Media Report 2025.04.30
IDF releases Palestinian medic month after deadly attack on ambulances
ABC | Matthew Doran | 30 April 2025
- Israel has released a Palestinian paramedic detained after IDF solders fired on a convoy of ambulance and emergency vehicles he was travelling.
- He was one of only two survivors of the attack, which Israel described as a result of operational failures.
- Israel has previously blamed “night visibility” for the attack on the convoy, which led to the deaths of 15 Palestinian emergency workers.
A Palestinian paramedic arrested after he and his colleagues were attacked by Israeli forces in southern Gaza has been released after more than a month in detention.
There were grave fears for Asaad Al-Nsasrah’s wellbeing after the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said he was “forcibly abducted” by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on March 23.
There had been no news about his whereabouts or condition in the weeks since. But on Tuesday afternoon, local time, the PRCS revealed he had been freed.
Asaad Al-Nsasrah is one of only two survivors of an Israeli military attack on a number of ambulances, a fire truck and a UN vehicle near Tel al-Sultan.
Fifteen people were killed in the attack: eight PRCS paramedics, six members of Gaza’s civil defence service and one UN staffer.
It is not yet clear where Al-Nsasrah was held and under what circumstances.
An internal IDF investigation found “poor night visibility” was a factor in troops wrongfully opening fire on the vehicles, despite video evidence clearly showing ambulances travelling with red flashing emergency lights on display.
The video showed the paramedics and emergency responders rushing to the scene of an ambulance that had been run off the road and being met with a barrage of gunfire once they arrived.
The bodies of the slain emergency workers were buried in a shallow grave alongside the wreckage of their crushed vehicles, which were uncovered a week later once the United Nations and PRCS could gain access to the site.
The IDF has expressed regret about its soldiers targeting civilians, but insisted six Hamas fighters were killed in the attack.
It has only named one, and has provided no evidence about the identities of the others.
The PRCS has rejected the findings of the IDF inquiry, describing it as full of “lies” and contradictory statements.
The organisation has demanded a totally independent international inquiry outside the IDF’s chain of command.
The only other survivor of the attack, paramedic Munther Abed, said he was dragged from the wreckage of his vehicle by Israeli forces and blindfolded before being interrogated by the IDF for 15 hours.
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Tayeh fights ‘all Zionists are terrorists’ charges
The Australian | Mohammad Alfares | 30 April 2025
Melbourne’s most prominent pro-Palestinian activist, Hash Tayeh, has faced court after allegedly declaring “all Zionists are terrorists” at a rally in May last year, as police move to charge two others.
The Burgertory restaurant chain boss has claimed prosecutors initially offered him a plea deal of eight months’ jail, but he will fight the allegations.
Dozens of his supporters sporting Palestinian keffiyehs filled the halls at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday as he made his first appearance.
Mr Tayeh appeared before magistrate Tara Hartnett for a brief mention hearing, during which it was revealed Victoria Police was seeking to press further charges against him.
He was represented by Julian Assange’s former barrister, Greg Barns SC.
Victoria Police released two other men on summons in April for allegedly chanting the slogan.
The Australian has decided not to name the individuals.
Police confirmed in March that Mr Tayeh had been charged under Section 17(1) of the state’s Summary Offences Act – which prohibits profane, indecent or obscene language – for allegedly saying “all Zionists are terrorists” at pro-Palestinian rallies.
If proven, the crime is punishable with two months’ prison for the first offence, three months for the second, and six months for three or more.
Fronting the media outside court, a defiant Mr Tayeh said the legal action against him had provided his community “a platform to expose the truth and to show the world the ugly face of the Zionist ideology”.
“We will not cower. We will not be intimidated,” he said. “We must win this case and, by the will of God, we will win this case.”
His first appearance in court comes after he launched a scathing attack on Victoria Police and prosecutors, accusing them of acting on behalf of “corrupt” political interests in a speech at a rally in Melbourne on Sunday.
Mr Tayeh said he was charged for “speaking the truth” after criticising Zionism and warned authorities were trying to make an example of him.
“When the prosecutors came to me, they offered me a deal and said, you should plead guilty and do eight months in jail, and this will all go away very quickly,” he said. “They were not offering a deal. They were issuing a threat to every single person that dares to speak for Palestine.”
The matter was adjourned until June 24 for a further mention hearing.
