MYANMAR: Action will be taken against 10 members of Myanmar’s security forces in connection with the killing of captured Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state, a government spokesman said on Sunday, adding it was not related to a Reuters report on the incident.
Reuters on Friday published a report laying out events that led up to the killing of 10 Rohingya men in the northern Rakhine village of Inn Din who were buried in a mass grave after being hacked to death or shot by Buddhist neighbors and soldiers.
A Myanmar government spokesman, Zaw Htay, said that “action according to the law” would be taken against seven soldiers, three members of the police force and six villagers as part of an army investigation that was initiated before the Reuters report was published.
The arrests were “not because of Reuters news. The investigation was being conducted even before Reuters news,” Zaw Htay said, adding that he was unable to specify what action would be taken against the 16 people.
On Jan. 10, the military said the 10 Rohingya men belonged to a group of 200 “terrorists” who had attacked security forces. Buddhist villagers attacked some of them with swords and soldiers shot the others dead, the military said, adding that it would take action against those involved.
The military’s version of events is contradicted by accounts given to Reuters by Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim witnesses.
Buddhist villagers reported no attack by a large number of insurgents on security forces in Inn Din. And Rohingya witnesses told Reuters that soldiers plucked the 10 from among hundreds of men, women and children who had sought safety on a nearby beach.
Nearly 690,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine state and crossed into southern Bangladesh since August, when attacks on security posts by insurgents triggered a military crackdown that the United Nations has said may amount to genocide.
The Reuters investigation of the Inn Din massacre was what prompted the arrest of two of the news agency’s reporters. Myanmar citizens Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were detained on Dec. 12 for allegedly obtaining confidential documents. The police has said two police officers were also arrested.
Prosecutors are seeking to charge Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo under Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act, which dates back to the time of colonial British rule and carries a maximum 14-year prison sentence.
Asked about the evidence Reuters had uncovered about the massacre, spokesman Zaw Htay said on Thursday, before publication of the Reuters report: “We are not denying the allegations about violations of human rights. And we are not giving blanket denials.”
If there was “strong and reliable primary evidence” of abuses, the government would investigate, he said.
There has been no official comment from the government following the publication of the report.
Britain’s foreign minister, Boris Johnson, said he would raise the case of the two journalists during a meeting with the country’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on Sunday.
He told Reuters in a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh on Saturday that the violence in northern Rakhine clearly amounted to ethnic cleansing but observers and monitors should be allowed into the area to establish evidence.
The United States and the United Nations have called the military campaign against the Rohingya “ethnic cleansing.” Myanmar denies ethnic cleansing, and says its security forces mounted legitimate counter-insurgency clearance operations.
Myanmar says soldiers, police facing action over village killings
Myanmar says soldiers, police facing action over village killings
Americans’ views on Israel at near-historic low while support for Palestinian state hits a high: Gallup
- Latest poll results reveal views on Israel are among the most negative Gallup has ever measured, while views on Palestinian territories are the most positive on record
- More Americans now sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis, a reversal of the past 25 years in which Israel held large, double-digit leads in terms of US sympathy
NEW YORK CITY: The views of Americans on Israel have fallen close to their lowest levels on record, while support for the creation of an independent Palestinian state has risen to one of its highest levels in more than two decades, according to the latest research from Gallup.
The company’s annual update on US attitudes toward the Middle East reveals a significant shift in public opinion over the past year. For the past 25 years, Israel has held large, double-digit leads in terms of US sympathy, but this year more Americans said they sympathized with the Palestinians.
In the Gallup poll of 1,001 adults, carried out by ReconMR between Feb. 2 and 16, 41 percent said they sympathized more with the Palestinians, compared with 36 percent who sympathized more with the Israelis.
Though the five-percentage-point difference is not statistically significant, it contrasts sharply with the results of a Gallup poll a year ago, in which more people (46 percent) were sympathetic to the Israelis than the Palestinians (33 percent).
In fact, for more than two decades Israelis have garnered much greater sympathy than Palestinians; for most of the time between 2001 and 2025, the difference was in the large double digits.
However, the gap started to shrink in 2019, long before before the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas and the subsequent war in Gaza. This gradual shift in attitudes over the past seven years has now reached the point where Israel no longer holds a clear advantage in terms of American sympathy.
The shift has largely been driven by political independents, whose sympathies now favor Palestinians over Israelis by a margin of 41 percent to 30 percent. Previously, independents consistently leaned toward Israelis, including 42 percent last year compared with 34 for Palestinians.
Democrats have remained relatively consistent in their sympathies over the past year, after flipping strongly toward Palestinians in 2025 following an initial tilt in 2023. In the latest poll, 65 percent said they sympathized more with Palestinians, compared with 17 percent for Israelis.
Republicans continued to favor Israelis by a similarly wide margin: 70 percent sympathize more with Israelis, compared with 13 percent for Palestinians.
Still, sympathy for Israelis among Republicans has declined by 10 percentage points since 2024, hitting its lowest level since 2004.
Generational differences in attitudes are also pronounced. Among Americans between the ages of 18 and 34, 53 percent said they sympathized more with Palestinians. It was the first time a majority in this age group had taken that position. Only 23 percent sympathized more with Israelis, a record low.
Among those in the 35-54 age range, 46 percent sympathized more with the Palestinians, compared with 28 percent for Israelis, marking a reversal from 12 months ago when 45 percent sympathized more with Israelis and 33 percent with Palestinians.
Americans age 55 and older remain more sympathetic to Israelis: 49 percent compared with 31 percent for Palestinians. However, this year was the first since 2005 in which less than half of older Americans sympathized more with Israelis.
Beyond the question of sympathies, the poll also found that overall favorability ratings of Israel and the Palestinian territories had also shifted.
Americans rated Israel much more favorably than the Occupied Palestinian Territories in Gallup surveys between 2000 to 2024. The latest poll found that views on Israel were among the least positive Gallup has measured. Meanwhile, views on the Palestinian territories, though still net negative overall, were the most positive on record.
Support among Americans for a two-state solution also reached one of the highest levels in the history of tracking by Gallup: 57 percent of respondents said they favored the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, 28 percent opposed it and 15 percent had no opinion.
The support was strongest among Democrats, at 77 percent, and 57 percent of independents also backed a two-state solution, levels that have been generally consistent since 2023.
Republican support has fluctuated sharply in recent years. It fell from 43 percent before the Oct. 7 attacks in 2023 to 26 percent in the immediate aftermath, the largest single-year drop recorded among any party group. Support rebounded to 41 percent last year, before declining again to 33 percent in the latest survey.
With the exception of 2024, the current 44 percentage point gap between Democrats and Republicans is the widest Gallup has recorded on the issue.
Nevertheless, Americans remain more supportive of a two-state solution than Israelis or Palestinians themselves: in 2025, only 27 percent of Israelis and 33 percent of Palestinians living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem said they supported such a proposal.
