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Category: Human Rights

  • Israel’s apartheid systematically destroys all aspects of Palestinian life

    Through its practices, laws and policies, the Israel enforces systematic segregation, discrimination, and domination over Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and within Israel itself – amounting to apartheid.

    Widespread consensus on Israel’s apartheid regime

    A multitude of human rights organisations and legal experts – including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and even the former head of Mossad, have all concluded that these combined policies and practices constitute a regime of apartheid because they are intentional, systematic, and widespread, and intended to dominate Palestinians and deny them equal rights based on their ethnicity or race.

    In 2024, the ICJ issued a historic advisory opinion finding that Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) constitute apartheid and breach international law, demanding urgent international action to end this regime, and concluding that:

    Israel’s legislation and measures impose and serve to maintain a near-complete separation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem between the settler and Palestinian communities.

    Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning ‘separation’. It is a crime against humanity under international law, as defined in the Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), entailing inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group over another, and characterised by systematic discrimination, oppression, and segregation. In the case of Israeli apartheid in the occupied territory, it is a system whereby Jewish Israelis receive special rights and freedoms while Palestinians living under Israeli rule, in the same area, are treated as inferior in rights and status to Jews, and systematically deprived of their rights.

    Israel’s apartheid aims to advance Jewish supremacy

    According to Amnesty International, the Israeli occupation enforces a system of apartheid against all Palestinians living under their effective control – whether they live in Israel, East Jerusalam, the West Bank, Gaza, or in other countries as refugees. Oppression is institutionalised, and Israeli laws and policies are specifically designed to deprive Palestinians of their rights, while advancing the regime’s goal of Jewish supremacy in the entire area under its control.

    This has even been confirmed by Netanyahu, when he came to power in 2023 and declared:

    The Jewish people have an exclusive and inalienable right to all spaces of the Land of Israel. The government will promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel – in the Galilee, in the Negev, in the Golan, in Judea and Samaria (the biblical name for the West Bank.

    While Israeli law gives people and their spouses from anywhere in the world with one or more Jewish grandparents the right to relocate to Israel and acquire citizenship, the 7.25 million Palestinians who were expelled from their homes or homeland during Israel’s formation in 1948, and are now refugees in their own country or abroad, are being denied by the occupation their legal right to return to areas from which they have fled or were forced. They’re unable to receive compensation for damages, and to either regain their properties, or receive compensation and support for voluntary resettlement.

    Although it withdrew its military and its settlers in 2005, the Israeli occupation still maintains complete control over Gaza and its population of two million, through a land, sea, and air blockade. This means it’s effectively controlling the movement of people and goods. Because of the Israeli occupation’s actions, Gaza has long been referred to as an ‘open-air prison’, with a failing economy and the inability to travel to the rest of Palestine, or abroad.

    Separate legal systems for Jews and Palestinians

    In the West Bank, where oppression due to Israel’s apartheid is most severe, discrimination is institutionalised, as two separate legal systems are applied in a single territory, and which one you have depends on who you are. Palestinians live under Israel’s harsh military law, marked by arbitrary detention, torture, and discrimination, while illegal Jewish settlers, who live in illegally established settlements in the same territory, live under the protection of full Israeli civil law.

    More than 1,800 military orders intervene in almost all aspects of Palestinian daily life, while the Israeli occupation’s police, soldiers, and private security firms are stationed throughout the area to ensure these orders, which are justified as ‘state security’, are obeyed.

    For those not adhering to these military orders, punishment is severe, with military law ignoring basic rights such as fair trials, and allowing arbitrary detention of Palestinians. Palestinians are often arrested and taken from their home unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, and interrogated without a lawyer. They are tried in a military court, with military judges, prosecutors, and translators. Proceedings are conducted in Hebrew, which many Palestinian defendants do not understand, and there is a conviction rate greater than 99%.

    A two-tier legal system legitimising apartheid

    This dual legal system, in violation of international law, has helped to legitimise the occupation and illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, enforces inequality, and is a key part of Israel’s apartheid as it creates two populations living in the same area with drastically different rights.

    Since 1948, when Israel forcibly displaced almost 800,000 Palestinians from their homes and destroyed hundreds of towns an villages, the occupation has aimed to control as much Palestinian land and resources as possible, and to take this for the Jewish population only. By expanding its settlement enterprise in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel has not only demolished the possibility of a Palestinian state, but is also cementing its control over the territory.

    Illegal Jewish settlements soaring: Palestinian home demolitions on the rise

    These Israeli settlements are segregated housing units for Jewish Israelis built on Palestinian land and, although illegal under international law, Jews from around the world are welcomed by the Israeli occupation to colonise Palestine.

    There are currently more than 737,000 illegal Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and these have the state’s full ideological and material support, being armed by the government and protected by the Israeli occupation’s police and soldiers. These settlers only aim is to force Palestinians off their land, so their colonial settlements can be built there instead, and they do this by storming villages and terrorising residents, burning homes, killing livestock, and destroying crops and trees.

    Israel’s steps to replace Palestinian communities with settlers and extend its sovereignty over the West Bank and East Jerusalem have accelerated. The biggest expansion of Jewish settlements in decades is now taking place, while the number of Palestinian home demolitions in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem is the highest it has been since occupation started in 1967.

    Forced demolitions: a tool of ethnic cleansing

    Forced demolition of homes and other structures – including water pipes, wells, and roads – have long been a tool of ethnic cleansing. They are a war crime, and devastate Palestinian families and communities. When carried out by the Israeli occupation, these demolitions can cost the owner of the structure the equivalent of around £20,000. So, to avoid paying this fine, Palestinians are often forced to bulldoze and tear down their own home, making their family homeless in the process.

    The majority of demolition orders are issued because a home or structure is supposedly ‘illegal’, as it has been built without an Israeli permit, which are almost impossible to obtain. Demolitions are a form of collective punishment and can also be carried out as part of military activities. Thousands of Palestinians lose their homes yearly through demolitions, and this forced displacement breaks Palestinian communities and increases Israeli control over the land.

    Water apartheid by Israel

    The Israeli national water company Mekorot implements an apartheid policy of water management in the occupied Palestinian territory, illegally restricting access to water, depriving Palestinians of a sufficient water supply, and violating World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations.

    So, while these illegal Israeli settlements have unrestricted access to water, 65% of the Palestinians in the West Bank are not even supplied with daily running water in their homes, according to B’Tselem. And in the Jordan Valley, the herding communities consume just 26 litres a day, while the settlers consume 400-700 litres of water per capita per day. This is collective punishment and apartheid directed at Palestinians.

    Military checkpoints fragmenting Palestinian communities

    And while Israeli settlers living in these illegal settlements drive freely on Jewish only roads, and can move between the West Bank and Israel, Palestinians are unable to do this, instead, facing severe movement restrictions. Military checkpoints, roadblocks, and the separation barrier – which the Israeli occupation calls the ‘security fence’ – fragment Palestinian communities and restrict access to education, health services, and economic opportunities, splitting Palestinian homes and farmland apart, and creating isolated enclaves. Meanwhile a strict permit system controls when and where Palestinians can go and makes life extremely difficult. These movement barriers destroy their social and economic life.

    Even when traveling within their own neighbourhoods, they are held back at checkpoints, and treated as intruders in their own land. Palestinian authorities last week warned that in East Jerusalem alone, the Israeli occupation has erected 88 military checkpoints and iron gates in and around the city. This is not about security, but about an apartheid system of control.

    Failed responsibility of the international community

    Apartheid is both an international wrong and a crime against humanity. When a crime against humanity is committed, the international community has an obligation to not only prevent it, but also to hold those who have committed the crime to account. This has not yet happened in the case of the Israeli occupation.

    Michael Lynk, the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, summed up the situation in 2022, when he said:

    For more than 40 years, the UN Security Council and General Assembly have stated in hundreds of resolutions that Israel’s annexation of occupied territory is unlawful, its construction of hundreds of Jewish settlements are illegal, and its denial of Palestinian self-determination breaches international law……if the international community had truly acted on its resolutions 40 or 30 years ago, we would not be talking about apartheid today.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The UN just exposed orphaned children in Gaza are eating sand and drinking poisonous water

    On Tuesday 23 September, the president of the UN General Assembly Annalena Baerbock warned of the worsening humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, confirming that thousands of orphaned children are wandering among the ruins of destroyed homes. The tragic conditions have driven some of them to eat sand and drink contaminated water due to Israel’s blockade and lack of basic necessities.

    Annalena Baerbock: UN failing Gaza’s orphaned children

    Referring to the international community’s failure to stop the tragedy, during her speech, Baerbock asked:

    When civilians are killed in Gaza, is it international humanitarian law at fault, for failing to protect them?

    Her warning comes many months after the Israeli occupation resumed its air strikes on Gaza on 18 March. This was in a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement that came into effect on 19 January, lasting for nearly two months. The raid violating the agreement resulted in more than 400 martyrs and 500 wounded in a few hours. Most of them women and children, bringing scenes of destruction and mass killing back to the forefront.

    The first phase of the ceasefire ended in early March after 42 days. It saw the implementation of a prisoner exchange deal in several stages between Palestinian resistance factions and Israel. This was along with a limited withdrawal of Israeli forces that allowed thousands of displaced people to return to their destroyed homes. However, these understandings quickly collapsed with the renewal of aggression and the absence of any real commitment on the part of the occupation.

