Bird flu viral fragments found in pasteurized milk: US officials

By

 AFP

US health authorities said Tuesday they had discovered fragments of bird flu virus in the nation’s pasteurized cow milk supply during the course of a large study, but the samples likely posed no health risk to humans.

An outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has spread among dairy cattle herds throughout the country and infected one human, who had mild symptoms.  

Though the H5N1 strain of HPAI has killed millions of poultry during the current wave, affected cows have not fallen severely sick. 

The Food and Drug Administration said in a statement that during the course of a national survey, it had discovered viral particles in “milk from affected animals, in the processing system, and on the shelves.”

But the samples were run through a highly sensitive quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) test, which is able to detect remnants of the pathogen’s genetic material even if the virus itself was inactivated by the heat of the pasteurization process. 

“The pasteurization process has served public health well for more than 100 years,” the agency said.  

“Even if virus is detected in raw milk, pasteurization is generally expected to eliminate pathogens to a level that does not pose a risk to consumer health.”

The agency’s scientists are working to study positive samples further using “egg viability studies.” These involve injecting an embryonated chicken egg with a sample and then seeing whether any active virus replicates.

“Additional analysis is underway of milk on store shelves across the country in addition to work to evaluate any potential differentiation for various types of dairy products (e.g., whole milk, cream),” the FDA added.

Bird flu was previously detected in raw milk, which health authorities have long advised against consuming.

US FDA says commercial milk safe despite bird flu virus presence

The FDA says commercial milk remains safe for drinking as it is pasteurised and thus harmful bacteria and viruses are killed.

PUBLISHED ONAPRIL 24, 2024 


WASHINGTON — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on April 23 that it had found bird flu virus particles in some samples of pasteurised milk but said commercial milk supply remains safe.

The FDA said that because the milk is pasteurised, it remains safe for human consumption as the process kills harmful bacteria and viruses by heating the milk to a specific temperature.

“Based on available information, pasteurisation is likely to inactivate the virus, however, the process is not expected to remove the presence of viral particles,” the FDA added.

The agency said it has been evaluating milk from affected animals, in the processing system and on the shelves. It said it is completing a large representative national sample to understand the extent of the findings.

The FDA said it is further assessing any positive findings through egg inoculation tests, which it described as a gold standard for determining viable virus.

The agency said it has seen nothing that would change its assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe, adding that results from multiple studies will be made available in the next few days to weeks.

“Sound science is critical to informing public health decisions like those made by the FDA related to food safety, and we take this current situation and the safety of the milk supply very seriously,” the agency said.

There are confirmed cases of bird flu in dairy cattle in eight US states, according to the US Department of Agriculture.


The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said one human case has been linked to the outbreak in dairy cows. The case was reported in Texas on April 1.

ALSO READ: Wider bird flu spread raises concern for humans, animal health body says

PHOTO: Unsplash

Source: Reuters

Colombian court recognizes environmental refugees

By

 AFP

A Colombian court has ruled that environmental calamities, sudden or gradual, can legally be considered a cause of forced displacement, placing obligations on the state to shield and aid affected citizens.

The Constitutional Court found that people can be forcibly displaced by “sudden environmental catastrophes or processes of gradual environmental deterioration such as climate change, deforestation or ocean acidification,” according to a statement it issued late Monday.

Colombia already has millions of people displaced by six decades of armed conflict.

In a groundbreaking case for Latin America, the court ruled in an application by a rural couple who said they had been forced from their land by the Bojaba river in the eastern Arauca department repeatedly bursting its banks.

The damage caused meant they were never able to return home, the couple contended, and said authorities had provided “insufficient” aid.

The court found the state had “obligations before, during and after displacement due to environmental factors.”

These included organizing emergency evacuation drills and providing space to relocate people affected by an environmental disaster.

The court ruled the state must assure the couple’s fundamental rights, just it has for the more than 8.6 million people displaced by armed conflict — many of whom fled the countryside to find refuge in the cities.

