned the court case, including treatment of the defendants.
“The documented systematic violations of their rights during the pre-trial phase of the criminal proceedings significantly undermine the whole prosecution and the legitimacy, independence and impartiality″ of the trial, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said in a statement.

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Amnesty International said on Wednesday that Israel’s attacks on ambulances, paramedics and health facilities during its recent war with Hezbollah should be investigated as war crimes.
A November 27 truce agreement largely halted more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, including two months of all-out war during which Israel sent in ground troops.
During the conflict, the Israeli military accused the Iran-backed group of using ambulances belonging to the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee for transporting fighters and weapons, accusations the group denied.
According to Amnesty, “the Israeli military’s repeated unlawful attacks during the war in Lebanon on health facilities, ambulances and health workers, which are protected under international law, must be investigated as war crimes.”
It urged the Lebanese government to provide the International Criminal Court with “jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes within the Rome Statute committed on Lebanese territory, and ensure victims’ right to remedy.”
In December, Lebanon’s then health minister Firass Abiad said that during the hostilities, there were “67 attacks on hospitals, including 40 hospitals that were directly targeted,” killing 16 people.
“There were 238 attacks on emergency response organizations, with 206 dead,” he said, adding that 256 emergency vehicles including fire trucks and ambulances were also “targeted.”
Amnesty said it investigated four Israeli attacks on health facilities and vehicles in Beirut and south Lebanon from October 3 to 9 last year that killed 19 health care workers, wounded 11 others and “damaged or destroyed multiple ambulances and two medical facilities.”
“Amnesty International did not find evidence that the facilities or vehicles were being used for military purposes at the time of the attacks,” the statement said.
The rights group said it wrote to the Israeli military in November with its findings but had not received a response by the time of publication.
“The Israeli military has not provided sufficient justifications, or specific evidence of military targets being present at the strike locations” to account for the “repeated attacks, which weakened a fragile health care system and put lives at risk,” Amnesty added.
According to Lebanese authorities, more than 4,000 people were killed in more than the year of hostilities.
Swathes of the south and east and parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs were heavily damaged in the Israeli bombardment, with reconstruction costs expected to top $10 billion, Lebanese authorities have said.