The Israeli military has “without a doubt” committed war crimes in the Palestinian territory, according to Matthew Miller, a former US State Department spokesperson who spent months defending Israel’s actions during the Gaza war.
Miller, however, stated on Monday that he did not believe that there was a genocide in Gaza.
“I don’t believe it’s a genocide, but I do believe that Israel has committed war crimes,” Miller said.
The ex-spokesperson was one of former president Joe Biden’s prominent supporters of Israel, which killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and flattened a large portion of the region.
Israel is accused of committing genocidal crimes, an act that is intended to completely or partially annihilate the Palestinian people, by leading rights organizations and experts from the UN.
No restrictions on US citizens
Miller’s remarks raise questions about why the Biden administration remained militarized in Israel despite US laws that forbid military aid to nations that violate international law and human rights.
Despite the overwhelming evidence supporting Israeli abuses, the former US president’s advisers repeatedly said they were unable to conclude that Israel was violating the law of war or restricting humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
At least 54, 381 Palestinians have died and 124, 054 have been injured, according to Gaza’s health ministry. 2.2.3 million people have been forced to flee the enclave, and a blockade by Israel is a source of famine risk.
Miller frequently clashed with journalists who were questioning the US’s handling of Gaza, including bombings of hospitals and camps for Palestinian civilians, while working for the State Department.
Miller was mocked for laughing during a question about Israel’s blocking of aid to Gaza in one incident in November. State-sponsored humanitarian aid in conflict zones is specifically prohibited by US law.
When asked about specific atrocities, such as the 2012 killing of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, Miller frequently claimed that US officials discussed the incident with their Israeli counterparts, who are now looking into it.
The spokesperson would then continue to use these alleged contacts and investigations, sometimes months after the incident, to dismiss inquiries about alleged Israeli war crimes.
expressing official opinion
Miller made an appearance on the Sky News podcast criticizing his own method of responding to questions while serving as a spokesperson. Israel has opened inquiries, we are aware of. However, look, those investigations are still taking a long time. And he claimed that no Israeli soldiers are being held accountable.
Miller emphasized in the interview on Monday that Miller was speaking for Biden’s administration’s official position rather than his own opinion.
You support the administration’s policies, he said, and you represent both the president and the administration. You can also express your own opinions when you’re not in charge of the administration.
When asked about his experience with the problem, Miller claimed that there were “small and big” disagreements between the Biden administration and how to deal with Israel.
“Throughout the course of the process, there were disagreements about how to handle policy.” He claimed that some of those disagreements were significant and others were minor.
He made a particular mention of the tensions between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Biden.
He acknowledged that “there probably was” more that the US could have done to pressure Israel into halting the conflict and halting the killing of “thousands of innocent civilians who didn’t want this war.”
Hamas aims to take actions.
Hamas, a Palestinian organization, claimed Miller’s remarks confirm Israel’s crimes and underscore Washington’s “direct responsibility as a true partner” in the genocide against Palestinians on Tuesday.
In a statement, Hamas asks the international community and international legal authorities to investigate these obscene confessions and bring legal action right away.
It was “outrageous” for Miller to wait until he was out of office to acknowledge that Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza, according to Raed Jarrar, the advocacy director at DAWN, a US-based advocacy organization.
“US officials who are aware of atrocities are occurring and continue to defend them from behind the podium are complicit, not neutral. Israel’s genocide was helped by Miller’s silence while in power. He has blood from Palestine on his hands, according to an email from Jarrar to Al Jazeera.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, Israeli forces opened fire on an aid distribution site close to Rafah, killing at least 27 Palestinians and injuring 90 more.
The Flag Roundabout, which is close to a humanitarian organization’s (GHF) Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, was the site of the most recent killings on Tuesday morning.
In a few days, there has been a third incident involving the Rafah hub. More than 100 aid seekers have been killed since the US- and Israel-backed GHF started operating in the region on May 27, according to reports of violence, looting, and chaos rife among Gaza’s authorities.
