"What’s urgently needed now is a UN-sponsored international criminal tribunal for Gaza, modelled on those in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. It should be empowered to examine all aspects of Israel’s and Hamas’s conduct of the war, especially their shared disregard for civilian lives and their killing, torture and mistreatment of hostages and detainees." Simon Tisdall in The Guardian

 The war in Gaza is supposed to be over. But be warned: without truth and justice, it will never truly end

Simon Tisdall

A fragile ceasefire is in place, but what’s needed is an international tribunal for resolution and reparation. That’s the only route to lasting peace

 

Donald Trump insists the war in Gaza is over. No, it isn’t. The violence is much reduced. Yet Israeli forces have reportedly killed about 100 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more since the 10 October ceasefire began. Food aid supplies are still heavily restricted. The occupation continues, in Gaza and the West Bank. US officials fear prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his accomplices may renege on the deal, as in the past.

Likewise, Hamas elements and rival gangs have kept fighting. The terrorist group is not disarming; Israeli forces have not fully withdrawn to the agreed lines. US-framed security, governance and reconstruction proposals remain vague, hypothetical and contentious. The war’s root causes, principally the denial of Palestinian sovereignty and statehood, are not addressed. Unless that changes, it will all kick off again, sooner or later.

Yet for the sake of argument, let’s pretend – and hope – that Trump is right, and sustainable peace somehow slowly emerges from Gaza’s ruins. What happens next? Justice is what must happen next. As in other “post-conflict” situations, the living and the dead in Israel and Palestine are owed a reckoning.

All who committed, or oversaw, war crimes on or after 7 October 2023 must answer for their actions. Lest we forget, there are multitudes of victims, on both sides, whose suffering cries out for recognition, resolution and reparation. If only to reduce the risk of resumed warfare, it’s imperative that there be accountability and an end to impunity.

Genocide must never go unpunished. How extraordinary, then, that Trump’s “historic”, supposedly Middle East-transforming 20-point peace plan makes no mention of, and offers no path towards, any sort of official, postwar public investigatory process. Senior European, Arab and UK politicians are silent on this issue, too, apparently keen to draw a veil over the shaming events of the past two years.

One explanation is that, in different ways, their governments were complicit. Another is that the war exposed their lack of influence – and a societally damaging failure, exploited by Netanyahu and some Jewish diaspora leaders, to distinguish between crude antisemitism and legitimate anti-Israel, anti-war sentiment... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/26/gaza-war-truth-justice-ceasefire-international-tribunal

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES & QUOTES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

The Gaza family torn apart by IDF snipers from Chicago [USA] and Munich [Germany]- Five-month investigation reveals how four members of one family were shot and killed in a single day and highlights a pattern in which Israeli troops target unarmed civilians

The names of survivors and witnesses have been changed due to security concerns 

Palestinians walk amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa district on 26 November 2023, on the third day of a truce between Israel and Hamas. Photograph: Omar El-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images

Hoda Osman and Emma Graham-Harrison

Tue 9 Sep 2025 11.50 EDT

Last modified on Tue 9 Sep 2025 17.21 EDT

Daniel Raab shows no hesitation as he watches footage of 19-year-old Salem Doghmosh crumpling to the ground beside his brother in a street in northern Gaza.

“That was my first elimination,” he says. The video, shot by a drone, lasts just a few seconds. The Palestinian teenager appears to be unarmed when he is shot in the head.

Raab, a former varsity basketball player from a Chicago suburb who became an Israeli sniper, concedes he knew that. He says he shot Salem simply because he tried to retrieve the body of his beloved older brother Mohammed.

“It’s hard for me to understand why he [did that] and it also doesn’t really interest me,” Raab says in a video interview posted on X. “I mean, what was so important about that corpse?”

A five-month investigation by the Guardian, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) and Paper Trail Media, Der Spiegel and ZDF has identified six people shot by Israeli snipers on 22 November 2023. And through interviews with survivors, witnesses and relatives, reviews of death certificates, medical records and geolocated images we revealed how a family from Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood was torn apart in a few hours by men who grew up in Naperville, Illinois and Munich, Germany.

Israeli snipers killed four members of the Doghmosh family that day, and injured two others. Their story illuminates patterns of killing by Israeli troops, who have repeatedly treated unarmed men between 18 and 40 in Gaza as targets.... READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/09/the-gaza-family-torn-apart-by-idf-snipers-from-chicago-and-munich

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Raab and Graetz’s location has been traced from photos and videos taken by Israeli soldiers showing the two snipers aiming their weapons through a window and a hole in the wall.  PHOTO

Footage from inside shows graffiti with devil horns, the squad’s unofficial logo.  VIDEO

Family members say they recognised Salem Doghmosh, who was shot dead as he tried to retrieve the body of his brother Mohammed. PHOTO

Youssef says he recognises himself, walking with his hands in his pockets beside Mohammed moments before he was shot dead. PHOTO

Witnesses including family members say this footage shows Mohammed Farid moments before he was shot dead PHOTO