human rights violations

UNRWA Says 6 Workers Among at Least 18 Killed in Israeli Strikes on Gaza School

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Mourning Palestinian men carry the body of UNRWA staffer Yaser Abu Sharar after he was killed in an Israeli strike on the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on September 11, 2024. (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“This school has been hit five times since the war began. It is home to around 12,000 displaced people, mainly women and children. No one is safe in Gaza. No one is spared.”

The United Nations relief agency for Palestine said Wednesday that six of its workers are among the at least 18 people killed in a pair of Israeli airstrikes targeting a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip where thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians were sheltering.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said the Israeli strikes on one of its schools, located in Nuseirat in central Gaza, resulted in “the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident” since Israeli forces began bombarding the strip following last October’s Hamas-led attack on Israel.

“Among those killed was the manager of the UNRWA shelter and other team members providing assistance to displaced people,” the agency said. “Sincere condolences to their families and loved ones. This school has been hit five times since the war began. It is home to around 12,000 displaced people, mainly women and children.”

Victims of the strikes included women and children.

Earlier on Wednesday the United Nations said the school had been “previously deconflicted with the Israeli forces.”

“No one is safe in Gaza. No one is spared,” UNRWA stressed. “Schools and other civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times, they are not a target.”

Responding to the attacks, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on social media that “these dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now.”

Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice, a U.N. body. International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan is also seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—at least one of whom, Ismail Haniyeh, has been assassinated.

Over the past 341 days, Israel’s assault on Gaza has left more than 145,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, according to Palestinian and international officials. Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced, while Israel’s “complete siege” of Gaza has starved and sickened millions of Palestinians, dozens of whom have died of malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of medical care.

UNRWA says around 200 of its staff members have been killed in more than 450 Israeli attacks on agency facilities since October. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed while seeking shelter under the U.N. flag.

Responding to Israeli claims—reportedly extracted from Palestinian prisoners in an interrogation regime rife with torture and abuse—that a dozen of the more than 13,000 UNRWA workers in Gaza were involved in the October 7 attack, numerous nations including the United States cut off funding to the agency. Almost all of them have restored funding as Israeli lies have been debunked.

Bucking this trend, U.S. President Joe Biden in March signed a bill prohibiting American funding for UNRWA.

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingUNRWA Says 6 Workers Among at Least 18 Killed in Israeli Strikes on Gaza School

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YouTube censors EI programme examining UK role in Israel’s genocide in Gaza
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 30 of 350 arms licences to Isreal. He also confirms the UK government's support for Israel's Gaza genocide.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide.
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Greens become first political party in England and Wales to recognise Israeli government conduct as ‘Apartheid’ and ‘Genocide’

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Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire. CC image Wikipedia.
Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire. CC image Wikipedia.

The Green Party has voted at its Manchester conference to recognise the Israeli government as an “apartheid” state, as defined by international treaties such as the International Convention on Apartheid (1973) and Rome Statute (1998). 

The conference also voted to recognise Israeli military operations in Gaza as a “genocide” as defined under the UN Genocide Convention (1948).  

Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire, said: “We don’t use terms like genocide or apartheid lightly, but they are a sad reflection of the atrocities being carried out by the Israeli State.  

“This motion reflects International Humanitarian Law, including the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, and it is essential that British political parties unequivocally uphold these basic minimum standards of international law.” 

The conference also reaffirmed support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.  

Ellie Chowns said: “We will only see an end to the escalating violence in the Middle East when there are clear incentives for all involved in the war in Gaza to agree to a ceasefire, the release of all hostages and an end to the occupation.    

“We will press the UK government to step up its actions, including suspending all arms export licenses to Israel, and full co-operation with the actions of the international courts. 

“Without an agreement, the intolerable death toll in Gaza will continue to rise, the hostages will be at greater risk and there will be an increased chance of sleepwalking into a larger regional war.” 

Continue ReadingGreens become first political party in England and Wales to recognise Israeli government conduct as ‘Apartheid’ and ‘Genocide’

Palestine supporters blockade entrance to arms factory in Kent

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/palestine-supporters-blockade-entrance-to-arms-factory-kent

Photo: Martin Pope

AN ISRAELI arms factory in Kent was under siege today [yesterday] after Palestine supporters blockaded its entrance roads.

The Instro Precision factory is part of Israeli-owned Elbit Systems, which is believed to manufacture military drones, pilotless aircraft and other weapons for Israel.

Palestine Action mounted the blockade and vehicles were used to block the entrances.

Activists also covered the premises in red paint, symbolising “Palestinian bloodshed.”

Palestine Action said the factory’s products were not affected by last week’s government announcement that 50 [dizzy:30] out of 320 arms export licences were being suspended.

…

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/palestine-supporters-blockade-entrance-to-arms-factory-kent

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Iran Condemns Deadly Israeli Bombing of Syria as ‘Criminal Attack’

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, speaks at a press conference in Tehran, Iran. (Photo: Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry called on Israel’s allies to “stop supporting and arming it.”

The Israeli military carried out a series of airstrikes on central Syria late Sunday, reportedly killing more than a dozen people and prompting a furious response from Syrian ally Iran.

“We strongly condemn this criminal attack,” Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said during a press conference in Tehran.

Kanaani went on to urge Israel’s weapons suppliers, chiefly the United States and Germany, to “stop supporting and arming it” as its catastrophic assault on the Gaza Strip spills out across the region. Nearly 40 people were wounded in Israel’s strikes on Sunday, according to a Syrian health official, and several are in critical condition.

Citing two unnamed regional intelligence sources, Reuters reported early Monday that the Israeli strikes hit a “major military research center for chemical arms production located near Misyaf.”

The facility, according to Reuters, “is believed to house a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production.”

Kanaani denied that the facility hit was connected to Iran.

“What official sources from the Syrian government have announced is that there were attacks on some Syrian facilities, including an attack on a research center affiliated with the Ministry of Defense and the Syrian army,” he said.

Civilians were reportedly among those killed and wounded in Sunday’s strikes, which came as the world awaited Iran’s expected military response to Israel’s assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July.

Israeli forces have carried out dozens of airstrikes in Syria—including one targeting Iran’s consulate in Damascus—since the Hamas-led October 7 attack, which prompted Israel’s large-scale assault on Gaza.

Al Jazeera reported that Israeli forces continued to pummel the Palestinian enclave on Monday, bombing “al-Amoudi street in the Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City.” The outlet noted that “at least 10 people have been killed today in attacks across the Gaza Strip.”

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingIran Condemns Deadly Israeli Bombing of Syria as ‘Criminal Attack’