Two human rights groups have said an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon that killed al-Akhbar newspaper reporter Amal Khalil and seriously wounded freelance camera operator Zeinab Faraj was an apparent war crime.

Separate reports by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International concluded that the journalists were targeted while reporting in the town of al-Tiri on 22 April.

They called for an independent investigation and for Lebanon to accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

The Israeli military denied targeting the journalists, telling the BBC that the three strikes carried out by its forces were aimed at two operatives of the armed group Hezbollah.

“The Israeli military says it does not target journalists, but the facts and evidence show that it has repeatedly done so. Amal Khalil and Zeinab Faraj are the latest victims in a long series of such attacks,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The two rights groups said they had reviewed photo and video evidence of the events in al-Tiri, as well as witness testimony from Faraj and first responders, media reports, and a message from the Lebanese Red Cross to the Israeli military.

According to HRW’s reconstruction of the events, the first Israeli strike hit a car driving in front of the two female journalists at about 14:30 local time, killing two men they knew, Ali Bazzi and Mohammed al-Hourani.

HRW said the strike forced Khalil and Faraj to abandon their vehicle and seek refuge near a neighbouring building. They called the Lebanese Red Cross for help, and at 15:00 the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Unifil) sent the Israeli military a request from the Lebanese Red Cross to access the site and rescue them.

A second strike, between 15:21 and 15:42, hit the journalists’ parked car, injuring Khalil, HRW added. She and Faraj then sheltered inside the building, which was destroyed by a third strike at about 16:25.

Israeli quadcopter drones appeared to monitor Faraj and Khalil throughout the attack.

“The drones got extremely close, coming through the broken roof. Less than a meter away. I was covering my face, thinking of a video I had seen where a drone killed someone like that. I thought it would explode in my face. The drones didn’t carry visible explosives, but they were hovering and provoking fear constantly,” Faraj told Amnesty.

Phone records showed Khalil remained in contact with first responders and family members as the attacks unfolded, according to the rights group.

A Lebanese Red Cross team was able to enter the town after 17:00.

But when the paramedics began rescue efforts, they came under fire from a drone-delivered stun grenade and were forced to retreat without recovering Khalil, witnesses told HRW.

Photographs reviewed by the group also showed damage to the Lebanese Red Cross ambulance that it said was consistent with small-arms fire.

HRW said a report from Tebnin Governmental Hospital indicated that Khalil was most likely still alive when the paramedics were forced to withdraw from the site at around 17:53.

The report stated that Khalil died around 19:00 as a result of cardiac arrest. It also said she had a head injury that caused severe bleeding. Her body was eventually recovered by rescue workers at around 23:00.

The Israeli military said the strikes that killed Khalil and wounded Faraj formed “part of a series of events” in which two Hezbollah operatives were killed, and that it “regrets any harm caused to journalists”.

It said the incident was under internal review, but did not answer follow-up questions from the BBC about the purpose of the second and third strikes.

Both HRW and Amnesty said the evidence showed that Israeli forces “knew or should have known” that the women were civilians.

Deliberate attacks on civilians are prohibited under international humanitarian law.

“There can be no justification for targeting civilians who sought shelter in search of safety,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty’s Middle East director.

Kaiss said: “Israeli forces’ continued killing of journalists shows a brazen willingness to commit atrocities without any fear of consequences.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists says 27 journalists and media workers have been killed this year, including nine in Lebanon and seven in Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

The school day had begun as usual, Amaineh says.

Because it was the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the children gathered inside the prayer hall to recite the Quran, she recalls, before she began teaching her pupils a new letter of the Persian alphabet.

But, as the first attacks of the war unfolded across Iran, she says the headteacher announced the school would be closing, and teachers began contacting parents, urging them to collect their children.

Only five of Amaineh’s 15 first-grade pupils were left in her classroom on the upper floor, she says, when she first heard an explosion not far from the school. She says she was in the corridor and rushed back for the children.

“Just as I went to leave, a missile struck the school,” says Amaineh. “Something hit my head and my students’ heads – we were all sent flying.”

Then, she says, thick black smoke filled the classroom: “I couldn’t even see the pupils I was holding in my arms. We couldn’t breathe.”

She says she remembers hearing another explosion, as well as the sounds of screaming, children crying and then the school itself collapsing – “destroyed all at once”.

“Blood was pouring from me and the students,” she adds.

The mission found “indicators of a genocidal path” in a report released in February. The new report builds on the earlier findings by providing additional evidence on sexual violence, forced disappearances, detention and mass killings.

