Israel-Hamas war: Israel, UN trade claims of terrorism, torture
Tensions are boiling over as Israel and the UN exchange in a verbal spat over allegations of sexual assaults by Hamas. Warning: Graphic.
World
Don't miss out on the headlines from World. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Israel has recalled its ambassador to the UN as tensions erupted over the handling of allegations of sexual assault by Hamas militants during the October 7 attacks.
Israel has accused the United Nations of taking too long to respond to the claims, a charge the UN has robustly defended itself against as it published a report detailing evidence of Hamas rapes and assaults.
At the heart of the increasingly bitter row is the embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which has already seen funding pulled by multiple Western countries after Israel accused about a dozen of its employees of involvement in the October 7 attack.
UNRWA on Monday local time said members of its own staff had been tortured by Israel, even as the Israeli military said the agency had employed more than 450 “terrorists.”
The military also released what it said were recordings of “a terrorist working as an Arabic teacher at an UNRWA school... describing his entry into Israeli territory and stating that he is holding female Israeli hostages” following the October 7 attack.
The Hamas attack on southern Israel resulted in about 1160 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 30,500 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll from Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry.
Around 250 hostages were taken by militants, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 presumed dead, according to Israel.
FOLLOW UPDATES BELOW:
US PUTS PRESSURE ON ISRAEL
US Vice President Kamala Harris has met with a key member of Israel’s war cabinet and a rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day after she delivered Washington’s sharpest rebuke yet over the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Benny Gantz, Israel’s former military chief, will also hold talks with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, underscoring signs of discord in the government of Netanyahu over the war with Hamas.
Right-wing hardliners in Netanyahu’s cabinet have criticised Gantz’s visit as the United States pressures ally Israel, which it supplies with billions of dollars in military aid, to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza and allow in more humanitarian relief.
VP Harris, 59, who is campaigning for a second term with President Joe Biden, has called for an immediate ceasefire and used unusually strong language to criticise aid efforts.
“Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire,” Harris said during an event in Selma, Alabama.
“The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses,” Harris said.
Harris laid out specific ways Israel can allow more aid into Gaza.
“They must open new border crossings. They must not impose any unnecessary restrictions on the delivery of aid,” she said.
“They must ensure humanitarian personnel, sites and convoys are not targeted, and they must work to restore basic services and promote order in Gaza, so more food, water and fuel can reach those in need.”
The White House said Harris’s meeting with Gantz on Monday was “part of our continued efforts to engage with a wide range of Israeli officials on the war in Gaza and planning for the day after.”
They would “discuss the urgency of securing a hostage deal, which would allow for a temporary ceasefire, and the need to significantly expand and sustain aid flows into Gaza, given the dire humanitarian situation,” it said.
A Netanyahu critic and rival, Gantz joined the five-person war cabinet formed after October 7 in a bid to project unity but has in recent weeks pressed Netanyahu on an exit strategy for the war.
The former defense minister and chief of staff of the armed forces has rejected Netanyahu’s stance that only military pressure on Hamas will allow the return of hostages, analysts and Israeli media reports say.
Gantz’s visit comes at a time of rising pressure on Netanyahu over the fate of hostages still held in Gaza, and from a resurgent anti-government protest movement.
BIDEN AFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO CEASEFIRE DEAL
US President Joe Biden wrote on X that he “will not let up pushing” for a peace deal between Israel and Hamas that allows for an immediate freeing of the hostages and a ceasefire in the region for at least six weeks.
Mr Biden said this deal should also allow for “a surge of aid to the entire Gaza Strip”.
I will not let up pushing for a deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, brings an immediate ceasefire to Gaza for at least six weeks, and allows for a surge of aid to the entire Gaza Strip.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 4, 2024
“In addition to the United States’ expansion of aid deliveries by air, land, and sea, we’re continuing to push hard for more trucks and routes to get more aid to people,” he wrote in a separate post.
“There are no excuses. The aid flowing into Gaza is nowhere near enough – and nowhere fast enough.”
US planes air dropped food along Gaza’s coastline over the weekend, with Israel still blocking aid entering the strip on the ground.
But State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US will continue to provide military support to Israel.
“We support Israel’s legitimate military campaign consistent with international humanitarian law and that’s why we continue to support them militarily,” he said in a briefing.
TYCOON COMPARES BIDEN’S ‘ZIONIST’ GOVERNMENT TO THE NAZIS
Mohamed Hadid, real estate developer and the father of popular models Bella and Gigi Hadid, spoke out against the US government on a social media post, calling them “Zionist criminals” and comparing them to the Nazis.
The 75-year-old millionaire wrote on his Instagram story that the war in Gaza was “Biden’s war on the Palestinian people”.
“He will be in the court with the rest of the Zionist Criminals. We will hunt them down like they did the Nazis,” Mr Hadid wrote.
This was placed over a video of the UN Sustainable Development Network’s director, Jeffrey D. Sachs, who was speaking to TRT Worldabout the role the US has played in the Gaza war.
