Middle East latest: Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of war crimes in Gaza Strip

Human Rights Watch said in a report released Thursday that Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, including massive forced displacements that amount to ethnic cleansing.

A new report released by the New York-based rights group said people have been killed while evacuating under Israeli orders and in Israeli-designated humanitarian zones, where hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps.

The report said the widespread, deliberate demolition of homes and civilian infrastructure in Gaza -– some of them to carve a new road bisecting the territory and establish a buffer zone along Israel’s border -– was likely to “permanently displace” many Palestinians.

“Such actions of the Israeli authorities amount to ethnic cleansing,” Human Rights Watch said.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the report.

Israel’s blistering campaign in Gaza has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to local health officials who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Around 90% of the territory’s population has fled their homes, with many displaced multiple times. The Israeli offensive has also damaged or destroyed around two-thirds of homes and other buildings in Gaza, according to U.N. assessments.

Israel says it does not deliberately target civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths, saying the militants hide among civilians and operate in residential areas.

Israeli forces have encircled the Gaza Strip’s northernmost areas for the past month, saying Hamas militants have regrouped there. Experts say the Israeli military campaign has caused a new wave of displaced civilians and warn that famine is imminent or may already be happening there.

Israel has also been striking deeper inside Lebanon since September as it escalates the war against Hezbollah. On Thursday Israeli warplanes intensified airstrikes targeting multiple areas of Lebanon, killing at least nine people in the eastern city of Baalbek.

The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Lebanon's Hezbollah group began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. Since then, more than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 14,200 wounded, the country's Health Ministry reported. In Israel, 76 people have been killed, including 31 soldiers.

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Here's the latest:

Palestinians line up for clean drinking water in Gaza Strip

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinians have been lining up at a desalination plant that now operates round the clock in central Gaza to fill up containers of clean drinking water — a resource they have barely had any access to during the war.

The plant previously operated for just three to four hours a day. The Israeli military said they connected the U.N.-built plant in the western part of Deir al-Balah to Israel’s power grid to increase the amount of drinking water in Gaza.

Associated Press video shows people lining up at the Southern Gaza Desalination Plant, with children filling jerry cans and containers with water.

The plant, which was built by UNICEF in 2017, can desalinate 20,000 cubic meters of water per day and will provide drinking water to Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah, and the Muwasi humanitarian area. The electricity provided by Israel will go only to the desalination plant.

“The amount of water will increase ... it will remain available for 24 hours and life will become easier,” said Muhammad Shehab, another man displaced from Gaza City.

Peacekeeping chief says UN remains committed to operating in Lebanon

BEIRUT — United Nations peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the U.N. remains committed to keeping its peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, in place in all of its positions in southern Lebanon despite intense battles between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants.

UNIFIL has continued to monitor the escalating conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah across the boundary known as the Blue Line despite Israeli calls for peacekeepers to pull back 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the border. UNIFIL has accused Israel of deliberately destroying observation equipment, and 13 peacekeepers have been injured in the fighting.

Lacroix visited some of the wounded peacekeepers during his trip to Lebanon Thursday.

UNIFIL forces “continue to be deployed in all the positions, and we think it is very important to preserve that presence everywhere,” LaCroix said. He added that had UNIFIL vacated its positions, they might have been taken over by one of the warring parties.

“We have a responsibility to make sure that the U.N. continues to be seen as neutral and impartial,” he said.

Lebanon reports 9 killed in airstrike on eastern city; strikes continue targeting Beirut suburbs

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike hit a building in Baalbek city in eastern Lebanon, killing at least nine people and wounding five others, Lebanon’s state media said.

The strike on Baalbek came without warning. The Israeli military did not immediately comment and the target was not clear.

Israeli warplanes intensified airstrikes on Thursday, targeting various areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, including the outskirts of the southern port city of Tyre city and the Nabatieh province, the National News Agency said.

Throughout the day, sporadic airstrikes targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs in a clear uptick in attacks on the area over the past two days, with the Israeli army issuing evacuation warnings for several locations and buildings in the suburbs.

The Israeli military said it carried out strikes on Hezbollah targets in the Dahiyeh area, including weapons storage facilities and command centers.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the death toll in Lebanon since the war began on Oct. 8, 2023 has reached 3,365 while those wounded are 14,344. Nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon.

