РУССКИЙ
11:16 22.11.2024 •
A Lebanese Middle East Airlines plane lands at Beirut International Airport as an Israeli airstrike hits it.
Photo from social media
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed numerous children every single day in the past week, UNICEF said.
“Despite more than 200 children killed in Lebanon in less than two months, a disconcerting pattern has emerged: their deaths are met with inertia from those able to stop this violence. For the children of Lebanon, it has become a silent normalization of horror,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.
“In Lebanon, much the same as has become the case in Gaza, the intolerable is quietly transforming into the acceptable.”
Since October of 2023, Lebanon’s Health Ministry has documented 231 children killed and 1,330 injured, as Israel has pounded Lebanon with bombs, targeting civilian areas in Beirut and across southern Lebanon.
"For the children of Lebanon, it has become a silent normalisation of horror. In an effort to break that. Let’s look at just the past 10 days for children in Lebanon,” said James Elder.
"On Sunday 10 November: Seven children were killed from the same extended family. The family of 27 – all killed – was seeking shelter in Mount Lebanon after fleeing violence in the south.
"On Monday, two more children were killed with their mother. Ten were injured.
"On Tuesday: 13 children were killed. 13 more were injured, including 8 year old Ahmad who is now the only survivor of the strike.
"On Wednesday: 4 children were killed, again having sought to flee fighting in the south.
"On Thursday: 3 children were killed, 13 were injured.
"Last Saturday, 16 November: 5 children were killed, including 3 from the same family. Among the injured, Celine Haidar, a young football player in the National Lebanese team. She is in a coma due to a shrapnel in her head, from a missile that hit Beirut while she was trying to flee the area.
"And on Sunday: two 4-year-old twin girls were killed.
"Indeed, over the past two months, more than three children have been killed in Lebanon, on average, every day. Many, many more have been injured and traumatized.
"We must hope humanity never again witnesses the ongoing level of carnage of children in Gaza, though there are chilling similarities for children in Lebanon,” said James Elder.
The disproportionate attacks, of which many frequently hit infrastructure children rely on. Medical facilities are being attacked and health workers are being killed at an increasing speed.
As of November 15, more than 200 health sector workers had been killed, and 300 injured, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
In all, Israel has killed 3,500 people in Lebanon and injured nearly 15,000. Israel has also forced over 1 million people to be displaced, including an estimated 400,000 children.
The Israeli military’s targeting of Lebanon’s health care system is especially severe, with at least 286 Israeli attacks on health care in the country, killing at least 208 health care workers in total.
Netanyahu and Biden. Biden won't save him anymore.
On 21 November 2024, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (‘Court’), in its composition for the Situation in the State of Palestine, unanimously issued two decisions rejecting challenges by the State of Israel (‘Israel’) brought under articles 18 and 19 of the Rome Statute (the ‘Statute’). It also issued warrants of arrest for Mr Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Yoav Gallant.
Israel requested the Chamber to halt any proceedings before the Court in the relevant situation, including the consideration of the applications for warrants of arrest for Mr Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Yoav Gallant, submitted by the Prosecution on 20 May 2024.
The Chamber also rejected Israel’s request under article 18(1) of the Statute.
The Chamber issued warrants of arrest for two individuals, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest.
The arrest warrants are classified as ‘secret’, in order to protect witnesses and to safeguard the conduct of the investigations. However, the Chamber decided to release the information below since conduct similar to that addressed in the warrant of arrest appears to be ongoing. Moreover, the Chamber considers it to be in the interest of victims and their families that they are made aware of the warrants’ existence.
At the outset, the Chamber considered that the alleged conduct of Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant falls within the jurisdiction of the Court. The Chamber recalled that, in a previous composition, it already decided that the Court’s jurisdiction in the situation extended to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Furthermore, the Chamber declined to use its discretionary proprio motu powers to determine the admissibility of the two cases at this stage. This is without prejudice to any determination as to the jurisdiction and admissibility of the cases at a later stage.
With regard to the crimes, the Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu, born on 21 October 1949, Prime Minister of Israel at the time of the relevant conduct, and Mr Gallant, born on 8 November 1958, Minister of Defence of Israel at the time of the alleged conduct, each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
The Chamber also found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.
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