GENEVA: The United Nations voiced alarm Monday at the escalating violence between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, warning that actions and rhetoric was catapulting the Mideast conflict “to another level.”
“We are extremely concerned, deeply worried about the escalation in Lebanon,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN rights office, told AFP.
“The attacks that we saw on the communication devices, the pagers, followed by rocket attacks and rocket fire being exchanged on both sides ... marks a real escalation,” she said.
“What we’ve been warning about all along, the regional spillover of the conflict, it appears that both the actions and the rhetoric of the parties to the conflict is taking the conflict to another level.”
After nearly a year of tit-for-tat cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, the strikes since the weekend are the most intense since the outbreak of war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip last October 7.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes on the south killed 100 people and wounded more than 400 others on Monday, while Lebanese official media said people were receiving Israeli phone warnings telling them to move away from Hezbollah targets.
Israel meanwhile said more than 300 Hezbollah sites had been targeted on Monday in dozens of strikes.
That came after at least 39 people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded last week when hand-held communications devices used by Hezbollah operatives detonated across Lebanon. Hezbollah has blamed Israel, which has not commented.
On Friday the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, told the Security Council the attack on Hezbollah communications devices violated international law and could constitute a war crime.
Without attributing the attack on the communications devices, Shamdasani stressed that “it is a war crime to commit violence that is intended to spread terror among civilians.”
“The simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, whether they are civilians or members of armed groups, without knowledge of where these people will be ... this is not acceptable under international law.”
Shamdasani highlighted the calls from across the international community “pleading for a deescalation.”
“But instead of a deescalation, what we have seen ... is further rhetoric with further plans of an escalation,” she said. “This needs to stop.”
UN ‘extremely concerned’ as Mideast conflict moves to new level
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UN ‘extremely concerned’ as Mideast conflict moves to new level
Body of slain Syrian refugee boy in UK to be repatriated after fundraiser
- Ahmad Mamdouh Al-Ibrahim, 16, was stabbed to death in Huddersfield on April 3
- More than £15k raised by local community to support his family
LONDON: The body of a 16-year-old Syrian refugee who was stabbed to death in the UK is being repatriated to his homeland following a local community fundraiser, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.
Locals in Huddersfield raised more than £15,000 ($19,800) after the killing of Ahmad Mamdouh Al-Ibrahim, whose family described him as “a very nice boy” who wanted to be a doctor.
He was stabbed in the neck on April 3 as he was being shown around the town center by his cousin.
Al-Ibrahim had only arrived in Huddersfield two weeks earlier after spending time at a Welsh immigration center and staying with his uncle’s family during Ramadan.
Funeral prayers were held at Omar Mosque in Huddersfield last Friday, with about 500 people attending.
Alfie Franco, 20, appeared in court two days after the killing. He was charged with murder and remanded in custody until a hearing in May.
The local fundraiser for Al-Ibrahim’s repatriation was organized by Maneer Siddique, who said he was “absolutely overwhelmed” by the response from the people of Huddersfield.
He had initially hoped to raise about £2,000, but the GoFundMe page has surpassed £15,000 and continues to climb.
“To generate that kind of money in such a short space of time is unreal,” said Siddique, who runs a tailoring business.
One benefactor delivered an envelope to be passed on to Al-Ibrahim’s uncle. “He started counting the money and there was £500 in the envelope. He was in tears,” Siddique said.
“He really wants to thank everyone. And I would like to also thank people personally because of the amount of money we’ve generated through people’s kindness.”
Al-Ibrahim’s body, accompanied by two relatives, will be taken to Damascus Tuesday evening.
They will then travel to extended family in Homs, where a second funeral will be held this week for Al-Ibrahim’s burial.
He had been injured by bomb shrapnel during the Syrian civil war, which he was fleeing when he came to Britain.
His uncle said Al-Ibrahim only knew family in Huddersfield, adding: “He was trying to make a friend, because he didn’t have friends here. I said to him, you have to go out into the town center to know (where everything is), to know where you can go shopping … plus, you’re going to make friends.”
