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/node/2614528/middle-east
UN rights chief: Mounting evidence of Israeli war crimes, warns of genocidal rhetoric in Gaza
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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk speaks during a press conference in Colombo on June 26, 2025. (File/AFP)
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Updated 8 min 22 sec ago
Arab News
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 āmounting evidenceā 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 āshredded with virtually no accountabilityā
Updated 8 min 22 sec ago
Arab News
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 āhorrified by the open use of genocidal rhetoric, and the disgraceful dehumanization of Palestinians by senior Israeli officials,ā describing Gaza as āalready a graveyard.ā
Türk condemned what he called Israelās āmass killing of Palestinian civilians, the obstruction of humanitarian aid, and the commission of war crimes,ā adding that such acts were āshocking the worldās conscience.ā He warned that ārules of war are being shredded ā with virtually no accountability.ā
The UN rights chief said the situation in Gaza reflected a broader erosion of international law, where āthe glorification of violence is coupled with disturbing trends that undercut our rights across the world.ā 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 āunfathomableā and urging decisive action to prevent further atrocities.
(With AFP and Reuters)
Shooting attack in east Jerusalem, injuries reported: Israel emergency service/node/2614526/middle-east
Shooting attack in east Jerusalem, injuries reported: Israel emergency service
Updated 14 sec ago
AFP
JERUSALEM: Israelās emergency service said it received reports of more than a dozen people injured by gunfire Monday at a road junction in east Jerusalem, with police saying the assailants had been āneutralized.ā āAt 10:13 am (0713 GMT), reports were received... about approximately 15 injured, apparently from gunfire, at the Ramot Junction on Yigal Yadin Street in Jerusalem,ā a statement by Magen David Adom said. It later said paramedics and ambulance crews were providing medical treatment and evacuating five āseriously wounded peopleā who had been sent to hospitals in Jerusalem. āSeveral other victims, with varying degrees of injury, are also being treated at the scene,ā it added. Police said preliminary reports indicated āseveral people were injured as a result of the shooting, and the terrorists were neutralized.ā Speaking on Israelās Channel 12, a police spokesperson said there were two assailants involved in the attack. Israeli media reported that the attack had targeted a bus, among other targets.
Two Turkish police officers killed in police station attack, NTV says/node/2614522/middle-east
Two Turkish police officers killed in police station attack, NTV says
The attacker, reported to be 16 years old, opened fire on the Salih Isgoren police station
Updated 51 min 10 sec ago
Reuters
ANKARA: Two police officers were killed and another was wounded in an armed attack on a police station in the western Turkish city of Izmir, broadcaster NTV reported on Monday.
The attacker, reported to be 16 years old, opened fire on the Salih Isgoren police station in the Balcova district, it said. No further details were immediately available.
Israel defense minister warns Hamas to surrender or be āannihilatedā
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Hamas on Monday to lay down its arms or face the destruction of Gaza and its own annihilation
Updated 08 September 2025
AFP
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.
āThis 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 ā or Gaza will be destroyed and you will be annihilated,ā Katz said on X shortly after US President Donald Trump issued what he described as a ālast warningā to Hamas to release the hostages still held in Gaza.
Israelās 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 Sundayās ruling, the panel of three justices ruled unanimously that the state is legally obligated to provide prisoners with enough food to ensure āa basic level of existenceā
Updated 08 September 2025
AP
TEL AVIV, Israel: Israelās 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 countryās highest court ruled against the governmentās 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)
Sundayās 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 Sundayās ruling, the panel of three justices ruled unanimously that the state is legally obligated to provide prisoners with enough food to ensure āa basic level of existence.ā
In the 2-1 ruling, the justices said they found āindications that the current food supply to prisoners does not sufficiently guarantee compliance with the legal standard.ā They said they had found āreal doubtsā that prisoners were eating properly, and ordered the prison service to ātake steps to ensure the supply of food that allows for basic subsistence conditions in accordance with the law.ā
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, Israelās Supreme Court āto our disgraceā is defending Hamas militants. He said the policy of providing prisoners with āthe most minimal conditions stipulated by the lawā would continue unchanged.
ACRI called for the verdict to be implemented immediately. In a post on X, it said the prison service has āturned Israeli prisons into torture camps.ā
āA state does not starve people,ā it said. āPeople do not starve people ā no matter what they have done.ā
Turkiyeās main opposition calls for rallies after police barricadeĀ IstanbulĀ office
The latest moves against the CHP began on Tuesday when a court ordered the removal of the partyās Istanbul provincial head over alleged irregularities in a 2023 congress
Updated 08 September 2025
Reuters
ISTANBUL: Turkiyeās main opposition CHP called on citizens and residents of Istanbul to gather on Sunday, after police set up barricades in areas around its Istanbul headquarters in what the party leader called a āsiege.ā
The Republican Peopleās Party (CHP) has been the target of a months-long legal crackdown, which has swept up hundreds of its members ā including Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, President Tayyip Erdoganās main political rival ā whose March arrest set off Turkiyeās largest street protests in a decade.
The CHP has denied all accusations against it and said the legal measures are politicized attempts at eliminating electoral threats against Erdogan and weakening the opposition.
The latest moves against the CHP began on Tuesday when a court ordered the removal of the partyās Istanbul provincial head over alleged irregularities in a 2023 congress.
Speaking at a CHP event in Istanbul, party chairman Ozgur Ozel called on Turks to gather and demonstrate against the court decision and the crackdown against his party, as well as the police measures to set up barricades around the headquarters and restrict public access to it.
āFrom here, I invite all democrats and CHP members whom my words and voice reach to, to protect the home of Ataturk in Istanbul,ā he said, referring to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkiyeās founder.
The CHPās youth wing also called on all Istanbul residents to gather at the partyās provincial headquarters at 2000 GMT. The party will also organize another demonstration on Monday at 0700 GMT, it said.