“The patterns we documented in El Fasher – including encirclement, attacks on civilian infrastructure, restrictions on humanitarian access, and widespread abuses against civilians – serve as a stark warning,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, Chair of the UN Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan. 

“The international community must heed these lessons and act to prevent further catastrophe.”

Cost of war

Two years into the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces of the military government (SAF) and the RSF, the conflict has killed at least 59,000 people and displaced at least 14 million more.

With 33.7 million people requiring humanitarian assistance and access to people in need severely restricted, the UN considers Sudan the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

The Human Rights Council-appointed investigators warned that the RSF is currently deploying tactics used in El Fasher around El Obeid, where its forces have encircled the city, attacking critical infrastructure and restricting access to essential services.

Following a 6 July resolution adopted by the UN’s Human Rights Council, the mission will investigate alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law and humanitarian law in El Obeid.

Alarm grows

El Obeid, the capital of the North Kordofan state, is currently under SAF control, but the city has faced “siege-like conditions” for 18 months, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on 3 July.

The situation in El Obeid could deteriorate even further, as attacks on critical infrastructure such as power stations have caused blackouts, disrupted water supplies and hampered hospitals’ ability to operate.

In three weeks in June, the UN verified 15 drone strikes killing at least 45 civilians El Obeid and the surrounding area.

In response to the situation in El Obeid, Mr. Türk called for a range of measures to prevent further atrocities and a repeat of El Fasher, including urgent Security Council action, a pause in hostilities to allow humanitarian aid and cooperation by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Lessons from El Fasher

As they took control of El Fasher in October after an 18-month siege, RSF forces carried out door-to-door executions, identity-based targeting, aerial drone bombardments and indiscriminate shootings, killing more than 6,000 people in three days.

Before the RSF took the city, it spent months systematically cutting off civilians’ access to food, water, medical supplies and humanitarian assistance, according to the Fact-Finding Mission’s February report.

The mission noted that the UN repeatedly warned about the risk of atrocities in El Fasher before the city fell, but that those warnings were not heeded.

Now, investigators are raising the alarm over El Obeid to encourage prompt action to prevent further casualties.

“At a moment when serious concerns are being raised about the risks facing civilians in El Obeid, the findings from El Fasher underscore the need for urgent protection measures before more lives are lost,” expert mission member Joy Ngozi Ezeilo said.

“The international community still has a window of opportunity to prevent further atrocity crimes,” expert mission member Mona Rishmawi said. “El Obeid must not become the next crime scene.”

In a statement issued in Geneva, OHCHR spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said activists Saif Abukeshek and Thiago de Avila were detained in international waters and brought to Israel, where they “continue to be held without charge.”

The Global Sumud Flotilla is a civil society initiative seeking to deliver aid to Gaza by sea. It’s reportedly made up of nearly 60 vessels from Spain, France and Italy, and was intercepted by Israeli forces off the Greek coast on 30 April.

According to news reports, an Israeli court in Ashkelon on Tuesday accepted a request by authorities to extend the detention of the pair until next Sunday.

“Israel must immediately and unconditionally release” the two men, Mr. Al-Kheetan said.

The call comes amid mounting international concern over restrictions on humanitarian access and aid to Gaza, where the population faces severe shortages of food, medicine and other essential supplies after months of conflict and blockade.

Not a crime to bring aid

“It is not a crime to show solidarity and attempt to bring humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population in Gaza, who are in dire need of it,” Mr. Al-Kheetan said.

The UN rights office also raised alarm over allegations of abuse in detention.

“Disturbing accounts of severe mistreatment of Mr. Abukeshek and Mr. de Avila must be investigated, and those responsible must be brought to justice,” Mr. Al-Kheetan said.

End arbitrary detention

The UN rights office further called on Israel to halt practices it said violate international human rights standards.

“We call for an end to Israel’s use of arbitrary detention and of broadly and vaguely defined terrorism legislation, inconsistent with international human rights law,” the statement said.

It also renewed calls for much more extensive humanitarian access to Gaza.

“Israel must also end its blockade on Gaza and allow and facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance to the besieged Palestinian strip, in sufficient amounts,” Mr. Al-Kheetan added.

Members of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, an independent probe into Russia’s full-scale invasion which presented its latest report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, said that they have verified the deportation and transfer of 1,205 children from Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine to Russia or to other occupied areas in Ukraine.

“Based on new evidence, the Commission has now concluded that the Russian authorities committed two types of crimes against humanity: deportation and forcible transfer of children, as well as their enforced disappearance,” said the commission’s chair, Erik Møse.

