Israeli claims over legal use of US weapons ‘not credible’

Israeli soldiers ride on top of a mobile artillery vehicle as it drives through sandy terrain during a military exercise in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, north of Israel. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 20 March 2024
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Israeli claims over legal use of US weapons ‘not credible’

  • Washington is violating its own humanitarian regulations by supplying arms to Tel Aviv, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam say
  • In a report following an investigation, the organizations urge President Joe Biden to ‘immediately suspend’ weapons transfers

LONDON: Israel’s claim that it abides by US humanitarian regulations governing weapons transfers is “not credible,” two major international nongovernmental organizations have found.

As a result of their findings, contained in a joint report submitted to the US government, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam on Tuesday called on President Joe Biden to “follow US law and immediately suspend arms transfers to Israel.”

It comes after the organizations conducted an investigation into Israel’s application of US National Security Memorandum-20. This requires any state that receives arms transfers from the US to avoid violations of international humanitarian law and arbitrary blocking of US humanitarian assistance.

During their investigations of Israeli activities in Gaza and Lebanon since October, the organizations said they found significant evidence that Israel is failing to meet the requirements of NSM-20.

Sarah Yager, HRW’s Washington director, said: “There are good reasons why US law prohibits arms support for governments that block life-saving aid or violate international law with US weapons.

“Given ongoing hostilities in Gaza, the Israeli government’s assurances to the Biden administration that it is meeting US legal requirements are not credible.”

The report highlighted several Israeli violations of international humanitarian law, including the use of US-supplied white phosphorus munitions and indiscriminate strikes on or near major hospitals in Gaza.

In addition, it said Israel had engaged in “systematic blocking of assistance, including aid substantially provided by the US, from reaching about 300,000 Palestinians remaining in northern Gaza.”

Vital water infrastructure has also been bombarded, again in clear violation of humanitarian law, HRW and Oxfam added.

The organizations accused Israel of submitting faulty “assurances” to the US State Department concerning its adherence to NSM-20. Researchers said they were “confident that the examples we cite here reflect a broader pattern of conduct than is currently being assessed by the US government.”

As part of the requirements of NSM-20, countries supplied with American arms must submit assurances to the departments of State and Defense, to be reviewed and assessed by top officials. But based on their public statements, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin appear to have accepted the Israeli assurances, despite mounting evidence of humanitarian violations in Gaza and Lebanon.

Both officials must also consider “expected future violations” when judging the credibility of the Israeli submissions, HRW and Oxfam said.

Their report follows growing international concerns of an “imminent” famine in northern Gaza. The US has resorted to airdrops in the absence of sufficient access to routes for the delivery of humanitarian aid by road in the enclave, many of which effectively have been blocked by Israeli authorities.

Scott Paul, associate director for peace and security at Oxfam America, said: “We have laid out clearly for the Biden administration why any assurances from Israel that they have not delayed, restricted and impeded aid into Gaza cannot be relied upon. Despite this, the US has continued to provide Israel with deadly weapons.

“The time has long passed for the Biden administration to end lethal arms sales to Israel, and we call on them to do so now and work to end the death and suffering in Gaza.”

 


226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7 — WHO

Updated 8 sec ago
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226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7 — WHO

  • Over 187 attacks on healthcare workers have taken place in Lebanon over 13 months, says UN health agency
  • Fifteen of Lebanon’s 153 hospitals have ceased operating or are only partially functioning, warns WHO