“The US and EU are complicit in Israel’s war crimes,” he said, referencing the cutting off of aid to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
“The United States is the one providing the munitions every day to Israel,” he said.
“It’s up to the United States to stop this now - Israel won’t stop it on its own. The US has to do this.”
The Hadid family are Palestinian American, and have regularly voice their support for a free Palestine after the current war in Gaza began.
HAMAS UNSURE HOW MANY HOSTAGES ALIVE
A Hamas leader said that the Palestinian movement doesn’t know how many of the hostages forced to the Gaza Strip in its October 7 attack on Israel are still alive.
“Of the prisoners, we don’t know exactly who among them are alive or dead, killed because of strikes or hunger,” Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas leader, told AFP from Cairo.
“There are prisoners held by numerous groups in multiple places” across the Palestinian territory, he said, nearly five months into the war between Hamas and Israel.
Naim, a former health minister in Gaza, said that “a ceasefire is necessary so that we can carry out (checks) on this issue... regarding the names, numbers and their status whether alive or dead.”
Around 250 hostages were taken to the Gaza Strip during the October 7 attack, and Israeli officials say 130 captives are still being held there, including 31 presumed dead.
UN DENIES SUPPRESSING REPORT ON HAMAS RAPES
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has denied trying to suppress a UN report on sexual violence by Hamas against Israelis during the October 7 attacks, his spokesman said.
“The work was done thoroughly and expeditiously. In no way, shape or form did the secretary-general do anything to keep the report ‘quiet.’
In fact, the report is being presented publicly today,” Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric told AFP.
UN ACCUSES ISRAEL MILITARY OF TORTURE
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Israeli authorities had “detained several of its staff from the Gaza Strip” who later described abuses carried out while they were in custody.
“Our staff have reported atrocious events while they were detained and during interrogations by the Israeli authorities. These reports included torture, severe ill-treatment, abuse and sexual exploitation,” UNRWA said in a statement to AFP.
“Some of our staff have conveyed to UNRWA teams that they were forced to confessions under torture and ill-treatment” while being asked about Hamas’s October 7 attack.
“These forced confessions as a result of torture are being used by the Israeli authorities to further spread misinformation about the agency as part of attempts to dismantle UNRWA,” the agency said.
“This is putting our staff in Gaza at risk and has serious implications on our operations in Gaza and around the region.”
UNRWA said it had submitted a written protest to Israel about the detentions but had not received a response.
Israel told AFP on Monday the UNRWA allegations were “baseless”.
It comes as UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned dismantling the aid agency would sacrifice a “generation of children”.
“Dismantling UNRWA is short-sighted. By doing so, we will sacrifice an entire generation of children, sowing the seeds of hatred, resentment and future conflict,” Lazzarini told the UN General Assembly.
UN AGENCY ACCUSED OF EMPLOYING 450 TERRORISTS
Israel has accused a United Nation agency of employing hundreds of “terrorists”, and the agency alleged Israeli authorities tortured some of its staff, as tensions escalated amid the Gaza war.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has been at the centre of controversy ever since Israel in January accused about a dozen of its employees of involvement in the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
Now the Israeli military said UNRWA employed “over 450 terrorists” belonging to groups including Hamas.
“According to intelligence, over 450 terrorists belonging to terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip, mainly Hamas, are also employed by UNRWA,” a military statement said.
The military also released what it said were recordings of “a terrorist working as an Arabic teacher at an UNRWA school... describing his entry into Israeli territory and stating that he is holding female Israeli hostages” during the October 7 attack by Hamas.
UNRWA employs around 30,000 people in the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria - with about 13,000 staff in the Gaza Strip.
It is at the centre of efforts to provide humanitarian relief in Gaza, where aid groups warn of looming famine after nearly five months of Israeli bombardment.
THREE HEZBOLLAH-LINKED PARAMEDICS KILLED
Three paramedics affiliated with Hezbollah were killed in an Israeli strike on south Lebanon Monday, the group said, amid escalating cross-border hostilities in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement have been exchanging near-daily fire since the day after the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October, raising fears all-out conflict could spread across the region.
The Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee said three volunteers died “due to a direct Zionist attack on an emergency centre” in south Lebanon’s Adaysseh.
The deaths came hours after Israeli medics said a missile strike on northern Israel killed a foreign worker and wounded seven others.
Lebanon’s health ministry condemned the Israeli raid “in the strongest terms” and called attacks on medical personnel “unacceptable”, in a statement carried by the state-run National News Agency.
GAZA TRUCE INCHES CLOSER
Mediators and Hamas envoys have made “significant progress” towards a Gaza truce, Egyptian state-linked TV reported as the talks in Cairo entered a second day.
After weeks of diplomatic efforts, Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been scrambling to lock in a proposed six-week truce in the war between Israel and Hamas before Ramadan starts next week.
