UN official highlights report of summary executions by Israeli forces
UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese has shared a report from Al Jazeera in which a Palestinian family says they saw Israeli soldiers execute a group of more than a dozen men.
“To Western governments: it is so disturbing to see you not condemning the horrendous, unspeakable crimes that ISR occupation commits in Gaza daily, IN THE SAME WAY as you did for the crimes on #Oct7,” Albanese said in a social media post on Saturday.
“The West’s double standards is what got us here. Time to end it.”
Belgium shows support for South Africa’s ICJ case
Caroline Gennez, the country’s minister of development cooperation, says on X that if the International Court of Justice issues a ruling calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, Belgium will “fully support it”.
The court is now deliberating on the case, brought by South Africa against Israel, alleging genocide in the prosecution of the war in Gaza.
US personnel injured in ballistic missile attack on Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, US officials say
US personnel were injured in a ballistic missile attack on Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, two US officials said. The attack resulted in minor injuries, two officials said, though it was not immediately clear how many personnel had been injured.
The Saturday attack appears to be the second time ballistic missiles have been used to target US and coalition forces in Iraq since October 7, 2023, when Iran-backed Shia militias began launching attacks on coalition bases after the beginning of the war in Gaza. The US and coalition forces have come under attack more than 140 times in Iraq and Syria since then, as Iranian-backed Shia militias have launched repeated drone and rockets. The use of more powerful ballistic missiles — far rarer than rockets or one-way attack drones — comes at a time of increased tension in the region as the war passes 100 days.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iran-backed militia group, claimed responsibility for the missile attack. The group emphasized in a statement Saturday its commitment to resisting American "occupation forces" in the region and cited the attack as a response to what they referred to as the "Zionist entity’s massacres" against the Palestinian people in Gaza. US forces in Iraq and Syria operate as part of the coalition to defeat ISIS.
