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One in every 122 humans forcibly displaced by war and persecution: UN

June 20, 2015 by Nasheman

New report exposes ‘unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of global forced displacement as well as the response required is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before.’

Refugees and migrants on a fishing boat pictured before making contact with the Italian navy. (Photo: Italian Coastguard/Massimo Sestini)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

As wars and persecution escalate worldwide, one out of every 122 people on the planet is a refugee, seeking asylum, or internally displaced, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported Thursday.

Taken together, this population of humans wrenched from their homes by violence would constitute the 24th largest country in the world.

The agency’s new report, Global Trends: World at War, chronicles what UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres calls “an age of unprecedented mass displacement.” Based on data gathered in 2014, the study documents the harrowing human toll of new wars, resurgent conflicts, and long-term violent displacement.

At least 59.5 million people were violently displaced during 2014, roughly half of them children. This is a dramatic jump from the 51.2 million people displaced in 2013. And these numbers do not include the many people who are displaced by poverty and global economic inequality—meaning that the actual number of people uprooted is far higher.

Displacement has increased four-fold over the past four years, with the conflict in Syria acting as the largest driver of this rise and surging conflicts from the Central African Republic to Yemen to Ukraine also fueling these grim numbers. The uprooted also include the long-term displaced, including people from Afghanistan and Palestine.

Despite the role of rich nations in driving this crisis through increasing militarism, the UN report notes that “the global distribution of refugees remains heavily skewed away from wealthier nations and towards the less wealthy,” with countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, and Lebanon taking in far more refugees than European nations and the United States.

“Far too many of the world’s richest and most peaceful countries are ignoring their global responsibility to provide assistance and protection,” said secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland, in a press statement responding to the UN’s findings. “They are hiding behind closed borders.”

Western countries are not just closing their borders, however—they are also militarizing them.

As migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Europe face the rising danger of death at sea, the European Union is rolling back its humanitarian rescue response and replacing it with a militarized one by targeting and attacking alleged networks of smugglers.

In a letter released last month, over 300 slavery and migration scholars asked, “Where is the moral justification for some of the world’s richest nations employing their naval and technological might in a manner that leads to the death of men, women and children from some of the world’s poorest and most war torn regions?”

Speaking to this crisis, Guterres said in a press statement: “We are witnessing a paradigm change, an unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of global forced displacement as well as the response required is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before.”

“For an age of unprecedented mass displacement,” Guterres continued, “we need an unprecedented humanitarian response and a renewed global commitment to tolerance and protection for people fleeing conflict and persecution.”

Refugee crises 'reflect world in chaos'

June 20, 2015 by Nasheman

Political will to stop conflicts missing, with old ones festering and new ones constantly erupting, UN official says.

A Somali refugee child carries her sibling at the Ifo camp in Dadaab near the Kenya-Somalia border [Reuters]

by Diana Al Rifai, Al Jazeera

Doha: The UN refugee agency has said that the record number of refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people globally is “a reflection of a world in chaos”.

On the eve of World Refugee Day, the UN released a new report showing that the number of people forcibly displaced at the end of 2014 had risen to 59.5 million, compared with 51.2 million a year earlier and 37.5 million a decade ago.

June 20 has been marked by the UN as World Refugee Day since 2000 to honour those who are forced to flee their home countries under the threat of persecution, conflict and violence.

Globally, one out of every 122 people is now either a refugee, internally displaced or seeking asylum.

Melissa Fleming, UNHCR spokesperson, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that not nearly enough is being done globally to combat the unprecedented crisis.

“Displacement numbers at this scale are a reflection of a world in chaos, where the political leadership to stop and prevent conflicts is missing in action,” she said.

“The old conflicts continue to fester unresolved and new conflicts continuously erupt. And humanitarian organisations are acutely underfunded.

“We fear that in 2015, at current forecasts, will have to make do with as much as $200m-$300m less than in 2015 because of currency fluctuations.

“This means we cannot meet even the basic needs of the millions of forcibly displaced people in desperate situations.”

The large increase in displaced persons has primarily been driven by the war in Syria. Almost four million Syrians are now refugees, while a further 7.6 million are internally displaced, the UN says.