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Lawyers face inquiry call over Jewish slurs
The Australian | Stephen Rice | 30 April 21025
Australia’s peak Jewish body has lodged a formal complaint of professional misconduct against two Sydney lawyers caught exchanging horrifying anti-Semitic slurs, saying the messages used age-old greed and blood libel tropes to vilify Jews.
The move comes after The Australian revealed WhatsApp messages between former BlackBay Lawyers partner Justin Carroll and his colleague Yianni van Gelder railing against “more Jew confected anti-Semitism” and laughing at the “Holohoax” and the “Schlomo-caust”.
The comments clearly sought to deny, distort or minimise the Holocaust, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry says, “thereby denying or diminishing the reality of the single largest genocide in human history”.
The ECAJ has now asked the NSW Legal Services Commissioner to investigate whether the messages brought the legal profession into disrepute and, if established, to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the pair in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The tribunal can suspend or impose conditions on a solicitor’s practising certificate or recommend they be struck off the roll.
The trove of incriminating messages revealed that for months before leaving BlackBay, Mr Carroll, 54, and Mr van Gelder, 28, were planning to set up a rival firm, suggesting one client would “try to ‘jew’ me” by negotiating better rates. In another message, Mr Carroll says: “Zionists are without question the closest thing we have to Nazis.”
That claim was “Holocaust inversion pure and simple and anti-Semitic, in that it seeks to falsely equate the actions of Jews or Zionists or the State of Israel with those of the Nazis”, ECAJ said in its complaint.
A claim by Mr van Gelder that Judaism “basically tells them to harm children” was a classic example of the blood libel trope, ECAJ said, a false accusation dating back to the Middle Ages that Jews murdered children to use their blood in rituals.
“These tropes are well-documented and recognised and, while they shift to incorporate the circumstances of each new era, they prove remarkably stubborn and adaptable,” ECAJ said in its complaint, co-signed by ECAJ president and prominent Victorian silk Daniel Aghion KC, and co-CEOs Peter Wertheim and Alex Ryvchin.
“This type of discourse seeks to create a world where anti-Semitism is acceptable once again, and where Jews are held responsible for anti-Semitism.”
By repeatedly asserting that Jews were responsible for carrying out “hoax” anti-Semitic attacks, Mr Carroll and Mr van Gelder “deliberately and explicitly call into question the veracity of any allegations of attacks against Jews, including the Holocaust”.
“The effect of this conduct was to potentially discriminate against Mr Carroll and Mr van Gelder’s Jewish clients and fellow practitioners, and the Jewish community more generally, on the basis of their Jewish ethnic or ethno-religious identity,” the ECAJ said.
ECAJ argues the messages breach the Legal Profession Uniform Law Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules, in particular displaying dishonest or disreputable conduct that is likely to bring the profession into disrepute, and anti-discrimination.
“The principles that apply to this complaint are that solicitors who identify themselves as such may attract liability for professional misconduct even if it occurs outside the course of legal practice,” the complainants note.
ECAJ said it recognised that the messages were intended to be a private exchange between Mr Carroll and Mr van Gelder, but they had been published, and reflected “a normalisation of their own anti-Semitic prejudices to the extent that they felt comfortable to share them with their professional colleagues, and to discuss their Jewish client in a deeply offensive way”.
“Messages between the solicitors, now published to the world at large, which were seriously offensive, accompanied by media coverage of the messages, identifying Mr Carroll and Mr van Gelder as legal practitioners, which was likely to diminish trust and confidence in the profession and was thus likely to a material degree, to bring the profession into disrepute.”
The statements also gave rise to an apprehension of discrimination by Mr Carroll and Mr van Gelder against their Jewish clients and fellow practitioners.
The messages were “performative” and the language “was on any view crude, dehumanising, insulting, and offensive”, ECAJ said.
Mr Carroll and Mr van Gelder were terminated by BlackBay Lawyers in February on the grounds of “serious misconduct”.
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Unrwa says Israel has abused detained staff and used some as human shields
Accusation from UN agency comes as Red Crescent medic held since deadly Israeli attack on ambulances is freed
The Guardian | Jason Burke | 30 April 2025
The embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, has accused Israel of abusing dozens of its staff in military detention and using some as human shields.
