Tag: war crimes

‘No nation is above the law’: Colombia to host international summit against Israeli impunity

More than 20 states will gather in Bogota on 15–16 July to declare “concrete measures” against Israel’s violations of international law, according to diplomats speaking to Middle East Eye.

The summit, co-chaired by Colombia and South Africa, will bring together members and supporters of The Hague Group, a bloc launched in January to confront what it calls “a climate of impunity” surrounding Israel’s actions in Gaza.

The group includes Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal, and South Africa, with additional countries such as Spain, Ireland, Turkiye, Portugal, China, Qatar, Algeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Oman, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay, and Palestine set to attend.

Colombian Vice-Minister of Multilateral Affairs Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir said the summit would not only reaffirm the group’s resistance to the ongoing “Palestinian genocide,” but also outline specific steps to move from words to collective action. 

“Colombia cannot be indifferent in the face of apartheid and ethnic cleansing,” he said.

The conference will be hosted at the Museo Nacional de Colombia under the banner Collective Action in Defense of Palestine, with keynote remarks to be delivered by UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese – who was recently sanctioned by the US for what US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called a “campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel.”

Other speakers include UK parliamentarian Jeremy Corbyn, EU lawmaker Rima Hassan, and Andres Macias Tolosa of the UN Working Group on Mercenaries. Colombia’s Minister of Culture, Yannai Kadamani Fonrodona, will also participate.

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US threatens ICC: Drop Israel war crimes probe or ‘all options on the table’

A senior legal adviser to the US State Department has issued a dramatic threat to the International Criminal Court’s oversight body, warning that “all options are on the table” if the court does not drop investigations and arrest warrants against the US and Israel.

Reed Rubinstein made the threat on Tuesday during a meeting of the Assembly of State Parties (ASP), the ICC’s oversight body, in New York.

“We will use all appropriate and effective diplomatic, political and legal instruments to block ICC overreach,” the US representative warned.

“Our additional sanctions of June 5 should underscore our resolve,” he added, referencing the US’s recent move to sanction four ICC judges who issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant last November.

Rubinstein went on to threaten the ICC: “To be clear, we expect all ICC actions against the United States and our ally Israel – that is, all investigations and all arrest warrants – to be terminated,” he said.

“If not, all options remain on the table.”

The ASP was meeting to discuss a potential amendment to the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty, to expand the court’s jurisdiction over the “crime of aggression”.

The court has jurisdiction in the 125 countries that recognise its authority.

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President Trump Issues a Serious Veiled Threat to Israel as Leftist Prosecutors in the Jewish State Try to Lock Up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Bogus Charges

President Trump appears to be ready to hit Israel directly where it hurts the most if leftist prosecutors do not leave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alone.

As The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft reported on Thursday, Trump erupted after learning Netanyahu had been summoned to Court next Monday for the continuation of a long-running legal witch-hunt.

To make things more insulting, the Netanyahu announcement came 48 hours after Iran and Israel agreed to a ceasefire in their ongoing war. The Bibi-hating leftists did not even wait to give the prime minister time to catch his breath after one of the most consequential battles in Jewish history.

As Trump noted, this is the first time a sitting Israeli Prime Minister has ever been on trial. This politically motivated case concerns ridiculous things like cigars and a Bugs Bunny doll.

Trump went on to demand that the trial be cancelled immediately or a pardon given to Netanyahu. He did specify what consequences Israel would face if this travesty of justice continued, though.

But in a new statement released on Truth Social Saturday night, Trump strongly implied that failure to drop this garbage case would result in the end of all U.S foreign aid to Israel.

It is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu. He is a War Hero, and a Prime Minister who did a fabulous job working with the United States to bring Great Success in getting rid of the dangerous Nuclear threat in Iran. Importantly, he is right now in the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back.”

How is it possible that the Prime Minister of Israel can be forced to sit in a Courtroom all day long, over NOTHING (Cigars, Bugs Bunny Doll, etc.)? It is a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure. This travesty of “Justice” will interfere with both Iran and Hamas negotiations. In other words, it is INSANITY doing what the out-of-control prosecutors are doing to Bibi Netanyahu.

The United States of America spends Billions of Dollars a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this. We just had a Great Victory with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu at the helm — And this greatly tarnishes our Victory. LET BIBI GO, HE’S GOT A BIG JOB TO DO!

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Bibi Fumes After IDF Soldiers Confirm Lethal Weapons Routinely Used On Crowds At Gaza Aid Sites

Soon after the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began distributing aid to war-torn Gaza in May, disturbing reports emerged of Israeli soldiers killing unarmed Palestinians approaching aid points for food. As the world’s eyes turned from Gaza to Israel attack on Iran, the pace of these reported killings increased — with multiple incidents claiming more than 50 lives each. Now, Israel’s oldest daily newspaper has dropped a bombshell report, with Israeli soldiers and officers confirming the routine use of deadly force on unarmed Palestinians as a barbaric form of crowd control — with the practice carried out under orders from superior officers. 

Gaza’s Hamas-run health authority says 529 Palestinians have been killed at humanitarian aid sites or while waiting for food trucks just since late May, when the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) took on the task of distributing food in the strip. While Israel’s defenders invariably discredit Gaza casualty counts, US Army Colonel Nathan McCormack, who previously headed up the Joint Chiefs’ Levant and Egypt branch, has said, “We (Department of Defense, Department of State and the U.S. Intelligence Community) consider the Gaza Health Ministry figures to be generally reliable.” A shadowy organization, GHF is led by an evangelical Christian leader with close ties to Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump. 

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Israeli Forces Kill 59 Palestinians in Gaza Aid Massacre

Israeli tank fire killed at least 59 Palestinians in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, as they were trying to get food from aid trucks, Reuters reported on Tuesday, marking the deadliest aid massacre since the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating in Gaza at the end of May.

