Tag: war crimes

Investigation reveals Israeli troops committing first ever ‘live streamed genocide’

Al Jazeera has released a new documentary, available on YouTube, detailing Israeli war crimes and human rights violations in Gaza, based on videos filmed and posted on social media by soldiers themselves.

“We live in an era of technology, and this has been described as the first livestreamed genocide in history,” Palestinian novelist Susan Abulhawa told Al Jazeera’s investigative unit (I-Unit).

Since the start of Israel’s extermination campaign in Gaza last October, Israeli soldiers have posted thousands of videos and photos on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.

Rodney Dixon, an international law expert featured in the film, says the videos are “a treasure trove which you very seldom come across … something which I think prosecutors will be licking their lips at.”

The film also includes information collected by Al Jazeera journalists working on the ground in Gaza, as well as Israeli military drone footage. It is unclear how Al Jazeera obtained the drone footage.

The videos show evidence of the Israeli army’s murder of unarmed civilians, wanton destruction, torture of detainees, and use of human shields in Gaza.

Many videos showed Israeli soldiers using explosives to demolish residential buildings and homes.

“The fact that they’ve been able to rig these buildings up with explosives shows very clearly that there’s no current threat from those buildings,” Charlie Herbert, a retired major general in the British Army and researcher for the project, told Al Jazeera.

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The Israeli Government Must Be Stopped

The Israeli government has been dragging Western weapons and militaries into wars for far too long, putting all of the world — and its global institutions — at risk. The move into Lebanon, creating more dead, injured, traumatized, and homeless already in huge numbers ought to snap some war supporters out of their trance.

The danger of a catastrophic war on Iran that is joined by the United States and NATO on one side, and additional nations on the other, looms horrifically on the horizon.

It is high time for the world’s governments, including that of Israel’s top supplier, the United States, to begin complying with the International Court of Justice, the United Nations General Assembly, and each of the treaties and domestic laws violated by each arms shipment.

While the UK and Canada have stopped some weapons, that is far from sufficient. While a handful of U.S. Senators anti-democratically plan a vote weeks from now after a U.S. election, on halting illegal arms shipments to Israel, that is far from sufficient, and yet more than we see in the U.S. House of so-called representatives.

Western governments have emboldened the Israeli government with weapons supplies for so long that Israel understands there are no limits. There is nothing it can do that anyone could reasonably expect the U.S. and allied governments not to support, not to protect with propaganda assistance, Security Council vetoes, and yet more instruments of mass killing. That has to change.

Public pressure in the West has prevented western governments from going to war with Iran for decades. But Israel is now expanding an existing war in an effort to create a wider war without any debate or decision. Western media is already using the passive language of “being dragged into” a war — as if no decision need be made at all. This could not be more dangerous, more dishonest, more opposed to the supposed ideal of democracy.

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Israel Again Accused of Illegally Using White Phosphorus in Lebanon

Israeli forces were accused Tuesday of the war crime of firing white phosphorus artillery munitions over populated areas of southern Lebanon as Israel escalates an assault on its northern neighbor that has killed or wounded thousands of people.

Video footage published on social media and reported by Middle East Eye shows distinctive explosions that appear consistent with the use of white phosphorus rounds over civilian areas of southern Lebanon, including the village of Kfar Kila.

While white phosphorus munitions are not completely prohibited under international law, their use in populated areas is forbidden. White phosphorus round are primarily used to create smokescreens. However, when used as an incendiary weapon, white phosphorus – which ignites on contact with air and burns at nearly 1,500°F (815°C) – can maim and kill by burning flesh straight through to the bone, often causing a slow, agonizing death. Water does not extinguish it.

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Top 10 Human Rights Violations by Netanyahu Against Palestinian People

Israel’s complex and often controversial political landscape has made human rights a central issue in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a figurehead in Israeli politics for decades, has been overwhelmingly condemned for his policies regarding the Palestinian people.

Throughout his tenure, numerous incidents and policies under his administration have drawn widespread criticism from human rights organizations, who rightly accuse him of violating international human rights law and the rights of Palestinians.

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A War Criminal Comes to New York

The war criminal leader of a dangerous rogue state is coming to speak to the UN General Assembly this week. The AP reports:

But Netanyahu arrives at the United Nations this week at a time when his own diplomatic capital and legitimacy, as well as that of the country he represents, are at a low. Critics say that aside from a moment in the spotlight, it’s not clear what Netanyahu will achieve with the visit.

