International

Palestinians urge world to end Israel’s illegal occupation after ICJ ruling

Published

2 years ago

July 20, 2024

A protester draped in a Palestinian flag holds up a sign in solidarity with Gaza outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, on May 24, 2024 [Johanna Geron/Reuters]

Palestinians urge world to end Israel’s illegal occupation after ICJ ruling

Activists and legal experts in the West Bank say Friday’s ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has found that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is unlawful, will do little to improve life for Palestinians.

Other states must now apply collective pressure on Israel to end its rule over Gaza and the West Bank, including annexed East Jerusalem, if the situation there is to change, they say.

The world’s highest court concluded on Friday – with 12-3 judges in favour – that Israel is forcibly displacing Palestinians from their lands, exploiting water sources, annexing large swaths of the occupied territory “by force” and is violating the right of Palestinians to “self-determination”.

The ICJ also ruled that Israel must stop all building of settlements in the West Bank and should compensate Palestinians for human rights violations in the occupied territory.

The ruling is a non-binding advisory opinion, which was sought by the United Nations General Assembly in 2022, seeking to clarify the legal implications of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.

The ICJ called on the UN – especially the Security Council and General Assembly – to take action to bring Israel’s unlawful occupation to a “rapid” end.

However, Zainah el-Haroun, the spokesperson for Al-Haq, a Palestinian nonprofit organisation based in the West Bank that monitors human rights violations, said previous ICJ rulings have not led to global action against Israel.

She referenced the ICJ’s 2004 advisory opinion that found Israel’s separation wall and settlements on occupied Palestinian land illegal. Settlements have not only remained in the West Bank since the ruling, but the number of Israeli settlers living there has also risen from 250,000 in 1993 to more than 700,000 in 2023.

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“These rulings mean nothing if third states and the international community fail to hold Israel accountable,” she told Al Jazeera.

“The ICJ has ruled that Israel’s occupation is unlawful and must end immediately. Third states must ensure the full and total realisation of the Palestinian people to self-determination and sanction Israel’s illegal occupation, which breaches international law,” she added.

Little to celebrate

Palestinian activists in the West Bank said they cannot celebrate the ICJ’s ruling when the situation across the occupied territory is worse than ever before.

They cited Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed at least 38,848 Palestinians – the vast majority of them civilians – and has rendered the enclave uninhabitable. Gaza is also witnessing an outbreak of diseases such as polio and cholera while nearly the entire population is struggling to survive food shortages brought on by Israel’s siege of the enclave.

Israel’s war on Gaza followed Hamas-led attacks on military outposts and communities in southern Israel on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed and 251 taken captive.

The global attention – and shock – over Israel’s war ever since has distracted attention from its settlement expansion in the West Bank, observers said.

“A year ago, a ruling like this would have been great. We all would have thought this was a great step forward,” said Tasame Ramadan, a human rights activist from the West Bank city of Nablus. “But right now, the priority is a permanent ceasefire [in Gaza] and an end to the occupation.”

Mohamad Alwan, a Palestinian rights activist monitoring settler attacks in the West Bank, expressed a similar wariness about what the ruling will mean on the ground.

He said that while he recognises the ruling hurts Israel’s image abroad, there is no way for the court to apply or enforce it.

In addition, Alwan said he is pessimistic about whether states will take action against Israel after the ruling. He cited perceived indifference to the ICJ’s binding order in January, in which the court called on Israel to scale up aid and prevent further harm to civilians in Gaza after concluding that “the rights of Palestinians were at risk” under the Genocide Convention.

“In my opinion, this decision will have no immediate impact on the situation on the ground,” he told Al Jazeera.

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“However, in the long run, there might be an impact. The world has seen now how Israel kills people and kills children, and their views are changing about Israel and its occupation.”

‘Nakba is where it all started’

Palestinian activists stressed that the ICJ’s advisory ruling on Friday must be understood in the context of the Nakba, or “Catastrophe”, of 1948 when Zionist militias expelled about 750,000 Palestinians from their lands to create the state of Israel.

Diana Buttu, a Palestinian legal expert, said she wished the ICJ had referenced the Nakba to highlight the historic pattern of Israel’s behaviour in the occupied territory.