Experts say droughts and floods that are expected to worsen with climate change threaten the natural wealth of Colombia, one of the world’s most biodiverse countries.

 

North Korea Stokes Arms Concerns by Sending a Rare Delegation to Iran

Soo-Hyang Choi and Jon Herskovitz, Bloomberg News

A North Korean national flag. , Photographer: Samsul Said/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- North Korea sent its highest-level delegation to Iran in about five years as the US raised concerns that arms sales from Pyongyang and Tehran have helped fuel conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In a rare public report of the trip, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a one-sentence dispatch the North Korean delegation led by External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong Ho left Pyongyang for Tehran on Tuesday. Yun had traveled to Russia earlier in April and has featured prominently in state media as a key player in trade between Pyongyang and Moscow.

While North Korea is unlikely to disclose further details about the trip, it highlights the military cooperation between the two countries and their defiance of the US over the years. North Korea last sent a top member of its parliament to Iran in 2019. 

“The Ukraine war has paved the way for cooperation between North Korea and Iran,” said Ban Kil Joo, a research professor at Korea University. “North Korea is sending an economic delegation now but it will be the beginning of a wider military cooperation to follow between the two.”

The US has long accused Iran and North Korea of military cooperation in the missile and nuclear fields that ran from the 1980s and into the first decade of the 2000s. It had tapered off in recent years due to sanctions as well as the development of domestic weapons production in both countries.

Washington has charged the two with sanctions violations in sending arms to Russia for its war in Ukraine, During a visit to South Korea this month, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in return for the arms, Moscow is offering support that aids the weapons programs of both North Korea and Iran.

The State Department’s senior official for North Korea, Jung Pak, said in an interview this week that there is now a real risk the high-profile nature of North Korea’s relationship with Russia could make its armaments more appealing to other groups around the world.

Read more: Russia’s North Korea Embrace Could Embolden Kim Jong Un, US Says

South Korea’s spy agency issued a rare warning last week about cooperation between Iran and North Korea, saying there is a possibility Pyongyang could have helped Iran in its attack on Israel. South Korea previously said North Korean weapons have been used by Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group, against Israel as the war in Gaza drags on.

While there have not been any specific allegations of recent arms transfers between North Korea and Iran, there are items that each could want from the other. Energy-strained North Korea could benefit from Iran’s oil and might be looking to acquire drones like those Tehran has sent to Russia, arms experts Lami Kim said, adding Iran’s nuclear program could receive a boost from North Korean technology.

“Further military cooperation between the two countries is very likely,” said Kim, a professor of security studies at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. 

For its part — and despite a recent leak of hacked documents that indicates otherwise — Iran has repeatedly denied selling Russia drones for use in Ukraine but said it sent a “small number” before the February 2022 invasion.

Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the arms transfers accusations despite a multitude of satellite photos released by research groups and the US government showing the flow of weapons from North Korea to Russia and then to munitions dumps near the border with Ukraine.

“It appears to be part of broader efforts to build a coalition against the US,” said Koo Gi Yeon, a research professor at Seoul National University’s Asia Center, referring to the trip by the North Korean delegation.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

North Korea sends a delegation to Iran in a

 growing effort to break its diplomatic

 isolation


 In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, meets Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People’s Congress of China, in Pyongyang, North Korea on April 13, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)Read More

 Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 2, 2019. A high-level North Korean economic delegation is traveling to Iran for what would be the two countries’ first talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the heavily sanctioned nations align in face of their separate confrontations with the United States. (Jorge Silva/Pool Photo via AP, File)

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a press conference at the American Diplomacy House in Seoul, on April 17, 2024. A high-level North Korean economic delegation is traveling to Iran for what would be the two countries’ first talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the heavily sanctioned nations align in face of their separate confrontations with the United States. (Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP, File)

BY KIM TONG-HYUNG
April 24, 2024

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A high-level North Korean economic delegation was on its way to Iran, the North’s state media said Wednesday, for what would be the two countries’ first known talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Embracing the idea of a “new Cold War,” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is pushing to build up cooperation with countries confronting the United States, as his intensified weapons tests prompted the U.S. and South Korea to expand their military drills.