8 in 10 kids not returned

Commissioner Pablo de Greiff told reporters that the Russian authorities had claimed that relocations were humanitarian evacuations for safety reasons, “but the Commission found that four years later, 80 per cent of the children from the documented cases have not been returned,” Mr. de Greiff said.

He stressed that this contravenes international humanitarian law, under which evacuations can only be temporary for compelling reasons of health, medical treatment or safety.

The Commission’s report says that many parents and legal guardians remain unaware of the children’s fate and whereabouts.

Instead of establishing mechanisms to facilitate their return, Russian authorities “arranged for the children’s long-term placement with families or institutions in 21 regions of the Russian Federation and in occupied areas of Ukraine”, Mr. de Greiff said, following a “carefully organized plan” and “pursuant to a policy conceived and executed under the leadership at the highest level of the Russian Federation state apparatus”.

In March 2023, the UN-backed International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in connection with alleged war crimes concerning the deportation and “illegal transfer” of children from occupied Ukraine.

Asked about engagement with the Russian authorities on the matter, Mr. de Greiff stressed that the Commission had submitted to them “39 written requests for information about different issues, including the issue of children…and we have never received a reply”.

Neglected and hungry

He also highlighted evidence from some of the 20 per cent of children who returned, pointing to several types of mistreatment, including children not receiving sufficient medical care or food.

In one case, the family in which a teenager was placed was “willing to call the police… because this adolescent kid expressed the desire to return to Ukraine and to his family”.

Another case ended in the suicide of a young adolescent, he said.

Army desertions and false promises

Turning to the treatment of troops within the Russian armed forces, commissioner Vrinda Grover said that the investigators interviewed 85 soldiers who had deserted and that “most of them testified about extreme violence and coercion arbitrarily ordered or practised by the commanders against their own men.”

“Soldiers described being treated like cannon fodder,” Ms. Grover said. “They reported the practice to shoot soldiers, carry out mock executions, severe beatings, tying them to trees or [placing them] in pits.”

“Their testimonies speak of a total disregard for human life and dignity,” she concluded.

Mr. de Greiff added that the findings point to “treatment that took place with the knowledge, sometimes with the order and in fact sometimes with the participation of commanders” and not isolated incidents.

The probe also investigated the issue of foreign nationals recruited to fight with the Russian armed forces and found that recruits came from 17 countries around the globe.

Ms. Grover said that “many were deceived and lured from abroad to the Russian Federation” with the false promise of civilian jobs.

“They were coerced into signing contracts written in Russian language, which they did not understand, and then sent to the frontlines,” she said.

In its latest report, the Commission of Inquiry also documented rights violations among those mobilized for the Ukrainian armed forces, from irregular administrative detention to lack of access to legal representation, as well as instances of violence against conscientious objectors.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine was first established by the Human Rights Council in March 2022 to “investigate all alleged violations and abuses of human rights, violations of international humanitarian law and related crimes in the context of the aggression against Ukraine by the Russian Federation”, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour on 24 February that year. Commissioners are not UN staff, nor paid for their work.

Since February 2022, both legal and illegal economies in Ukraine have been severely disrupted by the war. 

The report examines the evolution of organised crime structures in the country and focuses on six distinct areas: drug trafficking and production, online scams and fraud, arms trafficking, economic crime, trafficking in persons, and the facilitation of illegal exit and draft evasion.

“The war has not only inflicted untold suffering on the Ukrainian people, but has also triggered a marked evolution in organised crime – which can have profound implications for the country’s journey towards recovery and reconstruction,” said Angela Me, Chief of Research and Analysis at UNODC.

Drug trafficking

While the trafficking of cocaine and heroin through Ukraine has decreased drastically since 2022, the production and trafficking of synthetic drugs such as cathinones and methadone have increased.

The expansion of cathinone trafficking in recent years has been facilitated by the darknet, notably through market platforms such as Hydra, which was dismantled in April 2022.

Regarding methadone, the report noted that most of the Ukrainian production is trafficked within the country and not abroad, as domestic demand for the drug is on the rise.

Arms trafficking

The war has also increased the availability of weapons in the country, notably due to a massive influx of arms from the battlefield.

This surplus is resulting in a rise in arms seizures and violence among civilians, marked notably by an increase in domestic and intimate partner violence.

Although there is no evidence to suggest large-scale arms trafficking outside Ukraine, UNODC highlighted the importance of monitoring the situation in light of the sheer number of weapons available and the historic regional presence of criminal actors specialising in arms trafficking.