“The level of displacement and suffering is growing by the day [in Syria] and we fear it will get much worse before it gets better,” Fleming said.

Afghanistan (2.59 million) and Somalia (1.1 million) are the next biggest refugee source countries.

Major new displacements have also been witnessed in Africa – mostly in the Central African Republic and South Sudan.

Overall, the largest refugee populations under UNHCR care are Afghans, Syrians and Somalis – together accounting for more than half of the global refugee total.Meanwhile, Pakistan, Iran, and Lebanon are hosting more refugees than other countries.

Internal displacement – people forced to flee to other parts of their country – now amounts to a record 33.3 million people, accounting for the largest increase of any group in the new UN report.

Among all those displaced globally, Fleming told Al Jazeera, more than half are children.

“We are particularly worried about a lost generation of Syrian children,” she said.

“Inside Syria, their schools have been bombed or, living in displacement, they have no access to education. And refugee children face similar limitations. In Lebanon, for instance, only 20 percent of Syrian refugee children are in school.”

The UN’s new report also indicates growth in the numbers of refugees seeking safety through dangerous sea journeys, from the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and the seas of Southeast Asia.

'Unspeakable' hate crime: Murderer who aimed to 'shoot black people' arrested

June 19, 2015 by Nasheman

Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old white male, wanted in connection with the mass shooting of nine black people at a church prayer meeting has been taken into custody by law enforcement

Police cordon of an area outside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday after white gunman Dylann Roof opened fire inside the historic black church and killed nine people. (Photo: Matthew Fortner/Post & Courier staff)

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

Law enforcement announced late Thursday morning that the man suspected of killing nine people at church meeting in Charleston, South Carolina is now in police custody after being apprehended in North Carolina.

According to the Raleigh News & Observer:

Dylann Storm Roof, the 21-year-old suspect in the killing of nine people in an historic black church in downtown Charleston, was taken into custody Thursday in Shelby, N.C., several news outlets reported, citing an unidentified police source.

Witness statements reportedy taken from the scene of the crime have indicated the shooter made it clear the murders in Charleston were racially motivated by declaring he went to the prayer meeting “to shoot black people” just before he opened fire.

Update (10:14 AM EST):

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has identified the shooting suspect as Dylann Roof, 21, of the Columbia, South Carolina area. He is considered armed and dangerous.

The Post and Courier reports:

Roof has been arrested twice in South Carolina as an adult, according to the State Law Enforcement Division. He was jailed March 1 in Lexington County on a drug charge and again on April 26 on a trespassing charge.

Earlier:

The mass shooting at historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday night that left nine people dead is being investigated as a hate crime, officials said on Thursday.

According to police, the assault took place around 9 pm when a still unidentified white gunman—who as of this writing remains at large—entered the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and opened fire on a prayer meeting that was underway.

As the Charleston Post & Courier, which is offering live updates from the scene, reports:

A white gunman killed nine people during a prayer meeting at one of Charleston’s oldest and best-known black churches Wednesday night in one of the worst mass shootings in South Carolina history.

Heavily armed law enforcement officers scoured the area into the morning for the man responsible for the carnage inside Emanuel AME Church at 110 Calhoun St. At least one person was said to have survived the rampage.

Police revealed no motive for the 9 p.m. attack, which was reportedly carried out by a young white man. Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said, “I do believe this was a hate crime.”

Mayor Joe Riley called the shooting “a most unspeakable and heartbreaking tragedy.”

“An evil and hateful person took the lives of citizens who had come to worship and pray together,” he said.

Police have not released the identities of those killed, but reportedly among the dead is Sen. Clementa Pinckney, the church’s pastor who also serves as a state senator in the South Carolina legislature. Reports indicate that 8 victims died at the scene and one died later at a local hospital.

From the Associated Press:

Local news television WCSC-TV reports that family members of Rev. Pinckney said the gunman sat through an entire bible study before he began shooting church members. He then fled the scene.

