GENEVA: The UN human rights chief said on Tuesday that his office was following up on reports of a mass grave discovered in the desert along the Libya-Tunisia border, giving a speech where he denounced a series of disturbing developments in Libya.
“I urge the authorities to respond swiftly to our inquiries, and to investigate these crimes fully,” Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, denouncing “widespread” violations against migrants and refugees. “The loved ones of those who died have every right to know the truth.”
In March, at least 65 migants’ bodies were discovered in a mass grave in southwest Libya, the International Organization for Migration said.
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UN rights chief says investigating mass grave on Libya-Tunisia border
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UN rights chief says investigating mass grave on Libya-Tunisia border
- At least 65 migrants bodies were discovered in a mass grave in southwest Libya
Syrian Red Crescent delivers humanitarian relief to Sweida
- Twenty-one trucks delivered medical supplies, food assistance and fuel to vulnerable families in the southern Sweida governorate
- Several humanitarian organizations made contributions to the humanitarian mission, including the World Food Programme and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
LONDON: The Syrian Arab Red Crescent delivered humanitarian relief to the southern governorate of Sweida via the Bosra Al-Sham crossing, as part of efforts to assist vulnerable families in addressing humanitarian and livelihood challenges.
Twenty-one trucks delivered medical supplies, assistance and fuel to Sweida, including food baskets, bottled water, flour, petroleum derivatives and seven kidney dialysis machines to support the health sector.
SARC received contributions from its Lebanese counterpart, the UN Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the SANA news agency reported.
Separately, SARC provided humanitarian assistance to vulnerable families in several villages throughout the Sweida countryside, with support from UNHCR, the Qatari Red Crescent and the Danish Red Cross.
Forest fire sweeps through northern Morocco
- Reports say the fire devastated vast areas of woodland between Bab Taza and Derdara
RABAT: A major mountain forest fire close to the tourist city of Chefchaouen in northern Morocco was spreading on Wednesday, according to media and witnesses who spoke to AFP.
The fire has officially been declared a “major” one, a source told AFP, adding that Canadair firefighting aircraft were working to contain the flames.
Details on the extent of the fire, damage, or any victims or evacuations were not available.
According to news site Le360, two Canadair planes were operating “despite strong winds” in Chefchaouen province, home to 400,000 people, including 50,000 in the provincial capital.
Le360 reported that the fire had devastated “vast” areas of woodland between Bab Taza and Derdara, and had caused significant damage to orchards and fields near Karankha, before spreading to a nearby forest.
Strong winds have been sweeping through northern Morocco for two days, fanning the flames.
“The situation is catastrophic... The extent of the material damage seems quite large,” Aziz Makhlouf, a resident of the province, told AFP by phone.
“I haven’t seen such a fire in about 15 years,” he said, adding that there had been significant efforts by the authorities to combat the fire.
Videos shared online showed a sky darkened by smoke, the glow of flames in the mountains and residents fighting against the fire with buckets of water.
Reports in Moroccan media and on social networks said that fires had also broken out near Tetouan and Tangier, two other tourist destinations in the north of the country, which has been gripped by persistent drought since 2018.
As with much of western and southern Europe, Morocco has been gripped by heatwaves this summer, compounded by the strong, hot desert winds known as chergui, which blow in from the Sahara.
Recognizing Palestine cannot distract from Gaza ‘genocide’: UN special rapporteur
- Francesca Albanese: World must take stronger action against Israel including total arms embargo, end to trade deals
- Resolving ‘the question of Palestine in line with international law is possible and necessary’
LONDON: International momentum toward recognizing a Palestinian state should not distract UN members from bringing an end to the “genocide” in Gaza, Francesca Albanese has said.
The UN special rapporteur for the Occupied Territories told The Guardian that the extended debate about Palestinian statehood has yielded no political progress, instead enabling the spread of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
“The territory has been literally eaten out by the advancement of the annexation and colonization,” she said.
Recognition of a Palestinian state is “important,” but something so simple that “it’s incoherent that they’ve not done it already,” Albanese added.
Renewed global attention toward statehood should not “distract the attention from where it should be: the genocide,” she said, calling for a total arms embargo and a cessation of trade agreements with Israel.
“Ending the question of Palestine in line with international law is possible and necessary: End the genocide today, end the permanent occupation this year and end apartheid,” she added.
“This is what’s going to guarantee freedom and equal rights for everyone, regardless of the way they want to live — in two states or one state, they will have to decide.”
Albanese said growing worldwide angst over the destruction of Gaza is an “ultimate struggle” and a matter of “light and darkness.”