“A number of suspects” deviated from the regulated routes, which was being made accessible by a crowd, according to the Israeli military, who fired shots as a result.
The military said in a statement on Telegram that it was looking into reports of casualties and that the “suspects” were about 500 meters (approximately 550 yards) away from the site.
The records department head of the Gaza Health Ministry, Zaher al-Waheidi, confirmed the death toll.
Eight others later died from their wounds, according to a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Hisham Mhanna, who reported that 184 injured people had been transported to the organization’s field hospital in Rafah. 19 of them had been found dead on arrival.
Numerous injured people were seen arriving at the hospital, according to a video that Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency.
Lured
Israel is described as a “horrible, intentionally repeated crime” by Gaza’s government media office, which claims it has been luring hungry Palestinians to GHF centers since it was controversially inaugurated after an 11-week total blockade to start distributing most aid to the UN and other aid organizations before opening fire.
Since GHF began operations, 102 aid seekers have been killed at sites in the Rafah governorate and the so-called Netzarim Corridor, according to the report, with 490 others have been injured as a result of Tuesday’s death toll, up from 102 before GHF began operations.
On Monday, the UN demanded an impartial investigation into the frequent mass shootings of aid workers in Gaza.
Secretary General Antonio Guterres remarked, “Palestinians risk their lives for food, and that’s unacceptable.” “I demand that these events be investigated immediately and independently, and that those responsible be held accountable.”
Witnesses reported on the killings of Deir el-Balah on Tuesday, according to Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, adding that “we heard there was chaos.” “The Israeli forces just opened fire randomly, shooting Palestinians with live ammunition and quadcopters,” the statement read.
According to health ministry officials and doctors, the majority of the wounded have experienced head and chest injuries, she continued.
She continued, as did the previous two days’ bloodshed, which was occurring in the chaos surrounding the aid distribution centers.
“There is no procedure. She claimed that there isn’t a system. You simply need to run first to get the food.
“We will die, regardless.”
There was gunfire coming from all directions, according to Rasha al-Nahal, who was driving along with several other people killed and injured.
There was no aid when she finally arrived at the distribution center, according to al-Nahal, who added that Israeli troops “fired at us as we were returning.”
The shooting was described as “indiscriminate” by another witness, Neima al-Aaraj from Khan Younis.
She said, “I won’t come back.” We will die, “either way.”
As thousands of people headed towards a US-backed aid distribution site, according to Gaza rescuers, Israeli gunfire on June 1 claimed the lives of at least 10 Palestinians and more than 100 others.
In a statement on Telegram, the Israeli military claimed that troops had fired warning shots as people “deviated” from “designated access routes” and that “a few individual suspects who advanced toward the troops received additional shots after the suspects failed to retreat.”
However, it denied preventing civilians from getting aid or firing at them.
This account is consistent with statements made about alleged murders of three aid-seekers on Sunday and on Monday in a similar incident.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) claims that Russian forces have been using drones to attack and hunt civilians in Ukraine.
In a report released on Tuesday, HRW claimed that in its more than three-year conflict with Ukraine, the Russian military has repeatedly used unmanned drones to attack civilian targets. According to the NGO, dozens of civilians have been killed and hundreds have been hurt as a result of a war-related lapse.
The rights organization claims that Russia “deliberately or recklessly” hunted civilians and civilian objects, particularly in the southern city of Kherson, using “commercially available quadcopter drones” made domestically and in China, in response to video from Russian drones, witnesses, and survivors.
Russian drone operators can track their targets with high-definition video feeds, which leaves little doubt that their goal is to kill, maim, and terrorize civilians, according to Belkis Wille, a HRW director on arms and conflict.
They “exemplify why the international community needs to support all means of accountability for Ukrainian victims of Russian war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
The findings support claims made by Kherson residents and government officials earlier this year that Russian drone operators were conducting “human safaris” as part of their training.
