Leading international law scholars have made a landmark intervention by declaring that Israel’s war against Gaza meets the legal definition of genocide.
A resolution was passed on Monday by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), a 500-member body of academics established in 1994. It stated that Israel’s actions in Gaza complied with the terms of the 1948 UN Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
What is happening on the ground in Gaza is genocide, according to Melanie O’Brien, IAGS president and professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, in a statement that is definitive, according to experts in the field of genocide studies.
86 percent of the members voted in favor of the resolution. It demanded that Israel stop “liberate attacks on civilians, including children, starvation, deprivation of humanitarian aid, water, fuel, and other essentials, sexual and reproductive violence, and forced displacement.”
The declaration, according to Sergey Vasiliev, a professor of international law at the Open University of the Netherlands, was a result of a consensus that has shaped academia. He claimed that “this legal assessment has become widely accepted in academia, particularly in the field of genocide studies.”
The “prestigious scholarly stance reinforces the documented evidence and facts presented before international courts,” according to Ismail al-Thawabta, head of Gaza’s Government Media Office. According to him, the resolution “imposes a legal and moral obligation on the international community to take immediate action to stop the crime, protect civilians, and hold the occupation’s leaders accountable.”
Israel’s growing legal issues
Israel is currently facing a separate case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where it is accused of genocide.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant have been detained by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
More than 63, 000 Palestinians have been killed or damaged in Gaza since Israel’s invasion of the country in October 2023, and almost all of its residents have been forced to flee there at least once.
A UN-backed global hunger monitor has confirmed that some parts of Gaza are currently experiencing famine as a result of Israel’s bombing and blockade, which has purposefully restricted access to food, water, and medicine.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Armenia, and Myanmar have all previously been declared genocides by IAGS. Genocide is defined as crimes committed “with the intention to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group,” according to the UN convention it refers to.
The resolution also referred to Hamas’s 2023 attack on southern Israel as international crimes, but stressed that such acts do not constitute genocide.
After two league games in charge, when Erik ten Hag was sacked, the Dutchman’s job was not saved by the weekend draw at Werder Bremen.
Ten Hag immediately came under pressure after Leverkusen lost their opening Bundesliga game to Hoffenheim 2-1 at home, and his short reign as manager is over with a 3-3 draw against Bremen on Saturday.
“We had to make a decision, which was difficult.” No one wanted to make this decision, according to Leverkusen Sporting Director Simon Rolfes in a statement released on Monday.
“However, recent weeks have demonstrated that using this set-up to create a new and prosperous team is not feasible.”
Ten Hag took over as manager in May after Xabi Alonso left for Real Madrid, who had been sacked by Manchester United in October.
After Alonso had won the first Bundesliga title without losing a game in the previous season, Leverkusen finished second overall in the league.
The close-season departures of Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong, Amine Adli, Jonathan Tah, and Granit Xhaka, among others, made Ten Hag’s task of emulating Alonso’s successful spell at the club even more challenging.
Ten Hag has already run out of time as a result of his Leverkusen debut, which was a 4-0 victory over fourth-placed Sonnenhof Grossaspach in the first round of the German Cup. The club is currently five points clear of leaders Bayern Munich and has a Champions League campaign in the works.
Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro said, “We felt it was necessary,” but parting ways at this early stage of the season is painful.
We are still determined to accomplish our season’s objectives, and we require the best possible conditions across the entire first team.
Not just one former Manchester United manager has lost his job recently, Ten Hag is one. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinho have parted ways with Turkish clubs Fenerbahce and Besiktas, respectively.
The 55-year-old Dutchman led Ajax Amsterdam for three league titles, and he also won the FA Cup and League Cup at Manchester United, where he was fired with the team 14th in the Premier League standings.
Right, Erik ten Hag has now been fired as the team’s head coach twice in ten months. In late October, he was also let go from his Manchester United managerial position.
One nation won’t have any representatives as the Palestinian people prepare to meet in New York for the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) 80th session in September. The United States Department of State has chosen to refuse visas to Palestinian officials who want to attend the UNGA session.
The US has generally adhered to its “headquarters agreement” with the UN, which allows officials from all over the world to obtain visas, though their applications are limited. However, there have been instances where the US has refused to grant visas to foreign diplomats from nations like Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and others because of its status as a UNGA host.
This is not the first time Palestinian leaders have been denied a visa, especially in the case of Palestine. The US government defended its decision by citing “security threats,” and Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), was also prohibited from visiting the UN in 1988.
The Trump administration is now praising the Palestinian Authority (PA) for “not meeting their commitments and… undermining the prospects for peace,” making the claim that the decision reflects US “national security interests.”
The official US justification for the PA’s failure to denounce “terrorism,” including the attacks of October 7, 2023, is illogical. The Palestinian leadership has consistently condemned “terrorism,” including the attacks, under President Mahmoud Abbas, and has gone even further by backing the French-Saudi statement calling for Hamas’s disarmament.
The 1993 Oslo Accords, signed by Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, with US President Bill Clinton as the guest of honor, established the PA in accordance with the agreement. The PA continued to support any US-led peace initiative in the years that followed, including a sizable sum of money.
