The Israeli military has dismissed two of its officers over drone strikes that killed Australian Zomi Frankcom and six colleagues while they were delivering aid in Gaza. In a report released on Friday (local time), the military said they had mishandled critical information and violated the army’s rules of engagement. The inquiry found Israeli forces […]
Read MoreUN human rights body calls for halt to weapons shipments to Israel due to Gaza war concerns
In short: The UN Human Rights Council voted 28-6 on Friday to adopt a resolution calling on countries not to sell or ship arms to Israel. Israel’s ambassador criticised the resolution, calling it a “stain on the Human Rights Council and the United Nations as a whole”. What’s next? While non-binding, the resolution is bound […]
Read MoreIsrael-Hamas war: Gaza truce plan fails at UN, Israel detains 500 terrorists at hospital
Washington has failed to pass a UN resolution on an “immediate” ceasefire as Israeli forces detained “hundreds” of Hamas fighters during a raid into Gaza’s main hospital. Israel plans to send troops into Gaza’s Rafah even without US support, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday local time, as […]
Read MoreYou couldn’t get away from Gaza at Adelaide Writers’ Week
It was a balmy afternoon at Adelaide Writers’ Week and hundreds of us were sitting in the sun under the trees, listening to the writers. And then journalist John Lyons plunged us into a different world. “By the time this session ends,” he said, “three or four Palestinian children will have been killed. Five bombs […]
Read MoreAustralia to resume funding for UN aid agency
Australia will restore a $6 million funding pledge to the peak United Nations body that helps the Palestinian people in Gaza after a seven-week suspension due to claims that some of the agency’s staff took part in the Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians last October. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the funding would be […]
Read MoreUN chief vows swift action on ‘infiltration of Hamas’
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has pledged to act immediately on any new information from Israel related to “infiltration of Hamas” in the world body after nine UN staff in the Gaza Strip were fired. Israel last month accused 12 staff with the UN Palestinian refugee agency of taking part in the October 7 attack […]
Read MoreUS drone strike in Baghdad kills Iran-backed militia chief
A US drone strike in Baghdad killed a commander of the Iran-backed Iraqi militia blamed for a deadly strike at an American base in Jordan last week, part of a sharpened effort by the Pentagon to deter attacks on its forces. The commander, of the Iraqi militia group Kataib Hezbollah, was responsible for directly planning […]
Read MoreLegal answer for incitement to violence not hard
Tom Bathurst, the former chief justice of NSW, has been handed a task that has proved to be beyond the capacity of the best brains in the NSW parliament. He has been asked to review a law that is incapable of dealing with the worst of the anti-Semitic bile that has given Sydney a global […]
Read MoreBenjamin Netanyahu spurns Hamas truce offer, says ‘crushing victory’ close
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a ceasefire deal proposed by Hamas and poured scorn on peace efforts to end the four-month war in Gaza, vowing to pursue a “crushing victory” instead. Mr Netanyahu said the families of 136 hostages were uppermost in his thoughts but he insisted that continued military action was the […]
Read MoreCut funding for good to end radical UN agency
Although fifteen Western countries have suspended their funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the risk is that the agency will, after a few cosmetic changes, survive this crisis unscathed, as it has so many in the past. That would be a pity because UNRWA’s history highlights devastating flaws that […]
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