Rights group calls for a halt of all returns of Syrians and urges countries hosting refugees to take this position. Syrians carry their belongings as they cross back into Syria at the Syrian-Turkish border crossing of Bab al-Hawa in Idlib [File: Khalil Ashawi/Reuters] By Kareem Chehayeb Published On 20 Oct 2021 Beirut, Lebanon – Continuing Syrian government human rights abuses mean refugees should not be returned, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says, urging host nations to immediately halt all refugee returns. The New York-based organisation said in a new report on Wednesday that it had documented extrajudicial killings, torture, kidnappings, and sexual violence perpetrated against returned Syrian refugees, many of whom had security clearances from the government before returning. “The fact that the armed conflict diminished in large parts of the country is beside the point,” HRW’s Executive Director Ken Roth said at the report’s launch. “The main targeted threat to returning refugees remains fully operational and is running at full speed. The multiple agencies that prey on Syrians are still running.” “The government continues to commit human rights abuses against Syrians, and so long as this continues, any talk of returns would be premature,” HRW’s Syria researcher Sara Kayyali said on Wednesday. According to the UN, there are more than 851,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon and about 670,000 in Jordan. ‘Burns on his body’ In the report – Our Lives Are Like Death: Syrian Refugee Returns from Lebanon and Jordan – the rights group interviewed 65 Syrian refugees who returned from Lebanon and Jordan between 2017 and 2021 or their family members. In September 2020, 39-year-old Abdul from Deraa returned home from Jordan’s Ramtha, wanting to reclaim his lands and see his family after he heard the war was over. He told HRW that, a month later, he was on his way to visit the capital when he was arrested at a checkpoint and taken to military intelligence detention centres, first in Sweida and then in Damascus, where he was tortured and deprived of sufficient food and water. He was accused of “financing terrorism” and detained for four months. Mona, 25, from Sayida Zeinab in Damascus, returned from Lebanon to Syria in 2018 with her husband after her daughter was diagnosed with cancer and they could not afford treatment there. Her husband had deserted the Syrian army in 2015. “Somebody must have told the army that we were back,” Mona told HRW, saying her husband was arrested and jailed for nine months. “There were lots of marks on his body, red and blue … He also had burns on his body. It is all because he deserted the army previously.” The refugees HRW interviewed said they wanted to return because of a lack of job opportunities and access to healthcare in their host countries, because they wanted to reclaim their homes and property, and because they believed it was safe. Syrian refugees have been affected severely by Lebanon’s economic crisis, with the UN saying about 90 percent live in extreme poverty. About 575,000 have returned during the past four years, HRW reported. The security concerns compound other woes for war-torn Syria. “Widespread property rights violations and other economic hardships also make a sustainable return impossible for many,” Nadia Hardman, HRW’s refugee and migrant rights researcher, said. The devaluation of the Syrian pound and price rises have plunged millions into poverty. ‘Ensure their security’ The UN estimates that 13 million Syrians across the country need humanitarian aid, while hundreds of thousands across the country’s north are plagued by a crippling water crisis. In a two-day visit to Syria last week, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi discussed with Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and other officials the importance of addressing the treatment of refugees upon their return. “These are Syrian nationals and it’s the government’s responsibility to ensure their security,” said Grandi, calling on the international community to increase funding to secure access to water, healthcare, and education and fix damaged homes. “We are engaging with the government to highlight refugees’ concerns such as their safety, property rights and livelihoods.” The Syrian government in Damascus and key ally Russia have urged refugee returns to government-held areas in the country. In late 2020, Damascus hosted a refugee returns conference, which Lebanon and Jordan attended. Syria’s war has killed about 500,000 people during the past 10 years. It started with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests, later turning into a complex battlefield involving international armies, local militias, and foreign fighters. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

Originally published by Al Jazeera on 15 September 2022 Makeshift tents for housing are lined up at the camp for internally displaced people affected by the prolonged conflict between farmers and nomadic herders in Guma, Benue State in central Nigeria, January 6, 2022 [File: Chinedu Asadu/AP Photo] By Adebayo Abdulrahman Published On 15 Sep 2022 Igangan, Nigeria – One sunny afternoon in April, Rahmata Adeagbo, was seated on a bed in her brother’s house where she now lives, staring blankly at the visitors. “Ade-lo-wo … Ade-a-gbo,” the 50-year-old muttered after a long silence, painfully stringing the syllables of her late husband’s name. On June 5, 2021, he had stepped out after receiving calls that nomadic herdsmen had laid siege to their town, Igangan, some 176km (109 miles) away from Lagos. The next time she saw him, his body was ridden with bullets, one of 11 deaths during the attack. Before that episode, Igangan and six neighbouring towns – all in Oyo state – had experienced a number of clashes stemming from disagreements between Indigenous Yoruba farmers and nomadic Fulani herdsmen. At the root of the crisis is cattle grazing on farmlands across Nigeria but the battle for resources has been exacerbated by climate change across the Sahel, worsening economic conditions and in some cases, ethnicity and religion; the nomads are mostly Muslim and the farmers are predominantly Christians. [Genocide Watch comment: Attributing these