It is absurd to accuse the PA of “undermining the prospects for peace” in this regard. It is obvious that the visa applications were denied elsewhere.
Leaders of several Western nations have declared their intentions to recognize Palestine at the UNGA this month, which coincides with the Trump administration’s decision. By the end of September, France, Canada, the UK, Australia, Portugal, and Malta are expected to join the 147 UN member states that have already granted Palestinian statehood.
These nations have been under constant pressure from the Trump administration to abandon their plans. Washington is likely trying to prevent the Palestinians from having a chance to celebrate this moment and have a platform to voice their opposition to the ongoing atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza and the occupied West Bank because that may not work.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, will be welcomed warmly in the US, in contrast. Netanyahu has been the most frequently a guest at the White House since Trump’s inauguration, and he will also be present at the UNGA, despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) is issuing a warrant for his arrest. Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, was reportedly denied a visa by the US government in 2013 because of his ICC arrest warrant.
The US has participated in Israeli efforts to silence Palestinian journalists, but it has also denied them a platform at the UN.
Five days after Israel bombed Gaza’s Naser Hospital, killing 22 people, including five Palestinian journalists, the US made the decision to refuse visas to Palestinian diplomats. Since the start of the war, Israel has killed 24 journalists. The attack was not condemned by the Trump administration. The State Department reportedly supported the Israeli army’s claim that four Al Jazeera journalists were “part of Hamas” two weeks prior to the attack and the killing of four of their targets.
This is in response to the US government’s inaction in a number of other Israeli-related journalists killings, including those committed by senior American-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh in May of that year and my friend and colleague Nazeh Darwazeh, who was killed in 2003 while working for The Associated Press.
The US is unwaveringly committed to supporting Israel in denying Palestinians a platform and voice in front of the world to speak out and support their claim to statehood.
The visa denial is “a perfect expression of decades of US policy toward the Palestinians: we’ll punish you for violence, but we’ll punish you for non-violence,” according to Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC.
Who is it if even a resolute Palestinian body that has abandoned armed struggle is not permitted to speak? Who is authorized to represent Palestine?
The Israeli occupiers’ attempts to eject Palestinians from their homeland and void Palestinian sovereignty appear to be supported by the US at this time. Even if you are the only superpower on Earth, you can’t wish away an entire population from its surface.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) media freedom group claims that more than 250 media outlets in over 70 countries have staged a front-page protest highlighting the killing of more than 200 journalists during Israel’s occupation of Gaza.
There will soon be no one left to keep you informed about the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, according to the group’s general director, Thibaut Bruttin, in a statement released on Monday.
According to RSF, the protest, which was supported by the global campaign group Avaaz, was featured on the websites of news outlets like Al Jazeera, The Independent, La Croix and L’Humanite, Tageszeitung und Frankfurter Rundschau, as well as German and German newspapers.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, about 220 journalists have died, according to RSF data. According to an independent analysis conducted by Al Jazeera, at least 278 journalists and media professionals have been murdered by Israel in the last 22 months, including 10 from the network.
In two Israeli airstrikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, five journalists, including Al Jazeera’s Mohammad Salama, Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri, freelance journalist Mariam Abu Daqqa working for The Associated Press, Ahmed Abu Aziz, and Moaz Abu Taha, were killed.
In an Israeli airstrike on a tent sheltered by media workers outside the main gate of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital earlier in August, six journalists, including Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif, were killed. Al-Sharif was the target of the strike.
Three other Al Jazeera employees, including cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, 25, and Mohammed Noufal, 29, were among the seven people killed in the attack, including three of the group’s victims: Mohammed Qreiqeh, a correspondent, Mohammed, a 33-year-old.
(Al Jazeera)
The protesters “demand that the Israelis’ reporters be free of impunity, that they be forced to leave the Strip, and that foreign journalists be given independent access,” according to the RSF statement.
The media outlet reported that the Israeli army had committed crimes against journalists in Gaza against four people and has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court.
Since the start of the war, international media has been denied access to the Gaza Strip.
A select few outlets have covered reporters who are connected to Israeli military installations operating in Gaza under strict military censorship.
Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan has been struck by a magnitude 6 earthquake.
More than 800 people have died as a result of the disaster on Sunday night, according to the government. Rescue efforts have been hampered by debris and flooding.
What happened and why Afghanistan is prone to earthquakes are explained more here:
What transpired?
The earthquake shook eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar and Kunar provinces on Sunday at 11:47 PM (19:47 GMT). It trembled softly because it was 8 kilometers (5 miles) deep.
Because the earthquake’s epicenter and seismic waves are closer to Earth’s surface, smaller earthquakes typically cause more damage. Because they must travel farther to the surface, seismic waves from deep earthquakes lose energy.
A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck Nangarhar province just 20 minutes after the first earthquake, striking north of Basawul. Numerous tremors have fallen since then, ranging in size from 4.3 to 5.2, near the provincial capitals of Jalalabad and Basawul.
