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UK, France and 23 other nations condemn Israel over ‘inhumane killing’ of civilians

The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, called the statement “disgusting” and said blaming Israel was “irrational” because Hamas rejects every proposal to end the war.

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A group of 25 Western countries including Britain, France, and Canada said on Monday Israel must immediately end its war in Gaza and criticised what they called the “inhumane killing” of Palestinians, including hundreds near food distribution sites, Reuters reported.

The countries in a joint statement condemned what they called the “drip feeding of aid” to Palestinians in Gaza and said it was “horrifying” that more than 800 civilians had been killed while seeking aid.

The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites, which the United States and Israel backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations.

“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” the countries’ foreign ministers said in a joint statement. “The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths.”

The call by about 20 European countries, as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, for an end to the war in Gaza and the delivery of aid comes from many countries which are allied with Israel and its most important backer, the United States, read the report.

Among those calling for an end to the war are four out of five countries in the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, which includes the U.S.

Israel’s foreign ministry said the statement was “disconnected from reality” and it would send the wrong message to Hamas.

“The statement fails to focus the pressure on Hamas and fails to recognise Hamas’s role and responsibility for the situation,” the Israeli statement said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar later said he spoke with his British counterpart David Lammy on Monday on regional issues, including Gaza. He blamed Hamas “for the suffering of the population and the continuation of the war”.

The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, called the statement “disgusting” and said blaming Israel was “irrational” because Hamas rejects every proposal to end the war.

The plea from the other Western nations came as Israeli tanks pushed into southern and eastern districts of the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah for the first time on Monday.

Much of Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland during more than 21 months of the war that began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, with the latest deaths reported on Monday as Israel began a new incursion in central Gaza.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation uses private U.S. security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing the U.N.-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the accusation.

The U.N. has called the GHF’s model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards, which the GHF denies.

The countries behind the statement said Israel was denying essential humanitarian assistance and called on the country to comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law, Reuters reported.

They urged Israel to immediately lift restrictions to allow the flow of aid and to enable humanitarian organisations and the United Nations to operate safely and effectively.

They added they were “prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political pathway to security and peace” for Israelis and Palestinians.

Separately, the British government also set out a 60-million-pound ($80.9 million) humanitarian aid package for Gaza.

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Allegations in Epstein files may amount to ‘crimes against humanity,’ UN experts say

A law, approved by Congress with broad bipartisan support in November, requires all Epstein-related files to be made public.

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Millions of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein suggest the existence of a “global criminal enterprise” that carried out acts meeting the legal threshold of crimes against humanity, according to a panel of independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The experts said crimes outlined in documents released by the U.S. Justice Department were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption and extreme misogyny.

The crimes, they said, showed a commodification and dehumanization of women and girls.

“So grave is the scale, nature, systematic character, and transnational reach of these atrocities against women and girls, that a number of them may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity,” the experts said in a statement.

The experts said the allegations contained in the files require an independent, thorough and impartial investigation, and said inquiries should also be launched into how it was possible for such crimes to be committed for so long.

The U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A law, approved by Congress with broad bipartisan support in November, requires all Epstein-related files to be made public.

The U.N. experts raised concerns about “serious compliance failures and botched redactions” that exposed sensitive victim information. More than 1,200 victims were identified in the documents that have been released so far.

“The reluctance to fully disclose information or broaden investigations, has left many survivors feeling retraumatized and subjected to what they describe as ‘institutional gaslighting,'” the experts said.

The Justice Department’s release of documents has revealed Epstein’s ties to many prominent people in politics, finance, academia and business – both before and after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges, including soliciting an underage girl.

He was found hanged in his jail cell in 2019 after being arrested again on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors. His death was ruled a suicide.

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Netanyahu says US deal with Iran must dismantle nuclear infrastructure

Netanyahu said he is sceptical of a deal but it must include enriched material leaving Iran.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he told U.S. President Donald Trump last week that any U.S. deal with Iran must include the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, not just stopping the enrichment process, Reuters reported.

Speaking at the annual Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Netanyahu also said Israel still needs to “complete the job” of destroying all tunnels in Gaza. Israel, he said, has already dismantled 150 km (93 miles) of an estimated 500 km.

A second round of talks between the U.S. and Iran are slated for this week. Iran is pursuing a nuclear agreement with the U.S. that delivers economic benefits for both sides, an Iranian diplomat was reported as saying on Sunday.

Netanyahu said he is sceptical of a deal but it must include enriched material leaving Iran. “There shall be no enrichment capability – not stopping the enrichment process, but dismantling the equipment and the infrastructure that allows you to enrich in the first place,” he said.

Iran and the U.S. renewed negotiations earlier this month to tackle their decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme and avert a new military confrontation. The U.S. has dispatched a second aircraft carrier to the region and is preparing for the possibility of a sustained military campaign if the talks do not succeed, U.S. officials have told Reuters.

Netanyahu also said that he aimed to end U.S. military aid to Israel within the next 10 years, after the current 10-year deal of receiving $3.8 billion a year – which is largely spent in the United States on equipment – ends in 2028.

Due to a thriving economy, “we can afford to phase out the financial component of the military aid that we’re receiving, and I propose a 10-year draw down to zero. Now, in the three years that remain in the present memorandum of understanding and another seven years draw it down to zero,” Netanyahu said.

“We want to move with the United States from aid to partnership,” he said.

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Courts rule thousands of ICE detentions unlawful under Trump crackdown

Despite the rulings, ICE has continued holding people for prolonged periods, sometimes even after judges ordered their release.

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U.S. federal judges have ruled more than 4,400 times since October that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unlawfully detained immigrants under the Trump administration’s expanded immigration enforcement, according to a review of court records by Reuters.

The rulings represent a broad legal rebuke of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Courts have repeatedly found that the administration abandoned a decades-old interpretation of federal law that allowed many immigrants already living in the U.S. to seek release on bond while their cases proceed.

Despite the rulings, ICE has continued holding people for prolonged periods, sometimes even after judges ordered their release.

Detention levels have surged to about 68,000 people, a roughly 75 percent increase from when Trump returned to office. The White House says it is acting within the law to fulfill the president’s mandate on immigration enforcement.

While a conservative federal appeals court in New Orleans recently sided with the administration in one case, most lower courts have rejected its position. In at least 4,421 cases, more than 400 federal judges ruled that ICE violated the law by denying detainees bond hearings or holding them without proper authority.

With limited alternatives, detained immigrants have filed over 20,200 lawsuits since Trump took office, seeking release from what they argue is unlawful detention. Judges in several states have found that the government failed to comply with court orders, leaving people jailed even after judges ruled in their favor.

Legal experts say the flood of cases has strained the Justice Department, forcing prosecutors to divert resources from criminal cases to defend immigration detentions.

While the Reuters analysis does not break down cases by nationality, Afghan immigrants have also been affected.

Advocacy groups and immigration lawyers have reported that some Afghans have been detained during routine ICE check-ins or traffic stops, despite having no criminal records and active immigration cases.

Like other detainees, Afghan nationals may be denied bond hearings under the administration’s stricter interpretation of detention laws, forcing them to file habeas petitions in federal court.

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