Numerous cards were left at the site of Al-Ibrahim’s killing. Some contained messages addressed to “the lad I don’t know,” and were signed by “a stranger” and the “heartbroken Huddersfield people.”
US condemns continued tenure of UN’s Francesca Albanese, claiming antisemitism, bias
- In her most recent report, Albanese accused Israel of pursuing ‘long-term strategy’ of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and West Bank
- Supporters, including prominent Jewish figures, say Albanese is a ‘true champion of human rights’ who is “free of prejudice against any ethnicity, including Jewish people’
- All of Albanese’s predecessors have been vilified by pro-Israel groups and banned from entering Israel to fulfill their mandate
NEW YORK CITY: The US has strongly denounced the continued tenure of Francesca Albanese as the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, citing what it describes as antisemitic rhetoric and bias against Israel.
In a statement issued by the US Mission to the UN, Washington reiterated its longstanding opposition to Albanese’s role, saying her actions “make clear the United Nations tolerates antisemitic hatred, bias against Israel, and the legitimization of terrorism.”
Albanese’s outspokenness against Israeli policies and what the International Court of Justice has ruled as potential genocidal actions in Gaza has marked what many called “an extraordinary period in UN history and even for human rights struggle in world history.”
But the US described Albanese’s record as emblematic of the broader failings of the UN Human Rights Council, whose support for Albanese “offers yet another example of why President Trump ordered the United States to cease all participation in the HRC.”
Albanese, an Italian academic appointed to the mandate in 2022, will remain in the role until April 2028, completing the six-year maximum term for special rapporteurs. The position is unpaid.
The UNHRC said that no formal reappointment was made during its recent 58th session earlier this month, adding that her tenure is proceeding as originally scheduled.
Albanese’s continued role has drawn sharp criticism from pro-Israel organizations and the Israeli government.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, condemned what he described as the council’s de facto renewal of her mandate, calling it “a disgrace and a moral stain on the United Nations.”
He accused Albanese of promoting antisemitic views and excusing Hamas’ actions during the Oct. 7 attacks.
Pro-Israel advocacy groups had petitioned the council to remove Albanese, citing her statements and reports as evidence of partiality.
Critics point to her March 2025 report, in which Albanese accused Israel of pursuing a “long-term strategy” of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank.
However, pro-Palestinian figures, including prominent Jewish historians, lawyers, and human rights advocates, have rallied in support of Albanese, with many praising her continued role as “a small, but defiant, victory for Gaza, truth, and human rights.”
Albanese, who is also affiliated with Georgetown University and a former UNRWA staffer, has faced mounting scrutiny since the outbreak of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in October 2023.
Similar attacks, although less ferocious, have been directed at each of the three special rapporteurs that preceded Albanese. One of the three, Richard Falk, described the claims against Albanese as “a totally defamatory smear that has been repeated by Israeli media and lobbying organizations around the world.”
Falk described Albanese as “a person of the highest moral character, a true champion of human rights, and someone who is entirely free from prejudice against any ethnicity, including, of course, the Jewish people.”
He added that at the same time, Albanese is “an unsparing critic of Israel as a state guilty of settler colonial policies and practices that have made the Palestinian people suffer extreme harm and hardships since 1948.”
Her defenders believe the backlash is part of a political campaign to silence criticism of Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
The UNHRC has not signaled any move to alter Albanese’s mandate before its scheduled end in 2028.
Hamas says ‘lost contact’ with group holding Israeli-American hostage after strike
- The Brigades released a video on Saturday showing Alexander alive, in which he criticized the Israeli government for failing to secure his release
GAZA CITY: Hamas’s armed wing said Tuesday it had “lost contact” with the group holding Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander following an air strike on their location in Gaza.
“We announce that we have lost contact with the group holding soldier Edan Alexander following a direct strike on their location. We are still trying to reach them at this moment,” Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said on his Telegram channel.