attacks to "climate change" is a false narrative pushed by the Nigerian government, US State Department, and human rights groups that deny the genocidal aspects of these massacres. They are in fact aimed at forced displacement and jihadist genocide of Christian farmers.] Entire villages have been displaced and schools closed for successive sessions. Interstate food supply chains are disrupted as cattle markets have been razed and farmers have been unable to tend to their crops or have seen them destroyed. In central Nigeria, the hotspot, as many as 13 million people are at risk of hunger, the World Food Programme said earlier this year. Between 2016 and 2018, there were 3,641 deaths nationwide due to the conflict, according to Amnesty International. The majority of the reported victims were Indigenes and herdsmen were reported as the aggressors, launching deadly raids frequently. But even in the southwest, where interfaith households are common and religious tolerance is deemed the highest nationwide, these clashes have become rife. In recent years, it has morphed into more dangerous dimensions involving kidnappings, rape, highway robberies, and coordinated destruction of farmlands. In 2019, an anti-open grazing law addressing what many experts have identified as the root cause of the disagreements – resource sharing – was passed into law in Oyo. But it has not yet been implemented. Two years later, as attacks in Igangan continued without perpetrators being apprehended, non-state actors led by a Yoruba ethnic rights activist, Sunday Adeyemo Igboho, demolished property belonging to Fulani residents. Residents told Al Jazeera that this eviction and the controversies that followed likely spurred the June 5 attack. Growing Distrust According to a report [PDF] by the International Crisis Group, factors that have allowed Nigeria’s pastoralist crisis to fester range from impunity and eroding confidence in the country’s security forces to the government’s poor response to early warnings. For years, the national security architecture has been overstretched by armed groups running riot in northeast, northwest and central Nigeria. In January 2020, as cases of insecurity spiked in southwest Nigeria, the six state governors in the region agreed to create a regional security network. It was codenamed Amotekun (Yoruba for leopard). The federal government kicked against the move citing constitutional concerns so the governors redesigned it into a state-based security vigilante to support the police, which is controlled by Abuja. In Oyo State, the outfit launched in November 2020. Even though the June 2021 attack remains the last full-scale one coordinated by herdsmen on residents of any of the seven neighbouring towns, residents told Al Jazeera that neither the recent reduction in attacks nor the government’s efforts had eased their fears. Matthew Page, an associate fellow at the UK-based think-tank Chatham House, says their decision not to trust the authorities’ promise of safety is justified, explaining that “security agencies are ineffective because authorities have tolerated endemic corruption and turned a blind eye to their operational failures”. Idayat Hassan, director of Abuja-based CDD, agreed, saying it is difficult for residents to trust the state because it has lost the monopoly of violence. “The inability of the state to respond even when furnished with information ahead of attacks also makes citizens believe they are either complicit or abetting,” she said. “This further eroded the thin trust existing between citizens and governments.” Peace and unease Before her husband’s death, Adeagbo was a housewife who occasionally engaged in farmwork but her mental health has begun to suffer since and she can no longer work. “When her husband died, she suffered a serious emotional issue,” her brother, Akeem Rasheed, told Al Jazeera. “Her husband’s death and the unavailability of resources to cater for her kids pushed her to the brink.” Initially, he took her to the closest neuropsychiatric hospital, 77km [48 miles] from the town, for treatment. After two months, he had to take her back home because he could no longer afford her hospital bills. “They allowed me to take her away only because I promised to keep bringing her for regular check-ups, something I have not done because I don’t have money again,” Rasheed said. As her mental state declines, her family is clinging to the hope that she will get better and that the town will not be attacked again. But despite no attacks in recent months, residents of other communities in the region are choosing pragmatism over hope. Across villages in Ogun state, next door to Lagos, residents are relocating to the neighbouring Benin Republic. One of them is Clement Oyebanjo, a teacher in Agbon village who moved there briefly last February after an attack in his village killed four people. “We are not at ease and sleep with our eyes half open because we know as long as open-grazing is not banned, these Fulani herders will come back,” says Oyebanjo who is prepared to return to Benin if another attack happens. ‘Violence entrepreneurs’ After Igangan was attacked in June, its residents created a new vigilante group. One of its members was Emmanuel Oguntoyinbo whose younger brother was shot dead on his motorcycle by the attackers while returning from a party. “We, the youths of the town, that decided that we needed to do that because initially, the community employed some vigilantes from outside, but when the government refused to pay, they left,” the 35-year-old told Al Jazeera. Every night, armed with Dane guns and charms, they take positions across the town while others patrol strategic places in groups. The community’s youth leader, Olayiwola Olusegun, told Al Jazeera that every household contributes money every month to provide ammunition. In Agbon, the local vigilante group continues to recruit new members. In neighbouring Ibeku, residents are now wary of visitors and report unknown faces immediately to the town’s traditional ruler. In Ondo State, dozens of elder residents of communities like Okeluse and Molege, have fled too, while youths who stayed behind have picked up arms to protect themselves. Meanwhile, Wasiu Olatunbosun, Oyo State commissioner for information, told Al Jazeera the government had put in place the machinery to secure towns like Igangan. He insisted that residents who claim to stay up at night because of their fear of another attack must be opposition members. For experts like Page, the outcome of these dynamics could be an “expansion of violence entrepreneurs” and more instability even if residents embracing self-defence is justified. The only difference, he said, between “a vigilante, political thug, insurgent, or bandit is for whom or what cause he fights”. © 2022 Al Jazeera Media Network

