Mass graves show evidence of torture, executions
- Three separate mass graves containing 392 bodies show signs of executions and people being buried alive, Gaza’s civil defence agency says.
- Demands for “answers” from Israeli leaders reverberate as the grisly effort to dig up corpses buried in Khan Younis continues.
Israel should allow investigators into Gaza: Amnesty
A lack of resources and continuous air strikes in Gaza will hinder efforts to investigate human rights abuses, says Donatella Rovera, a senior adviser with Amnesty International.
“The expertise, the skills, the resources – such as the ability to carry out DNA tests – none of that is available [in Gaza], and to make matters worse, there is the constant bombardment,” Rovera told Al Jazeera.
“Where there is evidence of a crime committed yesterday, it may be destroyed by a bombardment committed today,” she said.
Furthermore, Rovera noted, human rights investigators have not been allowed inside Gaza for years.
“Something can be done immediately. That is for the Israeli authorities to allow independent investigators in immediately. If they have nothing to hide, they should have no reason in preventing them getting into Gaza,” she added.
Global heating and urbanisation to blame for severity of UAE floods, study finds
World Weather Attribution group says intensified El Niño effects caused torrential rain, but rules out cloud seeding as cause
Fossil fuels and concrete combined to worsen the “death trap” conditions during recent record flooding in the United Arab Emirates and Oman, a study has found.
Scientists from the World Weather Attribution team said downpours in El Niño years such as this one had become 10-40% heavier in the region as a result of human-cased climate disruption, while a lack of natural drainage quickly turned roads into rivers.
Espionage in the EU: Is the bloc ready to ward off spies?
With just six weeks to go until European Parliament elections, fresh revelations of suspected espionage at the legislature will do little to instill public confidence. The last 18 months have seen a string of malign foreign influence scandals involving EU parliamentarians.
First, starting from December 2022, came bombshell accusations that MEPs and their staff accepted cash for influence from Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania. Then, at the start of this year, investigative outlet The Insider alleged that Latvian MEP Tatjana Zdanoka had worked with Russian intelligence officials for years.
Only last month, Czech authorities sanctioned news outlet Voice of Europe, alleging that it was a Russian influence operation. Days later and in connection with the same revelations, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Russia had approached and paid MEPs "to promote Russian propaganda."
Burkina Faso’s army summarily executed 223 civilians, says Human Rights Watch
The mass killings took place on Feb. 25 in the country's northern villages of Nondin and Soro, and some 56 children were among the dead, according to the report. The human rights organization called on the United Nations and the African Union to provide investigators and to support local efforts to bring those responsible to justice.
“The massacres in Nondin and Soro villages are just the latest mass killings of civilians by the Burkina Faso military in their counterinsurgency operations,” Human Rights Watch Executive Director Tirana Hassan said in a statement. “International assistance is critical to support a credible investigation into possible crimes against humanity.”
The once-peaceful nation has been ravaged by violence that has pitted jihadis linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group against state-backed forces. Both sides have targeted civilians caught in the middle, displacing more than 2 million people, of which over half are children. Most attacks go unpunished and unreported in a nation run by a repressive leadership that silences perceived dissidents.
