Center East disaster stay: Israel has turned Gaza right into a ‘mass grave’, high UN court docket hears

Tehran has accused Benjamin Netanyahu of attempting to dictate US coverage in negotiations after the Israeli prime minister repeated requires Iran’s total nuclear infrastructure to be dismantled.

The US and Iran have to date held three rounds of oblique talks, mediated by Oman, geared toward sealing a deal that might block Tehran from buying a nuclear weapon but in addition raise crippling financial sanctions imposed by Washington.

After talks in Rome earlier this month, Oman stated that the US and Iran had been pursuing an accord that might see Tehran “completely free” of nuclear weapons and sanctions however “maintaining its ability to develop peaceful nuclear energy”.

Netanyahu stated the one “good deal” could be one which eliminated “all of the infrastructure” akin to the 2003 settlement that Libya made with the west that noticed it surrender its nuclear, chemical, organic and missile programmes.

In a submit on X on Monday, Iranian international minister Abbas Araghchi wrote:

Israel’s fantasy that it could possibly dictate what Iran could or could not do is so indifferent from actuality that it hardly deserves a response.

What’s placing, nonetheless, is how overtly Netanyahu is now dictating what President Trump can and can’t do in his diplomacy with Iran…

Let me be clear: Iran is powerful and assured sufficient in its capabilities to thwart any try by malicious exterior actors to sabotage its international coverage or dictate its course. We are able to solely hope our US counterparts are equally steadfast.

Many Iranians now not imagine the JCPOA (the Joint Complete Plan of Motion – the prevailing nuclear deal) is adequate. They search tangible dividends.

Nothing Netanyahu’s Allies within the Failed Biden Staff say or do will change this actuality. There isn’t any army possibility, and positively no army answer. Any strike will probably be instantly reciprocated.

Some information away from the ICJ hearings. The demise toll from an enormous blast in Iran’s southern port of Shahid Rajaeeh that occurred on Saturday morning has been elevated from 40 to 46, state media is reporting.

“The death toll in the Shahid Rajaee Port fire has reached 46,” the official IRNA information company reported, quoting Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, the disaster administration director on the Hormozgan governorate. He stated that the overwhelming majority of the 1,000 individuals who had been injured have been discharged from hospitals (solely 138 stay in hospital).

The port is Iran’s most strategically essential and chief artery for its world commerce. Early indications had been that the explosion seems to have been an accident fairly than a deliberate assault.

Israel’s international minister Gideon Saar referred to as the hearings a part of a “systematic persecution and delegitimization” of his nation. Talking in Jerusalem because the hearings started in The Hague, Saar stated the court docket was “becoming completely politicised”, calling the continuing “shameful”.

Ammar Hijazi, who’s Palestine’s ambassador to the Netherlands, has addressed the court docket in oral arguments. Listed here are a few of his details. Hijazi, who says he stands earlier than the ICJ on behalf of the persecuted individuals (Palestinians) combating to outlive in Gaza, stated:

• Israel is unravelling “fundamental principles of international law” together with its obligations below the UN constitution.

• Israel is popping Palestine – significantly Gaza – right into a “mass grave” for Palestinians and rescue employees.

• The World Meals Programme reviews a close to 100% enhance of Palestinians’ in want of meals assist within the occupied West Financial institution. “Impeding the presence and activities of the UN and the international organisations must be viewed in the context of erasure and forced displacement,” Hijazi stated.

• Israeli occupation has demolished refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarm, forcibly displacing greater than 40,000 Palestinians. “Israel has announced the displaced will not be allowed to return,” Hijazi siad.

• Israel is destroying the “fundamentals of life in Palestine” whereas it blocks UN and different humanitarian organisations from offering “life saving aid” to the inhabitants.

As we talked about within the opening submit, the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) is listening to about Israel’s obligation to facilitate humanitarian assist to Palestinian individuals in Gaza and the occupied West Financial institution. We could have a stay stream of the proceedings up quickly.

The UN has requested judges to make clear Israel’s authorized obligations in the direction of the UN and its businesses, worldwide organisations or third-party states to “ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population”. The case was prompted by Israeli payments outlawing the UN company for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) in October 2024. Unrwa was the foremost distributor of assist in Gaza and has supplied schooling, well being and different primary providers to thousands and thousands of Palestinian refugees throughout the area.

Over the ICJ hearings, legal professionals from greater than 40 states will declare Israel’s ban on all cooperation with Unrwa is a breach of the UN constitution. The UN says Israel is obliged below worldwide regulation to make sure sufficient provides for the Palestinians residing in Gaza. Israel says it’s adhering to worldwide regulation.