Authorities have requested help in locating the perpetrator of the crime and released a statement describing him as “a white male, 21 to 25 years old, 5 foot 9 inches tall and a slender build. He’s clean shaven with sandy blond hair that is shaped in a bowl cut, and was last seen wearing a gray sweatshirt, blue jeans and Timberland boots.” Police also released this photo of the person they believe is the shooter:

Authorities are looking for this man in connection with the Wednesday night shooting at Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston that left nine people dead. (Source: CPD)

The Associated Press adds:

The attack came two months after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man, Walter Scott, by a white police officer in neighboring North Charleston that sparked major protests and highlighted racial tensions in the area. The officer has been charged with murder, and the shooting prompted South Carolina lawmakers to push through a bill helping all police agencies in the state get body cameras. Pinckney was a sponsor of that bill.

In a statement, Gov. Nikki Haley asked South Carolinians to pray for the victims and their families and decried violence at religious institutions.

“We’ll never understand what motivates anyone to enter one of our places of worship and take the life of another,” Haley said.

Soon after Wednesday night’s shooting, a group of pastors huddled together praying in a circle across the street.

Community organizer Christopher Cason said he felt certain the shootings were racially motivated.

“I am very tired of people telling me that I don’t have the right to be angry,” Cason said. “I am very angry right now.”

US soldier who killed Iraqi man free to go home

June 19, 2015 by Nasheman

Marine Corps officer sentenced to seven years already served after being found guilty in retrial of 2006 killing.

Hutchins led a squad of troops sent to Hamdania to combat fighters launching sniper attacks and planting IEDs [AP]

by Al Jazeera

A US soldier convicted of the 2006 murder of a former Iraqi police officer has been sentenced to time he had already served in confinement, in a decision by a military jury at Camp Pendleton in California.

The jury also recommended that Marine Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins III receive a bad-conduct discharge from the Marine Corps on Thursday.

He had served about seven years in confinement and had faced a possible sentence of four more years.

The recommendation is not the final word. The trial’s convening authority, Marine Corps Lieutenant-General Kenneth F McKenzie, can accept or reduce the sentence in the coming weeks.

After the killing in Iraq came to light, Ray Mabus, then-US navy secretary, called it a “cold-blooded murder”.

On Wednesday, the military jury at the Southern California base found Hutchins guilty of murder, conspiracy and larceny but acquitted him of a charge of making false statements.

The San Diego Union-Tribue newspaper reported that Hutchins was sent on Thursday to his home at Camp Pendleton, where he lives with his wife and three children.

Christopher Oprison, the defence lawyer, said Hutchins’ family welcomed the sentence.

“I think they’re ecstatic right now,” he said.

Convictions and appeals

Hutchins was initially convicted in 2007 and sentenced to 11 years in military confinement, which including the seven years he served pending appeal, had left open the possibility of a four-year sentence.

A military court overturned his conviction in 2010, finding a statement he gave in custody should have been ruled inadmissible.

A military appeals court later reinstated the conviction, then overturned it again in 2013 because Hutchins was denied access to a lawyer for a week early in the investigation.

Hutchins led a squad of soldiers sent to Hamdania, Iraq, to combat fighters launching sniper attacks and planting improvised explosive devices.

On April 26, 2006, Hutchins led six Marines Corps soldiers and a navy corpsman in abducting 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad, a retired policeman.

They killed him and placed an AK-47 and a shovel next to the corpse to suggest he had been planting a bomb, according to witness testimony.

The seven other squad members were convicted of crimes at courts-martial, but none were imprisoned for more than 18 months.

Nine killed in South Carolina 'hate crime' shooting

June 18, 2015 by Nasheman

Police say a white gunman killed at least nine people at historic African-American church in city of Charleston.

Police have released photos of the suspect of the shooting [The Associated Press]

by Al Jazeera

An unknown gunman has killed at least nine people at a historic African-American church in the US city of Charleston, in what police called a hate crime.

Reports on Thursday said police found eight bodies inside the church. Two other victims were rushed to the hospital, where one of the injured died.

Charleston Mayor Joe Riley called the shooting “an unspeakable and heartbreaking tragedy”.

“We will make sure that this person will pay for this act.”

The suspect was described as a 21-year-old white man wearing a sweatshirt, jeans and boots, Charleston police said in a message on Twitter.