Pyongyang’s delegation led by Yun Jung Ho, North Korea’s minster of external economic relations, flew out Tuesday for the trip to Iran, official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday. State media did not immediately provide further details.

Pyongyang and Tehran are among the few governments in the world that support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and both have been accused of providing Russia with military equipment.

The last known time North Korea sent senior officials to Iran was in August 2019, when a group led by Pak Chol Min, vice chair of Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament, made a weeklong visit. The two countries had active diplomatic exchanges until North Korea sealed its borders in an effort to stave off the pandemic, before a cautious reopening in 2023.


READ MORE


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US envoy to the UN vows support for families of Japanese who were abducted and taken to North Korea

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles affairs with the North, did not immediately comment Yun’s visit to Iran.

North Korea has made efforts for months to boost the visibility of its ties with Russia and China as Kim attempts to break out of diplomatic isolation and join a united front against the U.S.

In 2023, Kim visited Russia’s Far East for a rare summit with Putin, which highlighted the countries’ expanding military cooperation, including the North’s alleged transfers of artillery shells, missiles, and other munitions to Russia.

Earlier this month, Kim hosted top Chinese official Zhao Leji, who heads the ceremonial parliament and ranks third in the ruling Communist Party hierarchy. It was the highest-level meeting between the countries in years.

On Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s powerful sister, slammed the latest rounds of U.S.-South Korean joint military drills and insisted that the allies will never break the North’s determination to build up “our overwhelming and most powerful military muscle.”

The statement comes a week after U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield called for the international community to be alert to the possibility of military cooperation between North Korea, Iran and Russia. Iran has been accused of providing drones to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine.

“We are concerned about … the Iranians providing weapons to the Russians and the Russians also supporting efforts to help (North Korea) expand their own research into developing weapons. And certainly, that would be the case with Iran as well,” she said.

France arrests eight in PKK financing probe

DOING TURKEY'S DIRTY WORK

By

 AFP

French police arrested eight men on Tuesday as part of an investigation into the finances of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), banned as a terror organisation by Turkey and its Western allies, anti-terrorism prosecutors told AFP.

The arrests took place in the Paris region and in southern France, the PNAT anti-terror unit said.

The PKK has been designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

French prosecutors suspect the eight of preparing and financing terrorist acts, and of conspiring to extort, or attempt to extort, funds to finance a terrorist organistion between 2020 and 2024, the PNAT said.

Investigators believe the eight to be connected to a campaign to collect funds from Kurdish business people and other Kurds in France, a source close to the case added.

Police can hold the suspects for up to 96 hours for questioning, the source said.

Another source said the funds were destined for use in Belgium, where police on Monday raided Kurdish-run media as part of a probe undertaken at the request of a French anti-terror judge, the PNAT said.

The PKK has waged a decades-long insurgency for greater autonomy for the Kurdish minority of Turkey in the southeast of the country, in a standoff with the Ankara government that remains unresolved to this day.

 

Starbucks set for talks with unionized US stores

By

 AFP

Starbucks is set to hold talks with labor representatives from stores that have voted to unionize in a key step towards reaching contracts, both sides said Tuesday.

The labor group, Workers United, plans to send representatives of 425 stores that have voted to unionize in the United State to the meetings beginning Wednesday, the group said. 

The goal is to establish a “foundational framework” on key issues such as wages, scheduling policy and access to health care, the union said.

The talks “mark a major step forward towards establishing strong contracts for more than 10,000 and growing Starbucks Workers United partners who have won their union, and with it, a seat at the table to build a stronger Starbucks,” the union said.

