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UN expert condemns alleged sexual assault of Palestinian by Israeli soldiers
The special rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, has responded to the alleged gang rape by Israeli soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention facility in the Negev Desert in southern Israel, calling the case “particularly gruesome”.
“There are no circumstances in which sexual torture or sexualised inhuman and degrading treatment can be justified,” Edwards said in a statement. “This alleged sexual torture involving multiple offenders is particularly gruesome.”
A video of the alleged attack, which has been verified by Al Jazeera, shows the prisoner being selected from a larger group lying bound on the floor. The victim is then escorted to a wall, where guards, using their shields to hide their identity from the camera, proceed to rape him.
‘Inappropriate’, France says of Israeli expectations for allies to carry out attacks if Iran strikes
France’s top diplomat describes as “inappropriate” a statement from his Israeli counterpart that his country expects support from its allies “in attacking” Iran if Tehran attacks Israel.
Iran and its regional allies have promised retaliation for high-profile killings late last month blamed on Israel, including an attack in Tehran that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, which Israel has not claimed responsibility for.
“If Iran attacks, we expect the coalition to join Israel not only in defence but also in attacking significant targets in Iran,” Katz told his visiting counterparts, France’s Sejourne and Britain’s Lammy, according to a statement from the Israeli foreign minister’s office.
Sejourne said it would be “inappropriate” to discuss responding to any attack while diplomacy is under way to stop it from happening.
“It would be inappropriate to speak of an Israeli response while we work towards a diplomatic solution. … We are working to prevent Iranian retaliation,” he told reporters in Jerusalem.
OIC condemns escalating violence by Israeli settlers
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has condemned the escalating violence and crimes committed by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their properties in the occupied West Bank.
In a statement, the OIC “strongly condemned the organised terrorism and daily crimes committed by extremist settler gangs, under the protection of Israeli occupation forces”.
On Thursday evening, Israeli settlers killed a Palestinian citizen, seriously injured another, and set fire to four homes and six vehicles owned by Palestinians during an incursion into the village of Jit.
OIC said it considered these assaults as “part of the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, their land, and their holy sites, in blatant violation of international humanitarian law”.
OIC held Israel “fully responsible for the consequences of the continued perpetration of these heinous crimes”.
