Deliberate attacks on civilians, which both journalists were, is a war crime. Israel has killed at least 15 journalists in Lebanon and 210 in Gaza since 2023, according to the UN human rights office. The reports also indicated that Israel delayed Lebanese ambulances from reaching Khalil and Faraj for hours – at one pointing dropping stun grenades on Lebanese Red Cross workers and firing on their ambulances.

Killing of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil was a war crime, say rights groups. Photograph: Mohammed Zaatari/AP

 

Israeli strike that killed journalist in Lebanon was war crime, say rights groups

Investigation by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and Legal Agenda shows Israel deliberately attacked Amal Khalil and colleague Zeinab Faraj knowing they were civilians

An Israeli strike that killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and injured her colleague Zeinab Faraj in April was a war crime, three rights organisations said on Thursday.

Investigations from Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and Legal Agenda showed that Israel deliberately and directly attacked Khalil and Faraj, with apparent knowledge that they were civilians. The organisations called for the attacks to be investigated as war crimes, while HRW called for states to halt arm sales to Israel and put targeted sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for ongoing crimes.

Deliberate attacks on civilians, which both journalists were, is a war crime. Israel has killed at least 15 journalists in Lebanon and 210 in Gaza since 2023, according to the UN human rights office.

The reports also indicated that Israel delayed Lebanese ambulances from reaching Khalil and Faraj for hours – at one pointing dropping stun grenades on Lebanese Red Cross workers and firing on their ambulances.

The delay in rescue might have led to Khalil’s death, as hospital reports indicate that she might have still been alive hours after an Israeli strike toppled a building on top of her and Faraj.

“The evidence is clear that the Israeli military knew, or should have, that Faraj and Khalil were civilians, but attacked them anyway, and then prevented paramedics from rescuing them for hours,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Israel said it “regrets any harm caused to journalists,” and that the journalists were killed “as part of a series of events” during which two Hezbollah military operatives were killed. There was about two hours between the initial strike that killed the two men Israel said were in Hezbollah, and a second strike that targeted a building the journalists were sheltering in.

Amal Khalil was a 42-year-old journalist working for al-Akhbar, a Lebanese newspaper, while Zeinab Faraj was a 21-year-old freelance camerawoman and photojournalist. Both had been active in covering the war in Lebanon over the last three years.

On 22 April 2026, the pair drove to the village of al-Tiri, south Lebanon, to verify reports that Israeli troops had left the area.... READ MORE    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/06/israeli-strike-that-killed-journalist-in-lebanon-was-war-say-rights-groups 

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A generational shift is transforming the US-Israel relationship. The Iran war has accelerated the fraying of ties. An end to unconditional US support would force a reckoning with reality - Kenneth Roth in the Guardian

A generational shift is under way in the relationship between the United States and Israel. Tensions were already palpable because of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu’s role in pushing Donald Trump to join a counterproductive war against Iran was the last straw.

Stopping unconditional US support for Israel would certainly be important for curbing US complicity in Israeli war crimes. It may also be the best thing for Israel if it is to have any hope of avoiding the dangerous dead end of relentless military escalation. And it is a prerequisite for Palestinians to have any prospect of escaping Israel’s endless occupation.

The relationship between the two countries was not always as close as in recent decades. At Israel’s founding in 1948, Washington was supportive but with a certain reserve. President Harry Truman refused to send weapons to the new state. In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower forced Israel to withdraw from the Sinai.

But things changed when neighboring states attacked Israel in 1967 and 1973. Israel also benefited from portraying itself during the cold war as a bulwark against Soviet influence in the Middle East.

For many years, it became impossible to question Israel in discussions with most US officials. When in 2021 Human Rights Watch issued a report on Israel’s apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory, it was widely welcomed around the world but landed in Washington like a lead balloon.

That extreme deference was visible even as Israel committed genocide. President Joe Biden stopped delivering the 2,000lb bombs that Israel used to indiscriminately decimate Palestinian neighborhoods but kept billions flowing in other military aid and arms sales.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/30/us-israel-relationship-shift  

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East Jerusalem: Israel Escalating Home Demolitions, Evictions Discriminatory Laws Drive Forced Displacement in Silwan

A Palestinian man looks on as an excavator clears the rubble of homes demolished by Israeli authorities in the Silwan neighborhood of east Jerusalem, May 19, 2026. © 2026 Mahmoud Illean/AP Photo

 Human Rights Watch

June 17, 2026

(Beirut) – Israeli authorities are accelerating home demolitions and forced evictions of Palestinian residents in the Silwan district of occupied East Jerusalem, Human Rights Watch said today. The forcible deportation or transfer of the population of an occupied territory within or outside the territory, unless justified on a temporary basis for the protection of the population itself or imperative military reasons, is a violation of international humanitarian law and amounts to a war crime. 