While there is, as of now, no evidence of drones being used in a non-military context, civilian drones and 3D-printed components for frontline attacks could fuel new illicit markets, the report found.

Trafficking in persons

As roughly 14 million people have been displaced by the war, some criminal groups have exploited these populations by luring them into shelters or accommodations disguised as humanitarian assistance providers, where they are subjected to forced labour.

While intensified patrolling of the borders, paired with the near-complete closure of the eastern and north-eastern borders, has limited the smuggling of migrants through Ukraine, traffickers have instead turned to facilitating draft evasion by Ukrainian men.

“Curtailing organised crime is a key requirement for achieving sustainable peace, justice, national security and the protection of human rights,” said Matthias Schmale, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, as the global body stands ready to support the country in this critical work. 

‘Psychotic murderers’ in the regiment

Getty Images

Reports were ‘fiction’

According to the UN relief coordination office, OCHA, aid workers have been among those killed, and widespread human rights violations have been reported, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at a regular news briefing in New York.

“In Lubero Territory, north of Goma, clashes last week forced more than 100,000 people – about half of them children – to flee their homes,” Mr. Dujarric said.

“Several local health facilities had to suspend activities, and our partners report widespread human rights violations, including rape.”

Escalating violence in North and South Kivu

The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate as M23 rebels push deeper into the region, capturing key towns and displacing thousands. The security situation remains volatile, with increasing reports of crime and targeted violence.

In Goma, criminal activity has surged, with home invasions, kidnappings and vehicle hijackings targeting humanitarian agencies. Some incidents have resulted in deaths.

A similar increase in crime and insecurity has been reported in South Kivu, particularly in Bukavu and Uvira, where rape and looting have also been documented, according to UN aid partners.

In North Kivu, a humanitarian worker was struck by a stray bullet during clashes in Masisi Territory on 20 February and died from his injuries on Saturday, bringing the total number of aid workers killed in the region since January to six.

“OCHA calls on all parties to conflict to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” Mr. Dujarric said.

Unstable and highly unpredictable

The UN peacekeeping mission in the country (MONUSCO) also warned that the security situation in areas seized by M23 rebels remains “unstable and highly unpredictable”, with reports indicating further advances by the group towards Lubero.

Mr. Dujarric reported MONUSCO’s ability to deliver on its mandate remains “significantly restricted” in M23-controlled areas in North Kivu.

“However, the Mission continues to provide protection to thousands of people who have sought refuge within its various bases while seeking ways to ensure their safe transfer out of Goma,” he added.

Earlier in the day, MONUSCO facilitated the medical evacuation of 19 troops from the Southern African Development Community Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC) from the eastern regional capital, Goma.

Local activist Norma Andrade, who was recently at the UN Office in Geneva to raise awareness about femicide, knows the issue first-hand.  Her own daughter, Lilia Alejandra, was murdered in that same city in 2001.

“As my granddaughter would sum it up: we are worth a peanut – which in other words means that a woman is just disposable,” she told UN News.

“On one day, she was working in a factory, the next day she disappeared, the next she is found dead, while another person has already replaced her at work, so [her death] is only important to her family – not for society, not for the government, much less for the authorities or the company,” she explained.  

Impunity is rampant

According to Ms. Andrade, the fact that Juárez is a key border crossing with the United States contributes to the lack of community rootedness, which dehumanizes the population and makes it harder to fight the crime of femicide.

But the problem is not confined there. Across Mexico, around 10 women and girls are killed every day by intimate partners or other family members, according to Government data. 

Since 2001 – the year when Lilia Alejandra was killed – 50,000 women have been murdered, while the impunity rate exceeds 95 per cent. 

Furthermore, only two per cent of cases end in a criminal sentence and only one in 10 victims dares to report their aggressor.

There is no justice

Ms. Andrade has survived two murder attempts in the 23 years since her daughter’s body was discovered, as she continues her quest for justice.  

“In Mexico, the growing number of disappearances is real, but this boom in organized crime and drug trafficking has erased what is happening to women, not that it stopped happening, but it is becoming invisible…”, she said.

Even though the violence against women is increasing, its visibility is going down – local activist Norma Andrade

Speaking about the lack of justice, she said that even when the skeletal remains of a missing young woman are found, it is an “achievement” as it gives closure to their families. “It gives them a place to go and mourn their daughter,” she added.

Since the disappearance of her daughter, Ms. Andrade has been fighting for justice. 

“Recently, an expert made me see a reality that I hadn’t seen for the past 23 years, one that I didn’t want to accept: maybe I won’t find justice for Alejandra. Or at least not the legal justice that I want that would put Alejandra’s attackers in jail”, she stressed.  

