Sunday, December 7, 2014
UN Report: Israel in Regular Contact with Syrian Rebels including ISIS
A report submitted to
the United Nations Security Council by UN observers in the Golan Heights over
the past 18 months shows that Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have been in regular
contact with Syrian rebels, including Islamic State (ISIS) militants.
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| Israeli soldiers stand near the border with Syria in the occupied Golan Heights as they prepare to evacuate a wounded Syrian Reuters |
Citing the UN report, Haaretz noted that there have been several instances
detailed in the report that shows close ties between Syrian armed rebels and
Israeli army.
According to the UN
report, a person wounded on 15 September "was taken by armed members of
the opposition across the ceasefire line, where he was transferred to a
civilian ambulance escorted by an IDF vehicle."
Moreover, from 9-19
November, the "UNDOF observed at least 10 wounded persons being
transferred by armed members of the opposition from the Bravo side across the ceasefire
line to IDF."
As per the details
released by the Israel's health ministry, so far some 1,000 Syrians have been
treated in four Israeli hospitals. Besides the civilians, some are members of
the secular Free Syrian Army rebel group.
Israel initially had
maintained that it was treating only civilians. However, reports claimed that
earlier last month members of Israel's Druze minority protested the
hospitalisation of wounded Syrian fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra
Front in Israel.
A statement issued by
a group of Druze activists accused the Israeli government of supporting radical
Sunni factions such as the Islamic State (ISIS).
Replying to a question by i24News on whether Israel has given medical assistance to
members of al-Nusra and Daesh (the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (ISIS),
a Israeli military spokesman's office said: "In the past two years the
Israel Defence Forces have been engaged in humanitarian, life-saving aid to
wounded Syrians, irrespective of their identity."
The UN report also
laid out instances where in Israeli army was seen interacting with armed
rebels. In one incident, the report claimed that the IDF gave some boxes to the
Syrian armed rebels.
By Johnlee Varghese December 7, 2014 17:06 IST
By Johnlee Varghese December 7, 2014 17:06 IST
10,000 Palestinian Children 'Tortured' by Israeli Forces over Years, Says PLO
Israel has detained
about 10,000 Palestinian children since 2000 and they were subjected to
humiliation, torture and solitary confinement, according to Palestinian
Liberation Organisation (PLO).
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| About 10,000 Palestinian children have reportedly been detained and subjected to torture by the Israeli army.Reuters File |
A senior PLO official responsible for securing the release of children
and other detained youths told Press TV that some 10,000 children from the West Bank and
East al-Quds (Jerusalem) have been detained by Israeli armed forces over
the years.
Issa Qaraqe, head of
the PLO's committee on detainees, was speaking on the occasion of the 25th
anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the
UN General Assembly.
He stated that the
children's rights are violated "regularly," and they are often
subjected to humiliation and torture by the Israeli army.
"Israel does not
provide any immunity for children and regularly violates international
agreements on children's rights by humiliating and torturing them and denying
them fair trials," he said.
Qaraqe noted
that 95% of children, many of them as young as seven or eight, have been
subjected to torture. Currently, some 300 children are said to languish at
detention camps in Israel.
Earlier in May, a report released by an international non-governmental
organisation, Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCI-P), had found
that most children detained by Israeli forces were taken in for stone throwing,
a charge that can lead to a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
The monitoring agency
that focuses on the treatment of children in the areas of conflict, found that
every year about 500 to 700 minors are taken prisoners by Israel.
It also reported that
the Israeli military has used solitary confinement as a form of interrogation
and intimidation in nearly 22% of recorded cases. The children put in solitary
confinement have been kept locked in for 10 days on an average, with the
longest period being 29 days, the report stated.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
US Stands Alone in Vote Against UN Inquiry Into Gaza Assault
Resolution passes,
despite US opposition, as body approves official inquiry into "all
violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights
law"
The United States was the only country in the world that voted Wednesday against the
United Nations investigating human rights violations in Gaza unleashed by
Israel's military assault.
Of the
47 members of the UN Human Rights Council, 29 nations voted to set up a
commission to launch an international, independent inquiry, effectively passing
the resolution. Seventeen countries abstained, including Germany, France, and
the United Kingdom.
The
inquiry will look at "all violations of international humanitarian law and
international human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including
East Jerusalem, and the occupied Gaza Strip in the context of military
operations conducted since mid June," according to a statement from
the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The council criticized
Israeli military operations for perpetuating “widespread, systematic and gross
violations of international human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
U.S.
ambassador to the Council, Keith Harper, said he issued the "no" vote
because the resolution is a "biased and political instrument" that
"will not help" the "cessation of hostilities."
But
Josh Ruebner, policy director for the U.S.
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, toldCommon Dreams that the U.S. vote simply "shows
the great extent to which the U.S. goes to protect Israel in international
forums from any accountability for its actions, no matter how egregious."
Ruebner added that U.S. claims of imbalance are illegitimate, as the inquiry
will investigate human rights violations perpetrated by Hamas as well as
Israel.
Phyllis
Bennis, senior fellow at Institute
for Policy Studies, told Common
Dreams that the U.S.
