MADRID: Spain will probe “human rights violations in Gaza” to assist the International Criminal Court, which has sought arrest warrants for top Israeli officials over alleged war crimes, the attorney general said Thursday.
The announcement marks another step by Spain, a virulent critic of the devastating Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory, to lead international action over the conflict, sparked by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel in 2023.
Spain’s top prosecutor, Alvaro Garcia Ortiz, has “issued a decree to create a working team tasked with investigating violations of international human rights law in Gaza,” his office said in a statement.
The investigative team’s mission will be to “gather evidence and make it available to the competent body, thereby fulfilling Spain’s obligations regarding international cooperation and human rights,” it said.
“Faced with the current situation in the Palestinian territories, all evidence, direct or indirect, that can be gathered in our country” on “crimes committed” in Gaza “must be included” for potential use in the ICC case, it added in the decree.
The statement mentioned a Spanish police report which recorded “acts that could constitute crimes against the international community” perpetrated by the Israeli army in Gaza.
The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
Spain has also joined a case before another world court, the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Both Hague-based courts have faced fierce criticism from Israel and its allies over the cases.
In February, the United States slapped sanctions on the ICC, saying it had “abused its power” with the Netanyahu arrest warrant.
Israel has challenged the 125-member state ICC’s jurisdiction in the case.
Spanish-Israeli relations have soured over the conflict, with Israel withdrawing its ambassador to Madrid last year after Spain recognized a Palestinian state.
Last week, Spain recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv after Israel’s foreign minister accused the government of antisemitism.
The row followed measures announced by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez which he said aimed to “stop the genocide in Gaza.”
Spain says will probe ‘rights violations in Gaza’
https://arab.news/jhtq4
Spain says will probe ‘rights violations in Gaza’
- Spain’s top prosecutor, Alvaro Garcia Ortiz, has “issued a decree to create a working team tasked with investigating violations of international human rights law in Gaza,” his office said in a statement
- The announcement marks another step by Spain, a virulent critic of the devastating Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory, to lead international action over the conflict
Neighbors of alleged Bondi gunmen shocked by deadly rampage
- Local media named the two suspected gunmen as father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram
SYDNEY: Like many people in Sydney, Glenn Nelson spent his Sunday evening watching television coverage of a deadly shooting on the city’s iconic Bondi Beach.
But stepping onto his front porch, flanked by neatly trimmed box hedges, he saw armed police cordoning off the street before raiding the house opposite — home of the two suspects who are alleged to have killed 15 people in Australia’s worst mass shooting in decades.
“I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll catch the rest in the morning,’ the next thing, the drama is out the front door,” he said in an interview on Monday, shortly after mowing his lawn.
Nelson and other neighbors said the family living across the street kept to themselves, but seemed like any other in the suburb of Bonnyrigg, a working-class, well-kept enclave with an ethnically diverse population around 36 km (22 miles) by road from Sydney’s central business district.
Local media named the two suspected gunmen as father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram.
Police have not named the suspects, but they said the older man, 50, was killed at the scene, taking the number of dead to 16, while his 24-year-old son was in a critical condition in hospital.
Police said the son was known to authorities and the father had a firearms license.
The Sydney Morning Herald spoke to a woman on Sunday evening who identified herself as the wife and mother of the suspects.
She said the two men had told her they were going on a fishing trip before heading to Bondi and opening fire on an event celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
“I always see the man and the woman and the son,” said 66-year-old Lemanatua Fatu, who lives across the street.
“They are normal people.”
Until Sunday’s shooting, Bonnyrigg was an otherwise unremarkable neighborhood typical of Sydney’s sprawling Western suburbs.
It has significant Vietnamese and Chinese communities, along with many residents who were born in Iraq, Cambodia and Laos, according to government data.
The town center, a strip mall with a large adjoining car park, is flanked by a mosque, a Buddhist temple and several churches.
“It’s a quiet area, very quiet,” Fatu said. “And people mind their own business, doing their own thing — until now.”
Not much is currently known about the suspects’ backgrounds.
A Facebook post from an Arabic and Qur'an studies institute appearing to show one of the men was removed on Monday and no one answered the door at an address listed for it in the neighboring suburb of Heckenberg.
On Monday afternoon, as police took down their cordon, several people re-entered the house, covering their faces. They made no comment to the media and did not answer the door.
