Israel-Hamas War

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Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in quiet Qatar shocks Gulf allies and tests US ties

The tiny, wealthy Gulf Arab state of Qatar has long hosted the biggest American military base in the Middle East.

apnews.com

On Tuesday, Israel made a dangerous gamble, analysts say, poisoning Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks, sending political shock waves through the region and raising doubts about historical U.S. security guarantees for its Gulf Arab allies.

It didn’t immediately pay off for Israel: Hamas claims its senior leadership survived the strike.

“This is a broader shock for the international order, raising questions about sovereignty and the free rein being given to Israel,” said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House. “The reliability of the United States in the Middle East will be questioned.”

 

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Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, U.N. inquiry finds

The new report Tuesday by a team of independent experts adds to a growing chorus leveling the accusation against the U.S. ally as it launches an intense new ground offensive in Gaza City.

www.nbcnews.com

Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a United Nations commission said Tuesday, calling on the international community to end the campaign and punish the top officials it found responsible for inciting it.

Israel rejected the accusations as “distorted and false,” labeling them "scandalous."

A team of independent experts called a commission of inquiry detailed their assessment in a new report, joining a growing chorus of rights advocates and scholars to level the accusation against the U.S. ally.

The findings were published as Israel launched its long-anticipated ground offensive on Gaza City, a widely condemned assault on a famine-stricken area where hundreds of thousands of people were living.

“The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza,” said Navi Pillay, the commission chair and former U.N. human rights chief. “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”

The three-member team said in its 72-page report that Israel has committed four of the five “genocidal acts” defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention: Killing members of a group, causing serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group, and preventing births.

To count as genocide, at least one of five acts must have occurred.The commission found no evidence in relation to the fifth category, forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The inquiry's conclusion is the strongest U.N. finding to date but the body is independent and does not officially speak for the U.N. The team was commissioned by the Human Rights Council, the U.N.’s top human rights body.

The commission concluded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had “incited the commission of genocide.”