Category World News

United Kingdom, London The United Kingdom’s “silence in action” is a manifestation of the government’s involvement in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, according to Nick Maynard, a British doctor who has visited Gaza several times.

He depicted the harm that Israel caused to children through aerial bombardment, gunfire, or the deliberate restriction of life-saving infant formula and medicine as a torrent of early autumn rain fell on London on Thursday.

On the eve of an unofficial inquiry looking into the UK’s alleged role in Israeli war crimes, he claimed that the boys he operated on, some as young as 11 or 12, were clearly targeted with shootings to the abdomen and the chest.

A group of four young teenagers, aged between 13 and 14, were brought in at Gaza’s Nasser Hospital on one occasion, who were all shot in the testicles as Maynard performed an operation on a patient in an understaffed theatre to the cacophony of bombs exploding.

We all understood the pattern of specific body parts being targeted, he said, explaining what I believe Israeli soldiers practiced as target practice. ”

He also brought up Zaynab, a seven-month old child who passed away from malnutrition. He told the audience, “You could see every bone in her body,” adding, “You could see every rib.” She was receiving sugar and water. In Nasser [hospital], we were completely out of formula feed.

Four days before she passed away, US doctors discovered a shortage of formula feed. Israeli guards purposefully removed those, as they were. Zaynab might have been saved thanks to that formula feed. ”

Since Israel launched its war against the besieged enclave in October 2023, in response to Hamas attacks on southern Israel, in which an estimated 1,200 people were killed, more than 64,000 people have died in Gaza.

Former Labour leader and lifelong supporter of Palestinian rights, Jeremy Corbyn, who is launching a new left-wing party in the UK, will host the two-day event known as the “Gaza tribunal.” It will end on Friday.

On Friday, former US diplomat Mark Smith will address the tribunal. He resigned over the country’s failure to stop sending weapons to Israel.

allegedly infringe on international humanitarian law.

To Corbyn’s effort, which comes after a conflict with Keir Starmer’s government, are lawmakers, campaigners, and experts from the UN who have survived the genocide.

In a bill that was introduced in the House of Commons on June 4, Corbyn demanded an independent investigation into the UK’s involvement in Israeli military operations in Gaza, including the use of Royal Air Force bases and the supply of weapons. The ruling Labour Party ultimately vetoed the bill, which was supported by dozens of MPs and by more than 20 aid organizations.

It is up to us to conduct a public open inquiry if the government won’t organize one, and if Parliament doesn’t effectively conduct an inquiry, Corbyn said. This event will help us make stronger arguments both inside and outside the court system. A lot of what is happening is completely unlawful and shouldn’t be concealed. ”

If the UK were to continue to supply Israel with the “vital components” of F-35 jets, which were “bombing hospitals and schools,” we would be complicit in international humanitarian law violations.

The majority of panelists at the conference, which took place in Westminster’s heartland, including Labour lawmaker Richard Burgon, concurred that the UK is a part of the alleged war crimes committed by Israel.

He claimed that some countries, including the UK, are aiding in Israel’s arming. That constitutes complicity in its own right. ”

Another type of political complicity, in his opinion, is.

I contend that the UK government is also at fault for giving Israel the political green light. ”

He claimed that the UK should have used “every tool at its disposal, from sanctions to using its role in the UN and elsewhere to force, not plead with Israel, to stop,” just as it has done with Russia’s war against Ukraine.

UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, did not make any accusations of complicity in war crimes, but said states like the UK had been made aware of their obligations for decades and have not done so in response to Israel’s “longstanding structural system of widespread and systemic oppression and exploitation against the Palestinians that has turned genocidal.”

The meetings are held as a result of the Palestinians’ growing public support. Pro-Palestine marches are expected to take place across the nation on Saturday, with many people expected to attend.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s head, Ben Jamal, called for a “fundamental shift in public opinion.”

Israel hasn’t been able to change the dynamics of government behavior because it is more dispersed in the court of public opinion, he claimed.