“I do believe that this is a hate crime,” Gregory Mullen, police chief of Charleston, told reporters.

“This is a situation, which is unacceptable in our society. We will catch this individual.”

Charleston Police Department spokesman Charles Francis said the shooting occurred at the Emanuel AME Church around 01:00 GMT. He had no information on victims.

Al Jazeera’s John Terrett, reporting from the US capital Washington DC, said church pastor Clementa Pinckney, who is also a state senator, reportedly was among the dead. Officials did not immediately release the names or any details of the victims.

Earlier on Wednesday, Pinckney met with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who visited South Carolina as part of her presidential campaign.

A bomb threat was later reported near the scene of the church shooting, Charleston County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Eric Watson said.

People who were gathered in the area were told by police to move back.

A police chaplain was present at the scene of the shooting, and a helicopter with a searchlight hovered overhead as officers combed through the area.

A group of several men stood in a circle in front of a hotel near the church. “We pray for the families, they’ve got a long road ahead of them,” Reverend James Johnson, a local civil rights activist, said during the impromptu prayer service.

The website for the church said it has one of the largest and oldest African-American congregations in the region. It was built in 1891 and is considered a historically significant building, according to the National Park Service.

Following the incident, US presidential candidate Jeb Bush cancelled his visit to Charleston later on Thursday.

Worshippers embrace after a group prayer across the street from the scene of a shooting in Charleston [AP]

Ramadan fasting ban: China Uighur Muslims forced to skip fasting during Holy Month

June 17, 2015 by Nasheman

by Mugdha Variyar, IBT

China is reportedly forcing officials in the restive Xinjiang region to swear that they will not fast during the holy month of Ramadan, which begins on Thursday.

Xinjiang is home to Uighur Muslims, and China has cracked down on the region ever since Islamist militants carried out deadly terror attacks in the recent years.

In continuation of last year’s ‘ban’ on Ramadan fasting, state websites have been putting up notices asking officials and civil servants, and even students and teachers, to not observe Ramadan, according to Reuters.

In some particularly restive counties in Xinjiang, officials have been asked to give assurances, orally and in writing, “guaranteeing they have no faith, will not attend religious activities and will lead the way in not fasting over Ramadan”, Reuters reported citing state media.

Ramadan is the holiest month of the year for Muslims around the world, which involves fasting from dawn to dusk and offering prayers and reading the Quran over 30 days.

Apart from a ‘ban’ on fasting, China is also stoking religious sentiments by ordering halal restaurants to remain open during the day in the Jinghe county, while also ordering shops to continue selling cigarettes and alcohol.

China’s clampdown on the month of Ramadan in the restive region is being seen as a provocation for more unrest in the region.

“China is increasing its bans and monitoring as Ramadan approaches. The faith of the Uighurs has been highly politicized, and the increase in controls could cause sharp resistance,” Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the exiled Uighur group, the World Uyghur Congress, was quoted saying.

China already ruffled feathers by imposing a ban on burqas in Xinjiang’s capital of Urumqi in December last year.

Around 20 million Muslims live in China, with eight million Uighur Muslims, who speak Turkish, concentrated in the Xinjiang region in the country’s northwest.

4 UK schools ban Ramadan fast for Muslims

June 16, 2015 by Nasheman

A total of four primary schools in the UK have imposed a ban on Muslim students preventing them from fasting.

by World Bulletin

A total of four primary schools in the U.K. have imposed a ban on fasting for Muslim students during the month of Ramadan, according to British media.

Barclay Primary School in east London — one of the four schools that operate under a common foundation called Lion Academy Trust — informed the parents of the students of the decision in a letter sent last week.

Written by the school’s acting head, Aaron Wright, the letter asserted that children were not required to fast during Ramadan under Islamic Law, but were only required to do so “when they become adults”.

“Previously, we have had a number of children who became ill and children who fainted or who have been unable to fully access the school curriculum in their attempt to fast,” the head also said.

In the letter, the duration of fasting — 18 hours last year as it is mentioned in the letter — was described as quite long for a child without sustenance and water.

The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) condemned the fasting ban.