While proposals affecting all employees at unionized stores can be raised, the contracts will be negotiated by each individual store and ratified accordingly, Starbucks said.

“This exciting progress on the foundational framework, announced in February, is intended to achieve both collective bargaining agreements for represented stores and resolve litigation, including that related to the Starbucks brand,” Starbucks said.

“This is a positive step toward achieving our December goal of reaching ratified contracts for represented stores in 2024.”

Starbucks has nearly 18,000 stores in North America, about 60 percent which are company owned and the rest of which are licensed, according to a securities filing. 

The push by Workers United garnered momentum after an initial successful campaign in Buffalo, New York in late 2021.

However, the two sides struggled to make headway on contract talks, leading to criticism of the coffee giant by labor backers such as Vermont progressive Senator Bernie Sanders. 

In February Starbucks announced it was providing benefits to employees at unionized stores that had been added at non-union stores in the wake of the labor campaign, including credit card tipping.

The addition of these benefits was a “sign of good faith,” Starbucks said in the February 27 announcement.

The company added in the February statement that Laxman Narasimhan, who became chief executive in April 2023, had a goal of “restitching the fabric of the green apron for all partners at Starbucks.” 

Jamaica formally recognizes Palestine as a state

Decision announced by Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith following debate in Cabinet

Laura Gamba |24.04.2024 -


BOGOTA, Colombia

Jamaica decided to officially recognize the State of Palestine on Tuesday following deliberations in the Cabinet the previous day.

“Jamaica continues to advocate for a two-state solution as the only viable option to resolve the longstanding (Israeli-Palestinian) conflict, guarantee the security of Israel and uphold the dignity and rights of Palestinians. By recognizing the State of Palestine, Jamaica strengthens its advocacy towards a peaceful solution,” Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson Smith said in a press statement.

“The decision is in line with Jamaica’s strong commitment to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, which aim to establish mutual respect and peaceful coexistence among States, as well as the recognition of the right of peoples to self-determination,” she added.

​​Johnson Smith reaffirmed Jamaica’s support for a cease-fire, the release of hostages and access to humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza.

“Jamaica continues to support all efforts for de-escalation and the establishment of lasting peace in the region, imploring all parties to consider the dire consequences of further conflict and commit to diplomatic solutions ensuring the safety and sovereignty of all,” she said.

Jamaica now joins around 140 UN member states and the 11 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries that have recognized the State of Palestine, including Ecuador, Egypt, India, Iceland, Romania, Poland, Burundi, Thailand, Tanzania, Iraq, Sweden, Russia, Guyana, Haiti, Suriname, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

CARICOM said on Oct. 9 last year that it “abhorred the attacks in Israel and the counter attacks in the Palestinian territory of Gaza” and 12 of its countries voted for a UN General Assembly resolution supporting “the ongoing efforts of the UN towards a two-state solution as the best way to achieve comprehensive peace, security and tranquility between Israel and Palestine.”

“The ongoing harsh conditions under which the Palestinians live in veritable colonialism and Israel’s sense of insecurity will contribute to a cycle of violence until those realities are definitively addressed,” a CARICOM statement said.

Jamaica's Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, had showed solidarity with Israel and called for a cessation of hostilities and a return to peace within internationally agreed guidelines, but he refrained from commenting on Israel's attacks on Gaza. ​​​​​​​

Exclusive: Israel Military Purge Escalating, Will Topple More Major Officials

‘Avalanche’ of exits to include defense minister, IDF commander, Shin Bet chief, sources tell SpyTalk

JONATHAN BRODER
APR 23, 2024

SpyTalk

Gone: IDF Military Intelligence chief Aharon Haliva, shown here speaking at a Tel Aviv conference in 2022 (photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)

A major purge of senior Israeli military and intelligence officials is underway over their failure to prevent the devastating Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

On Monday, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, the head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intelligence branch, resigned. He’s the first senior Israeli official to step down for failing to prevent the assault, in which Hamas militants killed some 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 others hostage in the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history

But he won’t be the last. As military investigators deepen their internal probe into the events surrounding the Oct. 7 attack, many others in the IDF’s intelligence branch, as well as Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency, are expected to leave their posts in disgrace, knowledgeable Israeli sources told SpyTalk.