HRW sifted through 83 videos posted on Russian military-affiliated Telegram channels, as well as visual materials provided by witnesses and researchers, and interviewed 36 survivors and witnesses who have witnessed attacks.
Between June and December 2024, Russian forces recorded at least 45 “deliberate drone attacks” on people and civilian property, including healthcare facilities.
Around the same time, Kherson’s authorities reported 500 civilian injuries and at least 30 fatalities as drone attacks.
According to a UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission report from January 2025, drone attacks in Kherson caused 70% of civilian casualties.
The attacks are intended to “instill terror in the civilian population of Kherson, part of a widespread attack against that population,” according to the report.
During direct negotiations in Istanbul, Russia and Ukraine came to terms with a new prisoner swap and the return of tens of thousands of dead soldiers, but little progress was made in the direction of a resolution.
Officials from both sides’ delegations met on Monday at the Ottoman-era Ciragan Palace in the Turkish city to discuss the exchange of 6, 000 combatants’ prisoners of war and their remains.
The less than two-hour meeting in Istanbul marked the second time the warring nations had convened for direct talks in a month, but expectations were low given recent military escalades on both sides.
The two parties agreed on a prisoner swap after the first direct discussion on May 16 ended without a breakthrough.
According to Al Jazeera correspondent Dmitry Medvedenko, who is based in Istanbul, “the exchange of prisoners seems to be the diplomatic channel that actually works between Russia and Ukraine.”
Not in the proportions that have occurred as a result of these Istanbul talks, Medvedenko continued, adding that we have actually had prisoners exchanges throughout the war.
Prisoner-to-prison exchange
Negotiators from both nations confirmed that a deal had been reached to swap out all infantrymen who had been captured and had been seriously wounded.
“We consented to exchange all prisoners of war who were seriously hurt and sick. Rustem Umerov, the country’s lead negotiator and defense minister, stated to reporters in Istanbul that the second category includes young soldiers who are between the ages of 18 and 25.
Vladimir Medinsky, the country’s top negotiator, predicted that the swap would involve “at least 1, 000” on either side, topping the previous 1, 000 for 1, 000 POW exchange agreed at talks in May.
According to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, the two parties “exchanged documents through the Turkish side” and Kyiv was getting ready for the release of the next group of captives.
He added that while Kyiv demanded the return of nearly 400 abducted Ukrainian children, the Russian delegation agreed to work on only 10 of them.
Hakan Fidan, the country’s ambassador to Turkey, opened peace talks with Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul.
A limited or unconditional ceasefire?
Russia and Ukraine are still bitterly divided over a truce.
Following the discussions, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters that “Russia continued to reject the motion for an unconditional ceasefire.”
Russia, for its part, claimed to have provided a brief pause in the conflict.
According to Russia’s lead negotiator, “we have proposed a specific ceasefire for two to three days in some front-line regions,” adding that this would be necessary to remove the bodies of dead soldiers from battlefields.
Oleksiy Goncharenko, a parliamentarian from Ukraine, expressed doubts about the Istanbul talks, according to Al Jazeera.
Because Ukraine proposed a 30-day ceasefire in March, and only one nation [Russia] rejected it, Goncharenko said, “Russia clearly shows that they don’t want to end the war.”
Ukraine has since increased its military presence far beyond the front lines, blaming drone attacks on Sunday that it claimed had damaged or destroyed more than 40 Russian warplanes.
The Arctic, Siberia, and the Far East, which are thousands of kilometers away from Ukraine, were the target of the operation’s successful attack on airbases in three remote regions.
Zelenskyy predicted that Moscow would be put under more pressure if the Russian military suffered a setback.
Russia’s new “memorandum”
The Ukrainian delegation claimed that Russia presented a memorandum outlining the terms of the Kremlin’s agreement to end hostilities at the table.
Umerov, the country’s defense minister, stated to reporters that Kyiv officials would need a week to review the document and decide on a response.