GENEVA: Nearly 230 health workers have been killed in Lebanon since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attacks last year, the World Health Organization said.
In total, the UN health agency said there had been 187 attacks on health care in Lebanon in the more than 13 months of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza conflict.
Between Oct. 7, 2023 and Nov.18 this year, “we have 226 deaths and 199 injuries in total,” Abdinasir Abubakar, the WHO representative in Lebanon, said via video link from Beirut.
He said “almost 70 percent” of these had occurred since the tensions escalated into an all-out war in September.
Saying this was “an extremely worrying pattern,” he stressed that “depriving civilians of access to lifesaving care and targeting health providers is a breach of international humanitarian law.”
Abubakar said: “A hallmark of the conflict in Lebanon is how destructive it has been to health care,” highlighting that 47 percent of these attacks “have proven fatal to at least one health worker or patient” — the highest percentage of any active conflict today.
By comparison, Abubakar said that only 13.3 percent of attacks on health care globally had fatal outcomes during the same period, pointing to data from a range of conflict situations, including Ukraine, Sudan, and the occupied Palestinian territory.
He suggested the high percentage of fatal attacks on health care in Lebanon might be because “more ambulances have been targeted.”
“And whenever the ambulance is targeted, actually, then you will have three, four or five paramedics ... killed.”
The conflict has dealt a harsh blow to overall health care in Lebanon, which was already reeling from a string of dire crises in recent years.
The WHO warned that 15 of Lebanon’s 153 hospitals have ceased operating or are only partially functioning.
Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s regional director for the eastern Mediterranean region, stressed that “attacks on health care of this scale cripple a health system when those whose lives depend on it need it the most.”
“Beyond the loss of life, the death of health workers is a loss of years of investment and a crucial resource to a fragile country going forward.”


Israeli airstrike hits central Beirut, security sources say

Updated 5 min 4 sec ago
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Israeli airstrike hits central Beirut, security sources say

  • Sirens could be heard as ambulances raced to the scene of the blast in Beirut’s Basta neighborhood.

BEIRUT: A powerful Israeli airstrike targeted central Beirut early on Saturday, security sources said, shaking the Lebanese capital as Israel pressed its offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
Several powerful blasts shook Beirut at around 4 a.m. (0200 GMT), Reuters witnesses said. At least four rockets were fired in the attack, two security sources said.
Sirens could be heard as ambulances raced to the scene of the blast in Beirut’s Basta neighborhood.
Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.
It marked the fourth Israeli airstrike this week targeting a central area of Beirut. On Sunday an Israeli airstrike killed a senior Hezbollah media official in the Ras Al-Nabaa district.
Israel launched a major offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon in September, following nearly a year of cross-border hostilities ignited by the Gaza war, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south.
The conflict began when Hezbollah opened fire in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas after it launched the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.


Israeli airstrike hits central Beirut, destroying buildings

Updated 14 min 47 sec ago
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Israeli airstrike hits central Beirut, destroying buildings

BEIRUT: A powerful Israeli airstrike targeted central Beirut early on Saturday, security sources said, shaking the Lebanese capital as Israel pressed its offensive against the Hezbollah group.
Several powerful blasts shook Beirut at around 4 a.m. (0200 GMT), Reuters witnesses said. At least four rockets were fired in the attack, two security sources said.
Sirens could be heard as ambulances raced to the scene of the blast in Beirut’s Basta neighborhood.
Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.
It marked the fourth Israeli airstrike this week targeting a central area of Beirut. On Sunday an Israeli airstrike killed a senior Hezbollah media official in the Ras Al-Nabaa district.
Israel launched a major offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon in September, following nearly a year of cross-border hostilities ignited by the Gaza war, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south.
The conflict began when Hezbollah opened fire in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas after it launched the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.


226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7: WHO

Updated 23 November 2024
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226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7: WHO

  • Abubakar said: “A hallmark of the conflict in Lebanon is how destructive it has been to health care,” highlighting that 47 percent of these attacks “have proven fatal to at least one health worker or patient”

