International

UN lists Israeli military among violators of children’s rights

Published

3 months ago

June 8, 2024

UN lists Israeli military among violators of children’s rights

The UN has added the Israeli military to a list of offenders failing to protect children last year, Israel’s ambassador to the UN says.

Gilad Erdan, who said he had been notified of the decision on Friday, described the decision as “shameful”. Foreign Minister Israel Katz said it would “have consequences for Israel’s relations with the UN”.

A spokesman for the Palestinian president told the Reuters news agency the decision was a step closer to holding Israel accountable for what he called its crimes.

Thousands of children have been killed in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza, and thousands more are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

The annual list by the secretary general covers the killing of children in conflict and denial of access to aid and targeting of schools and hospitals. It will be included in a report to be presented to the UN Security Council next week.

It was not immediately clear which violations the Israeli army is accused of committing.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad will also be included in the list, reports said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the UN had added itself to the “blacklist of history” and that the Israeli military was the “most moral army in the world”.

Israel launched its offensive after Hamas attacked communities near Gaza on 7 October last year, killing about 1,200 people including 38 children and taking 252 hostages including 42 children, according to Israel’s National Council for the Child.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says 36,731 people have since been killed by Israeli bombardment and ground attacks.

Last month, the UN said at least 7,797 children had been killed during the war based on data relating to identified bodies provided by the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

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Also last month, the UN revised down the proportion of reported fatalities that were women and children from 69% to 52% of the total number of deaths.

Israel said the reduction showed the UN had relied on false data from Hamas. The UN says it is now relying on figures from the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza rather than from the Hamas-run Government Media Office (GMO). The GMO meanwhile says Israeli attacks have killed more than 15,000 children.

On Friday, the Associated Press news agency said its analysis of Gaza’s health ministry data found that the proportion of Palestinian women and children being killed in the Israel-Hamas war appeared to have declined sharply.

It quoted an expert at the US non-profit research group CNA as saying this was linked to reduced intensity of Israeli air strikes.

However Israeli air strikes on Gaza have continued. On Thursday morning an air strike reportedly killed at least 35 people at a central Gaza school packed with displaced people. The US said it had seen reports that 14 children were killed in the strike. Israel has named 17 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members it says the strike killed.

In the strike’s aftermath, medics from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) which is supporting the nearby al-Aqsa Martyrs’ hospital described chaotic scenes there. The organisation said that in the previous 24 hours, at least 70 dead people had been brought in, and more than 300 wounded, mostly women and children.

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Last month an Israeli missile last month set fire to a camp for displaced Palestinians near the southern city of Rafah, reportedly killing 45 people including many children and sparking global outrage. The Israeli military said it had not expected such a fire to break out.

Israel has also been accused of delaying the entry of much-needed aid into Gaza, depriving those living on the Palestinian territory of clean water, food, medicines as well as fuel. It denies the accusation and accuses UN bodies and humanitarian organisations of failing to distribute aid that is allowed in.

The US-based famine early warning system network Fews Net says it is “possible, if not likely” that famine was happening in northern Gaza in April and an Israeli military operation in Rafah in southern Gaza was worsening food insecurity there.

That operation has displaced more than a million Palestinians from Rafah, where they had sought refuge from fighting elsewhere in Gaza, and to sandy coastal areas or the city of Khan Younis, which is largely in ruins.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees Unrwa says the movement of such a large number of people in such a short timeframe alongside a sharp fall in aid deliveries is having deadly consequences.

“Children are dying due to malnutrition and dehydration,” Unrwa spokeswoman Juliette Touma said.

UN lists Israeli military among violators of children’s rights

BBC

Related Topics:Featured Israel UN violations

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International

Ukraine bans Telegram for officials over security threats

Published

6 hours ago

September 20, 2024

Trends Admin

Ukraine bans Telegram for officials over security threats

Ukraine on Friday restricted the use of Telegram for its government, military and security officials, citing “threats” to national security on the app founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov.

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“The National Security and Defence Council decided to restrict the use of Telegram in government agencies, military formations and critical infrastructure facilities,” the council said in a statement on Facebook, saying it was a “matter of national security.”

Ukraine bans Telegram for officials over security threats

International

US officer arrested over killing of judge in court

Published

7 hours ago

September 20, 2024

Trends Admin

US officer arrested over killing of judge in court

A Kentucky sheriff has been arrested for fatally shooting a judge in his chambers, according to authorities.