Kenyan president William Ruto (© File: AP) Kenya’s Parliament has approved the deployment of nearly 1,000 soldiers for a new regional force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) amid questions about the $37m cost for the first six months of the mission. Local newspapers reported that the approval, which was given on Wednesday, came two days after Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale met the parliamentary defence committee. The committee report says the money will be spent on equipment, allowances, and operations for the more than 900 soldiers joining the East African Community Regional Force that will support Congolese forces against armed groups. Opposition lawmakers questioned why Kenya is spending so much money on the regional mission while the country faces its own security issues. Kenya also faces rising inflation and high public debt that President William Ruto inherited from his successor Uhuru Kenyatta. Last week, Ruto called the mission “necessary and urgent” for regional security. Violence by armed groups in the eastern part has led to a diplomatic crisis between DRC and neighbouring Rwanda, which accuse each other of backing certain groups. The Kenyan forces will be based in Goma, the largest city in the eastern DRC. The regional force, agreed upon by heads of state in June and led by a Kenyan commander, also has two battalions from Uganda, two from Burundi, and one from South Sudan. There is a possibility that international financing may be secured for the mission, the committee report said. © 2022 Al Jazeera Media Network

Protesters denounce Rwanda’s alleged support for the M23 rebels, who have made advances in the countryside around Goma. Demonstrators chanted for weapons to fight Rwanda, as well as slogans hostile to Uganda, which some also accuse of backing the M23 rebel group (© Arlette Bashizi/Reuters) Thousands have protested in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) city of Goma, denouncing Rwanda’s alleged support of M23 rebels, as Kinshasa recalled its interim acting ambassador from Kigali in a further souring of relations. The protests on Monday come as M23 have tightened their grip on the surrounding countryside. “We denounce the hypocrisy of the international community in the face of Rwanda’s aggression,” Mambo Kawaya, a civil society representative attending the demonstration, told AFP news agency. A mostly Congolese Tutsi group, the M23 resumed fighting in late 2021 after lying dormant for years, accusing the Congolese government of failing to honour an agreement to integrate its fighters into the army. The group’s resurgence has destabilised regional relations in central Africa, with the DRC accusing its smaller neighbour Rwanda of backing the rebel group. The front line between the Congolese military and the M23 had been calm for several weeks, but fresh clashes from October 20 saw the rebel group make advances across North Kivu province. Rebels in recent days seized the towns of Kiwanja and Rutshuru, along a strategic highway leading to the provincial capital Goma, which lies on the Rwandan border. On Sunday, the DRC’s government ordered the Rwandan ambassador, Vincent Karega, to leave the country within 48 hours. Rwanda stated that it had noted the decision “with regret”. The DRC’s foreign ministry has recalled the interim charge d’affaires from Kigali and ordered its newly-appointed ambassador to Rwanda not to register his credentials, it said in a statement on Monday. Despite official denials from Kigali, an unpublished report for the United Nations seen by AFP in August pointed to Rwandan involvement with the M23 (© Arlette Bashizi/Reuters) On Sunday, Rwanda accused the DRC of escalating tensions between the two countries and said its forces along the border “remain on alert”. The rebel group first leapt to prominence in 2012 when it briefly captured Goma before a joint Congolese-United Nations offensive drove it out. It is one of scores of armed groups that roam eastern DRC, many of them a legacy of two regional wars that flared late last century. Despite official denials from Kigali, an unpublished report for the United Nations seen by AFP in August pointed to Rwandan involvement with the M23. The same report said the M23 plans to capture Goma, an important trade hub of about one million people, to extract political concessions from the DRC’s government. Rwandan President Paul Kagame tweeted on Monday that he had held a discussion with UN chief Antonio Guterres on how to de-escalate the tensions. © 2022 Al Jazeera Media Network

Mass graves have been found in several places across Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24. Residents gathered in the Kherson city centre after the Russians withdrew [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters] Nov 14th 2022 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russian soldiers of committing war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson, which was retaken by Ukraine last week. “Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address on Sunday, without specifying the locations where the bodies had been discovered. “The Russian army left behind the same savagery it did in other regions of the country it entered,” he said. It was not immediately possible to verify Zelensky’s allegations. Russia denies its troops intentionally target civilians. Mass graves have been found in several places across Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, including the bodies of civilians showing evidence of torture discovered in the northeastern Kharkiv region and in Bucha, near the capital Kyiv. Ukraine has accused Russian troops of committing the crimes. A United Nations commission