Responding to the expansion of Israeli military ground operations in southern Lebanon, Human Rights Watch has warned that countries that continue to provide Israel with arms and military aid risk complicity in the Israeli government’s serious violations in Lebanon. [1]
Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire. CC image Wikipedia.
Reacting to the warnings of UK complicity in Israel’s violations in Lebanon, Dr Ellie Chowns MP said:
“Israel has continuously flouted international law with apparent impunity. That impunity must end. Throughout Israel’s genocide in Gaza and illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank, the UK Government has refused to pursue appropriate action against its government for breaching international law or to re-evaluate Israel’s status as an ally to Britain.
“This permissiveness has not tempered but emboldened the Israeli government. Following its strikes on Iran, Israel has expanded its ground campaign in Lebanon, displacing a million people throughout the country, killing over 1,000 people – including 118 children – destroying civilian infrastructure, and seemingly preparing for prolonged occupation of southern Lebanon.
“Israeli government and military officials have made repeated overt comparisons between its plans for Lebanon and its genocidal destruction of Gaza. Human Rights Watch has now warned that Israeli officials have signalled an intent to wantonly destroy homes in Lebanon’s border villages, forcibly displace and prevent the return of “hundreds of thousands of Shiite residents of southern Lebanon”, and conduct strikes in Beirut that could target civilians simply for being “near Hezbollah members, facilities, or means of combat.” All these actions would constitute war crimes.
“The Government must heed these serious warnings and act decisively to avoid the UK’s complicity in further crimes and to end the impunity which has enabled and emboldened Israel. The Green Party reiterates our calls for the UK to halt all arms sales to and military cooperation with the Israeli Government, to drive independent investigations into war crimes committed and support justice mechanisms for victims, and to impose sanctions on government officials responsible for breaches of international law.”
Human Rights Watch highlight recent statements from Israeli officials that signal “an intent to forcibly displace residents, destroy civilian homes and conduct strikes that could target civilians. Forcible displacement, wanton destruction and attacks deliberately targeting civilians are war crimes.”
Since the recent escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,029 people in Lebanon, including 118 children and 40 medical workers, as of March 22 according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, and over one million people have been displaced following a series of displacement orders by the Israeli military.
Human Rights Watch recommends that “Israel’s key allies, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, should suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel and impose targeted sanctions on officials credibly responsible for ongoing serious abuses. They should levy further pressure on Israel to ensure that displaced residents can return to their homes once hostilities end or once the reasons for their displacement cease to exist.”
Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, Ramzi Kaiss, said, “Atrocities flourish when there is impunity, and other countries should no longer stand by as they continue.”
Keir Starmer explains that UK is participating defensively in Trump and Israel’s criminal war for Israel’s genocidal expansion in Iran and states that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying only 9 days ago that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
US Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press conference on US military action in Iran, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on March 2, 2026. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
“We are a rogue murder state now, and positively proud of it,” said one historian.
US Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth’s dismissal on Monday of what he called “stupid rules of engagement” in the illegal war against Iran amounted to an invitation for American and allied forces to commit war crimes, human rights organizations and other critics warned.
Hegseth’s remarks came during a press conference alongside the top US general, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine. The Pentagon chief boasted that the US is “unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history,” “all on our terms with maximum authorities,” unbound by “stupid rules of engagement,” and undeterred by “what so-called international institutions say”—an apparent reference to the United Nations.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement Monday that “these remarks are concerning in light of Hegseth’s actions in the past year that have weakened US military posts and mechanisms intended to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law, also known as the laws of war.”
“Rules of engagement are official military directives that tell military forces when, where, how, and against whom force may be used. They must always be in accordance with the laws of war,” said HRW. “Hegseth abolished ‘civilian environment teams’ and other mechanisms intended to limit harm to civilians during operations. The 2026 National Defense Strategy omitted references to civilian protection and the Defense Department rolled back restrictions on its use of antipersonnel landmines and moved ahead with cluster munitions procurement despite these weapons’ foreseeable immediate and long-term harm to civilians.”
“Human Rights Watch will endeavor to assess whether these Defense Department actions unlawfully increase the risk of harm to civilians during US military operations,” the group added. “US civilian and military officials should reaffirm US compliance with the laws of war and restore the personnel and oversight structures that help protect civilians during armed conflict.”
Historian Seth Cotlar wrote on social media that Hegseth’s comments underscored that “we are a rogue murder state now, and positively proud of it.”
The Pentagon chief’s remarks came days after a girls’ school in Iran was bombed, allegedly by US or Israeli forces. The US Central Command said it was “looking into” the attack, which killed 165 people—most of them girls between the ages of 7 and 12. The Guardiannotes that the school was “adjacent to a cluster of buildings that form the local Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) barracks and support buildings.”