    Calls for the international community to hold Israel to account

    UN data indicates that Gaza’s population of approximately 2.3 million is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern times. Most are suffering from severe shortages of food and drinking water and a collapsed health system. Children are experiencing psychological distress due to the ongoing war and the loss of their loved ones.

    The ongoing tragedy in Gaza is putting international humanitarian law to the test. Baerbock’s delivered her speech amid growing calls for the international community to intervene decisively to stop the aggression and hold those responsible for crimes against civilians accountable, given the continuing blockade and the absence of any prospect of a political solution that would protect lives and stop the bloodshed.

    Feature image via screengrab.

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Displacement in Gaza begins with bombing – but doesn’t end in the open air

    The Gaza Strip is experiencing one of the largest waves of forced displacement in its history. Israel has forced tens of thousands of families leave their homes under the weight of continuous bombing. With the destruction of towers, homes, tents, and shelters, many have found themselves homeless, resorting to living in the open or even next to garbage dumps, in a scene that sums up the scale of the worsening humanitarian disaster.

    Displacement does not begin with a family’s decision, but with a moment of bombing that wipes out a home or an entire neighbourhood. Suddenly, civilians find themselves with only one choice: to leave. There is no time to gather their belongings, no safe place to go. Memories are left under the rubble, and fear dominates their faces. It is the beginning of a journey into the unknown.

    In just two weeks, more than 1,600 towers and residential buildings were destroyed, along with 13,000 tents. It has left thousands of families homeless on the streets.

    Gaza displacement: walking into the unknown

    After leaving, a difficult journey begins along dangerous roads. Some families walk on foot, others ride in crowded trucks. However, they all share the same experience: thirst, hunger, and constant anxiety from the bombing that follows them, even on the road.

    Every step of the way is a new battle for survival. Children sleep on sidewalks, women drag older people along with them, and fathers carry what remains of their lives on their shoulders. There is not enough water or food to sustain them. Fear of the unknown looms at every stop.

    Lost shelter: worn-out tents or the open air

    When the displaced arrive in the south, they do not find the safe haven they dream of. The tents that were set up two years ago have worn out. They are no longer fit for habitation. The occupation prevents the entry of temporary homes or new tents, leaving hundreds of thousands without a roof over their heads.

    The statistics reveal the scale of the disaster. More than 288,000 families are homeless, and 125,000 tents have been completely worn out. And the occupation has destroyed 273 shelters. The result: hundreds of thousands are crowded into a small geographical area, where there is neither space nor capacity to accommodate such a huge number of people.

    Life next to garbage: dignity under threat

    In some cases, the displaced have found no place to live but garbage dumps. Amid foul odors, skin diseases, rodents, and insects, families live in conditions unfit for human dignity. Displacement is no longer just the loss of a home, but the loss of the minimum conditions for life.

    Amid these conditions, tattered tents near garbage dumps become a ‘temporary home’. There, children are forced to play among filth and the sick must coexist with suffocating odors. The cruel irony is that the search for safety from bombing has led them to live in the midst of health and environmental hazards.

    An endless wait: a future without answers amid Gaza’s displacement

    After a bitter journey and living in the open or among garbage, the displaced face a painful question: where to go? The future seems uncertain, return is not guaranteed, and the present is fraught with difficulties. Hundreds of thousands live in areas no larger than a few square kilometres. They do so amid daily evacuation orders and scarce aid that barely keeps them alive.

    It is a harsh wait, accompanied only by a faint hope that something will change. With each passing day, the feeling grows that displacement is no longer a temporary stop, but a long-term fate that threatens to turn the lives of an entire generation into an open-ended journey of wandering and suffering.

    What is happening in Gaza shows that displacement is not just a ‘forced move from one place to another’, but a journey of suffering that begins with bombardment, continues along a desolate road, and ends in places unfit for human habitation. It is a loss of home, memory, dignity, and the most basic necessities of survival.

    Feature image via Al Jazeera/Youtube.

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ICJ and human rights defenders from Southeast Asia urge a Rights-Based Approach to Countering Harmful Online Content

    International Commission of Jurists

    photo_2568-08-27 13.14.39

    On 24–26 August 2025, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), together with the Centre for Independent Journalism, Malaysia (CIJ), and the Numun Fund, gathered human rights defenders and experts to discuss the need for Southeast Asian States to adopt and implement a human rights-based approach in efforts to tackle the growing spread of harmful content in digital spaces.

    The workshop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, focusing on leveraging ASEAN platforms, brought together 24 representatives from organizations across the ASEAN region, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam, all States that are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

    Participants underlined that the surge in hate speech, disinformation, and other harmful online content had elicited responses from ASEAN States which often relied on heavy-handed and repressive measures. These include application of criminal laws that are vague and prone to abuse, restrictive content takedown and licensing regimes; and even State-sponsored disinformation campaigns.

    Participants heard that ASEAN regional mechanisms currently lack robust mandates and coordination capable of effectively addressing disinformation, harmful content, and other digital challenges. Participants considered means of ensuring platform accountability, in the context of advertisement-driven business models of technology companies with ineffective content moderation practices. The online platforms typically employ algorithms that amplify sensationalist or extreme content, fueling the viral spread of disinformation and other human rights abuses.

    Workshop participants worked to develop joint next steps and produced a set of recommendations for ASEAN Member States, technology companies, and ASEAN human rights bodies, particularly the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). The recommendations included strengthening ASEAN human rights institutions and mechanisms in responding to and addressing human rights complaints submitted to them, enhancing their independence, and embedding human rights–centered advocacy into ASEAN work plans and instruments….

    On 25 August, additional discussions were held with a representative from the Big Tech company Meta, focusing on the need to improve accountability and remedies through effective, accessible, and confidential grievance mechanisms. Participants also proposed multi-stakeholder co-regulation frameworks to ensure CSO participation through ongoing dialogue and collaboration on digital platform services, human oversight—not AI alone—in guiding content moderation standards, and the strengthening of independent third-party fact-checking across the region.

    The series concluded with a panel discussion on 26 August 2025, co-hosted by the ICJ during the Digital Rights Asia-Pacific Assembly 2025. The panel, titled “The Role of ASEAN Human Rights Mechanisms in Institutionalizing Human Rights in the Digital Space: Towards Accountability and Collective Advocacy,” was also attended by AICHR representatives from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. It focused on how AICHR can better safeguard human rights online and identified concrete pathways for institutionalizing monitoring and accountability mechanisms related to human rights in the digital space.

    https://www.icj.org/asean-icj-and-human-rights-defenders-from-southeast-asia-urge-a-rights-based-approach-to-countering-harmful-online-content/

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • Ossoff, Warnock Demand Trump Admin Answer for Record Deaths in ICE Custody

    Georgia senators are demanding information from the Trump administration on the record high number of deaths of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.) Ten people in ICE custody died between January and June of this year — “the highest number of deaths in the first six months of any year listed in ICE’s public records,” Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • A bloodless massacre: Gaza’s children are being assassinated in the silence of their mothers’ wombs

    In Gaza, death is no longer an event that follows birth, but one that precedes it. There, Gaza’s unborn children do not wait for the moment of birth to face their fate, but are taken from life while still fetuses, without even the chance to cry out for the first time, without even a single first breath.

    At the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, doctors recorded the deaths of 13 children in 24 hours on Sunday. They included 10 fetuses who died in their mothers’ wombs and three premature babies who breathed their last breaths, after their fragile bodies were unable to withstand the cold and darkness due to power cuts and a shortage of incubators.

    Medical staff confirmed that six of these cases arrived from the north of the Strip. This was after a journey fraught with fear, hunger, and thirst, during which the mothers suffered from severe malnutrition and acute psychological breakdown. It’s all as a result of continuous Israeli shelling and forced displacement. Their bodies were exhausted by hunger and their hearts were worn down by loss, so death was faster than life.

    Gaza’s unborn children: fetuses are being lost in the womb, and hospitals are mourning life.

    The scene is no longer an exception. What is recorded daily in Gaza’s hospitals is no longer just numbers, but recurring chapters of an escalating humanitarian tragedy. Hospitals without medicine, without equipment, without electricity. Mothers enter the delivery rooms carrying life, only to leave them weighed down by loss.

    Food shortages, scarce healthcare, and the complete collapse of the medical system have turned delivery rooms into farewell stations. Every day, Gaza loses children who were never given the chance to be born. Meanwhile, miscarriage rates have reached alarming numbers, with dozens of cases daily in the Strip’s hospitals.

    International warnings… and global silence

    UNICEF recently warned that one in three children in Gaza suffers from severe malnutrition. Thousands of infants have been left without their mothers’ milk due to hunger and exhaustion. The World Health Organization (WHO), for its part, has clearly stated that the health system in Gaza has reached a the brink of complete collapse. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X on Thursday 18 September that:

    Hospitals, already overwhelmed, are on the brink of collapse

    This is threatening the lives of every pregnant woman and every newborn baby.

    At the Nasser Medical Complex, in delivery rooms that have been turned into battlefields, you don’t hear the cries of babies, but the moans of mothers and the silence of a place where the shelves are empty of medicine and there are few hands left to save lives.

    Lives erased before they begin

    In Gaza, children are buried before they are born. Lives are snatched from their mothers’ wombs, leaving grief in their hearts like a scar that will never heal. There, birth certificates are not issued. Instead, it’s death certificates for fetuses that the war did not allow to live for even a minute.

    Faced with this horrific scene, the world remains silent. It watches from afar as the tragedy continues, with lives lost every day, not only under the rubble, but also in the heart of hope, in the womb of a mother who dreamed of giving life, not saying goodbye to it.