Before the war intensified on Sept. 23, Hezbollah had said that it had lost nearly 500 members but the group has stopped releasing statements about their killed fighters since

2 Israeli airstrikes in Syria kill at least 15, state media report

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s state news agency says Israel carried out two airstrikes on a western neighborhood Damascus and one of the capital’s suburbs, killing at least 15 people.

One of the strikes targeted an office of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. Sixteen people were also wounded in the airstrikes, state news agency SANA said, quoting an unnamed military official.

SANA said the airstrikes on the Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus and the suburb of Qudsaya northwest of the capital struck two buildings. An Associated Press journalist at the scene in Mazzeh said a five-story building was damaged by a missile that hit the basement.

An official with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Group said the strike in Mazzeh targeted one of their offices, and that several members of the group were killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the group’s affairs.

SANA said Syria’s air defenses were activated against a “hostile target” south of the central city of Homs. It gave no further details.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iranian-backed groups.

— By Albert Aji

2 Israeli airstrikes hit Syrian capital Damascus and suburb, Syrian state media say

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s state news agency says Israel carried out two airstrikes on a western neighborhood of the capital Damascus and one of its suburbs. At least two people were killed.

State news agency SANA said the airstrikes on the Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus and the suburb of Qudsaya northwest of the capital struck two buildings. An Associated Press journalist at the scene said two bodies were removed from the five-story building.

SANA said the country’s air defenses were activated against a “hostile target” south of the central city of Homs. It gave no further details. The agency later reported an explosion near Damascus, adding that the cause of the blasts was not immediately clear.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iranian-backed groups.

EU's top diplomat proposes suspending political dialogue with Israel

BRUSSELS — The European Union’s top diplomat is proposing that the bloc suspend political dialogue with Israel over concerns about human rights abuses and breaches of international law in its war against Hamas.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will put the proposal to foreign ministers from the 27 member countries at a meeting he will chair in Brussels on Monday.

Borrell “will ask ministers to consider whether Israel is violating human rights, whether Israel is respecting or not international humanitarian law, and he will invite the ministers to express their views on his proposal to suspend political dialogue,” his spokesman said.

The EU is deeply divided over Israel and the Palestinians and it’s unlikely that all the ministers would agree to halt the dialogue.

“Any kind of decisions regarding the political parts of this agreement are subject to unanimity of all the member states,” the spokesman, Peter Stano, told reporters on Thursday.

Under the pact, the dialogue covers “all subjects of common interest, and shall aim to open the way to new forms of cooperation with a view to common goals, in particular peace, security and democracy.” It’s meant to strengthen EU-Israeli relations.

Israeli police complete demolition of Arab Bedouin village in the Negev Desert

JERUSALEM — Israeli police completed the demolition of the Arab Bedouin village of Umm Al-Hiran Thursday, ending a years-old legal battle.

Many in the minority community had seen the village as a symbol of their larger struggle against Israeli plans to relocate them.

On Thursday, Israeli bulldozers entered the 400-person village in the Negev Desert and demolished the last building left standing –- the mosque.

Residents had dismantled their makeshift homes earlier this week to avoid having to pay fees for the state to demolish them.

Israel says the hundreds of villagers were squatting on public land and has offered them plots in a nearby Bedouin township. The villagers accuse the authorities of forcibly displacing them so the land can be developed for Israel’s Jewish majority.

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, celebrated the move, posting on X that there has been a 400% increase in the issuance of such demolition orders so far this year.

“Proud to lead a strong policy of demolishing illegal houses in the Negev!” he wrote.

Or Hanoch, an Israeli activist who witnessed the demolition, said drones and helicopters hovered overhead as seven police bulldozers took down the mosque.

“After the mosque was demolished, the rest of the heavy machinery started re-destroying the rest of the houses, which were already demolished," Hanoch said.

Three members of the village council were arrested early Thursday before the demolition began, said Nati Yefet, the spokesperson for the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages in the Negev. The council has accused Israel of clearing the land for the construction of a Jewish community.