“While I’m happy about the outcome of this case, I also think that this focus just on the West Bank and Gaza ignores the bigger picture of the origins of this situation and the ways in which Israel was created, which was through the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians,” Buttu told Al Jazeera.

She criticised the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs large swaths of the West Bank and represents the Palestinian people internationally, for how the issue of Israel-Palestine is typically framed by and within the global community.

She accused the PA of having long given up advocating for stateless Palestinians to be able to exercise the right of return to their former homes and lands lost during the Nakba or calling for an end to the discrimination that Palestinian citizens of Israel face.

Experts and activists have previously attributed the PA’s shortcomings to the Oslo Accords, the first of which was signed in 1993 by then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the lawn of the White House.

“The PA a long time ago took a position that it is all about the two-state solution and ending occupation, so their entire discourse has just been about that,” Buttu said.

Ramadan agreed on the importance of centring the Nakba whenever speaking about Israel’s settlements expansion and its war in Gaza.

“The Nakba is where this all started. How can we not mention the cause of the issue and where this all started? This is not the right way to address an issue like this,” she said.

“We would definitely like to see the international community recognise the Nakba, recognise all the people we lost in 1948 and to recognise the consequences of the Nakba that we are still living through today.”

Palestinians urge world to end Israel’s illegal occupation after ICJ ruling

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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Fiji Declares National HIV Emergency as Diagnoses Surge Sixteenfold

Published

16 hours ago

September 17, 2026

Hamdalat Bisiriyu

Fiji Declares National HIV Emergency as Diagnoses Surge Sixteenfold

Authorities launch a multi-agency public health campaign to expand free testing, treatment, and harm-reduction services

Fiji has announced a nationwide health response to address a significant rise in HIV cases and ensure that all residents can access essential medical care.

On Wednesday, Health Minister Dr. Atonio Lalabalavu shared the emergency declaration, explaining that national agencies are joining forces to provide rapid medical support, expand testing, and protect community well-being across the islands.

Official reports indicate that about one in every 60 adults in Fiji currently lives with HIV, following an increase in new infections over recent years. Health specialists explain that the virus spreads primarily through intimate sexual contact and shared needles among individuals using illicit substances.

Additionally, routine screenings revealed that two out of every 100 expecting mothers carry the virus, highlighting an urgent need for early maternal healthcare to protect newborns from infection.

To safeguard public health, authorities are delivering free daily treatments, distributing protective preventive medications, and setting up clean needle programs to stop infections before they start.

Furthermore, global partners, including Australia, New Zealand, India, and United Nations health bodies are providing financial resources and medical supplies to back the local effort.

By encouraging open community conversations and delivering accessible healthcare without judgment, health workers aim to ensure that everyone receives the care and dignity they deserve.

Fiji Declares National HIV Emergency as Diagnoses Surge Sixteenfold

International

Kim Yo-jong: Only ‘Idiots’ Think North Korea Will Give Up Nuclear Weapons

Published

16 hours ago

September 17, 2026

Trends Admin

Kim Yo-jong: Only ‘Idiots’ Think North Korea Will Give Up Nuclear Weapons

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has declared that her country’s status as a nuclear weapons state is “absolute” and can never be reversed — dismissing international hopes for denuclearisation as the delusions of “idiots.”

In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday, Kim rejected the recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference’s demand for North Korea’s “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation” (CVID) as “familiar nonsense” . “The DPRK’s position as a nuclear weapons state is absolute, which cannot be reversed by anything,” she said, using the acronym for the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea .

Kim, who serves as Director of the General Affairs Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea, compared the international community’s repeated calls for denuclearisation to “noise that is neither surprising nor new, heard constantly around this time every year like a sound ringing day and night from an answering machine” . She went on to assert that no amount of diplomatic pressure could alter Pyongyang’s position. “No matter how desperately the IAEA and the West may hold periodic meetings and talk about denuclearisation according to the fixed scenario, they can have no effect on the will and ability of the DPRK to take all necessary measures to defend the supreme interests of the state” . She added: “Those humans sitting together and chattering to try and change our state’s current status must clearly realise what a pathetic delusion and futile waste of effort it is” .

