Daily Archives: 25. Dezember 2024


25.12.2024 - 17:00 [ Vatikan ]

„URBI ET ORBI“ MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS CHRISTMAS 2024

May the sound of arms be silenced in war-torn Ukraine! May there be the boldness needed to open the door to negotiation and to gestures of dialogue and encounter, in order to achieve a just and lasting peace.

May the sound of arms be silenced in the Middle East! In contemplating the Crib of Bethlehem, I think of the Christian communities in Palestine and in Israel, particularly the dear community in Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave. May there be a ceasefire, may the hostages be released and aid be given to the people worn out by hunger and by war. I express my closeness to the Christian community in Lebanon, especially in the south, and to that of Syria, at this most delicate time. May the doors of dialogue and peace be flung open throughout the region, devastated by conflict. Here I also think of the Libyan people and encourage them to seek solutions that enable national reconciliation.

25.12.2024 - 16:19 [ Médecins Sans Frontières ]

Gaza death trap: MSF report exposes Israel’s campaign of total destruction

(December 19, 2024)

„What our medical teams have witnessed on the ground throughout this conflict is consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organizations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza,” Lockyear said. (…)

MSF calls on states, particularly Israel’s closest allies, to end their unconditional support for Israel and fulfill their obligation to prevent genocide in Gaza. Nearly a year ago, on January 26, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.” Israel has taken no meaningful action to comply with the court order. Instead, Israeli authorities continue to actively block MSF and other humanitarian organizations from providing lifesaving assistance to people trapped under siege and bombardment.

25.12.2024 - 16:12 [ Human Rights Watch ]

Extermination and Acts of Genocide

(December 19, 2024)

To All States

– Take all measures within their power to prevent genocide by Israeli authorities in Gaza by pressuring Israel to lift the blockade and comply with the orders of the International Court of Justice, including by discontinuing any military assistance and arms sales or transfers, imposing targeted sanctions, and reviewing bilateral deals and diplomatic relations.

– Publicly condemn war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and the genocide convention committed by the Israeli authorities, and urge them to immediately halt those violations and crimes and cooperate with international judicial bodies, investigative mechanisms, and UN special procedures.

– Increase public and private pressure on the Israeli government to comply with international humanitarian law in the conduct of hostilities, and ensure the entry and safe distribution at scale throughout Gaza of adequate aid and provision of basic services.

– Demand that Israel implement UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions on Israel and Palestine, including all provisions relating to humanitarian aid delivery to the residents of Gaza and compliance with international humanitarian law.

– Review and possibly suspend bilateral agreements with Israel, such as the EU-Israel Association Agreement, whose review has been proposed by the Spanish and Irish governments.

– End all forms of support for and complicity in the atrocities being carried out by Israel, including suspending military assistance and arms transfers to the Israeli government so long as its forces commit serious rights abuses and war crimes against Palestinian civilians with impunity.

– Publicly support the ICJ’s work and its decisions as an independent judicial institution and press Israel to comply with the ICJ’s binding orders.

– Publicly support the work of the International Criminal Court across all situations under its jurisdiction, including the ongoing Palestine investigation, and render any assistance necessary to give effect to orders of the Court. Uphold the court’s independence and publicly condemn efforts to intimidate or interfere with its work, officials, and those cooperating with the institution.

– Support foreign domestic investigations and prosecutions under the principle of universal jurisdiction, as relevant and appropriate, of those credibly implicated in serious crimes in Gaza.

– The United States should immediately reverse its decisions to suspend funding to UNRWA and state clearly the intention to continue to fund the agency, and all states should urge Israeli authorities to reverse Israel‘s decisions to bar UNRWA from operating within Israel.

– Fund repairs of damaged and destroyed water and sanitation infrastructure, and press Israel to urgently allow the infrastructure to be repaired.

– Support the creation of an international mechanism to address reparation for Palestinians and an international register of damages.

– Call on Israeli authorities to allow water filtration systems, water tanks, and other materials needed to repair water infrastructure and to improve the water supply into Gaza.

– Support the United Nations to establish a plan that would ensure Palestinians have access to water at least equal to what Israel grants Israeli citizens, and pressure Israel to facilitate and contribute to the plan.

– Address long-standing impunity by Israeli authorities and Palestinian armed groups for serious crimes under international law.