Israel’s prime minister, Isaac Herzog, is scheduled to visit the UK next week, according to The Guardian, despite the UK’s recent criticism of Israel’s atrocity and its commitment to recognizing a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly later this month.

The UK continues to fly surveillance planes over Gaza while maintaining diplomatic ties, raising concerns about possible intelligence sharing with Israel, and provides F-35 components to Israel through the global pool program.

The Sameer Project, a grassroots aid organization for Gaza, co-founded by Palestinians Hala Sabbah, who questioned why the UK has welcomed fewer child evacuees in need of immediate medical care than countries like Italy and Spain.

She claimed that the UK does not only actively murder us, but that they also refuse to assist us.

Victoria Rose, a British surgeon who has volunteered in Gaza and has witnessed the effects of Israel’s campaign, wrote to Prime Minister Starmer in November 2024 to demand action along with campaigners.

However, she and other doctors were only given a press invitation to speak with the premier via Zoom after her media appearances in June 2025. She also had a personal meeting with health minister Wes Streeting.

Islamabad, Pakistan – For the second time in three years, devastating monsoon floods have strewn a path of destruction through Pakistan’s north and center, particularly in Punjab province, submerging villages, drowning farmland, displacing millions, and injuring hundreds.

This year, India – Pakistan’s archrival and a nuclear-armed neighbour – is also reeling. Heavy monsoon rains swell rivers on both sides of the border, which has caused widespread flooding in northern states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Indian Punjab.

Authorities in Pakistan claim that at least 884 people have died nationwide, including more than 220 in Punjab, since the monsoon season first started in late June. More than 30 people have died in Indian Punjab, compared to 100 on the Indian side.

Yet, shared suffering hasn’t brought the neighbours closer: In Pakistan’s Punjab, which borders India, federal minister Ahsan Iqbal has, in fact, accused New Delhi of deliberately releasing excess water from dams without timely warnings.

According to Iqbal, “India has started using water as a weapon and has caused widespread flooding in Punjab,” he claimed last month, citing releases into the Ravi, Sutlej, and Chenab rivers, all of which flow into Pakistan from Indian territory.

Iqbal added that India’s use of flood water was its “worst example of water aggression,” which he claimed threatened people’s lives, property, and livelihoods.

“Some issues should be beyond politics, and water cooperation must be one of them”, the minister said on August 27, while he participated in rescue efforts in Narowal city, his constituency that borders India.

The two countries’ growing tensions, as well as the collapse of a six-decade-old agreement that allowed them to share waters for rivers that both countries rely on, are at the center of those accusations.

However, experts contend that the evidence is insufficient to suggest that India deliberately attempted to flood Pakistan, and that even if New Delhi were to consider doing so, there are the risks associated with such a plan.

Weaponising water

Relations between India and Pakistan, already at a historic low, plummeted further in April after the Pahalgam attack, in which gunmen killed 26 civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir. India canceled the Transboundary Agreement that governs the Indus Basin’s six rivers, the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), leaving the country.

Pakistan refuted claims that it was involved in the Pahalgam attack in any way. But in early May, the neighbours waged a&nbsp, four-day conflict, targeting each other’s military bases with missiles and drones in the gravest military escalation between them in almost three decades.

The two nations were required to regularly exchange detailed water-flow data under the IWT. Fears have risen in recent months that New Delhi might try to stop the flow of water into Pakistan or flood its western neighbor with unexpected, large releases as India ceases to adhere to the pact.

After New Delhi suspended its participation in the IWT, India’s Home Minister Amit Shah in June said the treaty would never be restored, a stance that prompted protests in Pakistan and accusations of “water terrorism”.

The Indian High Commission in Islamabad has shared several warnings of possible cross-border flooding on “humanitarian grounds” in recent weeks while the Indian government has not officially responded to allegations that it has chosen to flood Pakistan.

