UN admits suspending aid if there are no security conditions, court orders enlistment of ultra-Orthodox: day 265 of the war
UN officials have informed Israel that they will suspend humanitarian aid operations in Gaza if urgent measures are not taken to protect aid workers, while a new report from the organization accuses troops Israelis of “dehumanizing behavior” of Palestinians.
A UN letter sent this month to Israeli officials asks Israel, among other conditions, to allow humanitarian workers direct contact with Israeli military forces operating in the Gaza Strip, sources from the organization said. to the news agency Associated Press (AP).
UN officials also told the AP that negotiations with the Israelis are continuing, and that a final decision has not yet been taken on the suspension of operations throughout the Gaza Strip.
Israel has already acknowledged that it carried out bombings against aid workers, including the attack in April that killed seven workers at the World Central Kitchen, but has denied other actions attributed to it.
Alleging security concerns, the World Food Program (WFP) has already suspended humanitarian aid through an improvised port set up by the Americans on the coast of Gaza – with the announced objective of minimizing widespread famine faced by Palestinians — but which has proven ineffective.
In a report also released today and after the conclusion of its mission on the ground, a special UN committee appointed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1968 today expressed itself “horrified by the violations against Palestinians under Israeli detention”, especially with “dehumanizing behavior”, “cruel and humiliating towards Palestinians, including women and children”.
“Security personnel publicly and insolently share photographs on social media platforms that violate the privacy and intimate sphere of Palestinian women, with the aim of mocking, shaming and humiliating them,” appointed the committee in charge of investigating Israel’s practices in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In this sense, it registered a “remarkable increase in sexual persecution, sexual abuse, threat of rape or completed rape” against men, thousands and even children, and even intimidation with trained dogs.
The committee also expresses concern, among other issues, at the “systematic destruction of the health system in the Gaza Strip, which has forced many women to give birth in “terrible conditions “.
The report also denounces the situation of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, which includes thousands of detainees in Gaza, denouncing a “systematic plan of inhumane treatment as a state policy to deprive Palestinians of their freedom” .
“Israel’s persistent refusal to maintain a credible dialogue with the UN Committee demonstrates its lack of willingness to be held accountable for the actions and policies it applies in occupied Palestinian territory”, ruled the committee, recalling that its next report will be presented in October before the United Nations General Assembly.
Israeli Supreme Court decrees enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews in the army
Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled, unanimously, that the Israeli army must begin recruiting ultra-Orthodox Jews for military service, it said. Associated Press (AP) news agency. These decisions could lead to a withdrawal of support from ultra-Orthodox deputies for Benjamin Netanyahu’s government coalition, made up of right-wing, extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish political formations.
The decision comes after the Israeli Parliament approved, two weeks ago, a military exemption and recruitment plan for ultra-Orthodox Jews. However, the court ruled, this Tuesday, that because there is no law that distinguishes Jewish students from Talmudic schools from other recruits, ultra-Orthodox Jews are now eligible to carry out military service.
The Israeli Government is carrying out “an invalid selective enforcement, which represents a serious violation of the rule of law and the principle that all individuals are equal before the law†, the Supreme Court judges write in their decision. In March, the court had already ordered the suspension of state subsidies for ultra-Orthodox people who study in Talmudic schools, where they dedicate their lives to the study of the Torah (Judaism’s holy book), which exempted them from service military.
Israeli police attempt to disperse ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters during a protest against their conscription into the Israeli army, in Bnei Brak, Israel
JACK GUEZ/AFP
Although the ultra-Orthodox community is a minority (these Jews represent just over 12% of the population), the Government depends on the ultra-Orthodox parties, which supported Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government coalition in exchange for exemption. §tion of this military service community. With the exclusion of this benefit, they could cause the fall of the Government, which would lead to new elections, at a time when the war in Gaza is about to reach its ninth month and the number of Israeli soldiers killed continues increasing.
More than 80% of Israeli Jews are in favor of a change in the exemption for the ultra-Orthodox, according to a poll by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), a non-partisan think tank, cited by American newspaper “The Washington Postâ€. Around 45% support coercive measures and 36% persuasion methods for recruitment.
Other news
> At least 10 family members of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, including a sister, were killed following an Israeli attack, this Tuesday, in the north of Gaza city, Palestinian sources confirmed. According to the same sources, cited by the EFE agency, the attack hit the house where the family lived in the Shati refugee camp in the north of the Palestinian enclave;
> The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has the necessary funds for its operations “until the end of August”, but half of its facilities are destroyed, its commission declared today General Secretary, Philippe Lazzarini. Only two countries, the USA and the United Kingdom, continue to freeze their aid to the UN agency, after several donor countries resumed their contributions due to the alleged links of some of their workers to the Palestinian Islamist movement;
> The German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, announced additional humanitarian aid of 19 million euros for the Gaza Strip, at the same time as she criticized the Israeli Government for its actions in Palestine. “For the children of Gaza, every meal, no matter how small, is vital for survival,” said the minister, noting that “each box of medical supplies will help restore a minimum level care in hospitals destroyed” by the war between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas;