While many Palestinians have been killed near GHF sites, the massacre in Khan Younis did not appear to be related to the GHF, as the crowd that was fired on was waiting for aid trucks to pass through, according to witnesses speaking to Reuters.

Medics said another 221 people were injured in the massacre, and Gaza’s Health Ministry published photos of victims being treated at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Footage from social media shows dozens of bodies strewn along a street in Khan Younis.

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Tehran Starts Drowning in Sewage After Israeli Missiles Strike Key Water Infrastructure

Shock video circulating online appears to show parts of Tehran drowning in waste after Israeli missiles struck water and sewage pipelines.

Footage shared on social media shows a street in the Iranian capital overflowing with water and waste product, creating a disgusting brown flow through the city.

The outbreak means that emergency services in Tehran are grappling with simultaneous challenges.

These include the impact of missile strikes, crumbling nuclear infrastructure, and now a public health nightmare as sewage seeps into streets.

The breakdown of potable water and sewage systems also risks triggering disease outbreaks and major social rest in an already volatile capital.

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Former State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller Admits Israel Has Committed War Crimes in Gaza

Former State Department spokesman Matthew Miller has said that Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, an admission that comes after he spent his time in the Biden administration providing cover for Israeli atrocities in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Miller made the comments on a Sky News podcast when asked if he thought Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. “I don’t think it’s a genocide, but I think it is without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes,” he said.

From the podium at the State Department, Miller repeatedly claimed that there wasn’t enough proof to conclude that Israel was committing war crimes despite the overwhelming evidence, and justified continued US support for the slaughter of Palestinians.

“At the podium, you’re not expressing your personal opinion, you’re expressing the conclusions of the United States government. The United States government had not concluded they have committed war crimes,” Miller said.

Miller admitted that he believed Israel committed war crimes while he was in the State Department, but “qualified” his answer, claiming it wasn’t clear whether it was Israeli state policy to commit war crimes or if they had been committed only by individual members of the military.

But Miller also admitted there hasn’t been any accountability for the war crimes committed by the Israeli military. “We have not yet seen them hold sufficient numbers of the military accountable, and I think it’s an open question whether they’re going to,” he said.

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Timing of sexual misconduct allegations against ICC prosecutor ‘suspicious’ – analyst 

The timing of the sexual assault allegations brought against International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan is extremely suspicious, geopolitical analyst Alessandro Bruno told RT in an interview on Friday.

The fact that the ICC’s head prosecutor was working on a high-profile case at the time, which involved the issuance of arrest warrants against the Israeli leadership, “raises many questions,” he added.

Last May, Khan announced that he would apply for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his then Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as top figures in the Hamas leadership, for war crimes committed in the Gaza conflict. The ICC issued the warrants last November, around the time when accusations against Khan surfaced.

The Chief Prosecutor has since taken leave from his role, pending the outcome of an external investigation, multiple media outlets reported on Friday, citing the ICC. Khan has denied any wrongdoing.

“The timing of the allegations is, in my view, extremely suspicious. Extremely!” Bruno told RT on Friday.

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Israel concedes error in video claiming to show Hamas tunnels under Gaza hospital

The Israeli military has conceded that a video it released claiming to show Hamas-built tunnels underneath a southern Gaza hospital actually shows different buildings.

On Tuesday, at least nine so-called bunker-busting missiles hit the European Hospital compound in Khan Younis, Gaza’s last cancer and cardiac care hospital.

At least 16 people were killed and more than 70 were injured. The hospital has now had to close due to the damage caused to buildings and water and sewage connections.

Patients have been evacuated, although nearby intensive care units have struggled to accommodate the extra people.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet (ISA) claimed Hamas had constructed a command centre underneath the hospital, and said it believed the group’s military commander Mohammed Sinwar was killed in the attack.

The IDF released a video late on Tuesday highlighting what it said was tunnel infrastructure.

But analysis of satellite imagery shows the buildings highlighted are in a school 150-200 metres away.

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Ex-UK Special Forces break silence on ‘war crimes’ by colleagues

Former members of UK Special Forces have broken years of silence to give BBC Panorama eyewitness accounts of alleged war crimes committed by colleagues in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Giving their accounts publicly for the first time, the veterans described seeing members of the SAS murder unarmed people in their sleep and execute handcuffed detainees, including children.

“They handcuffed a young boy and shot him,” recalled one veteran who served with the SAS in Afghanistan. ”He was clearly a child, not even close to fighting age.”

Killing of detainees “became routine”, the veteran said. “They’d search someone, handcuff them, then shoot them”, before cutting off the plastic handcuffs used to restrain people and “planting a pistol” by the body, he said.

The new testimony includes allegations of war crimes stretching over more than a decade, far longer than the three years currently being examined by a judge-led public inquiry in the UK.

The SBS, the Royal Navy’s elite special forces regiment, is also implicated for the first time in the most serious allegations – executions of unarmed and wounded people.

A veteran who served with the SBS said some troops had a “mob mentality”, describing their behaviour on operations as “barbaric”.

“I saw the quietest guys switch, show serious psychopathic traits,” he said. “They were lawless. They felt untouchable.”

Special Forces were deployed to Afghanistan to protect British troops from Taliban fighters and bombmakers. The conflict was a deadly one for members of the UK’s armed forces – 457 lost their lives and thousands more were wounded.

Asked by the BBC about the new eyewitness testimony, the Ministry of Defence said that it was “fully committed” to supporting the ongoing public inquiry into the alleged war crimes and that it urged all veterans with relevant information to come forward. It said that it was “not appropriate for the MoD to comment on allegations” which may be in the inquiry’s scope.

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