The head of the agency, Philippe Lazzarini, said that more than 50 staff members, including teachers, doctors and social workers, had been detained and abused since the start of the 18-month-long war in Gaza.
“They have been treated in the most shocking & inhumane way. They reported being beaten + used as human shields,” Lazzarini wrote on X.
Those detained had been subjected to “sleep deprivation, humiliation, threats of harm to them & their families + attacks by dogs … [and] forced confessions”.
UN officials said the reported abuse had taken place both in Gaza and in military detention sites in Israel.
The Israeli military has not responded directly to Lazzarini’s accusation, but has previously denied allegations of widespread abuse in its detention facilities and by its troops.
It has, however, launched investigations into abuse by individual soldiers during the war, and into the use of detainees as human shields, bringing charges against service personnel in some cases.
In a statement, the Israeli military said it acted in accordance with Israeli law and international law, and protects the rights of individuals held in detention facilities under its responsibility.
“Any abuse of detainees, whether during their detention or during interrogation, violates the law and the directives of the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] and as such is strictly prohibited,” the statement said.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), said on Tuesday that Israel had released a medic held since a deadly and hugely controversial attack by Israeli troops on ambulances in southern Gaza on 23 March.
Eight PRCS staff members, six from the Gaza civil defence agency and one Unrwa employee were killed in the attack, according to the UN humanitarian office OCHA.
The killings sparked international condemnation, including concern from the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, about possible war crimes.
Relations between Israel and Unrwa have deteriorated since the beginning of the war, which was triggered by a surprise attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel in October 2023 during which they killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 hostage.
Israel banned all cooperation with Unrwa’s activities in Gaza and the occupied West Bank earlier this year, and claims the agency has been infiltrated by Hamas, an allegation that has been fiercely contested.
The international court of justice, the UN’s highest court, is hearing statements from dozens of countries and organisations before delivering a legal opinion on Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians. A key issue is whether Israel’s ban on Unrwa’s operations in Palestine is legal.
Israel is not participating at the ICJ but has dismissed the hearings as “part of the systematic persecution and delegitimization” of the country. The foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said on Sunday that the hearings were “another attempt to politicise and abuse the legal process to persecute Israel”.
“The goal is to deprive Israel of its most basic right to defend itself,” he said. “It is not Israel that should be on trial. It is the UN and Unrwa. The UN has become a rotten, anti-Israel and antisemitic body.”
The hearings come amid an intensifying bombardment of Gaza, which had killed at least 27 Palestinians in the past 36 hours, according to local health officials on Monday. The Israeli military said airstrikes had killed three militant commanders and that all targets were “subject to relevant provisions of international humanitarian law, including the taking of feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm”.
Palestinian health officials in the territory say 2,151 people, including 732 children, have been killed since Israel broke a fragile ceasefire on 18 March that had been in place since mid-January.
Israel imposed a tight blockade on Gaza almost two months ago, stopping all food, fuel, medicines and other items from entering. It says the measure is intended to force Hamas into releasing hostages and accuses it of systematically stealing humanitarian assistance.
Rights groups accuse Israel of using a “starvation tactic” that endangers the whole population, potentially making it a war crime.
Humanitarian workers say supplies are running desperately low, with most people eating one meal or less a day. Major agencies such as the World Food Programme and Unrwa have distributed their last stocks of flour and other basic foodstuffs, and medics say malnutrition levels are rising.
Hamas is still holding 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements and other deals.
Families of deceased hostages called on Tuesday for the return of their loved ones’ remains. There are fears that poor conditions and continuing fighting could lead to many being destroyed or soon becoming unidentifiable.
“After everything we went through on that day and since, it cannot be that my father’s body will also disappear from the face of the Earth,” said Bar Godard, whose parents were killed during the 2023 Hamas raid and whose father’s body was taken to Gaza.
Negotiations for a fresh ceasefire appear to have stalled, with conflicting reports about progress in ongoing talks. Few observers expect a breakthrough in the near future, though analysts say Donald Trump’s scheduled visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in May could lead to renewed US pressure on Israel that might secure a deal.
Israeli forces have killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since it launched its offensive on Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Bombardments and ground operations have also destroyed vast areas and displaced about 80% of the population, many of them 10 or more times.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has vowed to continue the offensive until all the hostages are returned and Hamas is either destroyed or agrees to disarm and leave the territory.
