International Criminal Court opens new probe into Sudan violence

The ICC has been investigating crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region since 2005 after a referral by the UN Security Council.(AP)

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Updated 14 July 2023

AFP

July 14, 2023 00:57

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International Criminal Court opens new probe into Sudan violence

The ICC has been investigating crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region since 2005 after a referral by the UN Security Council
The UN has warned of possible new massacres in Darfur

Updated 14 July 2023

AFP

July 14, 2023 00:57

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NEW YORK: The International Criminal Court has opened a new probe into alleged war crimes in Sudan, its chief prosecutor said Thursday, expressing major concern over escalating violence.
Karim Khan made the announcement in a report to the UN Security Council, after three months of war between feuding generals have plunged the northeast African country back into chaos.
The ICC has been investigating crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region since 2005 after a referral by the UN Security Council, and the Hague-based court has charged former leader Omar Al-Bashir with offenses including genocide.
Allegations of atrocities have mounted during the recent fighting, with the top UN official in Sudan calling for the warring sides to face accountability.
Around 3,000 people have been killed and three million displaced since violence erupted between Sudan army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group.
The pair were key figures in a 2021 military coup that derailed the country’s transition to civilian rule, following the ousting and detention of Bashir in 2019.
The UN has warned of possible new massacres in Darfur, saying Thursday that the bodies of at least 87 people allegedly killed last month by the RSF and their allies had been buried in a mass grave in Darfur.
“The simple truth is that we are... in peril of allowing history to repeat itself — the same miserable history,” Khan told the UNSC.
“If this oft repeated phrase of ‘never again’ is to mean anything, it must mean something here and now to the people of Darfur that has lived with this uncertainty and pain and the scars of conflict for almost two decades,” Khan said as he announced the new probe.
He said there have been a “wide range of communications” about alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity since fighting broke out in April, while the risk of further offenses was “deepened by the clear and long-standing disregard demonstrated by relevant actors, including the government of Sudan, for their obligations.”
Alleged sexual and gender-based crimes were a focus of the new investigation, Khan said.
The US State Department welcomed the new probe. “Let this be a message to all who commit atrocities, in Sudan and elsewhere, that such crimes are an affront to humanity,” spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Even before the recent fighting broke out, Khan said in the report, there was a deterioration of Sudan’s cooperation with UN investigators.
Sudan’s UN ambassador denied this. “The government of Sudan has constantly cooperated with the ICC,” ambassador Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed said.
The lack of justice for crimes in Darfur in the early 2000s, when Bashir set his Janjaweed militia upon non-Arab minorities, had “sown the seeds for this latest cycle of violence and suffering,” he added.
Bashir was charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, rape and torture and the court has been demanding his extradition to The Hague ever since, without success.
After Bashir was toppled in 2019, Khartoum announced it would hand him over to the court for prosecution, but this never happened.
Even before the recent fighting there was a “further deterioration in cooperation from Sudanese authorities,” Khan said.
Bashir, 79, as well as Ahmad Harun and Abdel Raheem Hussein, two leading figures in the former dictator’s government who are also wanted by the ICC, are still at large.
So far the only suspect to face trial for violence committed in Sudan is senior Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd Al-Rahman, also known by the nom de guerre Ali Kushayb.
Rahman’s defense lawyers are expected to open their case next month, and Khan said the latest Sudan fighting “cannot be permitted to jeopardize” the trial.
The United Nations says 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million people displaced in the 2003-4 Darfur conflict.
A summit of leaders from Sudan’s neighbors met in Cairo on Thursday, urging an end to the fighting, but gunbattles, explosions and the roar of fighter jets again shook the capital Khartoum, residents told AFP.

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Blinken tells Netanyahu ‘imperative’ to protect Gaza civilians

Updated 6 sec ago

AFP

November 30, 2023 13:05

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Blinken tells Netanyahu ‘imperative’ to protect Gaza civilians

Stresses imperative of accounting for humanitarian and civilian protection needs in southern Gaza

Updated 6 sec ago

AFP

November 30, 2023 13:05

JERUSALEM: Visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday, emphasized the need to protect civilians in southern Gaza, where many have fled, the State Department said.
Blinken “stressed the imperative of accounting for humanitarian and civilian protection needs in southern Gaza before any military operations there,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement, adding he “urged Israel to take every possible measure to avoid civilian harm.”