To the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation

– Request access to Gaza in order to monitor and report publicly on the human rights situation regarding access to water and sanitation, including damage and destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure; obstruction of repairs and targeting of repair workers; restrictions on the entry of fuel; and the human rights impacts stemming from these actions.

To the International Criminal Court Prosecutor

– Investigate Israeli authorities’ actions and policies that have deprived the civilian population of Gaza of water, including as war crimes, as the crime against humanity of extermination, and as genocide.

25.12.2024 - 16:02 [ Amnesty International ]

‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza

(December 5, 2024)

To make a determination on genocide, Amnesty International first examined whether Palestinians in Gaza constitute part of a protected group under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention), that is a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. It then focused on three out of the five prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention: “killing members of the group”; “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group”; and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. It finally examined whether Israel committed these acts with the specific “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, [the] group, as such”.

To this end, Amnesty International interviewed 212 people as part of its research. They included Palestinian victims, survivors and witnesses of air strikes, displacement, detention, the destruction of farms, homes and agricultural land, as well as individuals who faced the impact of Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid. Amnesty International also spoke with members of local authorities in Gaza, Palestinian healthcare workers and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies involved in the humanitarian response in Gaza.

Amnesty International complemented these interviews with its analysis of an extensive range of visual and digital evidence, including satellite imagery, video footage and photographs posted on social media or obtained directly by its researchers. It authenticated and, where possible, geolocated video footage and photographs. It reviewed an extensive collection of media reports, statements, reports and data sets published by UN agencies and humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza, as well as Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups. It reviewed statements by senior Israeli government and military officials and official Israeli bodies, including spokespersons of the Israeli military and the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit within Israel’s Ministry of Defense tasked with administering civilian matters in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) . Amnesty International also examined submissions made to and decisions taken by the Israeli Supreme Court as well as publicly available material relating to South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Despite its repeated attempts to engage with the Israeli authorities through information and meeting requests, the organization received no substantive answer to any of its letters sent between 30 October 2023 and 16 October 2024.

25.12.2024 - 15:47 [ Middle East Eye ]

Opinion: Another expert report finds Israel is committing genocide. The West yawns

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) agree that Israel is striving for extermination. It has not hidden its intent, and that intent is confirmed by its actions on the ground.

25.12.2024 - 15:31 [ YeniSafak.com ]

Gaza death toll nears 45,400 as Israel kills 23 more Palestinians

At least 23 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, pushing up the overall death toll since last year to 45,361, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Wednesday.

25.12.2024 - 15:25 [ Daily News Egypt ]

Syria’s Shifting Sands: A New Middle East Order

The final outcome in Syria appears stark: Assad’s regime has fallen, and the Syrian army has been entirely dismantled—an unprecedented event even compared to the 1967 war. Israel now firmly controls the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon. Turkish forces have seized more than 13 cities, cementing their influence. The United States has solidified its presence in oil-rich regions while extending legal protection to the Kurds and the SDF.

25.12.2024 - 15:02 [ Forward.com ]

Netanyahu throws cold water on hostage deal prospects, and reminds us what a curse he is for Israel

(December 23, 2024)

From the beginning it was clear that the only feasible post-Hamas arrangement would be a return of the Palestinian Authority, which now runs the West Bank autonomy zones, back to Gaza, from which Hamas expelled it in 2007 by force. Israel itself once yearned for this, back when rational people governed the country. The proposals pushed by President Joe Biden for more than a year now envision versions of this, with the PA rejuvenated and assisted by Arab and perhaps other forces.

An Israel that wanted this would have ensured that Hamas is out of the way, publicly and persistently offering its remaining troops exile. Arab pressure on the group would have been overpowering. Israel would possibly get peace with Saudi Arabia as part of the bargain.

Instead, Netanyahu’s goons flooded the airwaves arguing that Israel cannot pull out of Gaza and end the war because Hamas would regain power.

25.12.2024 - 14:30 [ NDTV.com ]

14 Survivors Hospitalised From Crash Of Azerbaijan Airlines Plane In Kazakhstan

The plane – a passenger jet operated by Azerbaijan Airlines and carrying at least 67 people, was flying from Baku in that country to Grozny in Russia, when an (as yet) unspecified emergency caused the pilots to request an emergency landing at the Aqtau International Airport.