    Feature image via Al Jazeera/Youtube

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • 15 out of every 16 Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza are civilians, data shows

    The Guardian has revealed that about 15 out of every 16 Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in Gaza City since last March were civilians, in a new indication of the scale of the humanitarian disaster facing the Strip. The revelation comes from data collated by independent organisation ACLED, which tracks armed conflicts.

    According to ACLED, the Israeli occupation army has carried out more than 3,500 airstrikes over the past six months, resulting in the deaths of more than 9,500 people, most of them civilians, as well as the assassination of at least 40 leaders and members of Hamas. The newspaper considered that the rate of civilian casualties during this period is the highest since the outbreak of the war nearly two years ago. This will increase international pressure on Israel as it expands its ground operations in Gaza City.

    Civilians account for 80% of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza

    The report also noted a significant increase in the rate of building destruction. The occupation army completely or partially destroyed more than 3,600 buildings and residential towers between 11 August and 13 September. This was in addition to destroying some 13,000 tents that were sheltering displaced persons, according to data from the Government Media Office in Gaza.

    These findings echo a joint investigation conducted by the Guardian, the Hebrew website Local Call, and the magazine 972+ at the end of August. It revealed that civilians accounted for 83% of the total number of casualties, based on a confidential database of the Israeli military intelligence division ‘Aman’. The investigation showed that the number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad members killed by mid-May did not exceed 8,900 fighters. This compared to more than 52,000 martyrs counted by the Ministry of Health in Gaza for the same period. It means that fighters account for only 14-17% of the victims, compared to 83-86% civilians.

    According to estimates, around 10,000 bodies remain buried under the rubble, along with thousands of missing persons, and many of the bodies have been burned beyond recognition. These figures, according to the Guardian, mean that five out of every six martyrs in Gaza are civilians, which contradicts the official Israeli narrative that exaggerates the number of faction casualties to justify the scale of the destruction.

    Admission from within Israel

    In a remarkable development, former Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi acknowledged on 13 September that more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured since the start of the war. This represents more than 10% of the Gaza Strip’s population. He emphasised that legal advice “did not restrict the army even once”, referring to the absolute freedom granted to the forces in carrying out their military operations.

    Feature image via TRT World/Youtube.

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel has escalated its use of boobytrapped robot vehicles in Gaza City

    According to new research by Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med Monitor), over the past week, Israeli occupation forces have loaded up about 120 old armoured vehicles with large amounts of explosives, and detonated them in busy residential neighbourhoods of Gaza City.

    Each blast is equivalent to the force of an earthquake measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale, not only shaking buildings which are several kilometres away from the blast centre and destroying homes, but also spreading fear and panic throughout the city.

    Israel using boobytrapped remote robot vehicles to detonate devastating explosions

    These boobytrapped robot vehicles, which are decommissioned US made M113 armoured personnel carriers – large military vehicles which were once used to carry soldiers – are each loaded with six or seven tonnes of explosives and remotely piloted through central residential neighbourhoods in Gaza City. There, they are directed to explode in locations which are carefully selected to maximise destruction.

    Euro-Med Monitor has estimated that each robot can completely or partially destroy around 20 housing units, while the shockwaves of these detonations can destroy buildings within roughly 90 metres. They can cause cracks in buildings and damage windows hundreds of metres further away. Because Gaza’s buildings have been weakened by almost two years of continuous bombing, the damage from each blast is much worse than it would normally be.

    This method of using boobytrapped vehicles on such a large scale is unprecedented in modern warfare, and is seen by Euro-Med Monitor as an attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians and eliminate their presence from Gaza.

    The damage caused by each explosion is enormous, with the blasts producing shockwaves so powerful they can be heard up to 40 kilometers away, across southern Israel. Each explosion destroys or makes unsafe around 20 homes, leaving even more Palestinians fighting for survival – with no food, medical care, or shelter.

    Boobytrapped robots ‘mercilessly’ wiping entire neighbourhoods ‘off the map’

    Israel’s boobytrapped vehicles do not only cause physical destruction. Euro-Med Monitor says they are also used as a:

    systematic tool of psychological terror, spreading extreme fear among civilians and coercively driving them to flee.

    The powerful explosions are designed to break the spirit of the Palestinians by making them feel unsafe even in their own homes. A resident of the obliterated Zaitoun neighbourhood in southeastern Gaza City told the NGO:

    For weeks we have barely managed to snatch a few minutes of restless sleep. Booby-trapped robots pound through the night, mercilessly tearing down homes and buildings, wiping entire residential neighbourhoods off the map.

    International humanitarian law prohibits the use of weapons such as these boobytrapped vehicles, whose effects cannot be limited to military targets. These explosions affect homes and people indiscriminately, violating the rules of war, which aim to protect civilians. This use of force is a war crime, and when done systematically, as the Israeli occupation has done for the past 24 months, it rises to the level of crimes against humanity and genocide.

    International leaders are still failing to act

    The use of these boobytrapped vehicles by Israel was first documented during its incursion of Jabalia refugee camp in Northern Gaza, in May 2024. Since then, they have been used more and more across the Gaza Strip and, last week, the Israeli publication Walla, reported that the Israeli army had begun deploying an ‘unprecedented’ number of remote-controlled armored vehicles packed with explosives into Gaza City.

    Despite this evidence of illegal and devastating tactics, the international community has failed to act, to stop Israel’s genocide, and hold the occupation accountable. Urgent international action is essential, right now, and Euro-Med Monitor is urging the UN General Assembly to use its emergency ‘Uniting for Peace’ resolution to call a special meeting aimed at sending peacekeepers to Gaza. These peacekeepers would protect civilians, allow humanitarian groups to deliver aid safely, and pressure Israel to stop its genocidal campaign against the population of Gaza. This intervention, necessary under international law, would challenge Israeli impunity and protect civilian lives amid escalating war crimes.

    On 18 September 2024, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) set a 12-month deadline for Israel to end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This has now expired.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The consensus is clear: it’s genocide. Now will international law die in Gaza too? | Raji Sourani

    There is a UN convention for exactly this kind of horror: the convention for the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide. When will the world act on it?

    • Raji Sourani is the coordinator of the Palestinian legal team at the international criminal court (ICC)

    Israel has committed and continues to commit genocide in Gaza. That is the conclusion of a UN commission report. Since the release of the report last week, Palestine has finally been recognised as an independent state by the UK and a number of other countries. In his announcement at the weekend, Keir Starmer called the death and destruction in Gaza “utterly intolerable”. This recognition comes too late and is still conditional, but has the UK government indeed now stopped tolerating Israel’s devastation of Gaza? Has anything changed for the people there who are being starved and bombed? Far from it.

    Even as the UN publishes the findings of its independent commission, and a flag is raised outside the Palestinian mission in London, mass displacement and killing continues to take place in Gaza City as Israel attacks. As a lawyer who has spent my life believing in the rule of law, this makes me wonder: will Gaza’s destruction also bring with it the death of international law?

    Raji Sourani is the director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, the coordinator of the Palestinian legal team at the international criminal court (ICC) and a member of South Africa’s legal team in the genocide case against Israel at the international court of justice (ICJ).

    Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah reunited with family after release from prison – video

    The Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah was released from jail on Tuesday, a day after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pardoned him and five other prisoners. The campaign for Abd el-Fattah’s release was led by his family, including his mother, who was admitted to hospital in London twice after going on hunger strikes trying to secure his release. The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, is also known to have telephoned Sisi three times to lobby for Abd el-Fattah’s release

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah reunited with family after release from prison – video

    The Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah was released from jail on Tuesday, a day after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pardoned him and five other prisoners. The campaign for Abd el-Fattah’s release was led by his family, including his mother, who was admitted to hospital in London twice after going on hunger strikes trying to secure his release. The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, is also known to have telephoned Sisi three times to lobby for Abd el-Fattah’s release

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Mali: UN experts demand activist El Bachir Thiam’s release, four months after enforced disappearance

    United Nations logo

    On 9 September 2025 UN experts called on authorities in Mali to disclose the fate and whereabouts of journalist and activist El Bachir Thiam, who disappeared four months ago.

    “Mali must immediately and unconditionally release El Bachir Thiam and other victims of enforced disappearance, and cease the crackdown on civil society actors, human rights defenders, and political opponents or those perceived as such,” the experts said.

    El Bachir Thiam is a journalist for the MaliActu website and a member of several civil society organisations and political movements, including the political party Yelema – Le Changement, led by former Prime Minister Moussa Mara, the Collectif Sirako, and a youth movement calling for a return to constitutional order, for which he serves as spokesperson and communications officer.

    Thiam was allegedly kidnapped on 8 May 2025, in front of several witnesses in Kati town, by a group of at least five hooded and unidentified men suspected of being Malian intelligence agents – more specifically from the the Agence Nationale de la Sécurité d’Etat (ANSE) – or elements of the Bamako gendarmerie du Camp I, who were traveling in a gray TOYOTA V8 4×4 vehicle with tinted windows and no license plate. His relatives and colleagues reportedly searched for him in vain in police stations and gendarmeries of Bamako and Kati. Since then, Thiam’s fate and whereabouts have remained unknown.

    “As time goes by, Thiam’s condition risks deteriorating further and will take a profound toll on his physical and psychological health,” the experts said.

