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SvennoJ on 18 July 2025
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CAIR urges probe into Israel’s use of ‘drone missiles packed with nails’

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is urging the UN and the International Criminal Court to launch an immediate war crimes investigation into our earlier reporting that Israeli forces have used “drone missiles packed with nails” in their attacks on Gaza.

“The intentional targeting of civilians with weapons designed to maximize injuries and death is not only morally indefensible, but it is also a clear violation of international humanitarian law,” CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported earlier today that Palestinian children had been transported to hospital with injuries caused by flying shrapnel.

“These drone missiles are packed with nails, and when they explode, pieces of metal fly at a very high speed, piercing bodies, causing internal injuries that lead to severe bleeding, which causes the majority of deaths among those attacked by drone missiles,” Mahmoud said.


US lawmakers call on Israel to abandon West Bank demolition plans

Democratic Senators Peter Welch, Jeff Merkley, Chris Van Hollen, and Bernie Sanders have issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s longstanding plan to destroy and force out Palestinian communities in Masafer Yatta, in the occupied West Bank’s South Hebron Hills.

“We are deeply alarmed by the Israeli Higher Planning Council’s decision to reject all planning and zoning requests in Masafer Yatta that do not align” with the Israeli forces’ training needs, the US lawmakers said, according to a Vermont Business Magazine report.

Israel has said it plans to turn the Masafer Yatta area into an “open fire” zone for its military – a plan that local Palestinian community members have been fighting for years. Residents face frequent attacks by Israeli settlers and troops in the area.

For more on the fight in the South Hebron Hills, check out our story here.

UK condemns Israel’s renewed E1 settlement plans as a violation of international law

The UK strongly opposes the announcement by Israel of its intention to renew plans for construction in the E1 area in the occupied West Bank, a move that would split the Palestinian territory.

“The UK strongly opposes the announcement by the central planning bureau of Israel’s Civil Administration to reintroduce the E1 settlement plan, frozen since 2021,” said a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson.

The plan would include the construction of more than 3,000 houses to the east of Jerusalem, dividing a future Palestinian state in two, read the statement, and “marking a flagrant breach of international law.”