GENEVA: The United Nations rights chief warned on Tuesday that Israel’s airstrike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar last week threatened regional peace and stability and urged “accountability for unlawful killings.”
“Israel’s strike on negotiators in Doha on September 9 was a shocking breach of international law,” Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council.
Israel targeted Hamas leaders last week in strikes on the Qatari capital, killing five Hamas members and a Qatari security officer.
The attack drew widespread international condemnation, including from Gulf monarchies allied with the United States, Israel’s main backer.
Opening an urgent debate on the strike before the council, Turk described it as “an assault on regional peace and stability, and a blow against the integrity of mediation and negotiating processes around the world.”
“As such, I condemn it and call on this Council and all governments to do the same.”
The council announced on Monday that it would convene the 10th urgent debate since its creation in 2006 following two official requests from member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.
Israel, which disengaged from the rights council earlier this year, reacted angrily to the news of the urgent debate.
“This marks yet another shameful chapter in the Human Rights Council’s ongoing abuse,” Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, told journalists.
He accused the council of “serving as a platform for anti-Israel propaganda, while ignoring the brutal realities on the ground and the atrocities committed by Hamas.”
Turk said Israel’s September 9 attack “violated the right to life under international human rights law and the principles of international humanitarian law.”
“Targeting parties engaged in internationally supported mediation on its territory undermines Qatar’s key role as a facilitator and peace broker.
“It is an attack on global efforts to resolve conflicts peacefully,” he said.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the council “to reaffirm the central importance of mediation processes and to call for accountability for unlawful killings.”
UN warns Israel’s Qatar attack as assault on ‘regional peace and stability’
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UN warns Israel’s Qatar attack as assault on ‘regional peace and stability’
- Volker Turk: ‘Israel’s strike on negotiators in Doha on September 9 was a shocking breach of international law’
Israel army ‘temporarily suspends’ strike on south Lebanon
- The Israeli military issued a warning earlier on Saturday announcing an imminent strike and warning people in the Yanuh area of south Lebanon to evacuate immediately
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it would “temporarily” suspend a strike planned for Saturday that was intended to target what it described as Hezbollah military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
A November 2024 ceasefire sought to end over a year of fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group, which broke out after the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
But Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite the truce, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah members and infrastructure to stop the group from rearming.
The Israeli military issued a warning earlier on Saturday announcing an imminent strike and warning people in the Yanuh area of south Lebanon to evacuate immediately.
But later Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said “the strike was temporarily suspended,” adding that the military “continues to monitor the target.”
The suspension came after the Lebanese army “requested access again to the specified site... and to address the breach of the agreement,” he said on X.
Adraee added that the military would “not allow” Hezbollah to “redeploy or rearm.”
The year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism includes the United Nations, the United States and France.
A Lebanese security source said the army had previously tried to search the building that the Israeli military wanted to target but could not because of objections from residents.
But the source told AFP that the Lebanese army was able to enter and search the building after returning a second time, because residents “felt threatened,” adding that they were evacuated over fears of a strike.