    On 17 July 2025, Thiam Mariam Dagnon, wife of El Bachir Thiam, filed a complaint for kidnapping and disappearance with the Public Prosecutor of the Kati Court of First Instance. Thiam’s alleged kidnapping and enforced disappearance took place in the context of peaceful protest movements initiated in early May 2025 by several political movements and parties, as well as civil society actors and organisations, following the adoption of draconian laws further restricting civic space by Malian transitional authorities in April 2025.

    The experts stressed that Malian authorities are allegedly making increased use of enforced disappearance as a weapon to instill fear and silence civil society actors, human rights defenders, political opponents or those perceived as such.

    “These actions have a pattern. The frequency of the practice, its organised nature and the methods used indicate a systematic character,” they said.

    “Thiam’s case reflects the persistent and escalating pattern of human rights violations against members of opposition political parties, civil society organisations, journalists and human rights defenders in Mali,” the experts said, recalling that several mandate holders had expressed similar concerns in 2021, 2024 as well as in February, April and August 2025.

    They noted that the situation has continued to further deteriorate, as illustrated by the signature or adoption of several draconian laws, including a presidential decree on 13 May which dissolved all political parties and “organisations of a political nature” in Mali.

    The experts have written to the Government of Mali and will continue to closely monitor the situation.

    https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/mali-un-experts-demand-activist-el-bachir-thiams-release-four-months-after

    Enforced disappearances: UN expert group to review 1317 cases from 44 countries at 137th Session

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • Mike Huckabee Likens Israel to the “Wife” of the United States

    At the 50 States, One Israel conference, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told a delegation of more than 200 U.S. lawmakers that Israel is akin to the “wife” of the United States. “It may sound a little bit this afternoon as if I’m almost speaking on behalf of Israel rather than the U.S.,” Huckabee said in his comments last week, and then went on to explain the unique relationship…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • DHS Official Calls California Ban on Masked Agents “Garbage”

    The Trump administration says it will not comply with California’s new law barring law enforcement officials from wearing masks, which goes into effect next year. Over the last several months, masked immigration officers have abducted people from courthouses, their cars, on the street, and at their workplaces. On September 20, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the No Secret Police Act…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • The Origins of AJWS: Reflecting on 40 years of Human Rights Activism

    Over forty years ago, I began discussions with leaders of major Jewish organizations, with synagogue Rabbis and their congregations, to organize the first Jewish organization dedicated to respond to world poverty, hunger and dehumanization. Eventually, and together with philanthropist Larry Phillips, I took a leap and founded American Jewish World Service (AJWS), stepping away from …

    Source

    This post was originally published on American Jewish World Service – AJWS.

  • British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah freed from prison

    Writer, who has served six years for sharing a Facebook post, was given a presidential pardon

    The British-Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah has been released from jail after serving six years for sharing a Facebook post.

    Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, granted him his freedom after intensive lobbying by the UK government and pressure from Egypt’s national human rights council.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • RSF World Press Freedom Index 2025: economic fragility now major threat

    Although physical attacks against journalists are the most visible violations of press freedom, economic pressure is also a major, more insidious problem. The economic indicator on the RSF World Press Freedom Index now stands at an unprecedented, critical low as its decline continued in 2025. As a result, the global state of press freedom is now classified as a “difficult situation” for the first time in the history of the Index. See the Index

    At a time when press freedom is experiencing a worrying decline in many parts of the world, a major — yet often underestimated — factor is seriously weakening the media: economic pressure. Much of this is due to ownership concentration, pressure from advertisers and financial backers, and public aid that is restricted, absent or allocated in an opaque manner. The data measured by the RSF Index’s economic indicator clearly shows that today’s news media are caught between preserving their editorial independence and ensuring their economic survival.

    “Guaranteeing freedom, independence and plurality in today’s media landscape requires stable and transparent financial conditions. Without economic independence, there can be no free press. When news media are financially strained, they are drawn into a race to attract audiences at the expense of quality reporting, and can fall prey to the oligarchs and public authorities who seek to exploit them. When journalists are impoverished, they no longer have the means to resist the enemies of the press — those who champion disinformation and propaganda. The media economy must urgently be restored to a state that is conducive to journalism and ensures the production of reliable information, which is inherently costly. Solutions exist and must be deployed on a large scale. The media’s financial independence is a necessary condition for ensuring free, trustworthy information that serves the public interest.” Anne Bocandé, RSF Editorial Director

    Of the five main indicators that determine the World Press Freedom Index, the indicator measuring the financial conditions of journalism and economic pressure on the industry dragged down the world’s overall score in 2025. 

    The economic indicator in the 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index is at its lowest point in history, and the global situation is now considered “difficult.”

    https://rsf.org/en/rsf-world-press-freedom-index-2025-economic-fragility-leading-threat-press-freedom?year=2025&data_type=general

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • The “Hotel California Effect” of Fealty to the US

    For Noam Chomsky, the Thucydidean dictum ‘the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must’ is one of the most valid and important principles of international relations, which can be expressed in different ways.

    In general, the principle implies that to keep the prevailing system of control exercised by those in power intact, it is necessary to make sure that none of the weak gets out of hand, meaning that they should all behave according to direction by the strong and not independently. They must follow orders because, if independent thinking and action are seen to work in one place, others might try to do the same, and the system of domination would unravel.

    The Mafia Doctrine

    Chomsky (2013) refers to his application of this principle to US foreign policy as ‘the Mafia Doctrine’:

    In the Mafia system, if some small storekeeper decides not to pay protection money, the money may not mean anything to the godfather, but he’s not going to let him get away with it. And, in fact, he’s not just going to go in and send his goons to get the money; he’s also going to beat him to a pulp, because others have to understand that disobedience is not tolerated. In international affairs, that’s called “credibility.”

    No need here to set out the many countries, and the wide variety of ways, in which the US has firmly established its ‘credibility’.

    In this short essay, we argue that countries that belong to the US-led ‘mafia’ – and therefore owe fealty to the don in Washington DC (at present, Donald Trump) – will be subject to what we call ‘the Hotel California effect’.

    Roles and Responsibilities of Gang Membership

    As a member of a mafia gang (or family), your role is subordinate, ranked strictly according to how willing you are to do nasty jobs effectively and efficiently for the boss without question, or how much loot you can deliver, and your reliability in these respects.

    There is no participative management; no possibility of a primus inter pares arrangement; not even any meaningful consultation.

    The imperious and unreflectively self-assured and authoritarian current godfather in Washington DC would entertain none of these encroachments on his absolute power, no matter how grovelling or politely expressed a request for some decision-making involvement might be, even if it came from his underboss (sottocapo).

    So, for example, following a recent visit to the UK by President Trump and his ‘royal’ treatment there, ‘the president’s chief-of-staff [Susie Wiles, was asked] how much difference the visit [would] make to Britain’s ability to influence US policy on trade, tariffs and international affairs. Her response was frank – “none at all”.’

    What chance then lesser gang members like Australia?

    Clearly, gang members must simply to do as they are told – ‘if the don gives you orders, the guy down below doesn’t kid around’ (Chomsky, 2011). The rules are straightforward. Obey. Be in awe of your don (Donald). And every time he says or does something, make sure that you are seen to participate enthusiastically in the phocine clapping and honking of approval.

    But perhaps the most important part of your job is to extract ‘rents’ and to kill people who have done you no harm (or help others to kill them) – sometimes in very large numbers that include women and children.

    The reasons for doing so have solely to do with disobedience. The pretexts given are usually silly and/or spurious.

    But you cannot object to any of this or concern yourself with it.

    Your duties can also include inflicting less than deadly harm on others, that is, harm that is not immediately lethal but frequently leads to that end over a longer period – a form of torture, like economic sanctions.

    And then of course there is actual torture, which you are also expected to carry out as instructed.

    It’s all illegal of course and the killings therefore amount to murder and crimes against humanity and sometimes genocide. Collective guilt of this sort strengthens the commitment of gang members.

    You are also expected not to blab about any of this to anyone and to help cover it up and stop people from talking or complaining about it (not because the don pays any attention to the law, but because he doesn’t like the disrespect it implies). This ‘code of silence’ (omerta) – behaving as if nothing untoward ever happens – must never be broken, usually on pain of death.

    You can see that the analogy with the US and its allies is not at all far-fetched. Examples are easy to come by and include Australia’s and the UK’s contributions to the invasion of Iraq (as members of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’), which resulted in the deaths of up to 2.4 million Iraqis; their contributions to the US-led invasion of Afghanistan where about 241,000 people were killed (mostly civilians); and the various types of support rendered by them to the US-backed genocide in Palestine.

    There are many more examples, some of which we have discussed elsewhere.

    ‘Rewards’ and Punishments

    The disobedience rule applies equally to gang members, friends and foes.

    With respect to ‘rewards’, when, as a gang member, you do as you are told, you are allowed to get on with your life (always within very strictly defined limits) and from time-to-time crumbs from the master’s table might be bestowed upon you.

    He might, for example, allow you to play golf with him at Mar-a-Lago (so long as you lose, pay the green fees, and buy the drinks); or purchase nuclear submarines from him at extortionist prices; or condescend to build his military bases all over your territory, some of which incorporate highly sophisticated eavesdropping devices that supply intelligence to countries unknown for nefarious purposes that are kept secret from you.

    Other examples will come readily to mind.

    And that’s the good news.

    To reiterate, the trouble, though, with being a member of a mafia gang, particularly the biggest and baddest one around, is that disobedience by you is not tolerated either, perhaps even less than disobedience by non-gang members.

    Other mortal sins include disloyalty, disrespect, and weakness.

