March 31 (Reuters) - Iran complained to the United Nations Security Council on Monday about "reckless and belligerent" remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump, describing them as "a flagrant violation of international law" and the founding United Nations Charter.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/27962568

Ryan Grim and Sarah Hay Mar 20, 2025

[a very chilling article on how Trump and his underlings are trampling on any semblance of legality]

"The family only discovered that their loved one, Jerce Reyes Barrios, had been renditioned to #ElSalvador when they saw him in viral videos posted by the #Trump administration, in which it celebrated what it said was the mass deportation of violent members of the #Venezuelan gang #TrenDeAragua. "

Jeremy Scahill Mar 31, 2025

[article contains some details on recent negotiations]

"Hamas’s chief negotiator, Dr. Khalil al-Hayya, announced that Hamas had accepted a deal on Saturday put forward by Qatar and Egypt, the two main regional mediators. “We do not want anything new. We want to respect what was signed, what the guarantors guaranteed, and what the international community approved,” al-Hayya said. “Out of our concern for our people and our families, we dealt with all offers responsibly and positively, with the aim of achieving our goals of stopping the war.” "

Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem, Malak A Tantesh in Gaza, and Julian Borger
Mon 31 Mar 2025 10.24 EDT

"Fifteen Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, including at least one United Nations employee, were killed by Israeli forces “one by one” and buried in a mass grave eight days ago in southern Gaza, the UN has said.

According to the UN humanitarian affairs office (Ocha), the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) and civil defence workers were on a mission to rescue colleagues who had been shot at earlier in the day, when their clearly marked vehicles came under heavy Israeli fire in Rafah city’s Tel al-Sultan district. A Red Crescent official in Gaza said that there was evidence of at least one person being detained and killed, as the body of one of the dead had been found with his hands tied."

The al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, said on Monday that it has resumed direct attacks on Israeli forces, in what appears to be the first such action since Israel resumed its war on Gaza on 18 March.

“We detonated a Zionist tank with a pre-prepared explosive device while it was operating near the dividing line and bombarded the area with several mortar shells east of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, on March 29, 2025," the statement on the Qassam Brigades Telegram account said.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/27946021

from Drop Site News [you may get a request to sign up for free subscription]

Sharif Abdel Kouddous Mar 31, 2025

"The day after the assassination of Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat, the Israeli military openly celebrated his killing. A correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubasher and a contributor to Drop Site News, Shabat was killed on March 24 when the Israeli military targeted him as he was driving in his car in Beit Lahia. He was 23 years old. Earlier that day, journalist Mohamed Mansour of Palestine Today was killed, along with his wife and son, in an Israeli airstrike on his home in Khan Younis.

On its official X account the following day, the Israeli military confirmed it had “eliminated” Shabat, claiming they had “exposed” his role within Hamas six months earlier, and the statement concluded with the haunting words: “Don’t let the press vest confuse you, Hossam was a terrorist.”"

https://archive.ph/YN2qW

Israeli forces have been accused of executing handcuffed Palestinian medics before burying them in a mass grave underneath their crushed ambulances in southern Gaza's Rafah.

Fifteen humanitarian workers went missing last week after responding to a distress call from civilians being attacked by Israeli forces.

The workers include eight paramedics from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), six members of the Palestinian Civil Defence search-and-rescue teams, and one UN staff member.

They were found over the weekend in a mass grave with at least around 20 multiple gunshots in each one of them, according to Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza.

At least one of them had their legs bound, another was decapitated and a third topless, he added.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/4484610

A French court found Marine Le Pen guilty Monday in an embezzlement case and followed up the verdict with a sentence barring her immediately from running for office for five years. Le Pen abruptly left the Paris courtroom before hearing how long she will be banned from running for public office.

Le Pen and 24 other officials from her National Rally were accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. Le Pen and her co-defendants deny wrongdoing.

The biggest concern for Le Pen was that the court may declare her ineligible to run for office preventing her from running for president in 2027 -- a scenario she had described as a “political death.”

The Constitutional Council ruled Friday, in a separate case, that imposing the punishment immediately was constitutional.

Full article

https://archive.ph/vYKd9

March 31, 2025

[an excellent, thought-provoking interview, along with a statement by a Ukrainian socialist group]

In Gaza, human shields are used by Israeli soldiers at least six times a day.

I served in Gaza for nine months, and first came across these procedures, called "mosquito protocol" in December 2023. It was only two months into the ground offensive, long before there was a shortage of dogs from the IDF's canine unit, Oketz, who were used for this purpose. This became the insane, unofficial excuse for this insane, unofficial procedure. I didn't realize then how ubiquitous using human shields, whom we referred to as a "shawish," would become.

Today, almost every platoon keeps a "shawish," and no infantry force enters a house before a "shawish" clears it. This means there are four "shawishes" in a company, twelve in a battalion, and at least 36 in a brigade. We operate a sub-army of slaves.

I recently saw that the IDF's Military Police Criminal Investigation Division opened six investigations into the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields, and my jaw dropped. I've seen cover-ups before, but this is a new low.

If the MPCID wanted to do its job seriously, it would have to open far more than even a thousand investigations. But all the MPCID wants is for us to be able to tell ourselves and the world that we're investigating ourselves, so they've found six scapegoats and are pinning it all on them.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/27916601

By Ahmed Aziz in Khan Younis, occupied Palestine and Nader Durgham in Beirut
Published date: 30 March 2025 12:37 BST

“At around 1.30am, we were surprised by bombings that shook the entire area,” he said. “We went to social media, Telegram, Facebook and were shocked to see that the strikes hit my sister, her son, her husband and my two cousins. [The #Israelis] targeted their tent with what I believe was a drone strike, and my sister, her son and my two cousins were martyred.”"

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/27915778

By Fayha Shalash in Ramallah, Palestine
Published date: 30 March 2025 10:20 BST

"The Israeli army has announced plans to change the layout of the Palestinian refugee camps in the cities of Jenin and Tulkarm as part of a large-scale military operation in the northern occupied West Bank that has been ongoing since late January.

The plans aim to completely wipe out the Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams refugee camps, transforming them into neighbourhoods within the two cities, with the goal of preventing them from serving as "incubators for terrorist organisations," the military was quoted as saying by Israeli media."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/27915321

By Nader Durgham and Alex MacDonald Published date: 29 March 2025 16:36 GMT

"Locals were arrested, vehicles were damaged and the gates to animal pens were breached, allowing sheep to escape.

The attack follows another major one on Friday, during which settlers beat Palestinians with iron bars, resulting in at least two major head injuries.

Israeli forces arrested 22 Palestinians - but no settlers."

The International Court of Justice will hold public hearings on April 10 in Sudan’s case against the United Arab Emirates, the court announced Friday.

The hearings, at the Peace Palace in The Hague, will address Sudan’s request for provisional measures over alleged violations of the Genocide Convention.

Sudan filed the case on March 5, accusing the UAE of violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, particularly in relation to actions involving the Masalit group in West Darfur.

https://archive.is/elDUs