in October said war crimes had been committed in Ukraine and that Russian forces were responsible for the “vast majority” of human rights violations in the early weeks of the war. Ukrainians in Kherson expressed a deep sense of relief following the withdrawal of Russian forces on Friday after months of occupation. The region was one of four that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed in September, a move dubbed illegal by Kyiv and denounced by Western countries. The Russians retreated on Friday, with residents expressing relief that the soldiers had gone [AFP] Some residents accused the Russians of laying mines and looting — even stealing animals from a zoo — before they retreated. “God will punish them. All of them. For everything they did,” said 47-year-old Svitlana Vilna. No water, power Ukrainian troops arrived in the southern city of Kherson after Russia abandoned the regional capital, which fell shortly after the February 24 invasion. The withdrawal marked the third significant Russian retreat of the war and followed a major Ukrainian counteroffensive that had retaken parts of the east and south. Most homes in the Ukrainian city are still without electricity and water, according to regional officials said, and artillery exchanges continued to echo over the city. “We are happy now, but all of us are afraid of the bombing from the left bank,” said Yana Smyrnova, a 35-year-old singer who was in the city’s main square, referring to Russian guns on the east side of the Dnieper River. Many residents — some wrapped in Ukrainian flags — queued to get food and to use Starlink satellite internet to connect with relatives. “I need to get in touch with my family,” Klavdia Mych, a retired teacher, told the AFP news agency. “We have been without water for a week,” the 69-year-old added. “And they say everything is mined. It is very scary.” The governor of the Kherson region, Yaroslav Yanushevych, said the authorities had decided to maintain a curfew from 5pm local time (15:00 GMT) until 8am (06:00 GMT) and ban people from leaving or entering the city as a security measure. “The enemy mined all critical infrastructure,” Yanushevych told Ukrainian TV. “We are trying to meet within a few days and [then] open the city,” he said. Zelensky also warned Kherson residents about the presence of Russian mines. “I am asking you please not to forget that the situation in Kherson region remains very dangerous,” he said. Residents gathered to use the Starlink satellite system for their smartphones. Ukrainian authorities are working to restore water and power to the city, with the first trains expected to run this week [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters] Minimising contact Officials reported some early progress in restoring normality to the city, whose pre-war population was about 290,000 people. Presidential adviser Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram that a mobile connection was already working in the city centre, while the head of Ukrainian state railways said train services to Kherson were expected to resume this week. Residents said the Russians had left gradually over the past two weeks, but their final departure became clear only when the first Ukrainian troops entered the city of Kherson on Thursday. “It was a gradual thing,” said Alexii Sandakov, 44, a videographer. “First their special police went. Then the ordinary police and their administration. Then you started seeing fewer soldiers in the supermarkets and then their military vehicles driving away.” Many residents interviewed by the Reuters news agency said they had tried to minimise their contact with the Russians and knew of people who were arrested and abused for showing any expression of Ukrainian patriotism. Sandakov said Russian troops had looted the homes of Ukrainian soldiers who left the city before the takeover and would inspect the bodies of young men passing through checkpoints for tattoos of Ukrainian nationalist groups. Ukraine’s defence ministry said it had recaptured 179 settlements and 4,500 square kilometres (1,700 square miles) along the Dnieper River since the beginning of the week. The recapture of the city opens a gateway for Ukraine to the entire Kherson region, with access to both the Black Sea in the west and the Sea of Azov in the east. © 2022 Al Jazeera Media Network

The armed forces say the rebel group also violated a five-day-old ceasefire in the east of the country. Internally displaced Congolese wait for food to be distributed at a camp outside the eastern town of Goma (© AP Photo/Jerome Delay) The armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have accused the M23 rebel group and its allies of killing 50 civilians in the eastern town of Kishishe. The army said in a statement on Thursday that the massacre took place on Tuesday, as it also accused the rebels of violating a five-day-old ceasefire in the east of the country. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced because of the resumption of fighting last month between the armed forces and the M23, which has been waging its most serious offensive in eastern DRC since 2012. General Sylvain Ekenge told the AFP news agency that M23 was “carrying out massacres … the most recent of which is that of 50 Congolese civilians, heinously murdered on Tuesday in Kishishe,” a village some 70km (40 miles) north of the eastern city of Goma. He claimed that the DRC forces had maintained the truce, but the rebels had attacked government positions. M23 leader Bertrand Bisimwa told the Reuters news agency that the group would respond to the accusations later in a statement. A mostly Congolese Tutsi group, the M23 first leaped to prominence in 2012 by briefly capturing the city of Goma. After a peace deal in 2013, many M23 fighters were integrated into the military. The group resumed fighting in late 2021, saying the DRC had failed to honour a pledge to integrate its fighters into the army, among other grievances. The United Nations and international rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said they were aware of the killings in Kishishe in North Kivu province, but could not provide details or information about the number of fatalities. The DRC has accused its neighbour, Rwanda, of supporting M23, a charge that Kigali has denied. © 2022 Al Jazeera Media Network