    All of which makes you wonder how many prime ministers and foreign ministers in how many ‘international community’ countries have lain awake at night worrying that they might have said or done something that could be taken to construe any of these things.

    Having inflicted so much pain and suffering on countries that have broken the rules, they will know all too well what the don’s reactions to real or perceived transgressions by gang members will be.

    So, for example, on questions of human rights, this means that even in your wildest dreams you would never say to the (richly deserving) US anything remotely like what you might say – for example – to China.

    It also means of course that you cannot wake up one morning feeling bright and sparky in the refulgence of a new dawn and suddenly decide that ‘all this murder and mayhem are not for me, I’m out of here’ – that is, unless you are prepared to incur the Godfather’s wrath (note that the hypocrisy of a sudden change of heart would not matter as you have become inured to all of the double dealing).

    The ‘Hotel California Effect’

    ‘We are all just prisoners here of our own device…You can check out any time you like but you can never leave’.

    When it comes to discussions of Australian foreign policy, much of what is written seems to assume that the degree to which we should follow the US lead or do as we are told is a matter of choice.

    The Mafia Doctrine that we have outlined clearly indicates that the ‘choices’ that Australian and other gang members can make about what are supposedly their own foreign affairs are highly circumscribed.

    Accordingly, exhortations to our foreign minister and prime minister to ‘break a leg’ and make policy changes – such as ‘disengaging’ from the Godfather in Washington or ploughing a different furrow from the one he has told us to plough, in the Pacific or anywhere else – could well turn out to be (to mix my metaphors) much too close to the bone for comfort.

    The post The “Hotel California Effect” of Fealty to the US first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Global Witness report 2024 documents killings and disappearances of environmental defenders

    On 17 September 2025 Global Witness published its annual report , documenting killings and long-term disappearances of land and environmental defenders. 2024 shows continuing bad news.

    Julia Francisco Martínez stands at the graveside of her husband Juan, a Honduran Indigenous defender who was found murdered in 2015.

    Julia Francisco Martínez stands at the graveside of her husband Juan, a Honduran Indigenous defender who was found murdered in 2015. Giles Clarke / Global Witness

    Every year, Global Witness works with partners to gather evidence, verify and document every time a land and environmental defender is killed or disappeared. Our methodology follows robust criteria, yet undocumented cases pose challenges when it comes to analysing data

    Global Witness documents killings and long-term disappearances of land and environmental defenders globally. In partnership with over 30 local, national and regional organisations in more than 20 countries, we produce an annual report containing these figures, and we have done so since 2012.

    Our methodology involves a year-long process of cross-referencing data from different sources to ensure its credibility. Over 2,200 killings or long-term disappearances of defenders appear in our database since 2012 – with 146 cases documented in 2024.

    Every year, we maintain a database to keep a record of these crimes and create a comprehensive global picture of the systematic violence defenders face.

    The data provides a snapshot of the underlying drivers behind reprisals and indicates how some defenders and their communities face increased risks. Exposing these trends is the first of many steps to ensure that defenders and their communities are protected and can exercise their rights without fearing for their lives.

    Killings and disappearances documented between 2012 and 2024

    • 2,253 defenders have been killed or disappeared since 2012 Global Witness
    • 146 of these attacks occurred in 2024 Global Witness

    The accompanying press release goes into considerable detail on the methodology used.

    For last year’s report see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2024/09/18/global-witness-2023-2024-annual-report-violent-erasure-of-land-and-environmental-defenders/

    https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/land-and-environmental-defenders/documenting-killings-and-disappearances-of-land-and-environmental-defenders/

    https://www.rappler.com/philippines/deadliest-country-asia-environmental-defenders-2024/

    An Average Week in 2024: Three Environmental Defenders Murdered or Disappeared

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • 2026 budget proposal for UN80 reform points to disproportionate cuts to human rights pillar.

    On 18 September 2025, ISHR said that analysis of revised 2026 budget proposal for UN80 reform points to disproportionate cuts to the chronically-underfunded human rights pillar. Together with peace and development, human rights constitutes one of the three key areas of action for the UN and thus should be adequately funded.

    On 16 September 2025, the UN Secretary-General published its report revising its earlier proposal for the UN’s 2026 budget (known as ‘Revised estimates’ report). The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) has analysed the revised budget and is deeply concerned about proposed cuts to an already chronically under-resourced human rights pillar. While demands on the human rights system do not cease to grow to address mounting global conflicts and crises, further cuts will significantly reduce effectiveness and efficiency, and its capacity to deliver on human rights protection to individuals and populations on the ground. 

    ‘The UN’s human rights pillar has historically received significantly less funds than development and peace and security, accounting for just 7% of the UN regular budget and less than 1% of UN’s total expenditure. Any cuts to it would result in minimal savings but have significant and disproportionate adverse consequences for the rights of people around the world – Phil Lynch, ISHR Executive Director

    In recent years, a liquidity crisis fuelled by the late or non-payments of dues by the US and China had already prompted High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk to suspend the delivery of reports, workshops and other activities mandated by the Human Rights Council (HRC). The HRC has also reduced the length of its sessions, limiting space for States, experts and civil society to address some of the world’s most pressing rights issues and crises. 

    Additional cuts to the human rights pillar would further undermine the ability of the UN’s human rights bodies to continue to investigate atrocity crimes such as in Gaza, Myanmar and the  Democratic Republic of Congo, to support victims and human rights defenders, to assist States in improving their human rights policies, and to develop global human rights standards that protect us all.

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the cuts are ‘carefully calibrated’ and ensure balance between the UN’s three pillars (peace and security, development, and human rights). Yet, the proposed cuts to the budget of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) of around 15% run much deeper than the 2026 proposed budget on development (targeted for around 12% cut) and peace and security (targeted for a 13% cut, excluding peacekeeping operations).

    Like a three-legged stool, if the human rights pillar is cut to the extent proposed then not only will it collapse, but the whole system will topple.

    ISHR is campaigning for the UN80 Initiative to be more than a simple accounting overhaul for the UN, centred only on cost-cutting. On July 21, ISHR and 16 civil society organisations signed an open letter to the Secretary-General and High Commissioner Türk with concrete recommendations and proposals to ensure that the UN human rights system is streamlined, strengthened and sustainable, guided by the aim of support human rights defenders, providing justice to victims and ensuring accountability for rights abuses.

    The cuts will next be reviewed by a UN budgetary committee traditionally hostile to human rights funding, whose conclusions will serve as a basis for States to negotiate.

    For more information, please contact: Raphael Viana David, ISHR, Programme Manager r.vianadavid@ishr.ch

    https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/un80-initiative-proposed-budget-cuts-disproportionately-hit-the-human-rights-pillar

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • As Hunger Rises, Trump Ends Annual Report on US Food Insecurity

    4 Mins Read

    The US Department of Agriculture will stop conducting its annual food insecurity survey, in a bid to stave off criticism of the Trump administration’s aid cuts.

    In 2023, over 47 million Americans in the US faced some sort of food insecurity, three million more than the previous year.

    But amid federal cuts in nutritional aid and concerns about a further rise in hunger, the US Department of Agriculture has announced that it will stop conducting this survey, making the forthcoming 2024 report the last of its kind.

    “These redundant, costly, politicised and extraneous studies do nothing more than fearmonger,” the USDA said. However, experts have raised concerns about the timing and implications of the decision, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

    The survey is the central tool for determining Americans’ ability to access food, and its removal will make it harder to analyse the true impact of President Donald Trump’s cuts to vital food assistance programmes amid rising inflation.

    USDA slammed for explanation of decision to end food insecurity survey

    usda food insecurity
    Courtesy: USDA

    The USDA’s household food security reports have been published every year since the mid-1990s, beginning under the Clinton administration as a means to support the increase of eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and benefit allotments.

    The latest report designated 11.2 million households as having low food security in 2023, meaning they obtained enough food to avoid disrupting their diets or reducing consumption by eating less varied diets, receiving food stamps, or going to food banks. This was higher than the 10.2 million figure from 2022.

    Meanwhile, 6.8 million households (5% of the total, representing 12.2 million adults) were adjudged to have very low food security. It meant that their normal eating patterns were disrupted and food intake was reduced at times due to a lack of sufficient income or other resources for food.

    Overall, 7.2 million children lived in food-insecure households, while nearly 850,000 (or 1.2% of the total child population) lived in homes with very low food security.

    The nationwide survey is widely used by federal, state and local lawmakers to make funding decisions for food assistance initiatives and evaluate how well they work.

    But the USDA attacked the study’s findings as “subjective, liberal fodder”, calling them “rife with inaccuracies, wrong metrics, zero accountability, and a massive drive for bigger and larger government programmes”.

    “Trends in the prevalence of food insecurity have remained virtually unchanged, regardless of an over 87% increase in SNAP spending between 2019-23,” the department said.

    In response, Elaine Waxman, a food insecurity measurement expert at think tank the Urban Institute, told the New York Times: “In no way does that reflect the view of anybody who works with the data. That is completely a pretext for eliminating data that can point out problems.”

    Climate change and federal aid cuts drive up food insecurity

    usda food insecurity survey
    Courtesy: USDA

    SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program, is a federal nutritional initiative for low-income families. It supplements the grocery budgets of food-insecure households, so they can afford nutritious food that’s essential to health and wellbeing.

    Around 12% of the population, or 41.7 million Americans, benefit from the programme, which has been credited by researchers as being “successful in reducing food insecurity”. And with hunger sharply increasing after years of gradual decline – thanks to inflation and the end of pandemic aid initiatives – food stamps are becoming more significant than ever.

