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‘New inferno was unleashed’ with restart of Gaza war, says ICRC director

‘New inferno was unleashed’ with restart of Gaza war, says ICRC director
A Palestinian woman reacts as she looks on at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip April 28, 2025. (Reuters)
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Updated 28 April 2025

‘New inferno was unleashed’ with restart of Gaza war, says ICRC director

‘New inferno was unleashed’ with restart of Gaza war, says ICRC director
  • Gaza is experiencing and enduring death, injury, and multiple displacements, the ICRC says

DOHA: A “new inferno” has been unleashed on Gaza following the restart of war in the Palestinian territory, the director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Monday.
“Gaza is experiencing and enduring... death, injury, multiple displacements, amputations, separation, disappearance, starvation and denial of aid and dignity on a massive scale, and just when the all important ceasefire led people to believe they had survived the worst, a new inferno was unleashed,” Pierre Krahenbuhl told a Doha conference on security.


UN rights chief: Mounting evidence of Israeli war crimes, warns of genocidal rhetoric in Gaza

UN rights chief: Mounting evidence of Israeli war crimes, warns of genocidal rhetoric in Gaza
Updated 08 September 2025

UN rights chief: Mounting evidence of Israeli war crimes, warns of genocidal rhetoric in Gaza

UN rights chief: Mounting evidence of Israeli war crimes, warns of genocidal rhetoric in Gaza
  • Volker Türk accused Israel of grave violations in Gaza, citing “mounting evidence” that could hold it accountable before the International Court of Justice
  • He condemned genocidal rhetoric and the mass killing of Palestinian civilians, warning that the rules of war are being “shredded with virtually no accountability”

GENEVA: The UN human rights chief on Monday accused Israel of committing grave violations in Gaza, warning that mounting evidence could hold it accountable before the International Court of Justice.

Volker Türk, speaking at the opening of the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, said he was “horrified by the open use of genocidal rhetoric, and the disgraceful dehumanization of Palestinians by senior Israeli officials,” describing Gaza as “already a graveyard.”

Türk condemned what he called Israel’s “mass killing of Palestinian civilians, the obstruction of humanitarian aid, and the commission of war crimes,” adding that such acts were “shocking the world’s conscience.” He warned that “rules of war are being shredded – with virtually no accountability.”

The UN rights chief said the situation in Gaza reflected a broader erosion of international law, where “the glorification of violence is coupled with disturbing trends that undercut our rights across the world.” He urged decisive international action to halt the bloodshed, stressing that the mounting evidence of atrocities requires urgent accountability.

Türk also highlighted the crisis in Sudan, describing the scale of the suffering of the Sudanese people as ‘unfathomable’ and urging decisive action to prevent further atrocities.

(With AFP and Reuters)


Shooting attack at Jerusalem bus stop kills 5

Shooting attack at Jerusalem bus stop kills 5
Updated 08 September 2025

Shooting attack at Jerusalem bus stop kills 5

Shooting attack at Jerusalem bus stop kills 5
  • Israel’s emergency service said around 15 people were injured in a shooting Monday at Ramot Junction in east Jerusalem
  • Police confirmed two assailants carried out the attack and said they had been “neutralized”

JERUSALEM: Paramedics said at least five people were killed in a shooting attack in Jerusalem after two attackers opened fire at a bus stop at a busy intersection in north Jerusalem.
Paramedics said an additional 15 people were injured, including six in serious condition.
Police said the attackers shot people waiting at a bus stop, while Israeli media reported the attackers also boarded a bus and opened fire inside.
Police a security officer and a civilian shot the attackers soon after the incident began halted the attack. Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of the attackers or their identity.
The shooting took place at a major intersection at the northern entrance to Jerusalem, on a road that leads to Jewish settlements located in east Jerusalem.
Footage of the attack showed dozens of people fleeing from a bus stop at the busy intersection during the morning rush hour. Paramedics who responded to the scene said the area was chaotic and covered in broken glass, with people wounded and lying unconscious on the road and a sidewalk near the bus stop.
There was no immediate comment on the attack from Palestinian militant groups.
The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in both the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Israel. Palestinian militants have attacked and killed Israelis in Israel and the West Bank, while there has also been a rise in settler violence against Palestinians.
While there have been scattered attacks over the past months in Israel, the last deadly mass shooting attack was in October 2024, when two Palestinians from the West Bank opened fire on a major boulevard and light rail station in the Tel Aviv area, killing seven people and leaving many others wounded. Hamas’ military wing claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to police, the two men opened fire in the Jaffa neighborhood of Tel Aviv, including shooting directly into a light rail carriage crowded with passengers that was stopped at a station.
Data from the UN’s humanitarian office says at least 49 Israelis were killed by Palestinians in Israel or the West Bank between the start of the war and July 2025.
In that time, Israeli forces and civilians killed at least 968 Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank.