"no" vote is part of a larger pattern. "The U.S. is the reason
why the United Nations is not able to play the role its charter requires, which
is to stop the scourge of war," said Bennis. "The U.S. vetoes and
threatens to veto in the Security Council, and in arenas like the General
Assembly or Human Rights Council where there is no veto, they threaten other
countries."
The UN resolution comes amid an ever-rising Palestinian death
toll, with Gaza Health Ministry official Ashraf al-Qudra reporting
Thursday that so far
784 Palestinians have been killed and over 5,000 wounded in Israel's
"Protective Edge" operation. Kyung-Wha Kang, Assistant
Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Deputy Emergency Relief
Coordinator, estimates that 74 percent of the Palestinians killed are civilians
and one-third are children. "One child has been killed each hour in Gaza
over the past two days,” Kang said on Wednesday, according to the UN.
Israel
launched air strikes on Palestinians seeking shelter in a UN school in Beit
Hanoun in Gaza on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens. The
attack marked at least the fourth time a UN facility in Gaza has been hit since
July 8, according to theGuardian. Chris
Gunness, spokesperson for the UN Relief and Works Agency, said on Twitter that "Precise
co-ordinates of the UNRWA shelter in Beit Hanoun had been formally given to the
Israeli army."
Thirty-two
Israeli soldiers, two Israeli civilians, and a Thai worker in Israel have died.
Ruebner
expressed concern that the U.S. is likely to obstruct any attempt on the part
of the Council to hold Israel accountable for war crimes: "What's likely
to happen is same thing with the Goldstone Report and the Human Rights Council
inquiry into the attack on the aid flotilla: reports will document the fact
that Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the U.S.
will use its veto power or threat thereof to prevent the international
community from acting on recommendations for accountability."
Israel killed 9 Palestinians, arrested 650 in November: report
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| Palestinian mourners cry at Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital after an Israeli strike killed at least seven children in a public playground in the beachfront Shati refugee camp on July 28, 2014. AFP / Mahmoud Hams |
Published Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Israeli Occupation Forces killed nine Palestinians and arrested 650 others in November, Ahrar Center for Detainees' Studies and Human Rights, a Palestinian rights organization said in a report on Monday.
A child, Mohammed Amin al-Syam, who died in Turkey after sustaining severe wounds in the latest Gaza war, is among the nine Palestinian victims. Eleven of Syam’s family members were killed in the summer war.
For 51 days this summer, Israel pounded the Gaza Strip by air, land and sea. More than 2,160 Gazans, mostly civilians, were killed and 11,000 injured during seven weeks of unrelenting Israeli attacks in July and August.
Moreover, Israeli forces detained 650 Palestinians in annexed East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, and Occupied Palestine in November. According to the report, the highest number of arrests documented were in East Jerusalem and Hebron.
The detainees included 17 women and 42 minors, 30 of which were arrested in annexed East Jerusalem.
According to a 2013 report by the UN's Children's Fund, Israel is the only country in the world where children are systematically tried in military courts and subjected to "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment."
Over the past decade, Israeli forces have arrested, interrogated, and prosecuted around 7,000 children between 12 and 17, some as young as nine, at a rate of "an average of two children each day," UNICEF said.
A report by Defense for Children International (DCI) published in May 2014 said Israel jails 20 percent of Palestinian children it detains in solitary confinement.
DCI said that minors held in solitary confinement spent an average of 10 days in isolation. The longest period of confinement documented in a single case was 29 days in 2012, and 28 days in 2013.
Israeli forces routinely conduct detention campaigns against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on claims that they are "wanted" by Israeli authorities.
According to Fouad Khafsh, director of Ahrar, Israeli forces storm West Bank cities “every night to arrest innocent Palestinians.”
He added that the numbers reported are cases of Israeli human rights violations that the center was able to verify and document, but there are many more cases that remain unreported.
Over 7,000 Palestinians are currently languishing in 17 Israeli prisons and detention camps, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs.
Among Palestinian prisoners behind Israeli bars, there are 18 women, 250 children, 1,500 sick detainees, who are mostly in a critical condition, and 540 Palestinians held under administrative detention without any trial.
(Al-Akhbar)
200 Palestinian bodies found in Tel Aviv mass graves
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| File Photos |
The bodies are believed to belong to the victims of a massacre carried out by right-wing Jewish militias in the former Arab district in 1948.
World Bulletin / News Desk
It has been revealed that the remains of dozens of Palestinians killed during the Israeli-Arab in 1948 were found in six mass graves in the Jaffa district of Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
The graves were found when ground subsided as builders carried out renovation work in the area, an official at the Muslim cemetery there told AFP.
The bodies are believed to belong to the victims of a massacre carried out by right-wing Jewish militias in the former Arab district.
As-Safri newspaper reported that up to 200 bodies may be in the graves, with an unknown additional number in the other graves.
'The remains belong to people of different ages, including women, children and the elderly, some of which bear signs of violence,' Researcher and historian Mahmoud Obeid said.
Around 760,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes in the war, many of them still living as refugees in Jordan.
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