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Truce in Gaza extended another day but talks over remaining hostages held by Hamas could get tougher

Updated 3 min 5 sec ago

AP

November 30, 2023 12:11

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Truce in Gaza extended another day but talks over remaining hostages held by Hamas could get tougher

Hamas is expected to demand greater concessions for many of the remaining captives
Blinken is expected to press for further extensions of the truce and the release of more hostages

Updated 3 min 5 sec ago

AP

November 30, 2023 12:11

JERUSALEM: Israel and Hamas agreed at the last minute Thursday to extend their cease-fire in Gaza by another day. But any further renewal of the deal that has seen dozens of hostages and prisoners released could prove more challenging since Hamas is expected to demand greater concessions for many of the remaining captives.
As word of the extension came, gunmen opened fire on people waiting for buses along a main highway entering Jerusalem, killing at least three people and wounding several others, according to police.
The two attackers, brothers from a Palestinian neighborhood in annexed east Jerusalem, were killed. Hamas said they were members of its armed wing and celebrated the assault, but called it “a natural response” to Israel’s actions in Gaza and elsewhere. It was unclear if the attack had been ordered by Hamas’ leaders or if it would have an impact on the truce.
International pressure has mounted for the cease-fire to continue as long as possible after nearly eight weeks of Israeli bombardment and a ground campaign in Gaza that have killed thousands of Palestinians, uprooted more than three-quarters of the population of 2.3 million and led to a humanitarian crisis.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on his third visit to the region since the start of the war, said “my heart goes out” to the victims of the Jerusalem attack. Blinken is expected to press for further extensions of the truce and the release of more hostages.
“This process is producing results. It’s important, and we hope that it can continue,” he said.
The talks appear to be growing tougher, however, with Hamas having already freed most of the women and children kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war. The militants are expected to make greater demands in return for freeing men and soldiers.
Qatar, which has played a key role in mediating with Hamas, announced that the truce was being extended Thursday. In the past, Hamas has released at least 10 Israeli hostages per day in exchange for Israel’s release of at least 30 Palestinian prisoners.
The announcement followed a last-minute standoff, with Hamas saying Israel had rejected a proposed list that included seven living captives and the remains of three who the group said were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Israel later said Hamas submitted an improved list, but gave no details.
Israel says it will maintain the truce until Hamas stops releasing captives, at which point it will resume military operations aimed at eliminating the group. The Biden administration has told Israel that it must operate with far greater precision if it expands the ground offensive to the south, where many Palestinians have sought refuge.
INCREASINGLY TENSE HOSTAGE TALKS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under intense pressure from families of the hostages to bring them home. But his far-right governing partners are also pushing him to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed, and could bolt his coalition if he is seen as making too many concessions.
The initial truce — which began Friday and has now been extended twice — called for the release of women and children. Israeli officials say Gaza militants still hold around 30 women and children, who would all be released in a few days if the swaps continue at the current rate.
It’s not clear how many of the women might be soldiers. For soldiers and the men still in captivity, Hamas is expected to push for comparable releases of Palestinian men or prominent detainees, a deal Israel may resist.
Israel says around 125 men are still held hostage, including several dozen soldiers. Thus far, Hamas has released some men — mostly Thai laborers.
An Israeli official involved in hostage negotiations said talks on a further extension for the release of civilian men and soldiers were still preliminary, and that a deal would not be considered until all the women and children are out. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because talks were ongoing.
So far, most Palestinians released have been teenagers accused of throwing stones and firebombs during confrontations with Israeli forces. Several were women convicted by Israeli military courts of attempting to attack soldiers. Palestinians have celebrated the release of people they see as having resisted Israel’s decadeslong military occupation of lands they want for a future state.
With Wednesday’s releases, a total of 73 Israelis, including dual nationals, have been freed during the six-day truce, most of whom appear physically well but shaken. Another 24 hostages — 23 Thais and one Filipino — have also been released.
Before the cease-fire, Hamas released four hostages, and the Israeli army rescued one. Two others were found dead in Gaza. On Thursday, the military confirmed the death of Ofir Tzarfati, who was believed to be among the hostages, without providing any further details. Israeli media say the 27-year-old attended a music festival where at least 360 people were killed and several others were kidnapped on Oct. 7.
Hamas and other Palestinian militants killed over 1,200 people — mostly civilians — in their wide-ranging attack across southern Israel that day and captured around 240. Authorities have only ever provided approximate figures.
Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion in Gaza have killed more than 13,300 Palestinians, roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The toll is likely much higher, as officials have only sporadically updated the count since Nov. 11. The ministry says thousands more people are feared dead under the rubble.
Israel says 77 of its soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence.
IN GAZA, AN ANXIOUS RESPITE
During the pause in fighting, Palestinians in Gaza have been consumed by the search for aid and horror at the extent of destruction.
Residents described entire residential blocks as leveled in Gaza City and surrounding areas in the north. The smell of decomposing bodies trapped under collapsed buildings fills the air, said Mohmmed Mattar, a 29-year-old resident of the city who along with other volunteers searched for the dead.
In the south, the truce has allowed more aid to be delivered from Egypt, up to 200 trucks a day. But humanitarian officials say it is not enough, given that most now depend on outside aid. Over 1 million displaced people have sought refuge in UN-run shelters, with many forced to sleep outside in cold, rainy weather because of overcrowding.
At a distribution center in Rafah, large crowds line up daily for bags of flour but supplies run out quickly.
“Every day, we come here,” said one woman in line, Nawal Abu Namous. “We spend money on transportation to get here, just to go home with nothing.”