The Brigades released a video on Saturday showing Alexander alive, in which he criticized the Israeli government for failing to secure his release.
Alexander appeared to be speaking under duress in the video, making frequent hand gestures as he criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
AFP was unable to determine when the video was filmed.
Alexander was serving as a soldier in an elite infantry unit on the Gaza border when he was abducted by Palestinian militants during their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The soldier, who turned 21 in captivity, was born in Tel Aviv and grew up in the US state of New Jersey, returning to Israel after high school to join the army.
Out of the 251 hostages taken on October 7, 58 remain in captivity, including 34 whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Nearly a month after Israel resumed its aerial and ground assaults across Gaza, the Palestinian militant group said on Monday it had received a new ceasefire proposal from Israel.
A senior Hamas official told AFP that Israel had proposed a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of 10 living hostages.
The Hamas official said that the Israeli proposal calls for the release of Alexander on the first day of the ceasefire as a “gesture of goodwill.”
Over 2m displaced people to return to Khartoum over six months: UN
- “Our estimate in IOM is that over the next six months, we will have 2.1 million returning to the Khartoum capital,” Mohamed Refaat, its chief of mission in Sudan, said
- The returns, he said, would depend on “the security situation and... the availability of services on the ground“
GENEVA: The United Nations said Tuesday that it expected more than two million people displaced in war-ravaged Sudan to return to Khartoum within the next six months, if security conditions allow.
Fighting erupted in Sudan on April 15, 2023 between the army, led by Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, headed by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
As the world marks the two-year anniversary of the devastating conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted around 13 million, the UN’s International Organization for Migration noted the need to prepare for many of the displaced to begin returning home to Khartoum.
The capital city became a battleground almost from the start, but since the army recaptured it last month, the agency said “we are seeing people returning, we are seeing hope coming.”
“Our estimate in IOM is that over the next six months, we will have 2.1 million returning to the Khartoum capital,” Mohamed Refaat, its chief of mission in Sudan, told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Port Sudan.
This calculation, he said, was “based on the numbers we understand that... left the capital when the war started.”
“So we estimate that 31 percent of... IDPs (internally displaced people) in Sudan after the war are actually coming from Khartoum,” he said, adding that the agency expected around half of them to “be returning back to Khartoum.”
The returns, he said, would depend on “the security situation and... the availability of services on the ground.”
Getting the city ready for a mass influx will be a challenge, Refaat acknowledged.
“We see that some spots in the Khartoum itself have been cleaned, but the process I’m sure will take longer,” he said, adding that “the electricity system in the whole Khartoum has been destroyed.”
Refaat also warned that “as we see people are returning, the war is far from stopped,” with thousands still being displaced elsewhere in the country, especially in the Darfur region.
“The conflict has to stop, and we need to put all effort for this conflict to stop,” he said.
But Refaat acknowledged that the funds raised to address Sudan’s towering needs were far from sufficient.
The IOM unveiled a response plan Tuesday asking for nearly $29 million to reach around half a million people in Khartoum, including returnees, he said.
Israeli authorities close Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque during Passover holiday
- Closure prevented Palestinians from accessing the site as Israeli settlers celebrated the Jewish holiday
LONDON: Israeli authorities closed the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, which is in the occupied West Bank, as part of security measures during the Jewish holiday of Passover.
Jamal Abu Aram, the Palestinian director of the Hebron Waqf Department, said that Israeli authorities on Monday evening closed the mosque, with all its corridors and courtyards, for two days.
The closure meant Palestinians were barred from accessing the site as Israeli settlers celebrated the Jewish holiday of Passover, the Wafa news agency reported.
Passover is observed from April 12 to April 20, when Jewish communities commemorate the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt more than 3,000 years ago.
The Ibrahimi Mosque, known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs, has been a site of conflict since 1994. Israeli authorities have imposed strict military and security measures in the old city of Hebron, where the mosque is located, with nearly 1,500 soldiers stationed there to protect the 400 settlers in the area.
