WASHINGTON: Discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians rose by about 70 percent in the US in the first half of 2024 amid heightened Islamophobia due to Israel’s war in Gaza, the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group said on Tuesday.
Human rights advocates have reported a global rise in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bias and antisemitism since the eruption in October of the Israel-Gaza war which has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis.
In the first six months of 2024, CAIR said it received 4,951 complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian incidents, a rise of nearly 70 percent compared with the same period in 2023.
Most of the complaints were in the categories of immigration and asylum, employment discrimination, education discrimination and hate crimes, CAIR said.
In 2023, CAIR documented 8,061 such complaints in the whole year, including about 3,600 in the last three months after the war broke out.
Alarming US incidents in the last nine months include the fatal October stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American child in Illinois, the February stabbing of a Palestinian-American man in Texas, the shooting of three students of Palestinian descent in Vermont in November and the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian-American girl in May.
There have been numerous protests in the US, Israel’s key ally, against the war in Gaza since October. The CAIR report noted the crackdown by police and university authorities on pro-Palestinian protests and encampments on campuses.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The Gaza health ministry says that since then Israel’s military assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations that Israel denies.
CAIR says it compiles numbers by reviewing public statements and videos as well as reports from public calls, emails and an online complaint system. It also contacts people whose incidents are reported by media.
US anti-Muslim incidents rose about 70% in first half of 2024 amid Gaza war
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US anti-Muslim incidents rose about 70% in first half of 2024 amid Gaza war
- Human rights advocates have reported a global rise in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bias and antisemitism since the eruption in October
Ukraine says UK Storm Shadow missiles used to hit Russian refinery
- The Novoshakhtinsk refinery was hit by the missiles
- The military said that the Novoshakhtinsk plant is one of the main suppliers of petrol products in southern Russia
KYIV: Ukraine used British Storm Shadow missiles to attack a Russian oil refinery on Thursday, the Ukrainian military said.
The Novoshakhtinsk refinery was hit by the missiles and “numerous explosions” were recorded, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a social media post. It has already used the British missiles to attack targets inside Russia.
“Units of the air force of the armed forces of Ukraine successfully struck the Novoshakhtinsk oil products plant in the Rostov region of the Russian Federation with Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles,” the statement said.
The military said that the Novoshakhtinsk plant is one of the main suppliers of petrol products in southern Russia “and is directly involved in supplying the Russian Federation’s armed forces,” particularly with diesel fuel and aviation kerosene.
Ukraine, which faces daily missile and drone onslaughts from Russia, has sought to respond with attacks inside Russia on energy and infrastructure facilities.