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Topics: War on Gaza

Displaced Syrians face another harsh winter as fuel costs soar

Updated 30 November 2023

Moawia Atrash

November 30, 2023 11:20

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Displaced Syrians face another harsh winter as fuel costs soar

Families burning garbage to stay warm as prices become ‘unbearable’
Humanitarian aid to Syria has been falling steadily since 2021

Updated 30 November 2023

Moawia Atrash

November 30, 2023 11:20

DAMASCUS: Syrians displaced by war and living in camps in the northwest of the country are preparing for another difficult winter amid soaring fuel prices, dwindling humanitarian aid and a scarcity of jobs.

Abdul Salam Al-Youssef, 53, who had to leave his home in Al-Tah, south of Idlib, told Arab News: “We have been in random camps for three years, lacking the minimum necessities of life, and our suffering increases at the beginning of each winter.

“We, the heads of families, are responsible for large expenses because the price of all heating methods exceeds $150, and even the prices of heaters are high, and these are all costs that we are unable to bear.”

He added that the tents in which people had been living for the past three years were becoming worn and letting in water.

Khaled Abdel Rahman, also from Al-Tah, tells a similar story.

“I have been displaced for five years … and every year when winter comes, it brings with it worries for us,” he said.

“We used to receive support for heating materials at the beginning of every winter, but every year this support decreases. Until, in the last two years, we started burning nylon garbage or plastic containers. These materials are harmful to health, especially children, and we use these because we do not have the ability to buy heating materials because their price is very expensive for us.”

The average price of a ton of firewood was now about $150, he said.

“We do not have the ability to buy a single kilo of firewood in these bad conditions. Our tents are in very poor condition. We patch and sew them every winter, and with every strong wind we repair them again.”

The amount of humanitarian aid being provided to camps in northwest Syria has been falling steadily since 2021.

Displaced people accounted for almost half of the more than 6 million now living in northwest Syria. (Supplied)

Samir Al-Ahmad, who sells firewood at a local market, told Arab News: “Firewood in previous years was much cheaper than now, but the prices of all heating materials are very expensive.

“I wanted to install a diesel greenhouse, but I did not have the ability to do so, so I installed a wood-burning greenhouse because I can pay for firewood from my work in this market. Firewood is very expensive, with prices ranging from $140 to $210, depending on its type and quality.”

He added that these days, people bought only small amounts of firewood when they could afford it.