The Russian memorandum, which suggested as a condition for a ceasefire that Russia annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured, was published after the talks by Russian state news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti.
The memorandum urges Ukraine to stop its mobilization efforts and stop receiving Western weapons, as suggested by Russian President Vladimir Putin, as an alternative to a truce.
Additionally, the document recommends that Ukraine halt any military exercises and ban any military engagements with third countries on its soil as prerequisites for halting hostilities.
The Russian document further recommends that Ukraine ratify martial law and hold elections, which would allow the two nations to ratify a comprehensive peace agreement that would allow Ukraine to declare its neutral status, abandon its bid to join NATO, establish limits on the size of its armed forces, and grant Russian recognition as the nation’s official language on par with Ukrainian.
All those demands from Moscow have already been rejected by the West and Ukraine.
Ukraine has suggested holding additional discussions for the upcoming dates of June 20 and June 30. Selenskyy has stated his intention to meet with Putin on numerous occasions.
Former Russian deputy foreign minister Andrey Fedorov claims that the talks on Monday were largely uneven and that important issues remain between the opposing sides.
He claimed that “all the main political issues were unresolved,” adding that they were “very contradictory to each other” even though both sides had memorandums for peace proposals.
Trump and Zelenskyy ready to mingle
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, described the discussions as “magnificent.”
Putin and Zelenskyy will be reunited in Istanbul or Ankara, he said, and perhaps even include [US President Donald Trump] along.
No date has been set, but Trump and Putin have been confirming their intentions for a meeting for months.
Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy and Putin was “open,” according to White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt on Monday. Trump responded to a question by saying that he is “open to it and wants leaders to sit down at the table.”
After mounting mounting hostility with Zelenskyy and Ukraine in the Oval Office in February, Trump has recently expressed growing reluctance to believe that Putin may be “tapping me along.”
Trump told reporters on May 15 on the flight of Air Force One, “Nothing won’t happen until Putin and I get together.”
After Moscow launched its largest aerial assault of the conflict against Ukraine, killing at least 13 people, on May 26, Trump called Putin “absolutely crazy.”
In accordance with a new study released this week, almost all of the worst-funded humanitarian crises will be located on the continent in 2024, making African nations once more at the top of the list of the world’s most underappreciated crises.
Released on Tuesday, the report by the nonprofit Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) lists Cameroon, Mozambique and a host of other African nations as some of the most burdened by violence and displacement, but also the most invisible to donors.
The United States, which was once the largest aid source in the world, has announced a significant reduction in development funding this year. Aid agencies received only half of what they needed in 2024, and experts say further shrinking aid will likely make 2025 even more bleak for people in need.
Prior to 2023, eight African emergencies were thought to be the most ignored.
What does the report say?
According to the NRC’s 2024 Most Neglected Crises report, “donor fatigue,” poor media coverage, and little to no political resolution are cited as contributing factors for the millions of people who have been displaced and face food insecurity or lack shelter.
The report defined countries in crisis as those that host or have more than 200, 000 displaced people, and which have been declared to be in severe crisis emergencies.
The NRC report identified Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Burkinabe, Mali, Uganda, Iran, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Honduras, and Somalia as the 34 nations that were the most “invisible.”
Aside from funding, there was little progress on effective conflict resolution, disaster prevention and diplomatic engagement in all the affected countries, the report added.
Overall, aid funding overall decreased in 2024, according to the NRC.
“The shortfall between what was required to meet humanitarian needs in 2024 and what was delivered was a staggering $25 billion, meaning over half of all needs went unmet”, the report stated.
Why are humanitarian emergencies in Africa ignored?
“Donor fatigue” and growing waves of nationalistic policies within traditional donor countries are causing the richest countries to reduce foreign aid funding, experts say. Attention is also impacted by a lack of proximity to emergencies, add analysts.
“Too many crises across the continent remain in the shadows – ignored because they don’t make headlines, or because they are not seen as of immediate strategic interest to international partners”, Christelle Hure, NRC’s head of advocacy in West and Central Africa, told Al Jazeera.