“The intelligence directorate under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with,” Haliva wrote in his anguished resignation letter. “I carry that black day with me ever since, day after day, night after night. I will carry the horrible pain of the war with me forever.”

Haliva’s resignation is expected to set off an avalanche of departures from the top echelons of Israel’s military and intelligence establishments, these sources say. Others who are expected to resign in the following months include Defense Minister Yoav Gallant; Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi, the IDF’s top commanding officer; and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. All have publicly accepted responsibility for the Oct. 7 failure. But have continued to serve amid the demands of Israel’s war against Hamas, now in its sixth month.

“It’s not clear how quickly it will happen, but I’m sure more resignations will come,” Yossi Kucik, who served as chief of staff for former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, said in a telephone interview.

According to Amos Harel, the military correspondent for the daily Ha’aretz, others who played a role in the failures of Oct. 7 are poised to leave their posts, including several senior Shin Bet officials, the current and previous commander of IDF’s Southern command, the head of the IDF’s Operations Division, and the commander of the Gaza Division

Shin Bet boss Ronen Bar, seen here exiting his home in Oct. 2021, is expected to resign soon, sources tell SpyTalk. (Flash90 photo)

But a former senior government official says that lawyers for these officers are urging them to remain in their posts until the current ruling rightwing coalition leaves office and a new, more moderate government takes office.

“The problem is that if these people resign now, Bibi will replace them with radical rightwing ass-kissers,” the former senior official told SpyTalk, using Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nickname. The former official asked to remain anonymous to discuss sensitive matters.

Israel’s next elections are in 2026, but many expect Netanyahu’s government will fall before then, forcing a new vote.

Eavesdropping Unit Purge

Earlier this month, the commander of Israel’s vaunted Unit 8200, the IDF’s powerful electronic and cyber surveillance agency, comparable to the U.S. National Security Agency, was forced to step down.

The resignation of Brig. Gen. Yossi Sariel, whose identity had been a closely guarded secret, followed an April 5 report in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, which revealed that a book about the military uses of artificial intelligence that Sariel published on Amazon in 2021, using only the author’s initials “Y.S.”, had left a digital trail that led to a private Google account created in his name. The paper said the trail also revealed Sariel’s “unique ID and links to the account's maps and calendar profiles.”

An IDF spokesman confirmed the unmasking of Sariel, describing the book’s exposure of the spy chief’s identity as “a mistake.” But even before this security lapse, Unit 8200 under Sariel’s command had come under fire for its failure to foresee and prevent the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

Also on Monday, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox, the commander of Israel’s central command, which includes the occupied West Bank, notified his superiors that he would step down at the end of his three-year term in August. According to Israeli press reports, Fox said he told close associates that he saw himself as part of the IDF General Staff’s failures on Oct. 7 and was therefore honor-bound to step down.

Fox’s command has come under scrutiny by IDF investigators probing the events surrounding the Hamas attack. These included several instances in which IDF soldiers under Fox stood by or participated in violent attacks on West Bank Palestinian civilians.

Such human rights violations by Israeli forces in the West Bank, as well as others in Gaza, where Israel’s war against Hamas has killed some 34,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, were included in the State Department’s annual human rights report, which was released on Monday.

In what would be an unprecedented move, the Biden administration is expected to slap sanctions on a special IDF unit for human rights violations in the West Bank, Axios reported last week. The sanctions would prohibit the unit from receiving any kind of U.S. military assistance or training under a 1997 law that prohibits U.S. foreign and military aid to foreign military, security and police units that have committed human rights violations.