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I used to run Israel’s security agency – now I’m sounding the alarm about our extremist government
Israel’s genuine friends abroad, from governments to Jewish communities, must mobilise to help us end this terrible war
The Guardian | Ami Ayalon | 29 April 2025
Ami Ayalon is a former director of Shin Bet and a former commander-in-chief of Israel’s navy
I spent close to 40 years working as a public servant for the state of Israel, including as commander of the navy and head of the Shin Bet, protecting Israel and defending it from external and internal threats. Several weeks ago, along with 17 other colleagues who have also dedicated their lives to Israel’s security and welfare, I made a decision that the future of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state is so under threat that it is not just my responsibility, but obligation, to sound the alarm.
The 18 of us took out a full-page advert in two major Israeli broadsheet papers. In it, we made clear that the very fabric of the state of Israel and the values on which it was founded are being eroded. The truth is that our hostages in Gaza have been abandoned in favour of the government’s messianic ideology and by a prime minister in Benjamin Netanyahu who is desperate to cling to power for his own personal gain. Our government is undermining the democratic functions of the state to shore up and protect its own power. It is forcing us into a perpetual war with no achievable military objectives and which can only result in more loss of life and hatred.
And we are not the minority. The overwhelming majority of the Israeli public agree with us – 70% believe there needs to be a comprehensive end to the war in return for bringing our hostages home, and an election as soon as possible so that this government can be replaced. Since we took out our advert, we have been joined by thousands of pilots, navy officers, members of the intelligence and reservists, all of whom, in their own letters to the government, have expressed the same sentiments as our advert did.
Concerned for the future of our beloved country, I supported the publication of our advert in translation in the UK Times newspaper on 17 April. It is no longer enough to keep this discussion solely within the borders of Israel. We need to make sure that our allies abroad understand how grave the danger is. We need our friends from outside Israel to express their support for the Israeli people and not an extremist government committed to unravelling the fabric of the state.
This applies to governments who are Israel’s allies and Jewish communities around the world who we regard as our greatest friends. It is for this reason that I and many others embroiled in the struggle for Israel’s future were so pleased to see members of The Board of Deputies of British Jews – the UK Jewish community’s largest representative community body – speak out in solidarity with us and in support of this existential battle we are waging. The 36 individuals who wrote a public letter expressed the exact concerns and sentiments that we have been articulating on the streets, week in, week out.
These people are true friends of Israel. It is not easy to speak out and I commend them for their bravery. I know that they will now face a backlash. However, so many of us leading the struggle in Israel wish that more of our friends in the diaspora would follow their lead. To be a supporter of Israel today means to speak out against this extremist government, not to sit on the sidelines in silence or, worse still, conduct a business-as-usual relationship, meeting government officials and presenting an image of a global Jewry united behind the Israeli government.
The crisis we are facing is existential. If we cannot build enough momentum to create a course correction, the very existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state is under threat. Silence is a show of support for the Israeli government. Punishing and berating friends that speak out is undermining our struggle.
I call on our allies – governments and diaspora Jewish communities – to hear the plea of the Israeli public and in particular the hostage families, who are demanding an end to the war and a new dawn for Israel. We all share the same commitment to Israel’s future safety and security, but to be a true friend is to be a friend of the Israeli people – and not its disastrous government.
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Israel seems set on destroying system of international law compliance, ICJ hears
Country accused of obstructing UN as court considers its decision to end cooperation with Unrwa
The Guardian | Patrick Wintour | 29 April 2025
Israel appears set on destroying the framework created to ensure compliance with international law in a way that will have profound consequences that reverberate far beyond Palestine, the international court of justice has heard.
The warning was made at the start of five days of proceedings in The Hague that may prove critical to Israel’s future within the world body. The UN’s top court will hear from dozens of nations and organisations in order to draw up an advisory opinion on Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians more than 50 days into its total blockade on aid entering Gaza.
Israel is not participating but has submitted oral evidence claiming its decision last October to end all cooperation with Unrwa, the UN relief agency for Palestinians, was necessary because of infiltration by Hamas.
Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, the counsel for the Palestinian state, described Israel’s actions as “antithetical to a peace-loving state”. She said the restrictions on “the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, [Israel’s] attacks on the United Nations and on UN officials, property and premises, its deliberate obstruction of the organisation’s work and its attempt to destroy an entire UN subsidiary organ” were “unprecedented in the history of the organisation”.