“We believe that there are sufficient and stringent rules within Islam which allow those who are unable to fast, to break fast,” the Mail Online quoted a spokesman of the association as saying.

The Muslim Association of Britain also stressed that this was a decision that should be left up to the parents of the students.

The other three schools that will implement the ban are Sybourn, Thomas Gamuel and Brook House Primary Schools.

There are about 3 million Muslims in the U.K.

The holy month of Ramadan, the ninth of the Islamic lunar calendar,begins Wednesday.

Amid torture, experts say CIA's other crime was 'human experimentation'

June 16, 2015 by Nasheman

Formerly classified document exposes how agency’s attempt to legitimize abusive interrogation program was itself another layer of crime

A demonstrator is held down during a simulation of waterboarding outside the US Justice Department in 2007. (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

After the Central Intelligence Agency was given authority to begin torturing suspected terrorists in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, newly published documents show that another of that program’s transgressions, according to experts, was a gross violation of medical ethics that allowed the agency to conduct what amounted to “human experimentation” on people who became test subjects without consent.

Reported exclusively by the Guardian on Monday, sections of a previously classified CIA document—first obtained by the ACLU—reveal that a long-standing policy against allowing people to become unwitting medical or research subjects remained in place and under the purview of the director of the CIA even as the agency began slamming people into walls, beating them intensely, exposing them to prolonged periods of sleep deprivation, performing repeated sessions of waterboarding, and conducting other heinous forms of psychological and physical abuse.

The document details agency guidelines—first established in 1987 during the presidency of Ronald Reagan but subsequently updated—in which the CIA director and an advisory board are directly empowered to make decisions about programs considered “human subject research” by the agency.

As journalist Spencer Ackerman reports:

The relevant section of the CIA document, “Law and Policy Governing the Conduct of Intelligence Agencies”, instructs that the agency “shall not sponsor, contract for, or conduct research on human subjects” outside of instructions on responsible and humane medical practices set for the entire US government by its Department of Health and Human Services.

A keystone of those instructions, the document notes, is the “subject’s informed consent”.

That language echoes the public, if obscure, language of Executive Order 12333 – the seminal, Reagan-era document spelling out the powers and limitations of the intelligence agencies, including rules governing surveillance by the National Security Agency. But the discretion given to the CIA director to “approve, modify, or disapprove all proposals pertaining to human subject research” has not previously been public.

The entire 41-page CIA document exists to instruct the agency on what Executive Order 12333 permits and prohibits, after legislative action in the 1970s curbed intelligence powers in response to perceived abuses – including the CIA’s old practice of experimenting on human beings through programs like the infamous MK-Ultra project, which, among other things, dosed unwitting participants with LSD as an experiment.

The previously unknown section of the guidelines empower the CIA director and an advisory board on “human subject research” to “evaluate all documentation and certifications pertaining to human research sponsored by, contracted for, or conducted by the CIA”.

Critics have long blasted any members of the medical community who participated in the torture program as traitors to their ethical and professional duties, but as the Guardiannotes, “The CIA, which does not formally concede that it tortured people, insists that the presence of medical personnel ensured its torture techniques were conducted according to medical rigor.”

But Steven Aftergood, a scholar of the intelligence agencies with the Federation of American Scientists, told the Guardian that these men who were tortured by the agency were, in fact, being studied by medical professionals to see how they would respond to such treatment. In addition to the inherent crime of that abuse, they were also unwitting subjects who never gave their informed consent to be studied in this way. “There is a disconnect between the requirement of this regulation [contained in the document] and the conduct of the interrogation program,” Aftergood explained. “They do not represent consistent policy.”

And Nathaniel Raymond, a former war-crimes investigator with Physicians for Human Rights and now a researcher with Harvard University’s Humanitarian Initiative, put it this way: “Crime one was torture. The second crime was research without consent in order to say it wasn’t torture.”

In public challenge to Obama, family of drone victim asks: 'What is the value of an innocent life?'

June 15, 2015 by Nasheman

Seeking official apology, Faisal bin Ali Jaber says, ‘Imagine that your loved one was wrongly killed by the U.S. government. Imagine they would not even admit their role in the death of your family members.’

