Middle East aid workers say rules of war being flouted

Middle East aid workers say rules of war being flouted
Workers unload medical aid supplies that were transported to Lebanon from Greece on a Hellenic Air Force C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft after landing at Beirut International Airport on October 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 28 October 2024
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Middle East aid workers say rules of war being flouted

Middle East aid workers say rules of war being flouted

Geneva: Flagrant violations of the laws of war in the escalating conflict in the Middle East are setting a dangerous precedent, aid workers in the region warn.
Since Hamas’s deadly October 7 attack on Israel from Gaza last year, humanitarians say the warring parties are flouting international humanitarian law (IHL).
“The rules of war are being broken in such a flagrant way... (it) is setting a precedent that we have not seen in any other conflict,” Marwan Jilani, the vice president of the Palestine Red Crescent (PCRS), told AFP.
Speaking last week during a meeting in Geneva of the 191 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, he lamented a “total disregard for human life (and) for international humanitarian law.”
Amid Israel’s devastating retaliatory operation in the Gaza Strip, local aid workers are striving to deliver assistance while facing the same risks as the rest of the population, he said.
The PCRS has more than 900 staff and several thousand volunteers inside Gaza, where more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry, and where the UN says virtually the entire population has been repeatedly displaced.
“They’re part of the community,” said Jilani. “I think every single member of our staff has lost family members.”
He decried especially what he said was a “deliberate targeting of the health sector.”
Israel rejects such accusations and maintains that it is carrying out its military operations in both Gaza and Lebanon in accordance with international law.
But Jilani said that “many of our staff, including doctors and nurses... were detained, were taken for weeks (and) were tortured.”
Since the war began, 34 PRCS staff and volunteers have been killed in Gaza, and another two in the West Bank, “most of them while serving,” he said.
Four other staff members are still being held, their whereabouts and condition unknown.
Jilani warned that the disregard for basic international law in the expanding conflict was eroding the belief that such laws even exist.
A “huge casualty of this war,” he said, “is the belief within the Middle East that there is no international law.”
Uri Shacham, chief of staff at the Israeli’s emergency aid organization Magen David Adom (MDA), also decried the total disregard for laws requiring the protection of humanitarians.
During Hamas’s October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures, MDA staff and volunteers rushing to the scene to help were also killed, he said.
It lost seven people that day.
Shacham said they were killed “while they were treating others, while they were identified as humanitarians.
“This was so unbelievable for us,” he said, warning of potentially dangerous ripple effects.
“Our biggest concern is that once the barrier was broken, then this might be something that others would do,” he cautioned.
The Red Cross in Lebanon, where for the past month Israel has been launching ground operations and dramatically escalating its air strikes against Hezbollah, also condemned the slide.
Thirteen of its volunteers have been recently injured on ambulance missions.
One of its top officials, Samar Abou Jaoudeh, told AFP that they did not appear to have been targeted directly.
“But nevertheless, not being able to reach the injured people, and (missiles) hitting right in front of an ambulance is also not respecting IHL,” she said, stressing the urgent need to ensure more respect for international law on the ground.
Abou Jaoudeh feared Lebanon, where at least 1,620 people have been killed since September 23, according to an AFP tally based on official figures, could suffer the same fate as Gaza.
“We hope that no country would face anything that Gaza is facing now, but unfortunately a bit of that scenario is beginning to be similar in Lebanon,” she said.
The Lebanese Red Cross, she said, was preparing “for all scenarios... but we just hope that it wouldn’t reach this point.”


EU must condemn Israeli atrocities at top-level meeting: Human Rights Watch

EU must condemn Israeli atrocities at top-level meeting: Human Rights Watch
Updated 24 February 2025
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EU must condemn Israeli atrocities at top-level meeting: Human Rights Watch

EU must condemn Israeli atrocities at top-level meeting: Human Rights Watch
  • ‘There can be no business as usual with a government responsible for crimes against humanity and acts of genocide’
  • ‘Unless the EU drastically changes course, it will provide a blank check for further abuses’

LONDON: EU officials must condemn Israeli atrocities and violations of international law at the EU-Israel Association Council meeting on Monday, Human Rights Watch has urged.

The meeting will be led by EU High Representative Kaja Kallas and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.

Kallas will be joined by EU foreign ministers. Together, they should “signal an end to the bloc’s reluctance to acknowledge and address Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity — including apartheid — and acts of genocide,” HRW said.

Last February, Spain and Ireland requested a suspension to the EU-Israel Association Agreement due to Israel’s grave abuses of its human rights obligations. The request has yet to be answered by the EU.

The Association Council is the EU’s top-level bilateral meeting with Israel, held as part of the agreement.

The last meeting took place in October 2022 following a 10-year pause initiated by Israel over discontent with the EU’s condemnation of settlement-building in the Occupied Territories.

Claudio Francavilla, associate EU director at HRW, said: “There can be no business as usual with a government responsible for crimes against humanity, including apartheid, and acts of genocide, and whose sitting prime minister is wanted for atrocity crimes by the International Criminal Court.

“The only purpose of this Association Council meeting should be to call out those crimes and to announce long overdue measures in response.”

More than 100 civil society organizations, including HRW, urged the EU in a letter to center discussions with Saar on the potential suspension of the agreement.

Article 2 names human rights and democratic principles as “essential elements” which, if violated, can lead to the suspension of the treaty.

HRW has documented extensive abuses by Israel during the conflict in Gaza, including war crimes, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide.  

The EU has yet to adopt any “concrete measure to press Israeli authorities” to halt these abuses, HRW warned. Any move by the bloc requires unanimous approval by its 27 members.

