Rights group says Hamas rockets at Israel a clear war crime

Rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israel, in Gaza City, Aug. 12, 2021. (File/AP)
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Updated 12 August 2021
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Rights group says Hamas rockets at Israel a clear war crime

  • Human Rights Watch investigated rocket attacks that killed 12 in Israel and seven Palestinians in Gaza Strip
  • The war erupted on May 10 after Hamas fired rockets toward Jerusalem in support of Palestinian protests

JERUSALEM: Human Rights Watch on Thursday said the thousands of rockets fired by the Palestinian militant group Hamas during the 11-day war with Israel “violated the laws of war and amount to war crimes.”

The New York-based rights group investigated Hamas rocket attacks that killed 12 civilians in Israel, as well as a misfired rocket that killed seven Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip.

HRW has repeatedly come under fire by Israel and its supporters over reports accusing Israel of war crimes against the Palestinians as well as apartheid and persecution. But in this report it agreed with most legal experts — and Israel itself — that indiscriminate rocket fire from Palestinian population centers directed at civilian areas is a violation of international law.

“Palestinian armed groups during the May fighting flagrantly violated the laws-of-war prohibition on indiscriminate attacks by launching thousands of unguided rockets toward Israeli cities,” Human Rights Watch acting Middle East and North Africa director Eric Goldstein said in a statement.

Last month the group issued a report that accused the Israeli military of carrying out attacks during the conflict that “apparently amount to war crimes” after investigating three Israeli airstrikes that it said killed 62 Palestinian civilians.

The war erupted on May 10 after Hamas fired a barrage of rockets toward Jerusalem in support of Palestinian protests against Israel’s heavy-handed policing at a contested Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews and Muslims, and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers in a nearby neighborhood.

Israel has said it struck over 1,000 targets in the Gaza Strip during the fighting, while Hamas launched more than 4,300 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel, including barrages directed at the country’s major population centers around Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

In all, some 254 people were killed in Gaza, including at least 67 children and 39 women, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas has acknowledged the deaths of 80 militants, while Israel has claimed the number is much higher. Twelve civilians, including two children, were killed in Israel, along with one soldier.

“The rockets and mortars that Palestinian armed groups fired lack guidance systems and are prone to misfire, making them extremely inaccurate and thus inherently indiscriminate when directed toward areas with civilians,” the report said. “Launching such rockets to attack civilian areas is a war crime.”

Israel has claimed that around 20 percent of the rockets Palestinian militants launched fell inside the Gaza Strip, and said that most of the remaining missiles were intercepted by the military’s Iron Dome aerial defense system, or fell in open areas.

“Munitions apparently directed toward Israel that misfired and fell short killed and injured an undetermined number of Palestinians in Gaza,” the report said, adding that Hamas has not “provided information about how many rockets misfired or how many people died as a result in Gaza and there are no precise independent estimates.”

It concluded that a Hamas rocket fired on May 10 killed seven people, including two children, in the Gaza Strip city of Jabaliya.

The Israeli military has claimed at least one other incident in Beit Hanoun on May 10, in which eight Palestinian civilians died in an explosion, was the result of a misfired Hamas rocket exploding inside the Gaza Strip. The military said the incident took place before it began operating in the area. Human Rights Watch said in its earlier report that the explosion appeared to have been caused by an Israeli bomb.

The May conflict was the fourth war between Israel and Hamas since the Islamic militant group seized control of Gaza in 2007, a year after winning the Palestinian parliamentary elections. Founded in the 1980s, the group rejects Israel’s existence, is responsible for scores of deadly attacks on Israeli civilians and is considered a terrorist group by the US, E.U. and Israel.

Human Rights Watch, other rights groups and UN officials have accused both sides of committing war crimes in all of the conflicts, and HRW said both parties have “a long track record of failing to investigate” alleged violations.

“The failure of both Hamas authorities and the Israeli government to provide accountability for alleged war crimes by their forces highlights the essential role of the International Criminal Court,” Goldstein said.

Early this year, HRW accused Israel of the international crimes of apartheid and persecution because of discriminatory polices toward Palestinians, both inside Israel as well as in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel rejected the accusations and accused the group of being biased against it.

HRW has called on the ICC to include Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli airstrikes during the most recent Gaza war in its ongoing investigation into possible war crimes by Israel and Palestinian militants.

Israel does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction and says it is capable of investigating any possible wrongdoing by its forces. It says the ICC probe is unfair and politically motivated.

Hamas has said that its rocket attacks against Israel stem from its “legitimate right to resist the occupation,” but did not have an immediate response to Thursday’s HRW report.

“Hamas authorities should stop trying to justify unlawful rocket attacks that indiscriminately kill and injure civilians by pointing to Israel’s violations,” Goldstein said.


Suspected crypto kidnappings mastermind arrested in Morocco

Updated 4 sec ago
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Suspected crypto kidnappings mastermind arrested in Morocco

PARIS: France’s justice minister on Wednesday said that Morocco had arrested a man suspected of ordering a series of kidnappings targeting cryptocurrency entrepreneurs in France.
“I sincerely thank Morocco for this arrest, which demonstrates excellent judicial cooperation between our two countries, particularly in the fight against organized crime,” Gerald Darmanin said on X.