According to Hure, “Crises that knock on Europe’s door, as happened in 2015 with mass immigration, tend to receive the greatest media attention, while those who are far away remain not only out of sight but also out of mind,”
Which are the most neglected African emergencies?
Cameroon
In 2024, the West-Central African nation is at the top of the list of the world’s most underappreciated crises.
In the English-speaking northeast and northwest regions of Cameroon, a protracted civil war which began in 2017 is continuing. In the year that year, thousands of people took to the streets to protest the Francophone-majority government’s policies, including discrimination against the appointment of French-speaking judges.
Heavy crackdowns to suppress the protests soon saw armed groups springing up, declaring independence. Yaounde’s government then declared war. Both the rebels and government forces have targeted civilians. More than a thousand people have been internally displaced or have fled neighboring Nigeria, killing hundreds.
“The violence there is largely ignored because it’s not a direct threat to the central government”, Beverly Ochieng, a security analyst with United Kingdom-based intelligence firm Control Risks, told Al Jazeera, adding that little has been done to negotiate peace. Some secessionist leaders initially had the impression that Donald Trump was trying to support their cause, but they haven’t received much media attention.
Meanwhile, in the northern Lake Chad Basin region, also connected to Nigeria, violence by the armed group, Boko Haram, has continued for years, displacing thousands. Since Niger and Chad’s military governments left, leaving Cameroon, Nigeria, and Benin, a joint force of the countries in the Lake Chad Basin has largely fallen apart. Washington’s shrinking of security presence and operations in African nations is likely to further destabilise the arrangement.
Refugees from the Central African Republic and those from Boko Haram who are escaping conflict between two political parties are both based in Cameroon. Together, some 1.1 million people are internally displaced, and 500, 000 are refugees.
Despite this, the NRC reported on the displacement crisis in Cameroon in less than 30 000 articles in English, Spanish, French, and Arabic in 2024, compared to the Ukraine war, which was mentioned in 451, 000 articles. Only 45 percent, or $168m of the $371m required, was raised to fund aid in the various crises, according to the United Nations. President Paul Biya, 82, who has been in power since 1982, is frequently criticized for wasting most of his time in Switzerland. This is also the case for the government’s apparent indifference.
Ethiopia
The aftershocks of the Tigray war in the country’s north (2020-2022) merged with new intercommunal fighting in the Oromia and Amhara regions, creating a potent mix of crises which has seen 10 million people pushed out of their homes nationwide, the NRC report noted.
The federal army, which it claimed to represent the interests of the Amhara people, one of Ethiopia’s most important ethnic groups, is fighting the Fano armed group, which it both tried to disarm after they both engaged Tigrayan forces during the conflict. The Oromo Liberation Group, meanwhile, says it is seeking independence for the Oromo people, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group. The government in Addis Ababa, which has launched air strikes, has repressed both groups. Dozens of civilians have died in the fighting.
Additionally, food shortages have become worse due to drought and flooding. In the southern Gofa zone, heavy rains caused two landslides on July 21 that killed more than 200 people, the worst such landslides in the country.
Mozambique
This year’s list includes the southern African nation for the first time. Political upheaval following hotly contested October elections saw protesters who supported the independent opposition candidate, Venancio Mondlane, shot dead by Mozambican state security. According to local media reports, the violence left about 400 people dead.
Separately, ongoing attacks by an armed group with affiliations to ISIL (ISIS-Mozambique) in northern, oil-rich Cabo Delgado flared up in 2024. Since 2022, there has been violence there, with thousands of people being forced to flee, and a billion-dollar oil and gas project have been harmed. Government forces working with regional troops from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Rwandan soldiers were able to push the fighters back in 2023, allowing many displaced people to return. The conflict has quickly rekindled its volatile state because the fighters are so deeply ingrained in local communities.