An Al Jazeerainvestigation concluded the school strike was likely “deliberate.”
When Hegseth says "no stupid rules of engagement," this is what he means.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a statement over the weekend that “any deliberate attack on a school or on civilians, as well as any indiscriminate or disproportionate attack that violates the principles of distinction and proportionality, constitutes a grave breach and may amount to a war crime where intent to target the school is established or where the attack is indiscriminate or disproportionate.”
Hegseth has previously derided limitations on US troops’ conduct overseas as “stupid.” During remarks to hundreds of generals last year, the Pentagon chief declared that we “untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country.”
“We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy,” Hegseth said at the time. “No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.”
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand shake hands following talks at the G7 foreign ministers meeting on November 12, 2025. (Photo by Mandel Ngan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
“The UK, Canada, and other allied nations who partner with the United States on counternarcotics efforts have ample evidence that the US is unlawfully killing people at sea,” said Human Rights Watch.
A leading human rights organization on Tuesday pushed allies of the United States to more forcefully condemn and take steps to stop President Donald Trump’s deadly boat strikes in international waters, attacks that experts have characterized as extrajudicial killings.
“The UK, Canada, and other allied nations who partner with the United States on counternarcotics efforts have ample evidence that the US is unlawfully killing people at sea,” Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in a statement. “The rules-based international order depends on countries speaking out against violations, even when they’re committed by powerful friends.”
HRW specifically urged countries at risk of complicity to closely examine their maritime cooperation and intelligence-sharing with the Trump administration, which claims—without evidence—that every vessel targeted was involved in drug smuggling operations that posed a threat to the US.
“The UK, France, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands have significant influence in the Caribbean due to their overseas territories in the region,” the group said. “All three governments are also participants in Campaign Martillo, a multinational counternarcotics detection, monitoring, and interdiction operation that includes US Navy and Coast Guard vessels, along with military and law enforcement units from a dozen other nations, including Canada.”
“Australia and New Zealand, which are part of the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence sharing community with the United States, UK, and Canada where the governments share all signals and geospatial intelligence by default, may also find themselves implicated in the strikes and should take steps to evaluate their own risks,” HRW added.
While officials from the nations named by HRW have criticized and distanced themselves from the Trump administration’s strikes, their comments have largely been vague and tepid—especially when compared to the responses of some South American leaders. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, for instance, said her country “is not involved in these US actions” and that “it is for the United States to articulate the legal basis of its actions.”
HRW also pointed to Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand’s statement that “the United States has made clear that it is using its own intelligence” to target the vessels in international waters.
“It is not sufficient to accept the US government’s assurances that it is not leveraging shared intelligence for its unlawful strikes,” said HRW. “In contrast, when asked directly about the legality of the strikes, [Ahmed] declined to address the matter, saying instead that ‘it is within the purview of US authorities to make that determination.’”
Last month, the UK reportedly suspended some intelligence sharing with the US due to the boat strikes. But US Secretary of State Marco Rubiocalled the CNN reporting a “fake story,” and the UK’s foreign secretary cited Rubio’s comment when asked about the report.
HRW said major US allies “should make public any internal legal assessments as to whether the US strikes are violating international law, use their bilateral relationships to raise concerns directly with US officials, and push for individual criminal accountability for those responsible.”
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
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Hundreds gather near Wilmersdorfer Strasse metro station to protest Israel’s attacks on Gaza and to show support for Palestinians, on July 5, 2025, in Berlin, Germany. [Erbil Basay/Anadolu via Getty Images]
For several years now, the Palestine solidarity movement in Germany has faced severe repression. Yet after 7 October 2023, this harassment reached new levels: In the first weeks following the Gaza uprising and the beginning of the genocide, demonstrations were broadly banned in a number of German cities – especially in the capital, Berlin. Both Hamas and the international prisoner solidarity network “Samidoun” were declared illegal by executive order, and the slogan “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” was classified as a prohibited “symbol” of Hamas.
To this day, censorship, criminal charges and brutal police violence against pro-Palestinian demonstrators remain commonplace. Events are regularly cancelled – even UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, was denied access to university venues in Munich in February 2025. Repeatedly, police have conducted house searches because individuals “liked” posts online, used the phrase “From the river to the sea…”, compared Israel’s actions to Nazi crimes, or accused German politicians of complicity in war crimes.