Silwan lies south of Jerusalem’s Old City. Among its 12 neighborhoods, al-Bustan and Batn al-Hawa have for decades been the primary focus of eviction and demolition campaigns led by Israeli authorities and settler organizations such as Ateret Cohanim. These campaigns intensified under cover of the hostilities in Gaza and, this year, Iran. Of the 587 Palestinians displaced by demolitions since October 7, 2023, a quarter were displaced during Israel’s war with Iran in March-April 2026, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination and Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Over 2,000 people are at risk of forced displacement in Silwan, which, if not halted, will be one of the largest waves of expulsions in East Jerusalem since 1967, according to Ir Amim, an Israeli group that tracks government policies in Jerusalem. 

“Israeli authorities are intensifying their longstanding illegal policy of emptying areas surrounding Jerusalem’s Old City of Palestinians and replacing them with Israeli settlers,” said Sarah Sanbar, acting Israel and Palestine researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Israeli efforts to change the demography of Jerusalem are war crimes, enabled by the impunity granted by Israel’s close allies.”

Human Rights Watch researchers visited Silwan in April 2026 and interviewed three residents issued eviction and/or demolition orders and two lawyers representing clients in Silwan, and reviewed relevant legal documents. Human Rights Watch attempted to reach Ateret Cohanim by phone but has not received a response. 

The surge in displacement in Batn al-Hawa results from a series of eviction lawsuits filed by Ateret Cohanim, based on discriminatory laws allowing Jewish individuals to reclaim East Jerusalem property lost in the 1948 war, while barring Palestinians from recovering property also lost in 1948. In al-Bustan, the entire neighborhood of 115 homes housing 1,500 people is under threat of demolition due to the municipality’s plan to establish an archaeological park.

Zuheir al-Rajabi, director of Batn al-Hawa’s community center, said that Ateret Cohanim first initiated eviction proceedings in 2015. “At the beginning, we said, ‘What can they do? This is our land and house, we have nothing to fear,’” he told Human Rights Watch. 

For a decade, he fought the eviction in Israeli courts: “But after October 7, everything became possible. Judges began issuing eviction orders without giving a chance to defend or hear from the victims. It used to take three to five years to go through all the courts and appeals. After October 7, the whole process only takes 45 days.” 

A local lawyer said that “Sometimes, the decision takes one working day.”

Since October 7, Ateret Cohanim lawsuits have resulted in the eviction of 30 families, a total of 139 people, with enforcement proceedings underway for hundreds more, according to Peace Now, an Israeli group. In the 8 previous years, only 36 people were evicted. 

Zuheir said that Israeli settlers have moved into the homes of his former neighbors: “Now we feel like we are at the end of the road. [...] For the last 50 years, we all lived together in Silwan, my brothers and I, and our children growing up with each other. We fought hard to stay together, and finally after 50 years, they succeeded in splitting us apart.” 

In April 2024, Harbi al-Rajabi and his son, Nidal, received an eviction order for their building in Batn al-Hawa, where five families lived... READ MORE  https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/06/17/east-jerusalem-israel-escalating-home-demolitions-evictions

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Human Rights Watch researchers resign after report on Palestinian right of return blocked : The organization claims the report, which finds Israel’s denial of the right of return is a crime against humanity, is ‘paused pending further analysis and research’

Human Rights Watch's Israel and Palestine director Omar Shakir, a US citizen, sits at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah on 9 May 2018. Photograph: Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images

This story was co-published with Jewish Currents

Two Human Rights Watch (HRW) employees who make up the organization’s entire Israel and Palestine team are stepping down from their positions after leadership blocked a report that deems Israel’s denial of Palestinian refugees the right of return a “crime against humanity”.

In separate resignation letters obtained by Jewish Currents and the Guardian, Omar Shakir, who has headed the team for nearly the last decade, and Milena Ansari, the team’s assistant researcher, said leadership’s decision to pull the report broke from HRW’s customary approval processes and was evidence that the organization was putting fear of political backlash over a commitment to international law.

“I have lost my faith in the integrity of how we do our work and our commitment to principled reporting on the facts and application of the law,” Shakir wrote in his resignation letter. “As such, I am no longer able to represent or work for Human Rights Watch.” The resignations have roiled one of the most prominent human rights groups in the world just as HRW’s new executive director, Philippe Bolopion, begins his tenure.