The unit, called Netzah Yehuda, is a battalion made up of ultra-orthodox men and radical right wing settlers who were deemed unacceptable by all other IDF combat units.

The State Department began its investigation of Netzah Yehuda in 2022 after its soldiers were involved in numerous violent incidents against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. In one incident, Netzah Yehuda soldiers arrested Omar Assad, an 80-year-old Palestinian American, at a checkpoint near his village, claiming he refused to be searched. In response, the soldiers handcuffed and gagged him, then left him on the ground in the cold. He was found dead a few hours later.

Months ago, a State Department team investigating alleged foreign human rights violations based on the 1997 law recommended that Secretary of State Antony Blinken sanction several Israel military and police units that operate in the West Bank. Asked about the team's recommendations at a news conference in Italy last Friday, Blinken said he had reached determinations based on the team’s investigation and that they would be made public “in the days ahead.”


SpyTalk is a reader-supported publication.

UN raises 'war crime' alert as 300+ bodies are found in Gaza mass graves

Discovery of hundreds of bodies of Palestinians at Nasser and Shifa hospitals, with some victims stripped naked and their hands tied, sparks renewed concerns from UN, with rights chief calling the situation in Israel-besieged Gaza "beyond warfare".


Reports continue to emerge about mass graves in Gaza, prompting renewed concerns about possible war crimes amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes, the UN human rights office, OHCHR said. / Photo : AA

Reports of mass graves found in Gaza over the weekend at Nasser Hospital and Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in which Palestinian victims were found stripped naked with their hands tied, according to the UN, have prompted renewed concerns about possible war crimes by Israel amid its ongoing invasion of the besieged enclave.

"The intentional killing of civilians, detainees, and others who are hors de combat [someone who cannot fight back] is a war crime," UN rights chief Volker Turk said on Tuesday.

"Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found tied with their hands…tied and stripped of their clothes," Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, added.

The US has now sought information from Israel on "incredibly troubling" reports of mass graves in the Palestinian enclave where Israel's invasion from land, air and sea continued on day 200.

The UN outcry came after the recovery of hundreds of bodies "buried deep in the ground and covered with waste" at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, central Gaza, and at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the north.

UN rights chief noted that he was "horrified" by the destruction of Nasser and Al Shifa medical facilities in Gaza and reports of mass graves containing hundreds of bodies there, according to a spokesperson.

At least 30 bodies of Palestinians were recovered from two mass graves at Al Shifa Hospital last week following a 14-day Israeli siege on the hospital, the largest in Gaza, in March. The hospital was largely reduced to ruins after Israel withdrew April 1.

At least 283 corpses were found in a mass grave at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after the Israeli army withdrew from the city April 7 following a four-month ground invasion, according to Gaza's civil defence agency.

Shamdasani, the spokesperson for the UN's human rights agency, said the rights organisation was raising the alarm because multiple bodies had been discovered.

"Some of them had their hands tied, which of course indicates serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, and these need to be subjected to further investigations," Shamdasani said.

She added that the UN human rights office was working on corroborating Palestinian officials' reports, including one that 30 bodies were found at Al Shifa.

Reuters news agency reporters verified emergency workers digging corpses out of the ground in the ruins of Nasser hospital.

'Unspeakable suffering'

Gaza's Civil Emergency Service said on Tuesday a total of 310 bodies had been found at one mass grave at Nasser so far and that two other graves had been identified, but not yet excavated.

Turk, who was represented by Shamdasani at a UN press briefing, also decried Israeli strikes on Gaza in recent days, which he said had killed mostly women and children.

Shamdasani said the UN human rights office had received reports that some of the victims in another Gaza area Nur Shams had been killed in apparent extrajudicial executions.

"The latest images of a premature child taken from the womb of her dying mother, of the adjacent two houses where 15 children and five women were killed, this is beyond warfare," UN rights chief said in a statement.

The High Commissioner decried the "unspeakable suffering" caused by months of warfare and appealed once again for "the resulting misery and destruction, starvation and disease and the risk of wider conflict" to end.

