Israel has been accused of carrying out “genocidal acts” against Palestinians during the Gaza conflict in a United Nations report.
It alleges a broad range of violations perpetrated against Palestinian women, men, girls and boys since 7 October 2023 – which Israel has denied and rejected.
“Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group,” said the report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.
It alleges this was done by systematically destroying women’s healthcare facilities during the war in Gaza, and by “imposing measures intended to prevent births” – one of the categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention.
In addition, a surge in maternity deaths due to restricted access to medical supplies amounted to the crime against humanity of extermination, it said.
The report said: “Hundreds of Palestinian men and boys have been photographed and filmed in humiliating and degrading circumstances while subjected to acts of a sexual nature, including forced public nudity and stripping, full or partial.”
“Male detainees were subjected to attacks targeting their sexual and reproductive organs, including violence to their genitals…,” it added.
The commission alleged these and other forms of “sexualised torture” are “committed with either explicit orders or an implicit encouragement by the top civilian and military leadership”.
“The evidence collected by the commission reveals a deplorable increase in sexual and gender-based violence,” said its chair Navi Pillay.
“There is no escape from the conclusion that Israel has employed sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians to terrorise them and perpetuate a system of oppression that undermines their right to self-determination.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the report’s findings, saying they were biased and antisemitic.
“Instead of focusing on the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organisation… the United Nations once again chooses to attack the state of Israel with false accusations,” he said in a statement.
Israel’s permanent mission to the UN in Geneva also refuted the allegations as unfounded, biased, and lacking credibility.
“The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) has concrete directives… and policies which unequivocally prohibit such misconduct,” it said in a statement, adding its review processes are in line with international standards.
A previous report by the commission in June last year accused Hamas and other Palestinian armed militant groups of serious rights violations in its 7 October 2023 multi-pronged surprise attack on southern Israel, including torture and degrading treatment.
Israel is party to the Genocide Convention and was ordered in January 2024 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take action to prevent acts of genocide during its war against Hamas.
South Africa has brought a genocide case against Israel’s actions in Gaza at the ICJ.
Israel is not party to the Rome Statute, which gives the International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction to rule on individual criminal cases involving genocide and crimes against humanity.
Arrest warrants for Mr Netanyahu, former defence secretary Yoav Gallant – and senior Hamas commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al Masri – were issued by the ICC in November over alleged war crimes.
At least five people have been killed in a shooting in Jerusalem, authorities have confirmed.
Footage showed dozens of people fleeing from a bus stop during the morning rush hour.
Paramedics who responded to the scene said the area was chaotic and covered in broken glass, with people wounded and lying unconscious on the road and a pavement near the bus stop.
Police said two attackers were “neutralised” soon after.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now holding an assessment with his heads of security.
Image: A motive for the shooting has not yet been confirmed. Pic: Reuters
Around 15 people were injured – with six in a serious condition – after it appeared two attackers boarded a bus and opened fire as it reached a major intersection at the northern entrance to Jerusalem, on a road that leads to Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem.
Israeli Defense Force soldiers were dispatched and are searching the area for any other suspects. They are also searching several areas on the outskirts of Ramallah.
Image: The bus with bullet holes in the windscreen. Pic: Reuters
A spokesperson for Israeli emergency services, MDA, confirmed four deaths – a man about 50 years old and three men aged around 30.
The fifth victim, a woman about 50 years old, was confirmed at hospital.
Paramedics have evacuated from the scene other casualties in serious conditions with gunshot wounds, to hospitals in Jerusalem.
Several people with minor injuries from glass shards are being treated at the roadside.
The motive for the shooting and who carried it out, was not immediately clear.
The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in both the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Israel.
An Australian mother who murdered her estranged husband’s parents and aunt by feeding them a beef wellington laced with poisonous mushrooms has been jailed for life with a minimum of 33 years.
Erin Patterson, 50, lured her former parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail Patterson’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, to lunch at her home in Leongatha, Victoria, on 29 July 2023.
Mrs Wilkinson’s husband, Reverend Ian Wilkinson, also ate the meal, which was served alongside mashed potatoes and green beans, but survived after receiving a liver transplant and spending months in hospital.
Patterson, a mother-of-two, had made the pastry dish with deadly death cap mushrooms, also known as amanita phalloides.
At the sentencing hearing at the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne, Justice Christopher Beale said the substantial planning of the murders and Patterson’s lack of remorse meant her sentence should be lengthy.
“The devastating impact of your crimes is not limited to your direct victims. Your crimes have harmed a great many people,” he said.
“Not only did you cut short three lives and cause lasting damage to Ian Wilkinson’s health, thereby devastating the extended Patterson and Wilkinson families, you inflicted untold suffering on your own children, whom you robbed of their beloved grandparents.”