For the reason that starting of March, Israel has shut off all sources of meals, gasoline, drugs and different provides for the Gaza Strip’s inhabitants of greater than 2 million Palestinians. It’s the longest blockade but of its 17-month conflict on Gaza, with no signal of it ending.

Israel claims the blockade goals to strain Hamas to launch hostages it nonetheless holds. Rights teams have referred to as the blockade a “starvation tactic” and a possible conflict crime.

Assist employees have stretched provides, however warn of a catastrophic surge in extreme starvation and malnutrition. The UN World Meals Programme stated final week it had depleted all its meals shares in Gaza, ending a most important supply of sustenance for lots of of 1000’s of Palestinian individuals within the devastated territory.

Listed here are among the newest pictures being despatched to us over the newswires from Gaza’s southern metropolis of Khan Younis, which was focused by lethal Israeli airstrikes on Sunday night:

Israeli airstrikes on the northern Gaza Strip killed at the very least 17 Palestinians early on Monday, in accordance with native well being officers.

An airstrike hit a house in Beit Lahiya, killing 10 individuals, together with a Palestinian prisoner, Abdel-Fattah Abu Mahadi, who had been launched as a part of the ceasefire. His spouse, two of their kids and a grandchild had been additionally killed, in accordance with the Indonesian hospital, which acquired the our bodies.

One other airstrike hit a house in Gaza Metropolis, killing seven individuals, together with two ladies, in accordance with the Gaza well being ministry’s emergency service. Two different individuals had been injured.

Benjamin Netanyahu, below strain on each the home and worldwide entrance, has been accused of manipulating Israel’s conflict on Gaza to realize his personal political ends.

The Israeli chief is on trial for corruption prices and his opponents say he’s intentionally discovering causes to extend the assault so he can cling on to energy as prime minister.

This consists of shattering the January ceasefire take care of Hamas by launching a lethal wave of airstrikes on the territory final month, which households concern makes the return of Israeli hostages (alive) much less possible.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Monday alleged a US airstrike hit a jail holding African migrants, killing at the very least 68 individuals. The US army had no fast remark, the Related Press reported.

Graphic footage aired by the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite tv for pc information channel confirmed what gave the impression to be lifeless our bodies and others injured on the web site in Yemen’s Saada governate, a stronghold for the Houthis.

The Houthi-run Inside ministry stated about 115 migrants had been detained on the web site. African migrants from Ethiopia and different nations threat crossing war-torn Yemen for an opportunity to work in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. The Houthis stated 68 individuals had been killed. There was no fast unbiased affirmation of the demise toll.

The airstrike is prone to renew questions from activists in regards to the American marketing campaign towards the Houthis, often called “Operation Rough Rider,” which has been focusing on the rebels because the Trump administration negotiates with their most important benefactor, Iran, over Tehran’s quickly advancing nuclear program.

The US army’s Central Command, in a press release early Monday earlier than information of the alleged strike broke, sought to defend its coverage of providing no particular particulars of its in depth airstrike marketing campaign. The strikes have drawn controversy in America over Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the unclassified Sign messaging app to submit delicate particulars in regards to the assaults.

“To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of our ongoing or future operations,” Central Command stated. “We are very deliberate in our operational approach, but will not reveal specifics about what we’ve done or what we will do.”

We will probably be bringing you extra particulars as they arrive in. In different developments:

• Israel will come below sustained authorized strain this week on the UN’s high court docket when legal professionals from greater than 40 states will declare the nation’s ban on all cooperation with the UN’s Palestinian rights company Unrwa is a breach of the UN constitution. The 5 days of hearings on the worldwide court docket of justice (ICJ) in The Hague have been given a recent urgency by Israel’s determination on 2 March to dam all assist into Gaza, however the listening to will give attention to whether or not Israel – as a signatory to the UN constitution – acted unlawfully in overriding the immunities afforded to a UN physique.

• A “new inferno” has been unleashed on Gaza after the restart of conflict within the Palestinian territory, the director common of the Worldwide Committee of the Pink Cross (ICRC) stated Monday. “Gaza is experiencing and enduring… death, injury, multiple displacements, amputations, separation, disappearance, starvation and denial of aid and dignity on a massive scale, and just when the all important ceasefire led people to believe they had survived the worst, a new inferno was unleashed,” Pierre Krahenbuhl informed a Doha convention on safety.

• Rescuers in Khan Younis retrieved the our bodies of 4 Palestinian individuals who had been killed in an Israeli assault on a home within the southern Gaza metropolis yesterday night, in accordance with reviews.