Clashes erupt in Tirana as anti-government protesters confront Socialist Party supporters
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Israel blew up civilian homes in Ainata, a centuries-old village in South Lebanon
Israel is systematically destroying schools, universities and hospitals in South Lebanon
Gaza atrocities
The IDF has been repeatedly accused for targeting and abusing Palestinian civilians in Gaza, indiscriminately using snipers to kill civilians trying escape the crossfire or reach aid stations.
A shocking in-depth report from the liberal Israel-owned newspaper Haaretz, I Felt I Was a Monster interviewed IDF soldiers returning from Gaza, describing the atrocities they had witnessed or participated in.
One soldier only named as Yuval described one incident firing on a group of five fleeing Palestinians: "When we got to our destination, I realized that these weren't terrorists. It was an old guy and three boys, maybe teenagers. Not one of them was armed. But their bodies were riddled with bullets; their organs were pouring out. I had never seen anything like that so close up.”
"I remember there was silence; nobody uttered a word. Then the battalion commander came over with his people and one spat on the bodies and yelled, 'This is what happens to anybody who messes with Israel, you sons of bitches.' I was in shock, but I kept quiet because I'm a loser, just a gutless coward."
Yuval was discharged three months later, took two weeks off and tried to return to his job. "They threw a party for me when I was discharged, applauded me and called me a hero," he says. "But I felt I was a monster. I couldn't bear the things they said to me. I felt they didn't realize that I wasn't a good person; just the opposite." He has since checked himself into a psychiatric ward.
The article is full of descriptions of summary executions, murders and abuse of prisoners by IDF forces.
In the most horrific allegations to appear, reliable sources say there is now overwhelming evidence of the use systematic rape of Palestinains held in Israel detention centres: rape by soldiers for women, and rape by trained dogs for men. The allegations of the systematic use of rape by Israel are backed up by a UN report released last March detailing how it has been systematically employed since October 2023.
"Israel has increasingly employed sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinians as part of a broader effort to undermine their right to self-determination and carried out genocidal acts through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities, according to a new report issued today by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel," the UN said in a press release.
The dog rape charges were first reported in October 2024 by Al Jazeera Investigative Unit, but have since been confirmed by numerous NGOs including B’Tselem, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Council on American-Islamic Relations.
According to one report, an Israeli analyst confirms accounts of Palestinians being raped and sexually assaulted using dogs at Israeli detention sites, citing two guards he spoke with at Sde Teiman torture prison.
“One had witnessed it and said it was too awful to describe. The other said he had heard about it from others and believed it was true. This happened. This is still happening. The evidence is overwhelming,” he said, Drop Site News reported.
In another report by a reporter from CGTN (China Global Television Network) outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in central Gaza last week following an Israeli strike on civilians in Gaza, the distraught reported had entered the hospital and then gave a live stand up to camera describing what she saw: “1 saw about ten children about under age of five all with their heads cut off… This is indescribable. This is like a massacre.”
The number of casualties from that incident was reported to be 2,215, according to the Palestinian health authorities . “But the number is going up every hour,” the reporter said as the ambulances streamed in behind her.
First reposnders
Israel is also targeting those trying to help the injured and dying. In another verified incident, rescue workers who had arrived a building struck by a missile and were trying to help the victims out of damaged apartments were themselves targeted by a second missile in a “double tap” strike and killed. The incident was caught on camera and broadcast by Alghad TV, an Arab-language pan-Arab Egyptian news station headquartered in Cairo, with coverage focused on Middle East affairs.
There are widespread reports of IDF targeting of ambulances and health workers, which it claims are being used to ferry military supplies by various terrorist organisations.
In addition, all of the hospitals in Gaza have been targeted and largely destroyed, which the IDF has also claimed have been used by Hamas. Some of those claims have been debunked as fabrications by the BBC and other international news outlets.
Now Israel has extended the same tactics to Lebanon. It escalated attacks on medics in Lebanon last week with deadly “quadruple tap” strikes The Guardian reported that appear to be specifically designed to kill as many first responders as possible. In one incident, when first responders received a call to respond to an Israeli airstrike in the city of Mayfadoun, in southern Lebanon, most of the paramedics held back, having previously seen colleagues killed by double-tap attacks targeting rescuers, however, they responded to the second and third calls with many of those being killed.
In total, the attacks killed four medics and wounded six more, from three different ambulance corps, according to medical sources. Three of the medics were from the Hezbollah-affiliated IHA and Amal-affiliated medical corps, while one was from the Nabatieh emergency services organisation. Under international law, all medics are protected and are considered non-combatants, regardless of political affiliation, The Guardian reported.
The Lebanese health ministry said a total of 91 healthcare workers have been killed so far which shows ‘total disregard’ for international law.
The strikes against aid workers have now extended to UN aid workers. UNICEF issued an outraged statement after two of its truck drivers contracted by UNICEF to provide clean water to families in the Gaza Strip were targeted and killed by Israeli missiles at the Mansoura water filling point in northern Gaza.
“UNICEF is outraged by the killing of two drivers of trucks contracted by UNICEF to provide clean water to families in the Gaza Strip,” the statement said. “The incident, in which two other people were injured, occurred during routine, water trucking operations, with no changes in movement or procedures.”
“The Mansoura water filling point is currently the only operational truck filling point for the Mekorot water supply line serving Gaza City. UNICEF and humanitarian partners use it multiple times a day to sustain critical water trucking operations for hundreds of thousands of people, including children,” the statement said. “UNICEF calls on the Israeli authorities to immediately investigate this incident, and ensure full accountability. Humanitarian workers, essential service providers, and civilian infrastructure, including critical water facilities, must never be targeted. The protection of civilians and those delivering life-saving assistance is an obligation under international humanitarian law.”
UN drivers of two water trucks were shot dead while supplying water to displaced persons west of Al Shuja’yia neighbourhood of the Gaza City
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