They amounted to “a fundamental repudiation by Israel of its charter obligations owed both to the organisation and to all UN members and of the international rule of law”, she said.
Warning that the international order was crumbling and expressing “the continuing desperate hope that international law might finally prevail”, Ní Ghrálaigh urged the court to reset the moral compass enshrined in the UN charter by ordering Israel to permit aid to enter Gaza, and by restoring cooperation with Unrwa.
She said Israel had closed all crossings and turned Rafah, once a refuge for almost 1.5 million displaced Palestinians, into a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
“Plans are reportedly under way for Israel to annex 75 sq km of Rafah, one-fifth of Gaza, to Israel’s so-called buffer zone, permanently. This, together with Israel’s continuing maritime blockade, cuts Gaza and its people off from direct aid and assistance and from the rest of the world,” Ní Ghrálaigh said.
She said: “Gaza is now home to the largest cohort of child amputees in the world, the largest orphan crisis in modern history, and a whole generation in danger of suffering from stunting, causing irreparable physical and cognitive impairments; over 15,600 children have been killed violently. Tens of thousands more of Gaza’s children are injured or missing, and many of those surviving are so traumatised that they openly express the wish to die.”
Earlier in her 30-minute opening submission to the court, the UN undersecretary general for legal affairs, Elinor Hammarskjöld, opted for a full-throated assertion of the immunities and privileges of the UN and its subsidiary bodies under the UN charter and 1946 convention on UN privileges.
She said Israel had no right unilaterally to declare UN bodies were not impartial and so deny cooperation or aid, adding: “When the basic elements of this [the charter’s] legal framework are not observed, the very nature of the work of the organisation on behalf of its member states is in jeopardy.”
Hammarskjöld said that, if UN member states had complaints about the neutrality of an organisation such as Unrwa, established mechanisms existed for this to be addressed.
Israel’s complaints had been examined by relevant UN bodies but the full cooperation of member states, including the furnishing of documents, was also required, she said. This was a thinly coded assertion that Israel has not backed up some of its claims of mass Hamas infiltration with evidence to the UN. Independent investigations have also found that Israel had not provided evidence for its headline allegation.
In a sign of the breakdown in relations, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said on Monday that the ICJ hearing was part of a “systematic persecution and delegitimisation of Israel”.
“It is not Israel that should be on trial. It is the UN and Unrwa,” he told reporters in Jerusalem.
In its written evidence to the court, Israel argues no obligation exists to respect the immunities of a UN agency “where the legitimate security concerns of a member state are severely undermined by the agency in question, whose conduct manifestly contravenes the fundamental principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence”.
The UN general assembly has ordered the UN to seek an ICJ advisory opinion on whether Israel has overriden the immunities of a UN body by its policy of non-cooperation. The policy has forced Unrwa to suspend operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
Hammarskjöld told the court the proceedings were crucial to clarify some fundamental elements of the legal framework of the UN’s status. She pointed out that Israel’s UN membership entailed legal obligations that were essential for the organisation to properly function and carry out the mandates. These included “good faith and cooperation with the organisation, respect for the safety of UN premises, property assets and personnel, and obligations concerning the immunities of UN properties so that the UN can fulfil its obligations”.
Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It halted deliveries on 2 March, days before the collapse of a ceasefire that had significantly reduced hostilities after 15 months of war. Supplies are dwindling and the UN’s World Food Programme on Friday said it had sent out its “last remaining stocks” to kitchens.
Paul Reichler, representing the Palestinians, told judges that one of the Geneva conventions “not only lays down that the occupying power must agree to relief schemes on behalf of the population, but insists that it must facilitate them by all the means at its disposal”.
The UN was the first to address the court on Monday, followed by Palestinian representatives. In total, 40 states and four international organisations are scheduled to participate.
On Tuesday, South Africa, a staunch critic of Israel, will present its arguments. In hearings last year in a separate case at the court, the country accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza – a charge Israel denies. Those proceedings are still under way. Israel’s’s ally, the US, is scheduled to speak on Wednesday.
The court will probably take months to rule. Experts say the decision, though not legally binding, could profoundly impact international jurisprudence, international aid to Israel and public opinion.
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