    Food banks have continued to witness more visits nationwide, with reports suggesting that this is the case even as immigrants are staying away out of concerns that their information could be shared or the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may detain them.

    Climate change has pushed grocery prices to unprecedented highs, with some commodities – like beef and eggs – recording never-before-seen prices. However, the Trump administration has erased any mentions of climate change from the USDA website, a new low for climate denial, while shutting the scientific research arm of the Environmental Protection Agency.

    why are beef prices so high
    All-time US consumer price index for beef | Courtesy: Bureau of Labor Statistics

    Meanwhile, the Republican government’s controversial budget bill, passed in July, has cut SNAP funding by around 20%, totalling $187B through to 2034, the largest reductions in the programme’s history. This is estimated to affect four million Americans (or 10% of those enrolled in the initiative), who will lose some or all of the aid.

    The move has been heavily criticised, and experts argue that the scrapping of the food insecurity survey is a way to deflect from scrutiny.

    Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Lindsey Smith Taillie, nutrition professor at the University of North Carolina Gillings, said: “I think the only reason why you wouldn’t measure it is if you were planning to cut food assistance, because it basically allows you to pretend like we don’t have this food insecurity problem.”

    Colleen Heflin, a professor at Syracuse University who has been studying the data since its inception, added: “Not having this measure for 2025 is particularly troubling, given the current rise in inflation and deterioration of labour market conditions, two conditions known to increase food insecurity.”

    The post As Hunger Rises, Trump Ends Annual Report on US Food Insecurity appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Mass grave reveals scale of unlawful killings by Egyptian army in Sinai, say campaigners

    Human rights group says hundreds of skeletons found exposed or buried just below ground during research into killings of civilians

    Hundreds of bodies could have been buried at a mass grave discovered in Egypt’s Sinai province by human rights campaigners.

    Bodies lying on the surface and others buried barely 30cm below were found at a burial site near a military outpost by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Israel’s latest social media campaign is another exercise in genocide denial

    On September 20, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) – an arm of the Israel’s Defense Ministry responsible for implementing government policies – accused Hamas of directly firing at UN teams via social media. They were preparing a new route for aid trucks from the Israel-Gaza Kerem Shalom crossing to the so called ‘humanitarian zone’ in the south of the Gaza Strip.

    Israel’s COGAT making baseless smears on social media – nothing new

    COGAT claimed the supposed new road is:

    part of the humanitarian component of Operation Gideon’s Chariots II.

    It was scheduled to open in a few days, to increase the number of aid trucks providing:

    food, medical supplies, tents and shelter equipment for families who fled Gaza City and moved south for safety.

    Once the gunmen supposedly forced the UN out, they were then said to have used a stolen UN vehicle to erect a sand barricade to prevent future aid deliveries.

    Ghassan Alian, head of COGAT, who has played a role in the occupation’s atrocities in Gaza and said, in 2023, that “human animals must be treated as such”, took to social media saying:

    Hamas proves again and again it has no interest in the welfare of Gaza’s residents…..Even when Israel works with the UN and international groups to expand humanitarian aid, Hamas desperately tries to sabotage it.

    Alian vowed that Israel would:

    not allow Hamas to create false narratives of a crisis in Gaza.

    As evidence of Hamas firing at UN teams, COGAT published the following photograph:

    A silver van with supposed bullet holes and a flat tire, and damage.

    This supposed incident was reported by Israeli publication Ynet, with the headline: Hamas fires on UN team, steals baby formula in Gaza: ‘Trying to create crisis narrative’.

    Systematic misinformation campaign

    In response to these accusations, Hamas issued a statement of its own, denying the allegations against it, claiming they are:

    entirely baseless and are part of a systematic campaign of misinformation aimed at distorting the facts and reversing the narrative.

    It said it holds the Israeli occupation:

    fully responsible for obstructing humanitarian work and manufacturing security chaos.

    Hamas has long been calling for the full, unhindered access of UN agencies such as UNRWA, to carry out their duties, but instead, the Israeli occupation continues to obstruct aid deliveries, imposes severe restrictions on the work of the UN, bombs its facilities and warehouses, and deliberately targets humanitarian workers.

    Multiple reports and investigations, including from Amnesty International, indicate that the Israeli occupation, not Hamas, deliberately uses starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians in Gaza. Not only does it control and restrict humanitarian aid, and “routinely opens fire on starving Palestinian civilians”, but the occupation is also intentionally bringing about social collapse, by supporting and protecting armed criminal gangs which create chaos and insecurity by looting aid warehouses and attacking convoys.

    This results in food being diverted from starving Palestinians, and resold in the markets at prices beyond the reach of almost all of the population, fueling violence and corruption. At the same time, the Israeli occupation prevents and targets government security personnel when they attempt to protect these convoys.

    While analysis of aid theft incidents reported between 2023 and 2025 found no credible evidence that Hamas was systematically stealing or diverting humanitarian aid, Ynet’s accusation that Hamas was ‘trying to create a crisis narrative’, is yet another example of the occupation’s denial of famine and food scarcity in Gaza, a false narrative which the occupation has supported by extensive propaganda efforts.

    Multimillion pound campaign attempts to stop criticism from Western countries

    Recently launching a campaign on social media to discredit UN famine reports and humanitarian organisations, the occupation has denied there is any famine in Gaza, showing a video with busy restaurants and markets full of fruit and vegetables with the message:

    There is no famine in Gaza. Any other claim is a lie.

    This is part of a million pound effort involving Google, YouTube, X, and others, in which the Israeli occupation denies the UN’s famine declarations in Gaza, and its own involvement in crimes against humanity and war crimes taking place in the Gaza Strip.

    The video – which does not reflect the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands face severe malnutrition and food insecurity – along with other advertisements, have reached millions through paid promotion, and aimed to counter international criticism in parts of Europe and North America. But the goods shown in the images are unaffordable for the vast majority of Gazans, most of whom either have no money, or are struggling hugely in a situation where withdrawal fees can reach 50% and banknotes are often refused by businesses.

     

    Shameless Israel social media campaign to deny reality of its continued war crimes

    This social media campaign is being used by Israel to deny the lived reality which it has intentionally created, of the mass starvation of the civilian population, brought on through blockades and military force, while it openly advocates the cutting off of food and water to Gaza.

    The so called ‘humanitarian safe zone’ in the south has been bombed more than 100 times, and has no essential services, hygiene facilities, water or food supplies. According to human rights organisations, the displacement of Palestinians into this area amounts to forcible transfer, with the aim of eventually ethnically cleansing Gaza of its Palestinian population.

    Between October 7 2023 and September 10 2025, 540 aid workers were killed by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza, including 373 UN staff and team members, making this genocide in Gaza the most deadly conflict ever for UN staff. As of September 20 2025, 65,208 Palestinians have been killed and 166,271 injured.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Microsoft’s £22bn investment deepens the UK’s complicity in Israel’s Big Tech-facilitated genocide

    Microsoft has recently announced a record-setting £22bn investment in the UK, aimed at developing artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructures and expanding cloud computing capabilities. Central to their plan is constructing the UK’s largest AI supercomputer facility in Essex. There are currently around 6000 employees of Microsoft in the UK, across AI research labs, technical operations, and software development teams, and this funding is expected to create thousands of highly skilled new jobs. Clients of Microsoft’s UK services include Barclays, NHS, Vodafone, the London Stock Exchange, and the UK Met Office, all integrating AI to transform their operational effectiveness.

    But beneath this technological ambition lies a far darker story – Microsoft’s deep and ongoing collaboration with the Israeli military, implicating it in grave human rights abuses, including war crimes and acts of genocide inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

    Microsoft complicit in occupation and genocide

    Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, released a landmark report earlier this year, titled From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide. The document uncovers the troubling reality that multinational corporations, including Microsoft, materially contribute to sustaining Israel’s settler-colonial and apartheid regime, and defines an “economy of genocide”, underlining how certain companies provide the necessary technological infrastructure, AI capabilities, and other services that enable Israel to conduct forced evictions, mass killings, and precise surveillance on Palestinian civilians.

    Albanese’s findings explicitly named Microsoft as a major enabler, and claimed that its technologies are integral to the continuation of crimes that violate international law – including unlawful settlements, military operations causing immense civilian suffering, and systemic repression.

    Israel using Microsoft mass surveillance and automated targeting algorithms against Palestinians

    Microsoft’s relationship with Israel has long roots, but its involvement with the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) deepened significantly after a 2021 meeting between CEO Satya Nadella and the commander of Israel’s elite Unit 8200 which conducts wide-scale signals intelligence and cyber warfare. After this meeting, Microsoft created a dedicated, segregated area within its Azure cloud platform for exclusive use by Israeli military intelligence.

    According to leaked internal documents and multiple insider sources, this cloud environment was designed to handle unprecedented volumes of intercepted Palestinian data. It provides near-limitless storage, enhanced security protocols, and advanced AI tools to mine and process intelligence for military operations. Since early 2022, the Israeli military intelligence has stored millions of Palestinian phone calls on Microsoft’s Azure servers daily. These intercepted conversations, from Gaza and the West Bank, amount to over 200 million recorded hours, as of August 2025.

    Directly informing lethal military decisions

    Microsoft’s engineers have collaborated closely with Israeli military units, developing encryption and cybersecurity mechanisms to secure this surveillance infrastructure. The intelligence gained is not just collected for data analysis, but directly informs lethal military decisions. The IDF uses this data to plan targeted airstrikes, raids, and detentions, leading to massive civilian casualties. Many of the neighbourhoods under attack have been densely populated with residential buildings, schools, and hospitals, drawing accusations of war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law.