GENEVA: Nearly 230 health workers have been killed in Lebanon since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attacks last year, the World Health Organization said.
In total, the UN health agency said there had been 187 attacks on health care in Lebanon in the more than 13 months of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza conflict.
Between Oct. 7, 2023 and Nov.18 this year, “we have 226 deaths and 199 injuries in total,” Abdinasir Abubakar, the WHO representative in Lebanon, said via video link from Beirut.
He said “almost 70 percent” of these had occurred since the tensions escalated into an all-out war in September.
Saying this was “an extremely worrying pattern,” he stressed that “depriving civilians of access to lifesaving care and targeting health providers is a breach of international humanitarian law.”
Abubakar said: “A hallmark of the conflict in Lebanon is how destructive it has been to health care,” highlighting that 47 percent of these attacks “have proven fatal to at least one health worker or patient” — the highest percentage of any active conflict today.
By comparison, Abubakar said that only 13.3 percent of attacks on health care globally had fatal outcomes during the same period, pointing to data from a range of conflict situations, including Ukraine, Sudan, and the occupied Palestinian territory.
He suggested the high percentage of fatal attacks on health care in Lebanon might be because “more ambulances have been targeted.”
“And whenever the ambulance is targeted, actually, then you will have three, four or five paramedics ... killed.”
The conflict has dealt a harsh blow to overall health care in Lebanon, which was already reeling from a string of dire crises in recent years.
The WHO warned that 15 of Lebanon’s 153 hospitals have ceased operating or are only partially functioning.
Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s regional director for the eastern Mediterranean region, stressed that “attacks on health care of this scale cripple a health system when those whose lives depend on it need it the most.”
“Beyond the loss of life, the death of health workers is a loss of years of investment and a crucial resource to a fragile country going forward.”

 


Little hope in Gaza that arrest warrants will cool Israeli onslaught

A Palestinian little girl queues for food in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP)
Updated 22 November 2024
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Little hope in Gaza that arrest warrants will cool Israeli onslaught

  • An Israeli strike hit the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, one of three medical facilities barely operational in the area, injuring six medical staff, some critically, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement

GAZA: Gazans saw little hope on Friday that International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Israeli leaders would slow down the onslaught on the Palestinian territory, where medics said at least 21 people were killed in fresh Israeli military strikes.
In Gaza City in the north, an Israeli strike on a house in Shejaia killed eight people, medics said.
Three others were killed in a strike near a bakery, and a fisherman was killed as he set out to sea. In the central and southern areas, nine people were killed in three separate Israeli air strikes.

FASTFACT

Residents in the three besieged towns on Gaza’s northern edge — Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun — said Israeli forces had blown up dozens of houses.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces deepened their incursion and bombardment of the northern edge of the enclave, their main offensive since early last month.
The military claims it aims to prevent Hamas fighters from waging attacks and regrouping there; residents say they fear the aim is to permanently depopulate a strip of territory as a buffer zone, which Israel denies.
Residents in the three besieged towns on the northern edge — Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun — said Israeli forces had blown up dozens of houses.
An Israeli strike hit the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, one of three medical facilities barely operational in the area, injuring six medical staff, some critically, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement.
“The strike also destroyed the hospital’s main generator and punctured the water tanks, leaving the hospital without oxygen or water, which threatens the lives of patients and staff inside the hospital,” it added.
It said 85 wounded people, including children and women, were inside, eight in the ICU.
Gazans saw the ICC’s decision to seek the arrest of Israeli leaders for suspected war crimes as international recognition of the enclave’s plight. But those queuing for bread at a bakery in the southern city of Khan Younis were doubtful it would have any impact.
“The decision will not be implemented because America protects Israel, and it can veto anything. Israel will not be held accountable,” said Saber Abu Ghali as he waited for his turn in the crowd.
Saeed Abu Youssef, 75, said that even if justice arrived, it would be decades late: “We have been hearing decisions for more than 76 years that have not been implemented and haven’t done anything for us.” Israel launched its assault on Gaza after militants stormed across the border fence, killed 1,200 people, and seized more than 250 hostages on Oct. 7, 2023.
Since then, nearly 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, much of which has been laid to waste.
The court’s prosecutors said there were reasonable grounds to believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution, and starvation as a weapon of war, as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza.”
Israeli politicians from across the political spectrum have denounced the ICC arrest warrants as biased and based on false evidence, and Israel says the court has no jurisdiction over the war.
Hamas hailed the arrest warrants as a first step toward justice.
Efforts by Arab mediators backed by the US to conclude a ceasefire deal have stalled.
Hamas wants a deal that ends the war, while Netanyahu has vowed the war can end only once Hamas is eradicated.