In April, U.S. President Barack Obama, pictured with director of the CIA John Brennan, publicly apologized for the killing of two western hostages. (Photo: file)

by Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

The family of two U.S. drone victims is refusing to keep their pain silent as they seek an official apology by U.S. President Barack Obama for the deaths of their kin.

In a CNN op-ed published on Friday, Faisal bin Ali Jaber, a Yemeni civil engineer, issued a public challenge to the U.S. leader—who recently made public statements about the deaths of two westerners killed by U.S. drone strikes, but has refused to acknowledge Yemeni civilian casualties.

“What is the value of a human life?” Jaber asks.

In the column, Jaber describes how following the August 2012 strike that killed Waleed and Salem bin Ali Jaber, the family had to identify them “from their clothes and scraps of matted hair.”

And how in the wake of the strike, while the family awaited an official apology, they were instead presented with “$100,000 in sequentially-marked U.S. dollars in a plastic bag.”

Jaber writes: “A Yemeni security service official was given the unpleasant task of handing this over. I looked him in the eye and asked how this was acceptable, and whether he would admit the money came from America. He shrugged and said: ‘Can’t tell you. Take the money.'”

“The secret payment to my family represents a fraction of the cost of the operation that killed them,” he continues. “This seems to be the Obama administration’s cold calculation: Yemeni lives are cheap. They cost the President no political or moral capital.”

In contrast to the experience of Jaber and other relatives of innocent Yemenis killed by the U.S. drone war, in April, Obama publicly acknowledged that a U.S. counterterrorism operation had killed an American, Warren Weinstein, and an Italian, Giovanni Lo Porto. The lawsuit follows another failed court challenge in Germany in which Jaber’s family sought to prosecute the home of Ramstein Air Base for its role in “facilitating American covert drone strikes in Yemen.”

“Like a lot of Americans, my family and I watched the President’s speech at home,” Jaber writes. “But while many praised him for his forthrightness, we do not share that view. His speech shocked us. No, it was worse: his speech broke our hearts.

“As I watched,” he continues, “I thought of my dead relatives, names that so far as I know have never crossed the President’s lips: Waleed and Salem bin Ali Jaber.”

On Monday, Jaber filed a suit asking a Washington D.C. district court to issue a declaration that the strike that killed Salem and Waleed was unlawful. He is seeking no monetary compensation.

“Imagine that your loved one was wrongly killed by the U.S. government, and the White House would not apologize. Imagine they would not even admit their role in the death of your family members,” Jaber concludes. “We simply want the truth and an apology. We will not rest until it is ours.”

Israel bars UN investigator from entering Gaza

June 15, 2015 by Nasheman

It was the second time Makarim Wibisono, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, had been barred entry by Israel. (AFP/Fabrice Coffrini)

by Press TV

As the prospect of a UN report on Israel’s 2014 bloodletting in Gaza draws nearer, the world body’s point man on human rights situation in the occupied territories is kept outside the Palestinian territory by Israel.

Tel Aviv once again prevented Makarim Wibisono from visiting the coastal enclave last week, with Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon saying outright on Monday, “We didn’t allow this visit.”

“Israel cooperates with all the international commissions and all (UN) rapporteurs, except when the mandate handed to them is anti-Israeli and Israel has no chance to make itself heard,” the official said, despite the age-old and unflinching US-led support for Israel on the international arena, most visibly at the United Nations.

Wibisono reports to the UN Human Rights Council. The council has been investigating the war and whose relevant report is expected to be published in the coming days.

Israel had also barred Wibisono from entering last year for a similar visit.

Nearly 2,200 Palestinians lost their lives and some 11,000 were injured in the July-August 2014 assaults. Gaza Health officials say the victims included 578 children and nearly 260 women with more than 3,100 children injured in the offensive.

The UN has said Israel was responsible for the deadly bombing of several UN institutions, including schools, in which displaced Palestinian civilians were sheltering.

In a report released Sunday, Israel defended its conduct in the war, calling it both “lawful” and “legitimate.”

Israel has been invariably justifying its incessant attacks on the impoverished sliver by alleging it has a duty to defend itself against the rockets fired from Gaza. The projectiles are seldom known to have caused injury or damage.