    Microsoft provides artificial intelligence algorithms, including access to OpenAI’s GPT-4 via Azure, rapidly sifting through and interpreting data for what Israeli intelligence calls ‘target banks’ – databases of individuals or locations tagged for potential military action. The use of AI-driven tools transforms the time-intensive intelligence gathering process into near-real-time analysis, allowing fast and often indiscriminate targeting.

    This AI-assisted warfare raises unprecedented ethical concerns about algorithmic decision-making in life-and-death situations and has been linked to operations that have decimated large swathes of civilian infrastructure and led to thousands of unnecessary deaths.

    Integration in repression and prison systems

    Beyond military applications, Microsoft technology is embedded in Israeli systems which enforce apartheid policies, including biometric controls, checkpoint monitoring, and surveillance infrastructure limiting Palestinians’ freedom of movement and expression.
    Microsoft also supports surveillance and control technologies tied to Israeli prisons known for routinely engaging in torture and other inhumane treatments of Palestinian detainees.

    Microsoft says no evidence has emerged of deliberate misuse of its technology to target or harm individuals, and publicly distances itself from allegations of wrongdoing, claiming internal audits have shown compliance with its policies and international human rights standards. But insider leaks reveal an awareness across the company regarding the military implications of their work. Internal emails describe the partnership with Israeli military intelligence as ‘critical’ to Microsoft’s growth plans.

    The UK’s complicity and legal obligations

    Starmer officially welcomed Microsoft’s £22bn investment as a technological ‘game-changer’, stressing the job creation aspect and AI leadership in the UK economy, but has failed to address Microsoft’s active role in the occupation. This raises serious legal and moral issues because, according to international legal frameworks including the 1948 Genocide Convention and rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), states have a duty to stop genocide and must do everything they can to prevent genocide.

    The ICJ, in 2024, concluded that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, and its security policies, are unlawful, and ordered all states, including the UK, to refrain from facilitating these actions, including via corporate partnerships. The UK’s encouragement of Microsoft’s expansion, while neglecting these responsibilities, makes it complicit, yet again, in continued atrocities in the West Bank, and genocide in Gaza.

    The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement says “Microsoft is perhaps the most complicit tech company in Israel’s illegal apartheid regime and ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza” and has stepped up its efforts against the corporation, highlighting its role in enabling the Israeli military’s surveillance and lethal operations through Azure and AI technologies. BDS has called for a global boycott of Microsoft’s gaming division, and for customers to cancel subscriptions, avoid purchasing any Microsoft gaming products, and pressure institutional divestments from the tech giant.

    Holding Microsoft to account

    Microsoft is facing growing global scrutiny for its involvement in Israeli crimes against Palestinians, and protests have escalated, drawing attention and helping to raise awareness about the company’s complicity. Activists are demanding Microsoft cut all ties with the Israeli military, halt sales of AI-enabled surveillance technologies used in the occupation, and pay reparations to affected Palestinian communities.

    Microsoft’s use of its technologies in facilitating the Israeli occupation and its genocide in Gaza, exposes a growing ethical dilemma – one where innovation and oppression coexist, and internationally recognised rights are trampled on under the guise of technological progress.

    Profits must never come at the expense of human rights. Technology should uplift and protect lives – not be used to surveil, oppress, or kill. Until Microsoft is held accountable for how its tools enable harm against Palestinians, the UK should not strike any trade deals or investments that effectively give a green light to this complicity.

    This is not just about business or jobs, but about the values we decide to uphold. The UK must demand transparency, responsibility, and respect for human dignity from powerful tech firms like Microsoft. Anything less, and our government risks becoming even more complicit in injustice than it already is.

    Feature image via Youtube/Democracy Now!

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel just massacred 25 members of the same family in Gaza City

    In another deadly massacre against displaced families during Israel’s genocide, around 25 members of the Dughmush family were killed, after multiple airstrikes flattened a residential block in Al-Sabra area of Southern Gaza City last night, while residents were asleep.

     

    Palestinian doctor Ashraf Mohammad Abu Mohsen, along with his wife and children were also killed in the same strike.

    Israel commits another deadly massacre as it makes situation in Gaza City ‘catastrophic’

    This attack comes as Fares Afanah, director of emergency and medical services in north Gaza, described the situation in Gaza City as catastrophic on Saturday, saying Israeli occupation forces had bombed four inhabited buildings in the Al-Sabra area without warning, killing at least least 17 people and injuring more than 30.

    Ambulance crews transported the victims to Al-Shifa Medical Complex, while many remain missing under the rubble.

    Afanah said the military had escalated their attacks in the Al-Sabra, Tel al-Hawa, and Al-Shati neighbourhoods, and emergency teams had worked flat out to evacuate the dead and wounded, despite constant danger.

    Israeli occupation forces (IOF) said it is intensifying fighting in the Gaza Strip, with tanks now invading deeper into Gaza City.

    Featured image via screengrab

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Harrowing accounts of Israel’s systematic torture of Palestinian prisoners have once again emerged

    The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society has released a briefing following extensive legal visits to several Israeli prisons, exposing a grim and escalating reality for Palestinian political prisoners.

    Lawyers who visited Naqab, Megiddo, Ramla, Ofer, Shatta, Gilboa, and Damon prisons documented testimonies from men, women, and children. Their accounts point to systematic abuse, deliberate medical neglect, degrading conditions, and an unprecedented rise in detainee numbers since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began.

    Disease and deprivation in Naqab Prison

    Naqab Prison, in the south of the country, is one of the largest detention centres, holding thousands of Palestinians. It has become both a laboratory of repression and an epicentre of disease. More than 20 detainees were visited there, with most suffering from scabies infections, often recurring despite previous treatment.

    Prisoners reported a severe shortage of basic necessities such as clean clothing, with some not allowed to change their clothes for six months, and also said they are denied cleaning products, while electricity and light are frequently cut off for long stretches. Even the right to shower is weaponised – since it is only permitted during ‘break time’ in the prison yard, guards can ensure prisoners remain unwashed simply by denying them yard time.

    The testimonies described cell life plagued by itching and rashes left untreated, pain met with mockery instead of medicine, and food so contaminated it often carried bird droppings, rotten vegetables, or even soap residue. Yet detainees said they had no choice but to eat it. Medical staff, who should provide care, use humiliation as a tool of punishment instead.

    Adding to this, violent raids by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) ‘suppression units’ have sharply increased in frequency and brutality since 7 October 2023. In Naqab, the notorious ‘Keter Unit’ carried out a particularly violent raid on 10 September, hurling stun grenades and firing rubber-coated bullets that wounded at least one prisoner. Strip searches and demeaning treatment accompany these assaults, with even detainees brought to meet lawyers facing beatings out of sight of cameras.

    Neglect and abuse of Palestinian prisoners across other prisons

    In Megiddo Prison, untreated injuries, chronic pain, and worsening infections dominate testimonies. Prisoners with fractured bones or severe wounds said they were left without proper medical attention or even basic painkillers. Raids occur every two to three weeks, usually at dawn or the dead of night, when prisoners are most vulnerable. Dogs, stun guns, batons, and verbal abuse accompany these crackdowns, leaving many injured. Skin diseases such as boils, fungal infections, and eczema continue to spread, highlighting the dire shortage of clothing and hygiene supplies.

    Ofer Prison tells a similar story but with an even darker twist. Here, medical neglect extends indiscriminately to children. Over 210 Palestinian children are currently held in Ofer, many infected with scabies and other untreated illnesses.

    At Damon Prison, women detainees face compounded layers of abuse. Testimonies describe suffocating humidity, widespread insects, food supplies unfit for consumption, and increasing restrictions on outdoor time. They endure raids, strip searches, and physical assaults. Feminine hygiene needs are deliberately denied, despite cases of prisoners suffering from illnesses and psychological distress that worsen under these conditions.

    Weekly raids by suppression units also dominate life in Shatta and Gilboa prisons, where guards deploy electric stun guns and police dogs. In the Ramla Prison Clinic, the very place meant to care for the gravely ill, conditions are described as even more alarming. All prisoners there suffer chronic diseases, yet treatment is virtually absent. The scabies outbreak has even spread here, with ten detainees in isolation out of the 22 in the unit.

    Highest number of prisoners since 2000

    What emerges from these prisons is not only a pattern of humiliation and neglect but one of control, designed to break Palestinian prisoners. As of early September 2025, more than 11,100 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons – the highest figure since the Second Intifada in 2000. This number excludes those languishing in military camps run directly by the occupation’s army.

    Included within this total are 53 women, among them two from Gaza, and at least 400 children. The surge in administrative detention – prisoners held without charge or trial – has reached almost 3,580 in the West Bank, while more than 2,660 detainees from Gaza have been classified as ‘unlawful combatants’, a category that also extends to Arab detainees from Lebanon and Syria.

    Practices inflicted on Palestinian prisoners are ‘direct extension of the genocide’

    According to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, the conditions in these prisons cannot be seen in isolation from the broader reality of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Torture, starvation, disease, and humiliation have become extensions of the Israeli occupation’s aggression in Gaza.

    The organisation’s calls to the international community is this:

    The crimes committed have reached a level that words cannot adequately describe. What is taking place constitutes part of a broader process of ethnic cleansing and erasure, and the practices inflicted on prisoners and detainees are a direct extension of the genocide. The continued international silence in the face of these crimes is an affront to all of humanity, and the consequences of this war will reach everyone who used helplessness as an excuse to evade responsibility.