Despite inaction by Western countries, she sees hope in the “millions of people taking to the streets and asking for an end to the genocide.”
She added: “An entire new generation now speaks the language of human rights. For me, this is a success in and of itself.”
Her most recent report focused on the corporate power — “profiting from genocide” — behind Israel’s actions in Gaza.
“The occupation is profitable, and so is the genocide, and this is shocking, but it is to be known in order to be seen and to be stopped,” Albanese said.
“The power is not just with the prime ministers or with the governments. The power is with us, and we can start choosing through our wallet.”
Turkiye, Syria sign defense cooperation agreement after Ankara talks
- Defense ministers sign a memorandum of understanding on military training and consultancy
ANKARA: The defense ministers of Turkiye and Syria signed a memorandum of understanding on military training and consultancy after talks in Ankara on Wednesday, Turkiye’s defense ministry said.
The neighbors had been negotiating a comprehensive military cooperation agreement for months, after the ousting of Bashar Assad in December.
Indonesian doctor in Gaza gives witness account to Israel’s assassination of Anas Al-Sharif
- Neurosurgeon Dr. Eka Budhi Satyawardhana was present at the scene when the attack took place
- Assassination of Anas Al-Sharif and the doctor’s account have sent chills through Indonesia
DUBAI: An Indonesian doctor volunteering in Gaza has given a witness account of Israel’s assassination of Al Jazeera reporter Anas Al-Sharif earlier this week, describing how an Israeli drone bombed a gathering of journalists, killing an entire media crew.
Al-Sharif, Al Jazeera’s 28-year-old Arabic correspondent who had reported extensively from northern Gaza, was one of the network’s most recognizable faces.
He was killed inside a tent for journalists outside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Sunday night, alongside six other people, including another Al Jazeera correspondent, Mohammed Qreiqeh, and the network’s camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal. Also killed were freelance cameraman Momen Aliwa and freelance journalist Mohammed Al-Khalidi.
Dr. Eka Budhi Satyawardhana, a neurosurgeon from the Jakarta-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, who is currently volunteering at Al-Shifa Hospital, was at the scene when the attack took place.
“It happened around 11:20 p.m. At that time, our MER-C team and members of several medical teams from other NGOs were resting in the mess hall, but we all woke up when we heard a very loud explosion,” he said in a voice message released by MER-C on Tuesday evening.
“The bombing was carried out with a quadcopter. Usually, if a quadcopter is spying, it has AI that pinpoints the location, and then the facial features. When the AI result matches the targeted victim, the bomb is released.”
The site was busy at the time of the attack, as a simple food stall in front of the hospital was a gathering place for journalists.
For another 10 hours, the hospital’s emergency teams were still trying to save those wounded, including a child whose body was torn by the blast.
“The emergency room was still very busy around 8 or 9 in the morning. They were treating victims of the bombing,” Dr. Satyawardhana said. “The explosion was large, causing collateral damage.”
The killing and the doctor’s account have sent chills through Indonesia, where many people have been following Al-Sharif’s reporting.
“They’re using AI to detect faces and kill with drones ... That’s so scary. I felt like my body was drowning and aching,” Wanda Hamidah, an Indonesian actress and politician, told Arab News.
“Anas was one of the last surviving journalists in Gaza. They’re targeting journalists, nurses, doctors, medical staff. This genocidal cruelty is beyond words.”
The assassination of Al-Sharif, who has been widely celebrated as the “voice of Gaza,” came after months of incitement against him and Israeli officials numerous times, hinting that he was on their hit list.
Aware of it, Al-Sharif wrote his last will in advance. It was published on his social media accounts following his killing.
“If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice,” he wrote. “Allah knows I gave every effort and all my strength to be a support and a voice for my people.”
Israel has killed nearly 270 journalists and media workers since launching its war on Gaza, according to Shireen.ps, a monitoring website named after Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in 2022.
Data from Brown University’s “Cost of War” project shows that more journalists were killed in Israel’s war on Gaza than in the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined.
“It looks like a desperate attempt to silence all the journalists, and it’s so clear. They are clearly targeting journalists,” said Paramita Mentari Kesuma, an Indonesian sustainability expert.
After Al-Sharif’s assassination, many Western media outlets failed to condemn the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists and instead carried the Israeli military’s justification for his killing, framing him — like many others over the past 22 months — as a legitimate target.
“Journalists do not speak on behalf of other journalists who are attacked,” Kesuma said. “Journalists should come together to speak up.”
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