The US Senate has passed a bill that includes $26 billion in wartime aid to Israel humanitarian relief to citizens of Gaza. Meanwhile the head of Amnesty International has said the world’s post-WWII order was on the “brink of collapse”, in particular because of the US’ shielding of Israel from scrutiny for the multiple violations committed in Gaza. Read our liveblog to follow today’s developments in the Middle East.
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Summary:
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The US Senate has passed a bill that includes $26 billion in wartime aid to Israel and humanitarian relief to citizens of Gaza.
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About $4 billion of that would be dedicated to replenishing Israel’s missile defence systems. More than $9 billion of the total would go toward humanitarian assistance in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war .
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The head of Amnesty International has said the world’s post-WWII order is on the “brink of collapse”, in particular because of the United States’ effort to shield Israel from scrutiny for violations it committed in Gaza.
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The director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees Philippe Lazzarini hit back at Israel Tuesday, calling for a Security Council probe into the “blatant disregard” for UN operations in Gaza after some 180 staffers were killed.
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Hezbollah announced two of its members had been killed by Israeli fire Tuesday, with the Israeli army saying it eliminated “two significant” members of the Iran-backed group in south Lebanon.
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UN rights chief Volker Turk said on Tuesday that he was “horrified” by the destruction of the Nasser and Al Shifa medical facilities in Gaza and reports of mass graves discovered there.
- At least 34,183 Palestinians have been killed and an estimated 77,143 have been injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks that sparked the war and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.
5:04am: Senate overwhelmingly passes aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan with big bipartisan vote
The Senate has passed $95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden after months of delays and contentious debate over how involved the United States should be in foreign wars.
The legislation would include $26 billion in wartime assistance to Israel and humanitarian relief to citizens of Gaza. About $4 billion of that would be dedicated to replenishing Israel’s missile defense systems. More than $9 billion of the total would go toward humanitarian assistance in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.
2:08am: Amnesty head says post-WWII order on ‘brink of collapse’
Amnesty International said Wednesday that the post-World War II order was on the “brink of collapse”, threatened by bitter conflict on multiple fronts to the rapid and unregulated rise of artificial intelligence.
“Everything we’re witnessing over the last 12 months is indicating that the international global system is on the brink of collapse,” Amnesty’s secretary general Agnes Callamard told AFP as the group released its annual “State of the World’s Human Rights” report.
“In particular, over the last six months, the United States has shielded and protected the Israeli authorities against scrutiny for the multiple violations committed in Gaza,” she said.
“By using its veto against a much-needed ceasefire, the United States has emptied out the (United Nations) Security Council of what it should be doing.”
- The head of Israeli military intelligence, Major General Aharon Haliva, has resigned and will leave once a successor is appointed, the military said in a statement on Monday. Haliva is the first senior figure to step down over Hamas’s attack on October 7.
- Gaza’s Civil Defence agency said Tuesday that health workers had uncovered around 340 bodies over the past four days of people killed and buried by Israeli forces at a hospital in Khan Younis.
- The White House said Tuesday it would “have to see real progress” before restoring its funding to the UN agency for Palestinians, the main aid agency operating in war-torn Gaza.
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The UN called on Tuesday for an international investigation into reports of mass graves at two Gaza hospitals destroyed in Israeli sieges, saying war crimes may have been committed. The United Nations rights office said it was “horrified” by the destruction of Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa in Gaza City, and its second largest, the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.
The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN’s counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
