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’
Israeli military kills Palestinian teenager in occupied West Bank
- Israeli settlers in the West Bank also serve in the army, and sometimes carry their weapons with them when off duty
AL-MUGHAYYIR: Israeli forces killed a 14-year-old Palestinian in the occupied West Bank village of Al-Mughayyir on Friday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, while the military said soldiers had responded to stone throwing.
The Ramallah-based Health Ministry announced the death of 14-year-old Mohammed Al-Nassan by Israeli fire in Al-Mughayyir in a statement on Friday.
Shortly after, Israel’s military said its forces had come to the village after Palestinians “hurled stones toward Israelis, set tires on fire and blocked access routes to the area.”
The military said dozens of Palestinians were throwing stones upon their arrival, including one who posed “an imminent threat.”
“The soldiers responded by firing warning shots into the air, followed by fire to eliminate the terrorist,” the military said, adding it had set up roadblocks in the area to search for another suspect.
Amin Abu Aliya, mayor of Al-Mughayyir, said that the army raided the village when people began to exit mosques after Friday prayers.
“This young man (Nassan) was exiting the mosque where he was praying with the people, the military vehicle stopped in front of the mosque, they opened the back door and started shooting at him directly,” Abu Aliya said.
Abu Aliya added that following the incident, the army introduced a curfew for the village, closing all shops and setting up a new checkpoint at the village’s entrance.
He pointed to the heavy military presence in his village in recent months, which he said often protected Israeli settlers who recently set up nearby outposts and took land from Al-Mughayyir farmers.
In September, a settler who the military said was an off-duty soldier shot and killed a 20-year-old who the army said had thrown stones in Al-Mughayyir.
Israeli settlers in the West Bank also serve in the army, and sometimes carry their weapons with them when off duty.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
Violence there has soared since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war and has not subsided despite the truce that came into effect in October.
Since October 2023, Israeli troops and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to Health Ministry figures.