The proposal also includes the release of hostages abducted during Hamas’s October 7 attack that sparked the war, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Al-Qahera News, linked to Egypt’s intelligence services, quoted an unnamed senior official as saying: “Egypt continues its intense efforts to reach a truce before Ramadan”, the Muslim fasting month which begins on March 10 or 11.
“There has been significant progress in the negotiations,” the report said after the latest talks began Sunday in Cairo, without Israeli representation.
According to a senior US official, Israel has broadly accepted terms of the proposed six-week truce, which would also see stepped-up aid deliveries into Gaza.
CHILDREN DYING OF MALNUTRITION
In a sign of the worsening humanitarian crisis in the narrow coastal territory, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said at least 16 children had died of malnutrition in recent days as “famine spreads” in the north.
As Gaza faces dwindling deliveries of relief supplies across its land borders, the US carried out ts first airdrop, joining several Arab and European government that have parachuted in aid since November.
But officials and aid groups have said such operations are limited in scope and cannot replace overland aid access.
POPE FRANCIS CALLS FOR AN END TO GAZA CONFLICT
Pope Francis has appealed for an end to the conflict in Gaza, urging the world to say: “Enough please! Stop.”
Addressing believers in St Pete’s Square in Vatican City, the pope expressed concern over the consequences of the conflict on children and asked for the release of all the captives taken during Hamas’s raid on October 7.
“Each day, I carry in my heart with pain the suffering of the populations in Palestine and Israel due to the ongoing hostilities, thousands of dead, injured, displaced,” Francis said.
“Do you really think you can build a better world in this way? Do you really think you will achieve peace? Enough please! Let us all say enough please! Stop!”
Click here to share on social media
UK CARGO SHIP SINKS AFTER HOUTHI MISSILE
A British cargo ship has sunk in the Red Sea after being attacked by Iran-backed Houthis.
The Rubymar cargo ship was supposedly heading north, from Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates to Varna, Bulgaria, when it was bombarded.
The crew of the ship was forced to “abandon the vessel” after coming under attack off the coast of Yemen.
Soon after the attack, which took place two weeks ago, a statement from the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said: “UKMTO has received a report of an incident 35NM south of Al Mukha, Yemen.
“Military authorities report crew have abandoned the vessel. Military authorities are on scene assisting. Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity to UKMTO.”
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree issued a statement claiming the attack, saying the vessel was hit with “appropriate missiles” and was at risk of potentially sinking.
“The Naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a specific military operation, targeting the British ship RUBYMAR with a number of appropriate naval missiles,” he said.
“As a result of the extensive damage the ship suffered, it is now at risk of potential sinking.”
NETANYAHU URGED TO BRING HOSTAGES HOME
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced mounting calls to secure the release of the remaining hostages, and from a resurgent anti-government protest movement.
Rallies were held on Saturday in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where a relative of one of the captives said he hoped freeing them was a top priority.
Eyal Kalderon, cousin of hostage Ofer Kalderon, said there may not be “another chance” to bring him home. “It’s now or maybe never.”
BRITAIN’S TERROR THREAT HIGHEST SINCE 9/11
Britain’s terror threat is now at the highest since September 11, a security insider has warned.
The expert has warned there is a “real risk” of co-ordinated terrorist action or of a “lone wolf” attack, The Sun reports.
They also warned of record levels of “chatter” between extremists intercepted by spies.
The warning came after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s speech outside Downing Street where he warned there are “forces” which are ready to tear the country apart with their “hateful ideological agenda”.
RISE IN ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACKS
Zurich police said they were hiking security in front of Jewish institutions after a potentially anti-Semitic knife attack left an Orthodox Jewish man in serious condition.
Police in Switzerland’s largest city said the 50-year-old was “critically injured” in the attack and a 15-year-old Swiss boy suspected of being the perpetrator had been arrested on site.
The statement said the motives for the attack were unclear, but that Zurich police and the youth prosecutor’s office in charge of the investigation were explicitly looking into the possibility that it was an “anti-Semitic crime”.
The police also said they had consulted with various Jewish institutions in the city following the incident and decided to increase security around the institutions as a “precautionary measure”.
The GRA Foundation working against racism and anti-Semitism condemned the attack, maintaining that witnesses had heard the alleged perpetrator shout “anti-Semitic slogans that suggest a hate crime”.
“It was not just an isolated case,” it said in a statement, adding that it was clearly part of a pattern linked to the tensions over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
“Since the escalation in the Middle East, anti-Semitic incidents in Switzerland have skyrocketed,” it said.
- with AFP
More Coverage
Originally published as Israel-Hamas war: Israel, UN trade claims of terrorism, torture
Read related topics:Israel Conflict
Join the conversation
Aussie shares flat with all eyes on Israel
The sharemarket inched higher on Thursday as investors braced for Israel’s response to Iranian missile and terror attacks and the release of crucial US jobs data.
Read more
‘Towards abyss’: Grim sign of total collapse
Approximately 1.2 million people have been displaced since Israel’s most recent round of airstrikes on Lebanon, as Israel is accused of “pushing the region towards abyss”.
Read more