Author: Brett Wilkins

The Israel Defense Forces’ use of Palestinians – who are often handcuffed and forced to wear IDF uniforms – as human shields prompted the leading U.S. Muslim advocacy group on Monday to call on the Biden administration to investigate what experts say is a war crime by the No. 1 recipient of American military aid.

International law prohibits the use of combatants or civilians as human shields. However, numerous reports have emerged during Israel’s yearlong assault on Gaza – which has left more than 152,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing and is the subject of an International Criminal Court genocide case led by South Africa – of IDF troops forcing captured Palestinians, including children, to protect Israeli forces in life-threatening situations.

Continue reading “Israel’s Use of Human Shields in Gaza Sparks Calls for US Probe”

At least one U.S.-supplied bomb was used by Israel in a Thursday night airstrike that killed at least 22 people and wounded over 115 more in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, according to a Guardian analysis published on Friday.

The crisis, conflict, and arms division of Human Rights Watch and a former U.S. military explosives expert analyzed shrapnel from a bomb used by Israel in the strike on an apartment complex in the densely populated Basta neighborhood near central Beirut and concluded it came from a joint direct attack munition (JDAM) manufactured by Boeing.

Continue reading “Israel Used US-Supplied Bomb in Beirut Strike That Killed at Least 22 Lebanese”

The head of the United Nations World Health Organization said Thursday that Israeli forces killed 28 healthcare workers in Lebanon over the previous 24 hours, and that 73 medical personnel are among the nearly 2,000 Lebanese killed during Israel’s bombing and invasion of its northern neighbor.

“In southern Lebanon, 37 health facilities have been closed, while in Beirut, three hospitals have been forced to fully evacuate staff and patients, and another two were partially evacuated,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference in Geneva. “And yet healthcare continues to come under attack. In Lebanon alone, 28 health workers have been killed in the last 24 hours.”

Continue reading “Israel Killed 28 Lebanese Medical Workers in 24 Hours, 73 Since War’s Start: WHO”

Israeli forces were accused Tuesday of the war crime of firing white phosphorus artillery munitions over populated areas of southern Lebanon as Israel escalates an assault on its northern neighbor that has killed or wounded thousands of people.

Video footage published on social media and reported by Middle East Eye shows distinctive explosions that appear consistent with the use of white phosphorus rounds over civilian areas of southern Lebanon, including the village of Kfar Kila.

While white phosphorus munitions are not completely prohibited under international law, their use in populated areas is forbidden. White phosphorus round are primarily used to create smokescreens. However, when used as an incendiary weapon, white phosphorus – which ignites on contact with air and burns at nearly 1,500°F (815°C) – can maim and kill by burning flesh straight through to the bone, often causing a slow, agonizing death. Water does not extinguish it.

Continue reading “Israel Again Accused of Illegally Using White Phosphorus in Lebanon”

Press freedom advocates accused Israel of “trying to erase the truth” after heavily armed soldiers raided Al Jazeera‘s bureau in the West Bank of Palestine early Sunday morning and ordered the outlet – which has been the world’s sole media window on the Gaza genocide – to shut down for 45 days.

Al Jazeera – which is owned by the Qatari government – said Israel Defense Forces troops stormed its bureau in Ramallah, the capital of the illegally occupied West Bank, at 3:00 am Sunday during a live broadcast. IDF troops confiscated documents and equipment and took the microphone from the hand of bureau chief Walid al-Omari as he reported on the raid.

The network – which was ordered to cease operations for 45 days – said the soldiers tore down a poster of Shireen Abu Akleh, the renowned Palestinian-American Al Jazeera correspondent who was shot dead by Israeli troops in May 2022 while covering an IDF raid on the Jenin refugee camp.

Continue reading “Critics Say IDF Shutdown of Al Jazeera’s West Bank Bureau Is ‘Aimed at Erasing the Truth’”

An average of five children per day have been killed or wounded by Israeli occupation forces and settler-colonists in the West Bank of Palestine, according to a report published Tuesday by Save the Children, which sounded the alarm on what it called a “significant escalation of violence in the past six weeks.”

According to the charity, Israeli forces have killed 158 Palestinian children in the West Bank between October 7 and August 14. At least 1,400 other children have been injured. The majority of those killed – 115 children – were shot, while others have been killed by Israeli aerial bombing and drone strikes.

Child casualties have increased significantly since Israel launched a major offensive in the northern West Bank on August 28.

Continue reading “‘There Is No Safety for Us’: West Bank Kids Under Growing Assault by Israeli Forces”