    Special Units of the Israeli Prison Service: instruments of torture and control

    According to Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, prison raids by Israeli Occupation Forces ‘Special Units’, or ‘Suppression Units’ are extremely violent and give way to a host of abuses and human rights violations. They serve as one method of collective punishment, torture, and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, with the occupation systematically exploiting any excuse to deploy its special forces into prisons to attack and harass the Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

    Back in 2020, Addameer described the attacks in Israeli prisons which it documented:

    Special forces shackle the prisoners, often physically assaulting them without any regard to their medical conditions and using tear gas and pepper spray, along with a plethora of other tactics to further abuse them. More often than not, the prisoners report sustaining grave injuries due to the brutality of the attacks.

    These Suppression Units are heavily armed and trained in combat skills, and represent the hardline enforcement arm of the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), playing a central role in managing supposed ‘unrest’ and ‘security threats’ inside Israeli occupation prisons.

    The Keter Unit is a special guard unit stationed at Naqab Prison, and is one of the main Suppression Units, focuses on enforcing discipline through forceful interventions within the prison, often involved in cell raids and transfer operations. After 7 October, the Keter Unit’s presence inside Naqab Prison has became almost daily, and its members use excessive force on the prisoners during the raids.

    Addameer documented a group of prisoners who were abused and had their ribs broken by the Keret Unit, which is also responsible for beating to death prisoner Thaer Abu Asab, in November 2023.

    Featured image supplied

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Kids Under Fire in Gaza

    When Dr. Mimi Syed returned from her first volunteer trip to Gaza in the summer of 2024, she started flipping through her notes and came to a shocking conclusion: In one month, the ER physician had treated at least 18 children with gunshots to the head or chest. And that’s only the patients she had time to make a note of. 

    “They were children under the age of 12,” she says. “That’s something I saw every single day, multiple times a day, for the whole four weeks that I was there.”

    Syed’s not the only one. Other physicians who’ve worked in Gaza report seeing similar cases on a regular basis, suggesting a disturbing pattern. The doctors allege that members of the Israeli military may be deliberately targeting children. 

    This week on Reveal, in partnership with Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines, we follow Syed from Gaza to the halls of Congress and the United Nations, as she joins a movement of doctors appealing to US and international policymakers to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.  

    This is an update of an episode that originally aired in May 2025.

    Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    This post was originally published on Reveal.

  • Amnesty Calls for States to “Pull the Plug” on Economy Backing Israel’s Genocide

    Amnesty International is calling on economic actors to “pull the plug” on the economy supporting Israel’s genocide and apartheid in Palestine, naming 15 companies, including U.S. surveillance firm Palantir, acting as major backers. In a report published Thursday, the human rights groups named a litany of actions that governments, companies, and other groups must take to eliminate the…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • In Gaza, malnutrition among children worsens as 1.7 million people are without clean water

    The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to water, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, has warned that the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza City constitutes “a new step in Israel’s war of extermination” that has been ongoing for 23 months.

    He pointed out that Israel has deprived 1.7 million Palestinians of clean drinking water amid an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

    Israel using water as a weapon of extermination

    Arrojo-Agudo emphasised that the internationally recommended minimum consumption per person is 15 litres of water per day. Meanwhile citizens in Gaza have access to only 5 litres. This is one-third of the amount necessary for survival.

    He added that Israel’s repeated targeting of water stations and destruction of infrastructure exacerbates the disaster.

    He considered that “the use of drinking water as a weapon of war is a crime against humanity”. In particular, he warned that the continuation of this situation puts the legitimacy of international institutions at stake. This is particularly the case in light of the occupation’s continued impunity.

    Arrojo-Agudo stressed that “silence on the crime of genocide in Gaza is a form of complicity”. Ultimately, he called for an immediate ceasefire, an end to Israel’s illegal occupation, and an embargo on arms exports to Israel.

    Starving Gaza’s children

    In a related context, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revealed the worsening malnutrition crisis among children in the Strip. The rate has risen from 8.3% in July to 13.5% in August.

    OCHA’s update stated that there are “roughly 28,000 cases of acute malnutrition” among children under five. It detailed how this exceeded the:

    combined total of malnutrition cases identified in the first six months of 2025 (about 23,000 cases).

    The report noted that Gaza City has the highest rates, with nearly one in five children (19%) suffering from malnutrition. At the same time, the severest forms of malnutrition are affecting more than 23% of cases. This was up from 15% between January and June 2025. Crucially, this level of severe acute malnourishment directly threaten their lives.

    Recent UN reports paint a grim picture of the situation in Gaza: water scarcity, widespread malnutrition, and continued bombing and displacement. According to UN experts, these cumulative crises confirm that civilians are paying the highest price in a war described as the most dangerous humanitarian crisis in recent decades.

    It is all amid the international community’s inability to impose a ceasefire or hold those responsible for violations accountable.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Amnesty International reveals names of 15 companies involved in genocide in Gaza

    In a report Amnesty International released Thursday 18 September 2025, the human rights organisation has accused countries, public institutions, and major companies around the world of enabling Israel to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and to entrench the apartheid regime and illegal occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory.

    Amnesty International report: countries and companies are propping up Israel’s genocide in Gaza

    The organisation said that these entities profit from the violations by supplying weapons and technology. They do this through settlement projects, or by remaining silent and failing to hold Israel accountable.

    Amnesty International’s secretary-general Agnès Callamard said:

    The illegal occupation would not have lasted 57 years, the apartheid regime would not have been entrenched for decades, and the genocide in Gaza would not have continued for months on end, had it not been for the continuous flow of weapons and preferential trade relations. Human dignity is not a commodity. While Palestinian mothers and children are dying of hunger, arms and technology companies are reaping huge profits.

    Significantly, the briefing singled out 15 companies Callamard condemned as:

    responsible for sustaining a government that has engineered famine and mass killing of civilians and denied Palestinians fundamental rights for decades. Every economic sector, the vast majority of states, and many private entities have knowingly contributed to or benefited from Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and its brutal occupation and apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

    Corporations ‘contributing to Israel’s unlawful occupation’

    Unsurprisingly, multiple major arms companies cropped up in Amnesty’s catalogue of shame. It included the following corporations profiting from the military industrial complex.

    Boeing

    The company has supplied Israel with bombs and guidance systems Israel uses in illegal airstrikes in Gaza. This includes for instance the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) and GBU-39 small-diameter bombs, which has killed dozens of civilians, including children.

    Lockheed Martin

    It provides supply and maintenance services for Israel’s fleet of F-16 and F-35 aircraft, the backbone of the Israeli Air Force bombing Gaza.

    Elbit Systems

    Infamously supplies drones, loitering munitions, and surveillance systems to the Israeli military. It is one of the main beneficiaries of Israel’s military operations.

    Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)

    The firm supplies Israel with missile systems, drones, and military technologies the occupier has used in attacks on Gaza.

    Technology and surveillance companies complicit in genocide

    Amnesty’s briefing also named a number of technology and surveillance companies, highlighting how:

    Many surveillance, AI, and cloud infrastructure companies supply equipment and services to Israel related to its surveillance of the Palestinian population and its security and military activities within the OPT.

    Hikvision

    It supplies Israel with video surveillance technology that supports the apartheid system against Palestinians. Notably, it identified that Israel uses the company’s biometric surveillance products, including facial recognition technology “extensively” to maintain its “continued domination and oppression” of Palestinians in the occupied territory.

    Corsight

    Corsight also develops facial recognition software used by the Israeli military in its attacks and security operations in Gaza. The briefing highlighted how the firm’s technology has “powered Israel’s surveillance operations in the Gaza Strip” since the start of its genocide.

    Palantir Technologies

    An American company specialising in artificial intelligence and data analysis, it provides the Israeli military and intelligence agencies with systems linked to military operations in Gaza.

    Infrastructure and services companies wrapped up in apartheid

    Besides arms and technology companies, Amnesty drew up a list of other notably complicit corporations. Companies operating infrastructure and services across occupied Palestine featured heavily among the worst offenders.

    Mekorot

    The Israeli government water company manages water networks in the West Bank in a discriminatory manner that deprives Palestinians and serves settlements.

    Construcciones E Oxicarril (CAF)

    A Spanish company building the light rail project in Jerusalem that serves and expands settlements.

    HD Hyundai

    A South Korean company that provides heavy equipment used in the demolition of homes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as well as maintenance services.

    Online travel companies were also among those Amnesty called out in no uncertain terms. These included the likes of Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, and TripAdvisor. Despite warnings, these companies continue to list illegal settlements in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, thereby contributing to their economic support.

    Amnesty International said these companies represent just a “small sample” of a vast network of companies and industries that have profited from the occupation and apartheid.

    Urgent calls to suspend all ties to Israel

    Amnesty International called on companies to suspend all sales and contracts that support Israeli violations. Otherwise, it warned they face potential civil and criminal liability for complicity in international crimes. The organisation’s call included:

    • Imposing a comprehensive ban on arms, security, military, and technological equipment destined for Israel.
    • Halting investments and purchases from implicated companies.
    • Preventing these companies from participating in exhibitions, contracts, and government grants.
    • Imposing sanctions such as asset freezes and travel bans on those involved.

    Callamard concluded by saying:

    It is unacceptable for companies to profit from the death and suffering of Palestinians. The economic complicity that perpetuates the occupation and genocide must end immediately.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.