The Syria Response Coordinators team said that displaced people accounted for almost half of the more than 6 million now living in northwest Syria. Of those, more than 2 million — including 600,000 women, 888,000 children and 84,000 people with special needs — live in the region’s camps.

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Topics: Syria

Israel-Hamas truce extended for a day

Updated 30 November 2023

AFP

November 30, 2023 10:20

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Israel-Hamas truce extended for a day

Israel’s military said the “operational pause” would be extended, without specifying for how long
Hamas said there was an agreement to “extend the truce for a seventh day,” without giving further details

Updated 30 November 2023

AFP

November 30, 2023 10:20

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: A truce between Israel and Hamas will continue, both sides said Thursday, moments before the deal was due to expire, though details of any official agreement remained unclear.

Minutes before the halt in fighting was due to expire at 0500GMT, Israel’s military said the “operational pause” would be extended, without specifying for how long.

“In light of the mediators’ efforts to continue the process of releasing the hostages and subject to the terms of the framework, the operational pause will continue,” it said.

Hamas meanwhile said there was an agreement to “extend the truce for a seventh day,” without further details.

Qatar, which has led the truce negotiations, confirmed the pause had been extended until Friday.

There had been pressure to extend the pause to allow more hostage releases and additional aid into devastated Gaza, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arriving in Israel for talks Wednesday night.

The truce has brought a temporary halt to fighting that began on October 7 when Hamas militants poured over the border into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel’s subsequent air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 15,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to Hamas officials, and reduced large parts of the north of the territory to rubble.

The truce agreement allows for extensions if Hamas can release another 10 hostages a day, and a source close to the group said Wednesday that it was willing to prolong the pause by four days.

But with just an hour to go before the truce was due to expire, Hamas said its offer to free another seven hostages, and hand over the bodies of another three it said were killed in Israeli bombardment, had been refused.

Both sides had earlier said they were ready to return to fighting, with Hamas’s armed wing warning its fighters to “maintain high military readiness... in anticipation of a resumption of combat if it is not renewed,” according to a message posted on its Telegram channel.

IDF spokesman Doron Spielman said troops would “move into operational mode very quickly and continue with our targets in Gaza,” if the truce expired.

Overnight, 10 more Israeli hostages were freed under the terms of the deal, with another four Thai hostages and two Israeli-Russian women released outside the framework of the arrangement.

Video released by Hamas showed masked gunmen handing hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Among those freed was Liat Beinin, who also holds American citizenship, and works as a guide at Israel’s Holocaust museum Yad Vashem.

US President Joe Biden said he was “deeply gratified” by the release.

“This deal has delivered meaningful results,” he said of the truce.

Shortly after the hostages arrived in Israel, the country’s prison service said 30 Palestinian prisoners had been released, including well-known activist Ahed Tamimi.

Since the truce began on November 24, 70 Israeli hostages have been freed in return for 210 Palestinian prisoners.

Around 30 foreigners, most of them Thais living in Israel, have been freed outside the terms of the deal.

Israel has made clear it sees the truce as a temporary halt intended to free hostages, but there are growing calls for a more sustained pause in fighting.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded a “true humanitarian cease-fire,” warning Gazans are “in the midst of an epic humanitarian catastrophe.”

And China, whose top diplomat Wang Yi was in New York for Security Council talks on the violence, urged an immediate “sustained humanitarian truce,” in a position paper released Thursday.

The hostage releases have brought joy tinged with agony, with families anxiously waiting each night to learn if their loved ones will be freed, and learning harrowing details from those who return.

Four-year-old Abigail was captured after crawling out from under the body of her father, killed by militants, covered in his blood, her great aunt Liz Hirsh Naftali said.

“It’s a miracle,” she said of the little girl’s survival and release.

However Israel’s army also said Wednesday it was investigating a claim by Hamas’s armed wing that a 10-month-old baby hostage, his four-year-old brother and their mother had all been killed in an Israeli bombing in Gaza.

Israel pounded the Gaza Strip relentlessly before the truce, forcing an estimated 1.7 million people to leave their homes and limiting the entry of food, water, medicine and fuel.

Conditions in the territory remain “catastrophic,” according to the World Food Programme, and the population faces a “high risk of famine.