District Judge Kevin Mullins was shot multiple times in the Letcher County Courthouse and died at the scene, according to Kentucky State Police.

Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines, 43, has been charged with one count of first-degree murder.

Police said the shooting occurred on Thursday following an argument inside the court, but they have yet to identify the motivation.

Mullins, 54, was shot numerous times on Thursday at 14:00 local time at the court in Whitesburg, Kentucky, a small rural community about 150 miles (240 kilometres) southeast of Lexington.

Kentucky State Police said that Sheriff Stines was arrested at the site without incident.

They did not reveal the nature of the debate prior to the shooting.

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According to the Mountain Eagle, Sheriff Stines entered the judge’s outer office and informed court officials that he needed to meet with Mullins alone.

The two went into the judge’s chambers, closing the door behind them.

The publication said that those outside heard gunshots. Sheriff Stines apparently went out with his hands raised and surrendered to police. He was handcuffed in the courthouse’s lobby.

Russell Coleman, the state attorney general, stated in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that his office “will fully investigate and pursue justice.”

Kentucky State Police spokesperson Matt Gayheart said at a news conference that the town was startled by the incident.

“This community is small in nature, and we’re all shook,” he told me.

Mr. Gayheart stated that 50 personnel were inside the courthouse when the shooting occurred. Nobody else was wounded.

A school in the region was momentarily put under lockdown. Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Laurance B. VanMeter was “shocked by this act of violence.”

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced Judge Mullins’ death on social media, writing, “There is far too much violence in this world, and I pray there is a path to a better tomorrow.”

US officer arrested over killing of judge in court

International

Trans woman killed in Georgia day after anti-LGBT law passed

Published

14 hours ago

September 20, 2024

Trends Admin

Model and influencer Kesaria Abramidze had been seen as a trans leader in the Georgian community

Trans woman killed in Georgia day after anti-LGBT law passed

One of Georgia’s most well-known transgender women has been killed in her home, a day after the country’s parliament passed a major anti-LGBT bill.

Local officials say Kesaria Abramidze, 37, was stabbed to death in her flat in the capital Tbilisi on Wednesday.

A 26-year-old man has been arrested in the case that has shocked the small South Caucasian nation. Georgian media reported he was known to the victim.

Rights groups have linked the killing to the new anti-LGBT law, arguing the government’s promotion of it had fuelled transphobic hate crime.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who opposed the new law, said the “horrendous murder” raised urgent questions about hate crimes and discrimination.

The legislation from Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s government severely restricts rights for LGBT people.

It introduces a ban on same-sex marriage, gender-affirming surgeries, child adoption by non-heterosexuals and the promotion of same-sex relationships in schools.

The bill sailed through parliament on Tuesday in an 84-0 vote, despite criticism from rights groups.

The ruling party said the “Protection of Family Values and Minors” bill was designed to protect a majority of Georgians seeking protection from “LGBT propaganda”.

But local LGBT rights campaigners said the government had used homophobic and transphobic language and ideas in promoting the bill.

Several activists directly linked what they said was the government’s harmful rhetoric to the killing of Ms Abramidze.

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One of the first openly trans public figures in the country, she had represented Georgia in international trans pageants and had more than 500,000 followers on social media.

“Political homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia have become central to the government’s official discourse and ideology,” said local human rights group the Social Justice Center.

“Kesaria Abramidze’s killing cannot be viewed separately from this overall grave context,” it added.

Progressive politicians outside the country have also linked the killing to the government’s legislative agenda.

“Those who sow hatred will reap violence. Kesaria Abramidze was killed just one day after the Georgian parliament passed the anti-LGBTI law,” wrote German lawmaker Michael Roth, the social democratic chair of the country’s foreign affairs committee.

European Union figures had already condemned the legislation when it passed earlier this week, saying it further jeopardised the country’s stated aim of joining the EU.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said the law was “further derailing the country from its EU path”. He called on the Georgian government to withdraw the law.

The legislation undermines the “fundamental rights of the people” and increases discrimination and stigmatisation, he added.

The British embassy has also expressed “serious concerns”.

Rights groups have characterised the Georgian legislation as being similar to Russian laws which severely restrict LGBT rights.

The Washington-based think tank Freedom House said the bill was “pulled directly from the Kremlin’s authoritarian playbook”.