The bloc’s comments came after UN experts’ report found ‘direct intervention’ by Rwandan forces inside the DR Congo. In his New Year address, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame blamed Kinshasa for chaos in its eastern regions (© Habimana Thierry/Anadolu Agency) The European Union has urged Rwanda to stop supporting the M23 rebel group, which has captured swaths of territory in North Kivu province in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The DRC – along with the United States and several European countries – has repeatedly accused its smaller Central African neighbour Rwanda of backing the M23, although Kigali denies the charge. The Tutsi rebel group has in recent months advanced to within a few dozen kilometres of North Kivu’s capital Goma. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Saturday said the European bloc had urged Rwanda to “stop supporting the M23 and use all means to press the M23 to comply with the decisions taken by the EAC [East African Community]” at a November summit in Angola. “It also firmly urges all states of the region to prevent the provision of any support to armed groups active in the DRC,” said Borrell. He called on Kinshasa to “take all measures necessary to protect the civilian population in its territory”. Under heavy international pressure to disarm, M23 joined a ceremony last week to deliver the strategic town of Kibumba to an East African military force as a “goodwill gesture” for peace. The EAC also said the group had to withdraw to the border between the DRC, Uganda and Rwanda. However, the Congolese army promptly dubbed the Kibumba handover a “sham”. Borrell’s comments came after a United Nations experts’ report on DRC indicated it had collected proof of “direct intervention” by Rwandan defence forces inside DRC territory between November 2021 and October 2022. The report says Rwandan troops launched operations to reinforce the M23 against the mainly Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) – notably by supplying weapons, ammunition and uniforms. Kigali sees the FDLR as a threat which justifies interventions inside the DRC. Rwanda has also accused the DRC – where presidential elections are due next December – of using the conflict for political purposes as well as of “fabricating” a November massacre of at least 131 civilians. A United Nations inquiry blamed the deaths on M23 rebels. Prior to the massacre, Angola had been mediating peace talks designed to pave the way for a truce agreement. In a statement on Saturday, Kinshasa welcomed the findings of the UN experts, which it said “put an end to the lies and manipulations” of Rwanda. Given the gravity of the allegations, it called for the UN Security Council to examine the experts’ report with a view to possible sanctions against Rwanda. Meanwhile, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame blamed Kinshasa for the chaos in its volatile eastern regions in his New Year address. “After spending tens of billions of dollars on peacekeeping over the past two decades, the security situation in Eastern Congo is worse than ever,” Kagame said in a statement on Saturday. “To explain this failure, some in the international community blame Rwanda, even though they know very well that the true responsibility lies primarily with the government of the DRC. It is high time that the unwarranted vilification of Rwanda stopped.” © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

At least 20 others were injured with live ammunition during a large-scale raid on Jenin refugee camp. A damaged house following the Israeli raid in Jenin [Raneen Sawafta/Reuters] Israeli troops have killed 10 Palestinians in one of the deadliest days in the occupied West Bank since Israeli raids intensified at the start of last year. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, nine of the Palestinians killed were in the Jenin refugee camp, after Israeli forces raided the area. The other Palestinian, a 22-year-old man, was shot by Israeli forces in the town of al-Ram, north of Jerusalem. In the Jenin raid, which Palestinians have described as a “massacre”, at least 20 others were wounded with live ammunition. Four of them were in critical condition. The dead included an elderly woman, according to Palestinian officials. She was identified as Magda Obaid by the Jenin hospital authorities. Israeli forces, who withdrew from Jenin after the killings, said they were looking into reports of the woman’s death. Meanwhile, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade – an armed militia affiliated with the Palestinian political party Fatah – said the dead included one of its fighters, Izz al-Din Salahat. According to the health ministry, another person, Saeb Azriqi, 24, succumbed to his injuries in a hospital. It said the situation on the ground was very difficult, with injured people continuously reaching hospitals, as it accused Israeli forces of obstructing ambulances and medics. “There is an invasion that is unprecedented … in terms of how large it is and the number of injuries,” Wissam Baker, head of Jenin public hospital, told Al Jazeera. “The ambulance driver tried to get to one of the martyrs who was on the floor, but the Israeli forces shot directly at the ambulance and prevented them from approaching him,” Baker continued. Israeli forces also fired tear gas canisters towards the hospital, affecting the children’s division, Baker said. It caused suffocation injuries to children and others, he added. Israel’s army denied deliberately firing tear gas at the hospital. “No one shot tear gas on purpose at a hospital,” an army spokesperson said. “But the activity was not far away from the hospital and it is possible some tear gar entered through an open window.” Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority (PA), announced the authority would halt security coordination with Israel in the wake of the West Bank killings. “As of now it will not be enforced,” he told a press conference in Ramallah, adding the move was in response to repeated aggressions against Palestinians and violation of the international law by Israel. “We salute those standing steadfast defending our homeland,” the spokesperson said. He also called for an International Criminal Court Investigation into Thursday’s killings. PA President Mahmoud Abbas declared a third-day mourning period, during which flags would be flown at half mast, the official Palestinian TV reported. PM Shtayyeh seeks UN intervention Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh released a statement calling on the United Nations and all international human rights organisations to “intervene urgently to provide protection for Palestinian people and stop the bloodshed of children, youth and women”. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the Israeli raid on Jenin and called on the international community to stop Israel’s escalating aggression, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Saleh al-Arouri, a prominent leader of the Hamas movement governing the blockaded Gaza Strip, said the “response of the resistance will not be delayed”. Al Jazeera’s Youmna el-Sayed, reporting from Gaza, said Palestinian factions, including Hamas, announced a day of mourning and declared a state of alert. “They called on the international community to hold the ‘occupation criminals’ accountable for their crimes and finally called out on the people in Gaza to go out in the streets and show their rage against the massacre committed in Jenin,” el-Sayed said. Israeli operation Justifying the operation, the Israeli military said special forces had been sent into Jenin to detain Islamic Jihad fighters suspected of planning and carrying out “multiple major terror attacks”. Israeli forces launched a large-scale raid and besieged the camp in the early hours with undercover forces, dozens of armoured vehicles and snipers. Armed clashes with Palestinian resistance fighters soon broke out. The military added that several Palestinian fighters had been shot after they opened fire. “During the operation, the security forces operated to surround the building in which the suspects were located. Two armed suspects were identified fleeing the scene and were neutralised by the security forces,” Israeli officials said in a statement. No injuries were reported among the Israeli forces. United States State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel echoed Israel on Thursday as he described the attack as a “counterterrorism operation”. “We recognise the very real security challenges facing Israel and the Palestinian Authority and condemn terrorist groups planning and carrying out attacks against innocent civilians,” Patel told reporters. “We also regret the loss of innocent lives and injuries to civilians and are deeply concerned by the escalating cycle of violence in the West Bank.” Jenin is among areas of the northern West Bank where Israel has intensified raids over the past year in an attempt to crack down on growing armed Palestinian resistance. Aleef Sabbagh, a political analyst specialising in Israeli affairs, said Thursday’s operation in Jenin “should be understood as a signal – it is the first shot in a coming, larger Israeli operation”. “The lack of a response – neither Arab nor international – over what Israel is doing, is encouraging it to continue with its raids and killings,” Sabbagh told Al Jazeera. “The targeting of ambulances and hospitals, preventing aid to wounded people, the field executions – even the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh – there has been no accountability. If there is no real, strong response, Israel will continue to do what it wants without punishment.” Al Jazeera’s Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran correspondent covering the occupied Palestinian territories for more than 25 years, was shot dead in May last year while she was covering a raid on the Jenin refugee camp. No one has yet been held accountable for her killing. Al Jazeera’s Senior Political Analyst Mawan Bishara said that “in the international arena, combating ‘terrorism’ has a magical sound to it. It’s able to justify anything and everything even when it’s totally incorrect”. While Israel justifies its actions on security grounds, the Palestinians “see that as a cynical ploy aimed at humiliating the Palestinian authority,” the analyst said. The raid took place in the so-called Area A, under Palestinian administrative and police control according to the terms of the Oslo agreement. “These young people of the refugee camp are just trying to protect themselves; it’s not like they’re going out in Israel and shooting at Israelis,” Bishara added. The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during raids in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in January has risen to at least 29 people, including five children. At least 15 of those killed were from Jenin. More than 170 Palestinians were killed in such raids in 2022, many of them civilians. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Defence ministry says it is monitoring the situation after Chinese air force planes appeared to be coordinating with ships in joint training to the south of Taiwan. Taiwan says it detected Chinese fighter jets as well as bombers in its ADIZ [File: Jason Lee/Reuters] China’s air force and navy are staging a large-scale drill involving fighter jets, bombers and warships off the south and southwest of Taiwan, according to the self-ruled island’s defence ministry. China, which claims democratic Taiwan as its own territory, has sent warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, or ADIZ, regularly in recent years stepping up military pressure on the island’s government. China staged war games around Taiwan last August and again in April. Since August, China has regularly flown military aircraft across the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two territories. Beijing has not ruled out the use of force to take control of Taiwan. Taiwan’s defence ministry, in a statement on Wednesday, said that in the past 24 hours, it had detected 32 Chinese air force planes entering the island’s ADIZ. The aircraft included four nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, which flew to Taiwan’s south and into the Pacific before heading back to China, according to a map shared by the ministry. Late on Tuesday, the ministry said the Chinese air force planes were acting in