According to estimates, police have opened around 10,000 criminal investigations related to Palestine solidarity over the past 24 months. In May 2024, the Berlin Palestine Congress was forcibly shut down by authorities; internationally recognised guests were denied entry to Germany. Six months after the bans on Samidoun and Hamas, the group “Palästina Solidarität Duisburg“ (Palestine Solidarity Duisburg) was outlawed as well, and further bans are reportedly being prepared by German authorities, including against the international BDS movement. Since the beginning of this year, there have also been multiple deportations of Palestinians and pro-Palestinian foreign nationals. The legal aid organisation “3ezwa” estimates that several thousand people across Germany are currently at acute risk of expulsion or deportation.
This campaign to suppress freedom of expression – which is openly racist and particularly targets Arab and Muslim communities – is drawing increasing international attention. As early as late October 2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) raised the alarm, criticising, among other things, the handling of pro-Palestine demonstrations by German authorities. Soon after, criticism also came from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). In mid-May 2025, the European Legal Support Center (ELSC) launched the “first available database on anti-Palestinian repression in Germany”. At that time, the database already documented 766 cases of censorship, surveillance, bans on demonstrations, arrests, workplace and financial repression, relevant laws and resolutions, intimidation, and migration-related reprisals.
In June, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights felt compelled to send a letter to the German Interior Minister. In it, he referred to “reports of excessive use of force by police against protesters, including minors,” expressed “concern” that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition “has been interpreted by some German authorities in ways which lead to the blanket classification of criticism of Israel as antisemitic,” and “recalled” that EU member states “have both an obligation to refrain from undue interference with human rights and also positive obligations to safeguard these rights by securing their effective enjoyment for everyone.”
Last week, the United Nations intervened again. Six independent experts called on Germany “to halt criminalisation and police violence against Palestinian solidarity activism.” They, too, focused on police brutality, but also explicitly criticised the criminalisation of the slogan “From the River to the Sea Palestine will be free.” Their concluding statement declared: “Germany must support, not suppress, actions aiming to stop atrocity crimes and genocide.”
International media now report regularly on the state-driven anti-Palestinian repression and violence in Germany. Images of police officers beating peaceful demonstrators with their fists circulate around the world. Journalists and analysts attempt to explain to a bewildered international audience why a state that so often invokes human rights, freedom of expression and the rule of law acts in such a repressive and inhumane way. Frequently, reference is made to Germany’s “special historical responsibility” arising from the Holocaust. But this explanation is part of the myth.
In reality, the issue has always been about power and money: After the Second World War, West Germany had to rehabilitate itself in the eyes of the Western public. The Federal Republic was built by men who, only yesterday, had been committed Nazis – politicians, bureaucrats, judges, officers, police and intelligence agents who had all taken part in the crimes of the fascist regime, including mass murder and world war. The focus on the genocide of the Jews – the second-largest group of victims after the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe (who were, however, the enemy during the Cold War) – coincided with Israel’s emergence as an outpost of Western imperialism. The so-called “reparations payments”, which went not to Holocaust survivors or their descendants but to the “Jewish state”, in fact served as a programme for the economic development and militarisation of the Zionist regime in Palestine. The phrase “historical responsibility” thus functions as a euphemism, much like the colonial “protection treaties” and “protectorates”.
What Germany has created through its “ideology of guilt” is unique: instead of denying or relativising its own crimes, it has singularised, dehistoricised and fetishised them. Germany is perhaps the only country that does not deny a genocide it itself committed, but rather invokes it to justify its imperial foreign policy – even to the point of supporting another genocide.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
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Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
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A woman and a child run for cover as a bomb falls from the sky during an Israeli airstrike targeting Abu Hilo School, run by UNRWA, in the Bureij Refugee Camp in central Gaza on July 17, 2025. [Moiz Salhi – Anadolu Agency]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has confirmed that Israel has bombed more than 500 schools sheltering displaced people across the Gaza Strip since October 2023.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the organisation said: “Since October 2023, Israeli authorities have carried out hundreds of strikes on schools sheltering displaced Palestinians, including unlawfully indiscriminate attacks using US munitions, that have killed hundreds of civilians and damaged or destroyed virtually all of Gaza’s schools.”
The rights organisation warned of the long-term consequences of the attacks, particularly on civilians and the education system, stating: “The Israeli attacks have denied civilians safe access to shelter and will contribute to the disruption of access to education for many years, as repair and reconstruction of schools can require significant resources and time.
The latest Israeli airstrikes on schools used as shelters form part of the ongoing military offensive, which has destroyed much of Gaza’s remaining civilian infrastructure, displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and further worsened an already dire humanitarian situation, according to the HRW statement.
The organisation demanded that “Governments- including the United States- which has provided weapons used in unlawful attacks, should impose an arms embargo on the Israeli government and take other urgent measures to enforce the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention).”