Turkiye’s AJet to start flights to Syria’s Damascus

Updated 3 min 40 sec ago
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Turkiye’s AJet to start flights to Syria’s Damascus

AJet said flights from Sabiha Gokcen airport will begin from Jun. 16
Flights to Damascus from Ankara will start from Jun. 17

ISTANBUL: Turkish Airlines subsidiary AJet said it will start flights to Damascus International from Istanbul and Ankara airports in mid-June.

AJet said in a statement that flights from Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport will begin from Jun. 16. Flights will initially take place four times per week before operating daily from July, it added.

Flights to Damascus from the Turkish capital Ankara will start from Jun. 17, three-times per week, the carrier also said.

Turkish Airlines resumed flights to Damascus in January after a 13-year suspension.

Turkiye, a close ally of the new government in Damascus, has pledged to support the country’s reconstruction. Ankara has already helped with the improvement and maintenance of Syria’s airports, the Turkish transport minister has said.

UAE president meets Egypt’s Sisi in Abu Dhabi

Updated 26 min 54 sec ago
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UAE president meets Egypt’s Sisi in Abu Dhabi

DUBAI: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed met his counterpart Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.  
El-Sisi, who is on a visit to the UAE, arrived at the presidential airport and was received by the UAE leader along with a number of senior officials.


Turkiye backing Syria’s military and has no immediate withdrawal plans, defense minister says

Updated 04 June 2025
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Turkiye backing Syria’s military and has no immediate withdrawal plans, defense minister says

  • Guler says Israel de-confliction talks continue
  • Turkish troops stay for now in Syria, he tells Reuters

ANKARA: Turkiye is training and advising Syria’s armed forces and helping improve its defenses, and has no immediate plans for the withdrawal or relocation of its troops stationed there, Defense Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters.
Turkiye has emerged as a key foreign ally of Syria’s new government since rebels — some of them backed for years by Ankara — ousted former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December to end his family’s five-decade rule.
It has promised to help rebuild neighboring Syria and facilitate the return of millions of Syrian civil war refugees, and played a key role last month getting US and European sanctions on Syria lifted.
The newfound Turkish influence in Damascus has raised Israeli concerns and risked a standoff or worse in Syria between the regional powers.
In written answers to questions from Reuters, Guler said Turkiye and Israel — which carried out its latest airstrikes on southern Syria late on Tuesday — are continuing de-confliction talks to avoid military accidents in the country.
Turkiye’s overall priority in Syria is preserving its territorial integrity and unity, and ridding it of terrorism, he said, adding Ankara was supporting Damascus in these efforts.
“We have started providing military training and consultancy services, while taking steps to increase Syria’s defense capacity,” Guler said, without elaborating on those steps.
Named to the post by President Tayyip Erdogan two years ago, Guler said it was too early to discuss possible withdrawal or relocation of the more than 20,000 Turkish troops in Syria.
Ankara controlled swathes of northern Syria and established dozens of bases there after several cross-border operations in recent years against Kurdish militants it deems terrorists.
This can “only be re-evaluated when Syria achieves peace and stability, when the threat of terrorism in the region is fully removed, when our border security is fully ensured, and when the honorable return of people who had to flee is done,” he said.
NATO member Turkiye has accused Israel of undermining Syrian peace and rebuilding with its military operations there in recent months and, since late 2023, has also fiercely criticized Israel’s assault on Gaza.
But the two regional powers have been quietly working to establish a de-confliction mechanism in Syria.
Guler described the talks as “technical level meetings to establish a de-confliction mechanism to prevent unwanted events” or direct conflict, as well as “a communication and coordination structure.”
“Our efforts to form this line and make it fully operational continue. Yet it should not be forgotten that the de-confliction mechanism is not a normalization,” he told Reuters.


Turkiye arrests five mayors from CHP opposition party

Updated 04 June 2025
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Turkiye arrests five mayors from CHP opposition party

  • The latest round of arrests brings to nine the total number of jailed CHP mayors

ISTANBUL: Turkish police arrested five opposition mayors early Wednesday alongside 17 others as part of a probe into corruption allegations at CHP-held municipalities, a party spokesman told AFP.

The latest arrests targeted a former lawmaker and three CHP mayors in Istanbul, and two more in the southern province of Adana, the spokesman said.

The latest round of arrests brings to nine the total number of jailed CHP mayors, including Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu — the main political rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The latest investigation began at the weekend when a court issued arrest orders for 47 municipal officials in connection with four separate corruption investigations centered on Istanbul, local media reported.

The March 19 arrest and jailing of Imamoglu sparked the biggest street protests Turkiye had seen in more than a decade.

Police had already detained nearly 70 people in subsequent raids linked to alleged corruption at Istanbul City Hall, including Imamoglu’s private secretary and his private protection officer.

The CHP has nominated Imamoglu as its candidate in presidential elections due in 2028 but whether he can run in the elections depends on the fate of numerous trials and probes.