“He is a great believer in speechmaking,” said Tal Schneider, an Israeli political commentator. “He thinks that if he delivers a speech in English, he can convince people in the justness of his ways,” she said, adding that that demonstrated he was “disconnected from reality.”

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Report from humanitarian groups proves Israel is deliberately blocking essential aid from entering Gaza

Israel has been preventing the majority of essential aid from entering the Gaza Strip since the Israel-Hamas conflict began on Oct. 7.

A report conducted by 15 humanitarian aid organizations recently revealed that essential aid – including food, medicine, fuel and shelter – has been systematically blocked from entering Gaza for almost a year. (Related: UN investigator accuses Israel of “deliberately starving” Palestinians in Gaza; Netanyahu denies allegation.)

“Agencies have detailed six main ways their life-saving aid is systematically obstructed on a daily basis,” the report stated. “These include the denial of safety, with more than 40,000 Palestinians and nearly 300 aid workers killed since last October; the sharp tightening of a 17-year blockade to a full siege, which prevents aid from entering Gaza; delays and denials which restrict the movement of aid around Gaza; tightly restrictive and unpredictable control of imports; the destruction of public infrastructure such as schools and hospitals; and the displacement of civilians and humanitarian workers (witnessed again in recent displacement orders from the so-called “humanitarian zone” in Deir el-Balah.)”

This obstruction has driven the people of Gaza into a worsening state of desperation, with nearly half a million now facing starvation and the entire population suffering from hunger and disease.

For instance, 83 percent of the necessary food aid is being blocked from entering the area, up sharply from 34 percent in 2023. In turn, residents, who previously had access to two meals a day, now face the grim reality of surviving on just one meal every other day. It is estimated that by the end of 2024, around 50,000 children between the ages of six and 59 months will require urgent treatment for malnutrition.

Aside from the food crisis, 65 percent of the required insulin and half of the necessary blood supply are unavailable in Gaza. Meanwhile, the availability of hygiene items has dropped to just 15 percent of what was accessible in September 2023. This has left one million women without essential hygiene supplies.

The healthcare system, which was already strained before the war, is now in a state of collapse. Only 1,500 hospital beds remain operational, down from 3,500 in 2023 and far below the needs of Gaza’s more than two million residents.

As of January, 60 percent of homes in Gaza have been destroyed, leaving 1.87 million people in need of shelter, but tents have been supplied for only 25,000 people since May. In August, an average of 69 aid trucks per day entered Gaza, compared to 500 trucks per working day in 2023, leaving more than one million people without food rations in central and southern Gaza.

Moreover, the destruction of critical infrastructure such as water networks, sanitation facilities and bread mills has compounded the situation. To date, only 17 out of the 36 hospitals in Gaza remain partially functional, while large-scale destruction of schools and public facilities continues.

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On War Crimes and Western Hypocrisy

The death toll has risen to 12 from Israel’s terror attack in Lebanon on Tuesday which detonated explosive materials hidden in thousands of pagers. Another 20 people were then killed in another attack on Wednesday with a second wave of explosions, this time using walkie talkies and home solar energy systems.

The total death toll now sits at 32. Two children and four healthcare workers are among the dead. Thousands have been injured.

As you would expect, western empire managers are getting really squirmy about this. White House spokesman John Kirby adamantly refused to answer any questions involving Israel’s responsibility for the attacks during a press conference on Wednesday, despite Israel being widely reported as the responsible party, with outlets like The New York Times citing US officials as their source.

“I’m not gonna speak to the details of these incidents,” Kirby said repeatedly when questioned about Israel’s role and what the US response will be.

It goes without saying that if a government like Russia, China or Iran were even suspected of being responsible for similar attacks, Kirby and his fellow podium people would be not just naming the suspected aggressor but fervently denouncing the attack as an act of terrorism.

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Exploding pagers and radios: A terrifying violation of international law, say UN experts

UN human rights experts* today condemned the malicious manipulation of thousands of electronic pagers and radios to explode simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria as “terrifying” violations of international law.

The attacks reportedly killed at least 32 people and maimed or injured 3,250, including 200 critically. Among the dead are a boy and a girl, as well as medical personnel. Around 500 people suffered severe eye injuries, including a diplomat. Others suffered grave injuries to their faces, hands and bodies.

“These attacks violate the human right to life, absent any indication that the victims posed an imminent lethal threat to anyone else at the time,” the experts said. “Such attacks require prompt, independent investigation to establish the truth and enable accountability for the crime of murder.

“We express our deepest solidarity to the victims of these attacks,” they said.