Kim’s statement came during the 70th IAEA General Conference in Vienna, where South Korea and European nations urged North Korea to fulfil its international obligations and abandon its nuclear programme . A South Korean Unification Ministry official said the ministry was “taking note” of Kim’s remarks, assessing them as an attempt to make clear to Washington that denuclearisation is off the table for any potential summit . The timing is particularly noteworthy given recent signals from US President Donald Trump about resuming dialogue with Kim Jong Un. In August 2026, Trump told reporters he expected to meet the North Korean leader later in the year, saying: “Yeah, I will be. I get along with him very well” . Trump also stated that Pyongyang possesses 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons, marking the first time he had publicly cited a specific figure for North Korea’s arsenal .

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The disclosure sparked a rare public discussion of intelligence assessments. South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back told lawmakers that Seoul typically estimates North Korea has 80 to 120 nuclear weapons — a figure higher than Trump’s claim . Ahn noted that the estimates held by South Korea and the United States “appear to be slightly different,” though he later clarified that he was citing a private research institute’s assessment rather than an official military figure . Both Seoul and Washington have maintained they do not recognise North Korea as a nuclear-armed state. “We can never officially acknowledge that,” Ahn said when asked whether Seoul accepts Pyongyang’s nuclear possession . Independent estimates vary. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has estimated that North Korea possessed approximately 60 nuclear warheads as of January 2026, with sufficient fissile material for roughly 30 more .

Ahead of the General Conference, the IAEA released its annual report detailing North Korea’s expanding nuclear capabilities. The agency observed that a new uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon — identified as the site’s second enrichment facility — could accommodate up to 28 centrifuge cascades, the largest scale among North Korea’s known enrichment sites . The IAEA identified the facility by comparing satellite imagery with photographs of Kim Jong Un’s June 2026 visit to a “newly inaugurated nuclear materials production factory,” which state media reported at the time. The photographs indicated gas centrifuge cascades installed on both the upper and lower floors of the two-storey building . The report also noted indications that operations began in January 2026 at a uranium enrichment facility in Kangson, near Pyongyang, within an annex constructed in 2024 . IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said the developments were a “cause for serious concern,” adding: “The continuation and further development of the DPRK’s nuclear programme are clear violations of relevant UN Security Council resolutions and are deeply regrettable” . The European Union, in a statement to the IAEA Board of Governors, condemned North Korea’s “unlawful and destabilising actions” and urged it to abandon all nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes in a “complete, verifiable and irreversible manner” .

Kim’s remarks are consistent with North Korea’s long-standing position. Pyongyang has legally enshrined its status as a nuclear weapons state, declaring its arsenal permanent and irreversible. The country has repeatedly rejected denuclearisation as a precondition for dialogue . North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in Vienna said last September that the country’s status as a nuclear weapons state had become irreversible and the IAEA had “no legal right … to interfere in the internal affairs of a nuclear weapons state which exists outside the NPT” . Analysts note that North Korea has set high barriers for any renewed summit with Washington, including major changes to US policy and acceptance of its nuclear status — conditions the Trump administration has shown no sign of meeting . The US State Department has maintained that Washington “remains committed to the complete denuclearisation of North Korea” . For now, Kim’s message was unambiguous: “No one and nothing can ever reverse the crucial changes in the strength and position of the DPRK and prevent them in the future, too” .

Kim Yo-jong: Only ‘Idiots’ Think North Korea Will Give Up Nuclear Weapons

International

Gaza Building Collapse Kills 21, Including Eight Children

Published

17 hours ago

September 17, 2026

Trends Admin

Gaza Building Collapse Kills 21, Including Eight Children

At least 21 people have been killed, including eight children, after a war-damaged building collapsed in Gaza City overnight, rescuers and medics say. The tragedy has renewed concerns about the collapse risk facing hundreds of bomb-damaged structures across the Gaza Strip as winter approaches.

The six-storey residential building in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa area collapsed in the early hours of Wednesday. According to the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, Ramiz Alakbarov, an estimated 100 people, including 50 children, were living in the building when it came down. The Gaza Civil Defence agency confirmed that rescuers extracted 21 bodies and rescued 20 unharmed individuals from the rubble on al-Sinaa Street in Tal al-Hawa. Dozens remain missing or injured underneath the debris.