Her case was transferred to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, located in Costa Rica, in December 2023. 

Symbolic justice

“Perhaps we can find moral or symbolic justice,” Ms. Andrade said, “because the moment the Mexican State is given a criminal sentence […] it publicly acknowledges that it didn’t protect Alejandra, neither all the Alejandras in the country, nor all those children who were orphaned when their mothers were murdered; and that would alleviate to some extent the lack of legal justice”. 

Blaming the lack of political will, Ms. Andrade who is also a co-founder of non-profit association of mothers whose daughters were victims of feminicide in Ciudad Juárez, added that the mothers are the ones “swimming against the tide”.

Supported by other women, academics, feminists, and civil society, they are the ones “who must go, protest and raise their voices to be taken into account”, she said. 

In recent years, the crimes have sparked several waves of protests and put gender violence at the top of Mexico’s political agenda.

Keeping the issue of femicide in the spotlight and making information available and accessible for women, is key for holding the authorities accountable and preventing violence against women and girls. 

Since 2011, UN Women, in partnership with key state institutions, has published periodic studies analysing the scope, trends, characteristics of femicide in the country.

‘Look at us’

Ms. Andrade stars in the documentary Norma, in search of justice directed by French journalist Brigitte Leoni, which was screened in Geneva ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November.

She hopes the documentary will bring more visibility to the cases of disappearance, noting that “this boom in organized crime has caused people to flee, crossing into the United States, and drug trafficking has made what is happening to women invisible”.

Speaking in Geneva, home to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN News asked Ms. Andrade what message she would like to share with rights experts. 

“Look at us, look at the mothers. Come here and see the families and don’t just stick with the image that the government gives to the outside world”, she said.

Femicide transcends borders

Violence against women is a global crisis, according to a report by UN Women and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), released on the International Day.

The commemoration marks the start of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an annual campaign that runs through 10 December, Human Rights Day.

Regional data shows that femicide transcends borders, socio-economic status and cultures, but its severity varies.

Africa recorded the highest rates of intimate partner and family-related femicides, with 21,700 women killed in 2023, followed by the Americas and Oceania.

In Europe, 64 per cent of victims were killed by their intimate partners; in the Americas, it was 58 per cent. 

In contrast, women in Africa and Asia were more likely to be killed by family members than by their partners.

The report revealed that globally, 140 women and girls died every day at the hands of their partner or a close relative in 2023 – one woman killed every 10 minutes.  

Under the laws of war, the forced displacement of any civilians inside an occupied territory is prohibited, unless it is necessary for their security or for an imperative military reason.

For displacement to be lawful, civilians must be moved safely and provided with accommodation and essential supplies. They must also be able to return to their homes after the end of hostilities in the area.

HRW’s report – based on interviews with displaced Palestinians, analysis of Israeli evacuation orders, satellite imagery showing destruction of buildings, and videos and photos of strikes – concludes that there is no plausible imperative military reason to justify the displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s population and that the other conditions for it be lawful have also not been met.

The US-based group says the Israeli evacuation orders have been “inconsistent, inaccurate, and frequently not communicated to civilians with enough time”, and that they “did not consider the needs of people with disabilities and others who are unable to leave”. Israeli forces have also “repeatedly struck designated evacuation routes and safe zones”, it adds.

It accuses Israeli authorities of blocking “all but a small fraction of the necessary humanitarian aid, water, electricity, and fuel from reaching civilians in need”, as well as carrying out attacks that have damaged and destroyed vital resources like hospitals and bakeries.

HRW also alleges that Israel’s military has “intentionally demolished or severely damaged civilian infrastructure, including controlled demolitions of homes, with the apparent aim of creating an extended ‘buffer zone’ along Gaza’s perimeter with Israel and a corridor which will bifurcate Gaza”. “The destruction is so substantial that it indicates the intention to permanently displace many people,” it warns.

Israeli government ministers are also cited as saying that Gaza’s territory would decrease and that land would be handed to Israeli settlers.

“Forced displacement has been widespread, and the evidence shows it has been systematic and part of a state policy. Such acts also constitute crimes against humanity,” HRW says.

It also says that the “organised, violent displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, who are members of another ethnic group, is likely planned to be permanent in the buffer zones and security corridors”, and that such actions “amount to ethnic cleansing”.

The Israeli military has denied that it is seeking to create permanent buffer zones and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar recently said that displaced people from northern Gaza would be allowed to return home at the end of the war.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been approached for a response to the HRW report.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 43,700 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.