Image: Pic: AP
Patterson’s trial in Morwell, southern Australia, heard that she fabricated a cancer diagnosis to use as an excuse not to invite her children, pretending to want to discuss how to break the news to them after the meal.
The four guests fell ill immediately after eating her food. Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs Patterson died on 4 August, and Mr Patterson a day later.
Reverend Wilkinson spent seven weeks in hospital but survived.
Image: Reverend Ian Wilkinson arrives at court. Pic: Reuters
In his victim impact statement, he said the poisoned food meant he had to have a liver transplant and was left feeling “half alive”.
Patterson, who maintains her innocence and that she poisoned her victims by accident, also invited the father of her children, Simon Patterson, to the fatal meal.
Image: Simon Patterson outside of court in May. Pic: AP
He declined the invitation.
In his victim impact statement, Mr Patterson said of the couple’s children: “The grim reality is they live in an irreparably broken home with only a solo parent, when almost everyone else knows their mother murdered their grandparents.”
In July, Patterson was found guilty of murdering Don and Gail Patterson, and Heather Wilkinson, and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson.
What makes death cap mushrooms so lethal?
The death cap is one of the most toxic mushrooms on the planet and is involved in the majority of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide.
The species contains three main groups of toxins: amatoxins, phallotoxins, and virotoxins.
From these, amatoxins are primarily responsible for the toxic effects in humans.
The alpha-amanitin amatoxin has been found to cause protein deficit and ultimately cell death, although other mechanisms are thought to be involved.
The liver is the main organ that fails due to the poison, but other organs are also affected, most notably the kidneys.
The effects usually begin after a short latent period and can include gastrointestinal disorders followed by jaundice, seizures, coma, and eventually, death.
Previous poisoning attempts left husband ill
Following the guilty verdicts, more details of the case were revealed.
Mr Patterson said he had rejected the lunch invite “out of fear” as he believed his former partner had tried to poison him three times before.
After they separated in 2015, he stopped eating any food she had prepared, having become seriously ill after meals cooked by her.
Image: Death cap mushrooms. Pic: iStock
Reverend Wilkinson also revealed he and the other three guests were served their food on large grey dinner plates, while Patterson served her portion on a smaller, tan-coloured plate.
The nine-week trial attracted intense interest in Australia – with podcasters, journalists and documentary-makers descending on the town of Morwell, around two hours east of Melbourne, where the court hearings took place.
Donald Trump has said he is ready to move to a second stage of sanctioning Russia, just hours after Moscow launched the largest arial attack of the war so far.
At least four people have been killed, including a mother and a three-month-old baby, with more than 40 others injured, after Russia launched a bombardment of drones overnight.
While on his way to the final of the US Open tennis tournament, the president was asked if he was ready to move to the second stage of punishment for Moscow, to which he replied, “Yes”.
It echoes US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said additional economic pressure by the United States and Europe could prompt Putin to enter peace talks with Ukraine.
“We are prepared to increase pressure on Russia, but we need our European partners to follow us,” Treasury Secretary Scott told NBC News’ Meet the Press.
Sir Keir Starmer said the latest attack shows Vladimir Putin is “not serious about peace” as he joined other allies in condemning Russia’s actions.
The prime minister said the “brutal” and “cowardly” assault on Kyiv – which resulted in a government building catching fire – proved the Russian leader feels he can “act with impunity”.
Russia attacked Kyiv with 805 drones and decoys, officials said, and Ukraine shot down and neutralised 747 drones and four missiles, the country’s air force has said.
The attack caused a fire to break out at a key government building, with the sky above Kyiv covered in smoke.
Appeasement makes ‘no sense’
Polish premier Donald Tusk said the latest military onslaught showed any “attempts to appease” Putin make “no sense”.
“The US and Europe must together force Russia to accept an immediate ceasefire. We have all the instruments,” Mr Tusk said on Saturday.
Meanwhile the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the Kremlin was “mocking diplomacy”.
Vladimir Putin reportedly wants control of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine – known as the Donbas – as a condition for ending the war.
Russia occupies around 19% of Ukraine, including Crimea and the parts of the Donbas region it seized before the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
But this attack comes after European nations pressed the Russian leader to work to end the war at a virtual meeting of the “coalition of the willing” – a group of countries led by France and Britain seeking to help protect Kyiv in the event of a ceasefire.
Some 26 of Ukraine’s allies pledged to provide security guarantees as part of a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country once the fighting ends, Mr Macron has said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to meet Mr Putin to negotiate a peace agreement, and has urged US president Donald Trump to put punishing sanctions on Russia to push it to end the war.
Image: Pic: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
“The world can force the Kremlin criminals to stop the killings – all that is needed is political will,” he said on Sunday.