“The destruction of Umm al-Hiran to make way for the settlement of Dror is part of a systematic population replacement program in the Negev,” it said. Four other Bedouin villages have been demolished this year as part of a larger plan to raze unrecognized villages and build new Jewish communities in their place, it said.

Umm al-Hiran was founded in its current location in 1956, after the Israeli military relocated the village clan multiple times following the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation.

Israel’s more than 200,000 Bedouin are the poorest members of the country’s Arab minority, which also includes Christian and Muslim urban communities. Israel’s Arab population, which makes up roughly 20% of the country’s 10 million people, are citizens with the right to vote but often suffer discrimination and tend to identify with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Syrian state media report explosions near Damascus and Homs

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian state media are reporting explosions near the capital, Damascus, and the central city of Homs in what appeared to be Israeli airstrikes.

State news agency SANA said the country’s air defenses were activated against a “hostile target” south of Homs on Thursday. It gave no further details.

The agency later reported an explosion near Damascus, adding that the cause of the blasts was not immediately clear.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iranian-backed groups.

Israel says it has allowed 15 trucks carrying aid into northern Gaza

JERUSALEM — Israel says 15 trucks loaded with aid have been allowed into northern Gaza, where aid groups have warned that a monthlong offensive could cause a famine.

The military body handling aid deliveries into the territory, COGAT, said the 15 trucks entered Gaza on Wednesday with aid shipped in by sea by the United Arab Emirates. It said the aid consists of food and water, as well as hygiene, shelter and medical supplies.

U.N. agencies did not immediately confirm that the aid was delivered to its destination inside northern Gaza.

Over the past week, the U.N. says aid trucks have entered the north but have not reached their final destinations due to Israeli movement restrictions and hungry crowds taking items from the trucks.

Israel has scrambled to ramp up aid to Gaza after a monthlong stretch during which aid plunged to its lowest levels this year.

The U.S. Biden administration warned Israel to increase the aid last month, saying a failure to do so could lead to a reduction in military support. The White House backed down this week, citing some improvements and ruling out any reduction in arms supplies, even after international aid groups said Israel had fallen far short of the American demands.

Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of war crimes, crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip

JERUSALEM — Human Rights Watch says Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, including massive forced displacements that amount to ethnic cleansing.

A report released by the New York-based rights group on Thursday says Israeli evacuation orders have often caused “grave harm” to civilians. People have been killed while evacuating and in Israeli-designated humanitarian zones, where hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps.

“The Israeli government cannot claim to be keeping Palestinians safe when it kills them along escape routes, bombs so-called safe zones, and cuts off food, water, and sanitation,” said Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.

The report said the widespread, deliberate demolition of homes and civilian infrastructure in Gaza -– some of them to carve a new road bisecting the territory and establish a buffer zone along Israel’s border -– was likely to “permanently displace” many Palestinians.

“Such actions of the Israeli authorities amount to ethnic cleansing,” Human Rights Watch said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

Human Rights Watch called on governments to stop supplying weapons to Israel and to comply with a July opinion by the International Court of Justice saying Israel’s presence in the Palestinian territories is unlawful and must end.

The group says its researchers interviewed 39 displaced Palestinians in Gaza, reviewed evacuation orders Israel has released throughout the war and analyzed satellite imagery and video of attacks along evacuation routes and in “safe zones.”

US military says it conducted strikes against Houthi rebels

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. military says it has conducted several days of strikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The strikes included U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy aircraft, including the Navy’s F-35C stealth fighter jet, it said Thursday.

The military also released video showing a strike by an MQ-9 Reaper drone on a mobile missile launcher placed on the back of what appeared to be a truck. A person standing next to the launcher is seen running away after the strike.

“This targeted operation was conducted in response to the Houthi’s repeated and unlawful attacks on international commercial shipping, as well as U.S., coalition and merchant vessels in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden,” the U.S. military’s Central Command said. “It also aimed to degrade the Houthi’s ability to threaten regional partners.”

The strikes happened Saturday and Sunday.

The Houthis launched an attack this week targeted two U.S. Navy destroyers entering the Red Sea. The Americans said they “engaged and defeated” eight bomb-carrying drones, five anti-ship ballistic missiles and four cruise missiles that the Houthis used to target the vessels.