Prone to cyclones due to its location in the Indian Ocean, Mozambique was hit by Cyclone Chido, which also devastated the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in December. The northern part of Mozambique, which is in an armed conflict, was made landfall by the storm. Some 120 people were killed, and about 155, 000 buildings were damaged or destroyed.
Burkinabe and Mali
Since 2015, more than two million people have been displaced in Burkina Faso , because of the activities of violent armed groups like the Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), which wants to create a caliphate. Despite efforts by the military-led government to retake control of the country with Russian support, some of those groups now control close to half of the nation.
The rebels have held civilians suspected of supporting government forces under siege for more than two years, blocking entries and exits to now nearly 40 towns and cities. However, armed groups and government forces are accused of attacking civilians allegedly assisting the fighters in villagers massacres.
Neighbouring Mali is ranked fourth on the neglected crises list and faces a similar situation. Ochieng, an analyst, attributes the West African Sahel’s three militarily-led nations, including Niger, in part to the leaders there’s hostile attitudes toward Western powers. All three have cut off Western allies which previously provided both military and humanitarian aid, particularly France. Aid has been hampered further by their hostility toward humanitarian organizations, some of whom are thought to be related to Western countries.
“These military leaders are focused on economic development and they don’t even want to be seen as not being able to provide for their people … that makes it very difficult for any donors to approach them to provide help, or even for aid agencies to assess what the actual needs are”, Ochieng said.
On March 1, 2023, a mural can be seen in Ouagadougou, Burkinabe. Military forces in Burkina Faso killed 223 civilians, including babies and many children, in attacks on two villages accused of cooperating with rebels, Human Rights Watch said in a report published on Thursday, April 24, 2024]AP Photo]
Other emergencies in Africa
Uganda: Although the country itself does not face large-scale internal violence, Uganda is listed because it hosts the largest number of refugees in Africa – close to two million people from neighbouring South Sudan, Sudan and the DRC. The NRC warned that the NRC’s recommendation would cause local communities and refugees to become more tense.
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Decades of violence by a slew of armed groups vying to control the country’s rich deposits of minerals, and more recently, offensives by the rebel M23 group, have seen hundreds of thousands displaced in eastern DRC between 2024 and early 2025. The disruption was caused by the same region’s 2023 Mpox outbreak. The African Union and the US are currently leading peace talks between the DRC government and neighbouring Rwanda, accused of backing M23. Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) deadly attacks are frequently unheard of.
Somalia: Entrenched violence from the al-Shabab armed group, which has been active for decades, as well as drought, continues to displace people in the East African country. According to the NRC, it received “dangerously low” funding in 2024.
A Congolese refugee wears a T-shirt featuring a picture of Democratic Republic of the Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi while holding an umbrella to shield himself from the sun as he lines up with others for aid during a food distribution operation at the Musenyi refugee camp in Giharo, Burundi on May 7, 2025]Luis Tato/AFP]
Will Trump’s aid cuts affect these crises even more?
US President Donald Trump’s sweeping aid cuts after he took office in January, and his decision to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the agency that distributes it, have prompted fears that humanitarian emergencies could worsen in 2025.
The US provides about $70 billion in foreign aid each year, especially for healthcare, as the largest donor in the world. In 2024, the most aid went to Ethiopia, Jordan, DRC, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Sudan and Syria.
Aid workers worry that emergencies on the African continent could get worse as these funds are either cut off or completely stopped.
Other major donors are also making cuts, observers warn. The UK reduced its foreign aid by 0.2% in February, while the Netherlands will reduce its aid from 2027 to 2.4 billion euros ($2.72bn). France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden have all announced reductions to their aid budgets since.
The African Union (AU) must take the lead in the development of a continent-wide political solution, according to Hule of the NRC. The bloc’s Peace and Security Council, tasked with anticipating and mitigating conflict, has previously been criticised as being too slow to act.
Hule argued that the African Union and its member states are crucially in need of more funding, not just more money.