Several EU foreign ministers have criticized the International Criminal Court’s issuing of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

The EU approved two rounds of sanctions against Israeli settlers who had committed abuses in the West Bank, but fell short of punishing the authorities who have enabled them, HRW said.

EU states also continue to export weapons to Israel despite the risk of complicity in war crimes.

A smear campaign led by Israel also saw the EU and its member states pause, and in some cases fully end, support for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides vital services to Palestinian refugees.

Francavilla said: “Europe’s reluctance to condemn and address Israel’s atrocity crimes has fueled them and given rise to well-grounded accusations of EU double standards.

“Unless the EU drastically changes course, it will provide a blank check for further abuses and continue to undermine the EU’s stated commitment to human rights and the rules-based international order.”


Iraqi Kurdistan can start oil flows within days on Turkish approval, minister says

Iraqi Kurdistan can start oil flows within days on Turkish approval, minister says
Updated 24 February 2025
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Iraqi Kurdistan can start oil flows within days on Turkish approval, minister says

Iraqi Kurdistan can start oil flows within days on Turkish approval, minister says
  • Iraqi Kurdistan authorities have agreed with the federal oil ministry to restart Kurdish crude exports based on available volumes
  • A speedy resumption of exports from semi-autonomous Kurdistan region would help to offset a potential fall in Iranian oil exports

BAGHDAD: Iraq is waiting for Turkiye’s approval to restart the oil flows from the Iraqi Kurdistan region, the Iraqi oil minister said on Monday, adding that Kurdish oil exports will hopefully be ready in two days.
Asked if resuming Kurdish oil exports will affect Iraq’s OPEC compliance, Hayan Abdel-Ghani told reporters that Baghdad is committed to the OPEC+ decisions and exported volumes under the control of the Iraqi oil ministry.
Iraqi Kurdistan authorities have agreed with the federal oil ministry to restart Kurdish crude exports based on available volumes, Kurdistan’s regional government said on Sunday.
The pipeline was halted by Turkiye in March 2023 after the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ordered Ankara to pay Baghdad $1.5 billion in damages for unauthorized exports between 2014 and 2018.
US President Donald Trump’s administration is putting pressure on Iraq to allow Kurdish oil exports to restart or face sanctions alongside Iran, sources have told Reuters. An Iraqi official later denied pressure or the threat of sanctions.
A speedy resumption of exports from Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region would help to offset a potential fall in Iranian oil exports, which Washington has pledged to cut to zero as part of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.
Asked if the northern oil exports through neighboring Turkiye’s Ceyhan port will include crude oil produced from Iraq’s Kirkuk fields, Hayan Abdel-Ghani told reporters: “Production from Kirkuk fields will be for local use.”


EU suspends sanctions on key Syria economic sectors

EU suspends sanctions on key Syria economic sectors
Updated 54 min 35 sec ago
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EU suspends sanctions on key Syria economic sectors

EU suspends sanctions on key Syria economic sectors
  • Sanctions relief in bid to help the country’s reconstruction after the fall of Bashar Assad

BRUSSELS: European Union countries on Monday suspended a range of sanctions against Syria with immediate effect, including restrictions related to energy, banking, transport and reconstruction.

The EU has a range of sanctions in place targeting both individuals and economic sectors in Syria.

European leaders began rethinking their approach after insurgent forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) ousted former President Bashar Assad as president in December.

Meeting in Brussels on Monday, EU foreign ministers agreed to suspend restrictions on the energy sector that covered oil, gas and electricity, and sanctions on the transport sector.

They have also lifted asset freezes for five banks, eased restrictions on the Syrian central bank and indefinitely extended an exemption to facilitate delivery of humanitarian aid.

EU states maintained a range of other sanctions related to the Assad authorities, including those on arms trading, dual-use goods with both military and civilian uses, software for surveillance and the international trade of Syrian cultural heritage goods.

They said they would continue to monitor the situation in Syria to ensure that the suspensions remained appropriate.


UN chief ‘gravely concerned’ at Israeli settler violence in West Bank

UN chief ‘gravely concerned’ at Israeli settler violence in West Bank
Updated 24 February 2025
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UN chief ‘gravely concerned’ at Israeli settler violence in West Bank

UN chief ‘gravely concerned’ at Israeli settler violence in West Bank
  • Israel earlier announced expanded military operations in the occupied Palestinian territory

GENEVA: The UN chief voiced alarm Monday at rising violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and calls for annexation after Israel announced expanded military operations in the occupied Palestinian territory.
“I am gravely concerned by the rising violence in the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers and other violations, as well as calls for annexation,” Antonio Guterres told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.


10th pro-Kurdish party mayor removed in eastern Turkiye

10th pro-Kurdish party mayor removed in eastern Turkiye
Updated 24 February 2025
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10th pro-Kurdish party mayor removed in eastern Turkiye

10th pro-Kurdish party mayor removed in eastern Turkiye

ISTANBUL: Turkiye’s interior ministry announced on Monday the removal of a 10th pro-Kurdish party mayor in eastern Turkiye in less than a year for alleged ties.
The development targeting a mayor of DEM party — the third largest political group in the parliament — comes as the party leads negotiations with jailed leader of outlawed Kurdish militants Abdullah Ocalan to end the four-decade conflict.
“Mehmet Alkan, mayor of the Kagizman district in the province of Kars, has been temporarily suspended from his duties by the interior ministry because he was sentenced to six years and three months in jail on charges of membership of an armed terror group,” the interior ministry said in a statement.
The DEM condemned the action as part of the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) Party’s “war against the people’s right to vote and to be elected,” in a message on X.
Ankara has stepped up the pressure on pro-Kurdish movements and sympathizers accused of “terrorism,” even as it pursues talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) listed as a terror group by Turkiye and much of the international community.
The PKK has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 that has left more than 40,000 people dead.