Water experts contend that Pakistan’s floods are primarily due to dam-building in India, which raises the possibility of obscuring the urgent, shared challenges posed by climate change and the ageing infrastructure.

“The Indian decision to release water from their dam has not caused flooding in Pakistan”, said Daanish Mustafa, a professor of critical geography at King’s College London.

The rivers in India eventually flow into Pakistan through major dams. He told Al Jazeera, “Any extra water that will be released from these rivers will have a significant impact on India’s own states first.”

Shared monsoon strain

In the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, glaciers provide food for both Pakistan and India. The Indus River basin provides life to Pakistan. It supplies water to most of the country’s roughly 250 million people and underpins its agriculture.

India controls the three eastern rivers, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas, while Pakistan controls the three western rivers, Jhelum, Chenab, and Indus.

India is obligated to allow waters of the western rivers to flow into Pakistan with limited exceptions, and to provide timely, detailed hydrological data.

The rivers it controls have seen a significant drop in the flow of the Ravi and Sutlej into Pakistan thanks to India’s construction of dams on the eastern ones. As long as the volume of water entering Pakistan is not impacted by it building dams on some of the western rivers, it is permitted to do so under the terms of the treaty.

But melting glaciers and an unusually intense summer monsoon pushed river levels on both sides of the border dangerously high this year.

In Pakistan, heavy rains and glacial outbursts caused levels in western rivers to rise, while rising flows severely damaged infrastructure on India’s eastern rivers.

According to Mustafa of King’s College, dams are typically designed to last about 100 years, just like other infrastructure is designed to have a safe capacity of water. But climate change has dramatically altered the average rainfall that might have been taken into account while designing these projects.

He claimed that the dams’ construction parameters are now meaningless and obsolete. Water must be released when dam capacity exceeds dam capacity, or the entire structure will be in danger of being destroyed.

Among the major dams upstream in Indian territory are Salal and Baglihar on the Chenab, Pong on the Beas, Bhakra on the Sutlej, and Ranjit Sagar (also known as Thein) on the Ravi.

With vast areas of  Indian territory between them and the border, these dams are located in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh.

A former Pakistani representative on the bilateral commission tasked with monitoring the implementation of the pact, Shiraz Memon, said that it makes no sense to blame India for the flooding in Pakistan.

“Instead of acknowledging that India has shared warnings, we are blaming them of water terrorism. By the end of August, reservoirs across the region were full, according to Memon, adding that it is a simple, natural flood phenomenon.

Spillways had to be opened for downstream releases because the water was running out. This is a natural solution as there is no other option available”, he told Al Jazeera.

Politics of blame

According to September 3 data on India’s Central Water Commission website, at least a dozen sites face a “severe” flood situation, and another 19 are above normal flood levels.

The Indian High Commission’s message announcing a “high flood” on the Sutlej and Tawi rivers was referenced in a notification from Pakistan’s Ministry of Water Resources the same day.

India issued its fourth notice of this nature after three earlier warnings last week, but none of them contained detailed hydrological information.

Pakistan’s Meteorological Department, in a report on September 4, said on the Pakistani side, two sites on the Sutlej and Ravi faced “extremely high” flood levels, while two other sites on the Ravi and Chenab saw “very high” levels.

In a powerful monsoon, the volume of water frequently exceeds the capacity of any single dam or barrage. According to experts, controlled releases have become a necessary but dangerous component of flood control on both sides of the border.

They added that while the IWT obliged India to alert Pakistan to abnormal flows, Pakistan also needs better monitoring and real-time data systems rather than relying solely on diplomatic exchanges.

According to experts, the blame game can have short-term political effects on both sides, especially after the May conflict.

For India, halting the agreement serves as a strong defense of what it perceives as Pakistan’s state-sponsored terrorism. For Pakistan, blaming India can provide a political scapegoat that distracts from domestic failures in flood mitigation and governance.

Rivers are “living, breathing things,” they say. They always make the move because of this. You cannot control the flood, especially a high or severe flood”, academic Mustafa said.