Middle East crisis live: Israel accused of the ‘war crime of forcible transfer’ in Gaza
NEWS | 14 November 2024
From 5h ago 02.42 EST Israel accused of crimes against humanity over forced displacement in Gaza Peter Beaumont Israel is using evacuation orders to pursue the “deliberate and massive forced displacement” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, which says the policy amounts to crimes against humanity. The US-based group added it had collected evidence that suggested “the war crime of forcible transfer [of the civilian population]”, describing it as “a grave breach of the Geneva conventions and a crime under the Rome statute of the international criminal court”. The report was published amid mounting evidence that Israel is accelerating its efforts to cut the Gaza Strip in two with a buffer zone and is building new infrastructure to support a prolonged military presence, with an increased pace of demolitions and destruction. Residents in northern Gaza said Israeli forces were besieging displaced families and the remaining population, which some estimated at a few thousand, ordering them to head south through a checkpoint separating two towns and a refugee camp from Gaza City. Men were held for questioning, while women and children were allowed to continue towards Gaza City, residents and Palestinian medics said. Calling for Israel’s policy of forced displacement to be investigated by the international criminal court, Human Rights Watch also urged targeted sanctions against Israel including the cessation of arms sales. Read more here: Israel accused of crimes against humanity over forced displacement in Gaza Israel accused of crimes against humanity over forced displacement in Gaza Read more Share 11m ago 07.49 EST Iranian news agency Tasnim reports that Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei has condemned remarks by Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich about Israeli intentions to fully and permanently annex the occupied West Bank. It reports that Baqaei said the comments were a “clear sign of the racist and expansionist nature and the aggressive approach of a regime that was created and expanded based on grabbing Palestinian territories” and “part of the Israeli genocide and its policy of wiping out Palestine, which have been implemented in the most brutal way possible over the past year.” Earlier in the week the finance minister Smotrich had welcomed the election of Donald Trump in the US, complaining that Joe Biden’s administration had “unfortunately chosen to intervene in Israeli democracy”, and that the incoming administration would be an “important opportunity” to “apply Israeli sovereignty to the settlements in Judea and Samaria,” a term used for the West Bank by some Israelis. Share 19m ago 07.40 EST Israel: 30 'terror targets' struck in the Dahieh area in Beirut in last 48 hours In a statement on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has claimed that in the last 48 hours it has struck what it termed 30 “terror targets” in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh. Considered to be a Hezbollah stronghold, the IDF said in its message it had struck at “weapons storage facilities, command centres, and additional terrorist infrastructure sites.” The statement continued: These strikes were a part of the IDF’s ongoing efforts to dismantle and degrade Hezbollah’s military capabilities, and the IDF is continuing to strike Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites in the Dahieh area. Reporting from Beirut for the Guardian, on Tuesday William Christou noted that among the places targeted by the strikes were a ten-story block of flats, a chicken restaurant and a medical complex. View image in fullscreen Residents check their destroyed building hit in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, 14 November. Photograph: Hussein Malla/AP Lebanese authorities have put the number of people killed by Israeli airstrikes in recent weeks at over 3,000, with more than 14,000 injured. The casualties came on top of those inflicted by exploding pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon in an attack aimed at Hezbollah which Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he personally had ordered. Israel claims to take mitigating precautions to avoid civilian casualties, ordering residents of neighbouring Lebanon out of their homes before it carries out what it claims are “intelligence-based strikes”. Authorities in Lebanon have said about 1.2 million people have been displaced from their homes by fighting in southern Lebanon and the aerial bombardment. Northern Israel has also come under near constant fire from Hezbollah, forcing tens of thousands of people there to evacuate their homes. Share 30m ago 07.30 EST In the last few minutes warning sirens have again sounded in the western Galilee area of Israel. Share 31m ago 07.29 EST There are reports of an Israeli attack on Damascus in Syria. More details soon … Share 1h ago 06.57 EST Summary of the day so far … It is approaching 2pm in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Gaza City, and 3.30pm in Tehran. Here are the headlines … Israel is using evacuation orders to pursue the “deliberate and massive forced displacement” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza , according to a report by Human Rights Watch , which says the policy amounts to crimes against humanity Israel’s Arabic-language mnilitary spokesperson has again issued orders for residents to evacuate specific locations in southern Beirut , which has been subject to multiple strikes by Israeli forces on Thursday. Israel claims to be targeting Hezbollah facilities. Several blocks of flats have been destroyed by Israeli strikes in Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon Hezbollah has claimed to have attacked Israeli troops inside the south-east of Lebanon between Houla and Markaba with a volley of rockets. The claims have not been independently verified Overnight the IDF announced that six Israeli soldiers had been killed inside Lebanon. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict In operational updates posted to its official Telegram channel, the IDF has claimed that in the past week it has killed “over 200” Hezbollah operatives and destroyed 140 rocket launchers in its attacks on southern Lebanon International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi has been in Tehran, and said that Iran’s nuclear installations should “not be attacked”. The UN’s atomic energy chief has said it is important to make progress with Iran in order to avoid the possibility of war Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said the country was not prepared to negotiate about its nuclear programme while it was “under pressure and intimidation”. The head of Iran’s programme, Mohammad Eslami , issued a warning saying “Any interventionist resolution in the nuclear affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran will definitely be met with immediate countermeasures”. The west has accused Iran of enriching uranium for military purposes, which Iran denies The foreign ministry of the Palestinian Authority has suggested Israeli ministers have been outlining their ambitions to fully and permanently annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a test of international reaction to the policy According to a report Wednesday in the leftwing Israeli newspaper Haaretz , Israeli forces in Gaza are clearing large areas with the apparent intention to remain inside the territory until at least the end of 2025 Overnight the Washington Post has suggested that Israel is working to time any ceasefire deal with Lebanon so that it appears as a “gift” to incoming US president Donald Trump when he takes office. The report says an Isreali official told the paper “There is an understanding that Israel would gift something to Trump … that in January there will be an understanding about Lebanon” Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani arrived in Ankara to meet Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Earlier this week Erdoğan said Turkey had broken off all ties with Israel over its actions in Gaza. Qatar has recently announced it would step back from its attempts to mediate between Israel and Hamas. It said it had concluded the two sides were no longer negotiating in good faith Share 1h ago 06.43 EST Arwa Damon, who is in the central Gaza Strip for the International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance organisation, has told Al Jazeera that the situation in Gaza is “an impossible situation.” Speaking from Deir el-Balah she told the network: The bombing is relentless, there has been no adequate humanitarian assistance, and there isn’t sufficient medical care either. Part of the reluctance to leave the north is fear of the road. People are afraid to be targeted as they are leaving. There are families that are being separated. Share 2h ago 06.24 EST Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani arrived in Ankara on Thursday, Reuters reports, where he will meet with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Earlier this week the Turkish president stated that his nation had cut off all ties with Israel over its actions in Gaza. Qatar has recently announced it would step back from its attempts to mediate between Israel and Hamas. It said it had concluded the two sides were no longer negotiating in good faith. Share 2h ago 06.15 EST In a statement today the foreign ministry of the Palestinian Authority has suggested that Israeli ministers have been outlining their ambition to fully and permanently annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a test of international reaction. Palestinian news agency Wafa reports the ministry’s spokesperson said: The Israeli government began to issue a torrent of statements and positions regarding its expansionist colonial ambitions and projects calling for the annexation of the occupied West Bank or parts of it, as trial balloons to examine international reactions and the positions of countries in this regard, in an attempt to create a climate conducive to committing this heinous crime. The ministry accused Israel of a “war of extermination, displacement and liquidation of the Palestinian cause … undermining any opportunity to implement the two-state solution.” It accused Israel of “escalating its illegal unilateral measures on the ground, from seizing lands, demolishing homes, [and] paving more colonial roads,” and accused Israel of planning to displace approximately 1,500 citizens by demolishing a neighbourhood in Silwan in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. Share 2h ago 06.08 EST International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi has been in Tehran, and as part of his press conference earlier he said that Iran’s nuclear installations should “not be attacked.” The facilities have been oft-mooted targets during the exchanges of fire between Iran and Israel during 2024, and the last attack on Iran by Israel was believed to have targeted air defences which in theory could protect Iran’s nuclear programme. Israel’s recently appointed defense minister, Israel Kataz, this week pointedly said that Iran’s nuclear facilites were “more exposed than ever.” Share 2h ago 05.40 EST Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the newswires from the region. View image in fullscreen Palestinians in Deir al-Balah mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of Maghazi in the Gaza Strip, 14 November. Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP View image in fullscreen A boy cries as he holds his father before getting a vaccination at a shelter for displaced people, in Karantina, Beirut, 14 November. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters View image in fullscreen An image of another Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. Photograph: Hussein Malla/AP View image in fullscreen IAEA director general Rafael Grossi (L) in Tehran for Iran's nuclear programme talks with head of the Iranian atomic organisation Mohammad Eslami (R). Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA Share
Author: Martin Belam.
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