In a statement, HRW said that “the report in question raised complex and consequential issues. In our review process, we concluded that aspects of the research and the factual basis for our legal conclusions needed to be strengthened to meet Human Rights Watch’s high standards. For that reason, the publication of the report was paused pending further analysis and research. This process is ongoing.”

Shakir said that his experience illustrated that while public opinion has evolved on Israel in the last several years – with “concepts of apartheid, genocide and ethnic cleansing” increasingly voiced in mainstream circles – the right of return remains a third rail. “The one topic,” he said, “even at Human Rights Watch, for which there remains an unwillingness to apply the law and the facts in a principled way, is the plight of refugees and their right to return to the homes that they were forced to flee.”... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/03/human-rights-watch-researchers-resign-palestine?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

This story was co-published with Jewish Currents. You can find a longer version on their site here 

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Paperback of the week: Righting Wrongs by Kenneth Roth -Roth spent three decades as head of Human Rights Watch. His record of past victories is also a warning for the future

Roth notes the struggle for human rights is “incessant”; there is no sign that China and others will stop their abuses anytime soon"

It was strange to be reading Righting Wrongs, Kenneth Roth’s memoir about his time in charge of Human Rights Watch, on the same weekend that the United States bombed Venezuela and abducted its president, Nicolás Maduro. As condemnation of the action failed to arrive from Keir Starmer, or barely any significant European leader, I thought of Roth’s statement that it is “axiomatic that for Human Rights Watch’s methodology to work, some particular government or institution must feel shamed”. Unfortunately, it’s shamelessness that seems to be in the ascendant.

Roth achieved tremendous successes at Human Rights Watch during his 29 years as executive director (he stepped down in 2022), seeing the organisation’s annual budget grow from $7m to $100m. The organisation has campaigned for a diverse range of issues including the banning of landmines and LGBT rights, as well as documenting genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia, the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and, in the early 2000s, helping to establish the International Criminal Court. The idea, he explains, is to present reports so solid as to be undeniable, and therefore shame the target government or group into stopping their actions. “Stigmatise with facts,” he writes.

Roth’s predecessor at Human Rights Watch, Aryeh Neier, taught him “the possibility of being an activist with intellectual sophistication”. And according to Roth: “It is not my nature to spend lots of time rallying in the streets or picketing government buildings.” He is, he says, no rabble-rouser. Readers of his somewhat colourless prose would have to agree.... READ MORE  https://observer.co.uk/culture/books/article/paperback-of-the-week-righting-wrongs-by-kenneth-roth

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https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/739898/righting-wrongs-by-kenneth-roth/

 ONE OF THE ECONOMIST‘S BEST BOOKS OF 2025 • From the long-time head of Human Rights Watch, the fascinating and inspiring story of taking on the biggest villains and toughest autocrats around the world

In three decades under the leadership of Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch grew to a staff of more than five hundred, conducting investigations in one hundred countries to uncover abuses—and pressuring offending governments to stop them. Roth has grappled with the worst of humanity, taken on the most brutal officials of our time, and persuaded leaders from around the globe to stand up to their repressive counterparts.

The son of a Jew who fled Nazi Germany just before the war began, Roth grew up knowing full well how inhumane governments could be. He has traveled the world to meet cruelty and injustice on its home turf: he arrived in Rwanda shortly after the genocide; scrutinized the impact of Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait; investigated and condemned Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians. He directed efforts to curtail the Chinese government’s persecution of Uyghur Muslims, to bring Myanmar’s officials to justice after the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, to halt Russian war crimes in Ukraine—even to reign in the U.S. government. Roth’s many innovations and strategies included the deployment of a concept as old as mankind—the powerful tool of “shaming”—and here he illustrates its surprising effectiveness against evildoers.

This is a story of wins, losses, and ongoing battles in the ceaseless fight to uphold our most basic values. 

Justice for Palestinians Can’t Wait for a Peace Deal: Concrete Action by Governments Is Urgently Needed

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the 80th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, September 23, 2025. © 2025 Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

Louis Charbonneau

United Nations Director

Bénédicte Jeannerod

France Director

The calamitous situation in Gaza, with Palestinian civilians facing extermination and ethnic cleansing by Israeli forces, was a major focus of the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) high-level week. Along with recognition of the state of Palestine by France, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, among others, states made key commitments on human rights and accountability that were overwhelmingly adopted by the UNGA and now need to be fulfilled.