Teen arrested as 2 police shot dead near Turkiye’s Izmir: minister

Teen arrested as 2 police shot dead near Turkiye’s Izmir: minister
Updated 08 September 2025

Teen arrested as 2 police shot dead near Turkiye’s Izmir: minister

Teen arrested as 2 police shot dead near Turkiye’s Izmir: minister
  • The attacker, reported to be 16 years old, opened fire on the Salih Isgoren police station

ANKARA: Two policemen were killed and two others injured in a shooting attack on a police station near the Turkish city of Izmir on Monday, with a 16-year-old suspect arrested, a minister said.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the “heinous” attack on the police station in Balcova, a district just west of the resort city, left two officers dead and a third “seriously injured.”
“The suspect in the incident, 16-year-old E.B., has been arrested and an investigation has been opened,” he wrote on X.
It was not immediately clear why the station was attacked but footage posted by the Gercek Gundem news website showed mobile phone footage of a person in a balaclava, a black top and pale trousers jogging along the pavement carrying a rifle then entering a building.
Another clip broadcast by Turkish TV stations showed a group of civilians helping to manhandle the alleged attacker, wearing white trousers, into a police van.
The DHA news agency said the assailant had used “a long-barrelled gun” while NTV television described the weapon as a “pump-action shotgun.”
Police immediately fanned out across the area, imposing tight security measures, media reports said.
Izmir Mayor Cemil Tugay denounced a “treacherous” attack and sent his condolences to the families of the dead in a post on X.


Israel defense minister warns Hamas to surrender or be ‘annihilated’

Israel defense minister warns Hamas to surrender or be ‘annihilated’
Updated 08 September 2025

Israel defense minister warns Hamas to surrender or be ‘annihilated’

Israel defense minister warns Hamas to surrender or be ‘annihilated’
  • Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Hamas on Monday to lay down its arms or face the destruction of Gaza and its own annihilation

JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Hamas on Monday to lay down its arms or face the destruction of Gaza and its own annihilation.
“This is a final warning to the Hamas murderers and rapists in Gaza and in luxury hotels abroad: Release the hostages and put down your weapons — or Gaza will be destroyed and you will be annihilated,” Katz said on X shortly after US President Donald Trump issued what he described as a “last warning” to Hamas to release the hostages still held in Gaza.


Israel’s Supreme Court says government is not giving Palestinian prisoners enough food

Israel’s Supreme Court says government is not giving Palestinian prisoners enough food
Updated 08 September 2025

Israel’s Supreme Court says government is not giving Palestinian prisoners enough food

Israel’s Supreme Court says government is not giving Palestinian prisoners enough food
  • In March, a 17-year-old Palestinian boy died at an Israeli prison and doctors said starvation was likely the main cause of death
  • In Sunday’s ruling, the panel of three justices ruled unanimously that the state is legally obligated to provide prisoners with enough food to ensure “a basic level of existence”

TEL AVIV, Israel: Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday ruled that the government has failed to provide Palestinian security prisoners with adequate food for basic subsistence and ordered authorities to improve their nutrition.
The decision was a rare case in which the country’s highest court ruled against the government’s conduct during the nearly two-year war.
Since the war began, Israel has seized thousands of people in Gaza that it suspects of links to Hamas. Thousands have also been released without charge, often after months of detention.
Rights groups have documented widespread abuse in prisons and detention facilities, including insufficient food and health care, as well as poor sanitary conditions and beatings. In March, a 17-year-old Palestinian boy died at an Israeli prison and doctors said starvation was likely the main cause of death.

This undated photo from Winter 2023 provided by Breaking The Silence shows blindfolded Palestinian prisoners captured in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces at a detention facility on the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel. (AP)

Sunday’s ruling came in response to a petition brought last year by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Israeli rights group Gisha. The groups alleged that a change in the food policy enacted after the war in Gaza began has caused prisoners to suffer malnutrition and starvation.
Last year, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the prison system, boasted that he had reduced the conditions of security prisoners to what he described as the bare minimum required by Israeli law.
In Sunday’s ruling, the panel of three justices ruled unanimously that the state is legally obligated to provide prisoners with enough food to ensure “a basic level of existence.”
In the 2-1 ruling, the justices said they found “indications that the current food supply to prisoners does not sufficiently guarantee compliance with the legal standard.” They said they had found “real doubts” that prisoners were eating properly, and ordered the prison service to “take steps to ensure the supply of food that allows for basic subsistence conditions in accordance with the law.”
Ben-Gvir, who leads a small far-right ultranationalist party, lashed out at the ruling, saying that while Israeli hostages in Gaza have no one to help them, Israel’s Supreme Court “to our disgrace” is defending Hamas militants. He said the policy of providing prisoners with “the most minimal conditions stipulated by the law” would continue unchanged.
ACRI called for the verdict to be implemented immediately. In a post on X, it said the prison service has “turned Israeli prisons into torture camps.”
“A state does not starve people,” it said. “People do not starve people — no matter what they have done.”