Where did the earthquake strike Afghanistan?
The initial earthquake was located 27 kilometers (17 miles) east of Jalalabad, near Kunar province, which is located just north of Nangarhar, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
East of Kabul, Jalalabad is 150 kilometers (93 miles). Because it is close to Pakistan, it is a significant trading hub. The municipality estimates that the city has about 300,000 residents.
The majority of the city’s buildings are low-rise, mostly made of concrete and brick, while the suburbs have mud brick and wood-built homes.
Jalalabad also produces agricultural products. Citrus trees and rice are grown there because the Kabul River passes through the city.
[Al Jazeera]
How many people have been injured and died?
According to Afghan government spokesman Mawlawi Zabihullah Mujahid, the death toll is currently 812 and more than 3, 000 people have been injured.
As rescue efforts continue in the mountainous area, Zabihullah predicted that the casualties would increase.
What does an earthquake of magnitude 6 mean?
The Richter scale, which ranges from 1 to 10, is used to determine the intensity of earthquakes.
A magnitude 6 earthquake is regarded as powerful. Houses may suffer damage and objects may fall.
What do rescue efforts resemble?
According to Sharafat Zaman, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health, rescue operations are underway and several villages have been destroyed.
According to an Afghan television network’s TOLOnews on Monday, “335 injured individuals were transported by helicopter to Nangarhar Regional Hospital.”
According to the state-run Bakhtar news agency, Kunar has received 30 doctors and 800 kg (1, 764lb) of medicine to assist hospitals that are overflowing with patients.
In a post on X  on Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his “full solidarity with the Afghan people.”
Guterres continued, “The @UN team in Afghanistan is mobilized and will make no mistake about helping those in the affected areas.”
After the devastating earthquake that hit Afghanistan earlier today, I stand in full solidarity with its citizens.
I extend my heartfelt condolences to the victims’ families and wish them a quick recovery.
The @UN team has mobilized in Afghanistan…
Iran has also provided aid in the world.
The Islamic Republic of Iran announces its full readiness to send relief, medical, and humanitarian aid in these challenging circumstances and great tragedy, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who spoke to the country’s Tasnim news agency.
What is preventing rescue efforts?
On Saturday, flash floods flooded Nangarhar province, destroying farms and roads.
According to Zakeria Shnizai, an earthquake geologist with the University of Oxford, “in Afghanistan, flooding has severely hampered rescue operations by blocking roads, destroying bridges, and isolating communities in the earthquake-affected area.”
“These difficulties have made it very difficult for emergency personnel to reach people who have been hurt or trapped under debris.” According to Shnizai, the use of heavy equipment has been restricted, and there is now a greater risk of landslides or rock avalanches.
He added that the delivery of essential supplies like food, water, and medical supplies has also become more difficult, leading to longer response times.
Afghan children who have been injured are being treated in a hospital in Jalalabad.
According to research, seasonal rains and weather conditions can increase earthquake-induced vulnerabilities by causing landslides, causing damage to access points, and causing communication disruptions, according to Abdullah Ansari, a research professor at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat, Oman.
“In the present case, floodwaters have obstructed important transportation corridors, stifling the flow of aid and putting down rescue teams. The interaction of seismic and hydrological hazards underscores Afghanistan’s need for multihazard preparedness measures to improve resilience.
Rescue efforts have been hampered by rocky terrain and debris from the earthquakes, in addition to the flash floods. The roads are not paved, they say. It’s very challenging to go there right now because of the earthquake, according to Al Jazeera’s Mohsin Momand from Kabul.
Evacuations and risk mitigation are impeded by limited resources, poor infrastructure, and a lack of comprehensive early warning systems, Ansari continued.
Are earthquakes common in Afghanistan?
The collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, which causes frequent moderate to strong earthquakes, makes Afghanistan one of Central Asia’s most seismically active regions.
In Pakistan and Afghanistan recently, there has been seismic activity.
On August 27 and 19, respectively, magnitude 5. 6 and magnitude 5. 2 tremors struck Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region. On June 29, a magnitude 5. 5 earthquake in Central Pakistan was recorded, and on May 10 a magnitude 5. 7 quake was also recorded.
More than 2, 000 people were killed when an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 6.3 hit Afghanistan’s western province of Herat in 2023. Eastern Afghanistan’s Paktika, Paktia, Khost, and Nangarhar provinces were struck by a magnitude 6 earthquake in June 2022.
(Al Jazeera)
According to Shnizai, “the country and its surrounding regions are frequently characterized by significant crustal stress, which causes numerous faults and frequent seismic activity,” as a result of the plates’ ongoing convergence.
The Hindu Kush region’s Chaman, Herat, Kunar, Panjshir, Sarobi, and Spin Ghar faults are among the major fault systems that traverse the nation.
What is the most recent tidbit of information?
According to the Ministry of Public Works, the highway connecting Jalalabad to Kunar, which is at the center of the deadly earthquake, has been reopened for traffic.
According to ministry spokesman Mohammad Ashraf Haqshenas, many Kunar roads are still inaccessible as first responders work to clear rubble.