On September 29, US President Donald Trump released his 20-point “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict,” which makes no mention of either human rights or justice. But states should not wait for the adoption of a peace plan to fulfill their commitments on rights. They should take immediate action, using their leverage as required as parties to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to stop Israel’s escalating atrocities against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Governments should suspend arms transfers to Israel and their preferential trade deals, ban trade with illegal settlements, and impose targeted sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for ongoing crimes against Palestinian civilians.

All governments should support accountability for Israeli authorities’ war crimes, crimes against humanity, including extermination, apartheid, and persecution, and acts of genocide. They should also pursue accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and unlawful imprisonment, committed by Palestinian armed groups against Israelis during the October 7, 2023, attacks and the holding of hostages. 

They should rally behind the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is combating impunity for atrocity crimes globally, and condemn and act to counter US sanctions against ICC judges and officials, prominent Palestinian rights organizations, and a UN expert.

States approved the UNGA resolution ahead of a high-level conference that marked the passing of the September 2025 deadline for states to comply with a landmark July 2024 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. 

The vote this year should not be an empty gesture as Israeli authorities expand illegal settlements and further displace and exterminate Palestinians. Respect for Palestinians’ basic rights is not dependent on reaching agreement on a peace plan. Countries should move ahead quickly with steps that advance justice and accountability.

 https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/10/02/justice-for-palestinians-cant-wait-for-a-peace-deal

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Commission of Inquiry Report Highlights Growing Consensus on Israel’s Genocidal Gaza Campaign

• Extermination and Acts of Genocide  Israel Deliberately Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Water

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths. -> The dire humanitarian situation is a direct result of Israel’s use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war—a war crime—as well as Israel’s continued intentional deprivation of aid and basic services, which amounts to the crime against humanity of extermination, and acts of genocide. -> States should press Israeli authorities to immediately stop using lethal force as crowd control against Palestinian civilians, lift Israel’s unlawful sweeping restrictions on the entry of aid, and for the United States and Israel to suspend this flawed distribution system.

 Kenneth Roth

@KenRoth

It is a war crime -- part of its genocide -- for Israel to starve Palestinian civilians in Gaza. It is also a war crime for Israeli forces to repeatedly shoot and kill hungry Palestinians as they seek food at Israeli-organized food distribution points.

 

 August 1, 2025 12:00AM EDT | Report

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Gaza: Israeli Killings of Palestinians Seeking Food Are War Crimes

Abandon US-Backed ‘Death Trap’ Scheme, Press Israel to End Mass Starvation

Palestinians at a US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution site for humanitarian aid in the “Netzarim Corridor, "central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025.  © 2025 Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg via Getty Image

• US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths.
• The dire humanitarian situation is a direct result of Israel’s use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war—a war crime—as well as Israel’s continued intentional deprivation of aid and basic services, which amounts to the crime against humanity of extermination, and acts of genocide.
• States should press Israeli authorities to immediately stop using lethal force as crowd control against Palestinian civilians, lift Israel’s unlawful sweeping restrictions on the entry of aid, and for the United States and Israel to suspend this flawed distribution system.

(Jerusalem, August 1, 2025) – Israeli forces at the sites of a new US-backed aid distribution system in Gaza have routinely opened fire on starving Palestinian civilians in acts that amount to serious violations of international law and war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. 

Mass casualty incidents have taken place on a near-daily basis at or near the four sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which operates in coordination with the Israeli military. At least 859 Palestinians have been killed while attempting to obtain aid at GHF sites between May 27 and July 31, 2025, most by the Israeli military, according to the United Nations. The dire humanitarian situation is a direct result of Israel’s use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war—a war crime —as well as Israel’s continued intentional deprivation of aid and basic services, ongoing actions that amount to the crime against humanity of extermination, and acts of genocide.

“Israeli forces are not only deliberately starving Palestinian civilians, but they are now gunning them down almost every day as they desperately seek food for their families,” said Belkis Wille, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. “US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths.”

States should press Israeli authorities to immediately stop using lethal force as a method of crowd control against Palestinian civilians, lift unlawful sweeping restrictions on the entry of aid, and suspend this flawed distribution system, Human Rights Watch said. Instead, the UN and other humanitarian organizations should be permitted to resume aid distributions across Gaza at scale and without restrictions, as they have proven able to feed the population in line with humanitarian standards and as required by binding rulings by the International Court of Justice in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.

In May, after more than 11 weeks of an Israeli-imposed total blockade on Gaza, the GHF distribution mechanism began operating. The aim of the Israeli authorities was reportedly to ultimately replace humanitarian aid delivery by the UN and other aid organizations... READ MORE  https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/08/01/gaza-israeli-killings-of-palestinians-seeking-food-are-war-crimes

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