The pagers and radios were reportedly distributed mainly among people allegedly associated with the Hezbollah movement, which includes civilian and military personnel and is involved in an armed conflict with Israel along the border.

“To the extent that international humanitarian law applies, at the time of the attacks there was no way of knowing who possessed each device and who was nearby,” the experts said. “Simultaneous attacks by thousands of devices would inevitably violate humanitarian law, by failing to verify each target, and distinguish between protected civilians and those who could potentially be attacked for taking a direct part in hostilities.

“Such attacks could constitute war crimes of murder, attacking civilians, and launching indiscriminate attacks, in addition to violating the right to life,” the experts said.

Humanitarian law additionally prohibits the use of booby-traps disguised as apparently harmless portable objects where specifically designed and constructed with explosives – and this could include a modified civilian pager, the experts said. A booby-trap is a device designed to kill or injure, that functions unexpectedly when a person performs an apparently safe act, such as answering a pager.

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Exposed: The US and Canadian Funding Behind Israeli Soldiers Accused of Rape

Cuffed and blindfolded 24 hours a day. Confined to animal pens. Attacked by dogs. This is reportedly the treatment of Palestinian detainees at Sde Teiman, an Israeli military base in the Naqab desert. While claims of torture and abuse at the facility began circulating in December, the Israeli military did not open an investigation into the allegations until July 29, when 10 Israeli soldiers were detained on suspicion of sexually abusing a detainee.

In response to the soldiers’ detention, a mob of right-wing extremists stormed Sde Teiman and later broke into the Beit Lid military base, where the detained soldiers were being held. Among those detained were soldiers from the Force 100 unit, which was resurrected at the onset of the war and has been responsible for guarding the detainees at Sde Teiman. Masked soldiers, wearing black shirts emblazoned with the unit’s logo—a snake inside the Jewish Star of David—were seen participating in the protests.

Several Israeli lawmakers took part in the riots, including Otzma Yehudit’s (Jewish Power) Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, Religious Zionism member of parliament, Zvi Sukkot, and parliamentary members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, Nissim Vaturi and Tally Gotliv.

Protests have continued to erupt in support of the soldiers, including, most recently, outside an Israeli High Court hearing on the case on August 7, 2024.

As allegations of torture and sexual abuse at Israel’s Sde Teiman detention facility escalate and Israeli Military Police prepare to conclude their investigation and file indictments against the suspects, MintPress uncovers the financial and political infrastructure, including from the U.S. and Canada, backing these soldiers through tax-exempt organizations and crowdfunding platforms. This marks a disturbing shift in global support for human rights violations, now extending even to those implicated in the Israeli military’s acts of sexual violence.

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The Military Tried To Hide Evidence of a Massacre. A Lawsuit Just Exposed It.

The Haditha massacre was one of the worst U.S. actions during the Iraq War. After a roadside bomb killed a Marine in the town of Haditha in November 2005, the rest of his squad shot dead 24 unarmed Iraqi men, women, and children, many of them inside their own homes. The Marine Corps then lied about it, claiming that the victims were all killed by the bomb or by running gun battles with insurgents.

Only dogged reporting by Time Magazine forced the military to open an investigation. No one was ever jailed for the killings or the coverup. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the commander of the squad, pleaded guilty to one count of dereliction of duty and was demoted.

The military avoided a public relations disaster, Gen. Michael Hagee would later brag, because graphic photos of the massacre were never published. Until now.

In the Dark, a true crime podcast published by The New Yorker, dedicated its latest season to re-investigating the Haditha massacre. The producers filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the U.S. military’s files on the incident, then sued when the military refused to hand them over.

Officials claimed they were withholding photos of the massacre out of respect for the victims’ families. Two survivors, Khalid Salman Raseef and Khalid Jamal, then went around Haditha collecting signatures for a petition to release the photos. They won the support of 17 relatives of the victims.

The military gave in. On Tuesday, with permission from the survivors, The New Yorker published several unredacted crime scene photos taken by investigators and by Lance Cpl. Ryan Briones and Lance Cpl. Andrew Wright, two Marines who arrived shortly after the massacre.

The FOIA files also included a recording of a 2014 interview between Hagee and a Marine Corps historian, meant for internal use. The massacre “could have been horrific for the Marine Corps if we did not handle that correctly. Another My Lai. Or another Abu Ghraib,” Hagee claims, referring to the My Lai massacre, which helped turn American opinion against the Vietnam War, and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where U.S. soldiers and CIA officers were photographed torturing and sexually assaulting inmates.

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