Israeli forces targeted several hospitals in northern Gaza during the fighting, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes.

The spokesman for the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, Ashraf Al-Qudra, told AFP Wednesday that doctors found five premature babies dead in Gaza City’s Al-Nasr hospital, which medical staff had been forced to abandon.

The truce has allowed those displaced to return to their homes, but for many there is little left.

“I discovered that my house had been completely destroyed — 27 years of my life to build it and everything is gone,” said Taghrid Al-Najjar, 46, after returning to her home in southeastern Gaza.

The violence in Gaza has also raised tensions in the West Bank, where nearly 240 Palestinians have been killed by either Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

An eight-year-old boy and a teenager were the latest deaths in the occupied territory, with Israel saying it “responded with live fire... and hits were identified” after suspects hurled explosive devices toward troops.

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Topics: Gaza Israel Hamas

Hamas militants open fire at Jerusalem bus stop, killing three

Updated 31 min 49 sec ago

Reuters

November 30, 2023 06:40

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Hamas militants open fire at Jerusalem bus stop, killing three

Shooters came from East Jerusalem and were stopped by off-duty soldiers and another civilian who was nearby

Updated 31 min 49 sec ago

Reuters

November 30, 2023 06:40

JERUSALEM: Two Palestinian Hamas attackers opened fire at a bus stop during the morning rush hour on Thursday at the entrance to Jerusalem, killing at least three people and wounding eight others, Israeli authorities said.

“The terrorists arrived at the scene by car in the morning, armed with an M-16 rifle and a handgun,” police said. “The terrorists began shooting at civilians before subsequently being killed at the scene.”

The shooters came from East Jerusalem and were stopped by off-duty soldiers and another civilian who was nearby, police said.

Israel’s Shin Bet security agency identified them as 30 and 38-year-old brothers who were affiliated with the Islamist group Hamas, which runs Gaza. Both had previously been jailed in Israel.

Hamas later confirmed that the two men were its members.

“The operation came as a natural response to unprecedented crimes conducted by the occupation,” it said in a statement, citing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Security camera footage obtained by Reuters showed the moments of the attack. A white car is seen stopped beside a crowded bus stop. Two men then step out, guns drawn, and run at the crowd as people scatter. Shortly afterwards the Palestinian attackers are gunned down.

“This attack is further proof for our commitment to continue fighting with strength and determination against the murderous terrorism that threatens our citizens,” Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, wrote on social media platform X.

A large number of first responders and security forces converged on the area that was crowded with morning commuters.

“This event proves again how we must not show weakness, that we must speak to Hamas only through the (rifle) scopes, only through the war,” said hard-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the site of the attack.

He added that Israel would continue its policy of easing regulations for issuing gun licenses to private citizens.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was visiting Tel Aviv, said Thursday’s shooting was a reminder “of the threat from terrorism that Israel and Israelis face every single day ... My heart goes out to the victims of this attack.”

Separately, in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said two soldiers were injured in a car ramming attack at a checkpoint. Troops at the scene “shot and neutralized the assailant,” it said. There was no immediate Palestinian comment.

The violence came as Israel and Hamas struck a last-minute agreement on Thursday to extend their six-day cease-fire in Gaza by one more day to allow negotiators to keep working on deals to swap hostages held in the coastal enclave for Palestinian prisoners.

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Topics: War on Gaza

International Criminal Court opens new probe into Sudan violence

International Criminal Court opens new probe into Sudan violence

Sudan’s neighbors urge warring parties to start peace dialogue

At least 87 buried in Sudan mass grave, including women, children — UN

Blinken tells Netanyahu ‘imperative’ to protect Gaza civilians

Blinken tells Netanyahu ‘imperative’ to protect Gaza civilians

Truce in Gaza extended another day but talks over remaining hostages held by Hamas could get tougher

Truce in Gaza extended another day but talks over remaining hostages held by Hamas could get tougher

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Israel-Hamas truce extended for a day

Israel-Hamas truce extended for a day

Hamas militants open fire at Jerusalem bus stop, killing three

Hamas militants open fire at Jerusalem bus stop, killing three

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International Criminal Court opens new probe into Sudan violence

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