Witnesses told the BBC that the building had been left tilting dangerously to one side after an Israeli strike more than a year ago. Displaced families had moved inside because they were desperate, with nowhere else to go. The building had been hit multiple times in 2024 and March 2025, leading to warnings for Gazans not to return, according to Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal. More than 10 families, totalling around 80 people, lived in the building, according to residents, with dozens of them being children. Sherif, whose sister was killed, said: “They couldn’t find a tent or somewhere to live. This was the last place they could turn to, despite the danger. They were aware that it would likely end in tragedy. A lack of resources drove them towards certain death.“

A woman living in a tent nearby, Umm Mohammed Bakrun, said she had been talking to her son when the building collapsed suddenly. “It felt like an earthquake. There was a loud sound and I couldn’t stand up. Stones rained down on us and when I looked outside I saw a lot of dust,” she told the BBC. “Within minutes, there were screams everywhere.” Another witness, Mansour Abu Mohammed, said the building collapsed “in a few seconds”. “Every day, a stone or a few stones would fall from it, but the people inside couldn’t find anywhere else to live. I used to live next door to it and you could see that it was tilting to one side.”

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UN and Egyptian teams joined the search for survivors, which was slow due to a lack of heavy machinery. Initially, rescuers from the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency had to use their bare hands. Egypt provided heavy machinery for the rescue operation, while the United Arab Emirates and Qatar were set to deliver relief items. The Palestinian Civil Defence said rescue teams had been working continuously since the collapse, but lacked even the most basic tools. “In the first moments after the collapse, we had to ask neighbours and displaced people nearby to bring hammers, shovels and other tools because of the severe shortage of equipment,” said Abdullah al-Majdalawi, director of public relations at Gaza’s Civil Defence. The head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Gaza office, Alessandro Mrakic, told reporters at the scene that “the situation… is tragic because we don’t have the equipment and machinery that is needed”.

Mrakic warned that approximately 400 other war-damaged buildings across Gaza were at imminent risk of collapse, particularly as winter approaches. The Civil Defence agency has identified around 2,000 buildings across the territory at risk of collapse. “We need support, most importantly with machinery, equipment, among others. Our colleagues here don’t have [engine] oil and spare parts to continue to work with all the equipment that is still in Gaza.” The UN’s humanitarian relief coordinator, Ramiz Alakbarov, said he was “devastated” by the reports. “No-one should have to risk their life simply to find a safe place to shelter,” he said. He also urged Israeli authorities to approve deliveries to Gaza of heavy machinery for rescue operations, as well as tents, tarpaulins and other non-food items for displaced people ahead of the winter rains. Israel says its restrictions are meant to keep equipment out of the hands of Palestinian armed groups that could also have military uses.

An estimated 80% of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged during the war between Israel and Hamas, according to the UN. More than 1.9 million people — about 90% of the territory’s population — have been displaced, many of them multiple times, and 1.2 million of them are currently living in tents or makeshift shelters. The UN has warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire despite the ceasefire agreed last October, as Israeli air strikes and other attacks continue to hit populated areas, causing casualties and property damage and driving further displacement. According to Gaza’s health ministry, 1,369 Palestinians have been killed and 4,627 wounded since the fragile ceasefire took effect on 11 October 2025. The total death toll since the war began has reached 73,783, with 174,738 injured.

On Tuesday, Israeli air strikes killed at least five Palestinians, including two children and a Hamas commander, according to health officials and Hamas sources. The Israeli military said it killed a Hamas commander in southern Gaza and another fighter in the north. In both cases, a child was also reportedly killed. Separately, the British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians said that a patient was killed by an Israeli drone at a health centre it supports in Jabalia in northern Gaza. A spokesperson for the Israeli military told the BBC it was not aware of such an incident.

The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Since then, more than 73,790 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN. In a statement, the Gaza government media office under Hamas said it held “the Israeli occupation and the international community fully and directly responsible for this catastrophe befalling our Palestinian people“.