coordination with Chinese ships to carry out joint training to the south of Taiwan, and that four Chinese warships were engaged in “combat readiness patrols”. Taiwan sent its own aircraft and ships to monitor the Chinese activities, the ministry added. The ADIZ is a broader area Taiwan monitors and patrols to give its forces more time to respond to threats. China has not commented on the latest drills or the others that Taiwan has reported over the last month or so. In June, Taiwan said eight Chinese warplanes crossed the median line and approached close to the island’s contiguous zone, which is 24 nautical miles (44 km) off its coast. Taiwan defines its territorial space at 12 nautical miles (22 km) from its coast, although the government has not reported Chinese aircraft entering either the contiguous zone or Taiwan’s territorial air space. Taiwan’s government rejects China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future. It is gearing up for its annual Han Kuang military exercises, which start on July 24. They are expected to focus on homeland defence, force preservation and civil-military coordination. Some of the drills will simulate an attack by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Taiwanese military’s efforts to preserve its forces, Major General Lin Wen-huang, head of the defence ministry’s joint operations planning section, told reporters on Wednesday. There will also be a simulated PLA airborne attack on Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Iran's national flag flies in the capital, Tehran [File: Vahid Salemi/AP] Iran’s persecution of its Baha’i minority has been branded “a crime against humanity”. Human Rights Watch alleged in a report released on Monday that Iran’s largest non-Muslim minority has faced a “spectrum of abuses” since the Islamic revolution of 1979. The New York-based NGO suggested that the case fits the remit of the International Criminal Court (ICC). HRW said among the persecution endured by the Baha’is are arbitrary arrest, property confiscation, restrictions on school and job opportunities, and the right to a dignified burial. “The cumulative impact of authorities’ decades-long systematic repression is an intentional and severe deprivation of Baha’is’ fundamental rights and amounts to the crime against humanity of persecution,” the report says. HRW argues that this falls within the scope of the ICC, whose statute defines persecution as the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law on national, religious or ethnic grounds. The findings in the report relied on a number of varied sources, including government policies, court documents, and interviews with Baha’is in and out of Iran. According to HRW, while the intensity of violations against Baha’is “has varied over time”, the persecution of the community has remained constant, “impacting virtually every aspect of Baha’is’ private and public lives”. “In recent years, as Iranian authorities have brutally repressed widespread protests demanding fundamental political, economic, and social change in the country, the authorities have also targeted Baha’is,” the report notes. “Authorities have raided Baha’i homes, arrested dozens of Baha’i citizens and community leaders, and confiscated property owned by Baha’is.” Iran holds “extreme animus against adherents of the Bahai faith” and repression of the minority is enshrined in Iranian law and is official government policy, the report asserts. “Iranian authorities deprive Baha’is of their fundamental rights in every aspect of their lives, not due to their actions, but simply for belonging to a faith group,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at HRW. “It is critically important to increase international pressure on Iran to end this crime against humanity.” This is believed to be the first time a leading international organisation has labelled Iran’s treatment of the Baha’is as a crime against humanity. Unlike other minorities, Baha’is do not have their faith recognised by Iran’s constitution and have no reserved seats in parliament. How many members of the community remain in Iran is not known, but activists believe there could still be several hundred thousand. HRW said as a religious minority unrecognised in Iran’s constitution Baha’is are prohibited from freely holding prayers, even in private. © 2024 Al Jazeera Media Network

A Polish man was among seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen who were killed on Monday, April 1, 2024 in Gaza [AFP] A diplomatic crisis has erupted between Poland and Israel following the death of a Polish aid worker in Gaza, with the Polish president denouncing a comment by the Israeli ambassador as “outrageous” and the foreign ministry in Warsaw saying it was summoning him for a meeting. A Polish man, 35-year-old Damian Sobol, was among seven people who were killed while delivering food to besieged Palestinians in Gaza with the charity World Central Kitchen this week. Israel has called the incident a “mistake” that followed a misidentification, despite the vehicles being clearly marked and the organisation having coordinated with the Israeli military prior to departure. Amid shock and outrage in Poland over the incident, Israel’s ambassador to Poland, Yacov Livne, pushed back on Tuesday at what he said were attempts by the “extreme right and left in Poland” to accuse Israel of “intentional murder in the attack”. He said on social media Tuesday that “anti-Semites will always remain anti-Semites, and Israel will remain a democratic Jewish state that fights for its right to exist. Also for the good of the entire Western world.” Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday called the comment “outrageous” and described the ambassador as “the biggest problem for the state of Israel in relations with Poland”. Duda said authorities in Israel have spoken about the tragedy “in a very subdued way” but that “unfortunately, their ambassador to Poland is not able to maintain such delicacy and sensitivity, which is unacceptable”. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, though a political opponent of Duda, voiced a similar position and said that the ambassador should apologise for issuing a comment offensive to Poles. He said that Israel should pay compensation to Sobol’s family. “We will expect… an immediate explanation of the circumstances and compensation for the victims’ relatives,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a news conference. On Wednesday, Tusk also published a comment on social media addressing Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Livne, saying “The vast majority of Poles showed full solidarity with Israel after the attack launched by Hamas on October 7. Today you are putting this solidarity to a really hard test. The tragic attack on volunteers and your reaction arouse understandable anger.” The Polish foreign ministry has summoned the Israeli ambassador for Friday morning, local media reported. Polish and Israeli relations have recently been on the mend after several difficult years. Ties were badly damaged due to disputes over how to remember Polish behaviour during the Holocaust, when Nazi Germany occupied Poland and carried out the mass murder of Jews. Israel did not have an ambassador in Poland for months under the previous government due to a row over Holocaust education trips for Israeli students to Poland. The post was reinstated last year. © 2024 Al Jazeera Media Network

Amnesty says military has been laying mines on a ‘massive scale’ in eastern Kayah state. Amnesty says at least eight landmines were laid in the church of St Matthew's in Daw Ngay Khu village, Hpruso Township [Courtesy of Amnesty International] The Myanmar military has been committing war crimes by laying landmines on a “massive scale” in and around villages in southeastern Kayah state, amid renewed fighting between the military and ethnic Karenni armed groups, according to Amnesty International. The rights group said an on-the-ground investigation in Kayah, also known as Karenni state, found the military had been using several types of landmines, including the M-14, which typically blows off the victim’s foot at the ankle, and the MM-2, which often blows off the victim’s leg at the knee and causes injuries to other parts of the person’s body. Both mines are made in Myanmar. “The Myanmar military’s use of landmines is abhorrent and cruel,” Matt Wells, Amnesty International’s crisis response deputy director – thematic issues, said in a statement. “At a time when the world has overwhelmingly banned these inherently indiscriminate weapons, the military has placed them in people’s yards, homes, and even stairwells, as well as around a church.” Myanmar was plunged into crisis after the military seized power in a coup in February 2021, driving mass protests, armed resistance among civilians opposed to military rule and a resurgence in many of the long-running conflicts with ethnic armed groups in the country’s border areas. The military has responded with force, with more than 2,000 people killed in the crackdown and hundreds of thousands forced to flee their homes, according to the United Nations. Amnesty researchers interviewed 43 people, including landmine survivors, witnesses and healthcare workers, in Kayah state’s Demoso, Hpruso, and Loikaw Townships as part of its investigation into the use of mines. It also visited several recently demined villages during its visit to the area from June 25 to July 8. The Karenni Human Rights Group (KHRG) has documented at least 20 civilians killed or seriously injured by landmines in Kayah since June 2021. Activists, local aid workers, and people without formal training who have tried to demine villages told Amnesty the military’s use of landmines there had soared in recent months. Rosie’s 17-year-old daughter, Ma Thein Yar Lin, stepped on a landmine as the pair were trying to return to their home in Loikaw town in early April, after being forced out by fighting in January. An M-14 landmine that was removed from the compound of the St Matthew’s church in Daw Ngay Ku village a few weeks ago [Courtesy of Free Burma Rangers] “I heard the explosion, then I looked and saw a lot of smoke,” Rosie told Amnesty. “I heard my daughter yelling, ‘Mama, Mama,’ and I went to look and saw her lying on the ground.” “I noticed that my daughter had no leg anymore… I went searching for [her leg], but the man who [was passing by and stopped] to help us said, ‘Stop! There will be another landmine. The most important thing is to stop the bleeding.’” Ma Thein Yar Lin lost her right leg from the mid-calf down and had landmine fragments throughout her left leg. ‘Depraved’ The military also laid at least eight landmines in the church of St Matthew’s in Daw Ngay Khu village in Hpruso Township in mid-June during fighting in the area, according to Amnesty, and burned down the church and the neighbouring priest’s house as they retreated. While some mines had been removed by the time Amnesty visited the site on June 27, people involved in demining said they believed there were more landmines there that had yet to be discovered. A 41-year-old woman from Daw Ngay Khu told Amnesty: “That church was the centre of our village. We worried about our things [when the military started coming], so we brought them to the church to keep [them] there. We thought the Myanmar military would not attack the church, that it was a hallowed place.” Soldiers also laid mines in and around people’s homes, Amnesty said, with credible reports of such activity across 20 villages in Kayah. Amnesty researchers say its investigations show the Myanmar military not only looted and destroyed villages in southeastern Kayah state but also planted landmines [Courtesy of Amnesty International] Earlier this year, Fortify Rights, a Bangkok-based human rights group, accused the military of war crimes and probable crimes against humanity in the state, where at least 40 civilians were killed on Christmas Eve last year. Many of those who died were burned alive in their vehicles as they tried to escape. “The military’s depraved use of landmines in homes and villages will continue to have devastating effects on civilians in Kayah State for years to come,” Rawya Rageh, senior crisis adviser at Amnesty International, said in a statement. “We know from bitter experience that civilian deaths and injuries will mount over time, and the widespread contamination is already blocking people from returning to their homes and farmland.” © 2022 Al Jazeera Media Network