UN has reiterated the call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all remaining hostages taken from Israel and those held in arbitrary detention, and the unfettered flow of humanitarian aid.

Israel has waged a brutal military invasion on the Palestinian territory since an October last year following cross-fence raid by Hamas resistance fighters. The hours-long raid and Israeli military's haphazard reaction resulted in the killings of more than 1,130 people, Israeli officials and local media say.

Palestinian fighters took more than 250 hostages and presently 130 remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli army says are dead, some of them killed in indiscriminate Israeli strikes.

Hamas says its October 7 blitz on Israel that surprised its arch-enemy was orchestrated in response to Israeli attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque, illegal settler violence in occupied West Bank and to put Palestine question "back on the table."

Israel has since then killed at least 34,200 Palestinians — 70 percent of them babies, women and children — and wounded more than 77,000 others, while thousands are feared buried under debris of homes annihilated in Israeli bombardment.

The Israeli war, now in its 200th day, has pushed 85 percent of Gaza's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 percent of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whichhas ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said recently there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

France imposing restrictions on expressions of solidarity with Gaza: Amnesty

Limitations recently imposed on public displays of solidarity as well as cancellation or prohibition of events, says rights group

Esra Taskin |24.04.2024 -


PARIS

France has been imposing restrictions on expressions of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, human rights group Amnesty International said Tuesday.

The statement by Amnesty’s local branch said recent weeks have witnessed a series of limitations imposed on public displays of solidarity coupled with the cancellation or prohibition of events, while individuals face accusations of disseminating "terrorist propaganda."

One such instance cited by Amnesty was the banning of a scheduled conference on Palestine organized by the Free Palestine Association in the city of Lille earlier this month.

French authorities justified the ban, citing concerns over "terrorist propaganda," a move condemned by rights advocates as an attempt to stifle legitimate discourse on the Palestinian cause.

Amid these developments, Mathilde Panot, a senior Member of Parliament for France's La France Insoumise (LFI) party known for her vocal support for Palestine, revealed that she had been summoned for questioning on charges of "terrorist propaganda."

Panot, undeterred by the intimidation tactics, reaffirmed her commitment to standing against the genocide faced by the Palestinian people.

Israel has waged a sweeping offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 which killed around 1,200 people.

At least 34,151 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 77,000 have been injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement as acute shortages of food plunge Gaza into famine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Over 3,660 Palestinians being held in Israel under administrative detention: Rights groups

Detainees include 22 women and more than 40 children

Awad Rajoob |24.04.2024 - 



RAMALLAH, Palestine

More than 3,660 Palestinians are being held under administrative detention in Israeli prisons, the highest number since 1967, prisoners' rights groups said Tuesday.

"As of the beginning of April, more than 3,660 Palestinians were being held under administrative detention in Israeli occupation prisons, marking 200 days since the continuous aggression in Gaza,'' the Commission of Detainees' Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society said in a joint statement.

The statement pointed out that "the number of detainees was around 1,320 before the Hamas Oct. 7 attack.''

Administrative detention is imprisonment under Israeli military order without charges being filed, lasting for six months and renewable.

The current number of Palestinians who are under administrative detention is "the highest since 1967 and since human rights institutions began documenting data on administrative detainees during the years of the Stone (First) Intifada in 1987,'' Amani Sarahneh, the media coordinator for the Prisoners Club, told Anadolu.

"Among the current detainees are 22 women and more than 40 children,” the statement added.

The statement also noted that "the number of new or renewed administrative detention orders issued after Oct. 7 reached 5,210."

At least 9,500 Palestinians, including 80 women and more than 200 children, are behind bars at Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian figures.

Tensions have been high across the occupied West Bank since Israel launched a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip which has killed nearly 34,200 people following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

At least 487 Palestinians have since been killed and over 4,800 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied West Bank.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul