PETALING JAYA, July 19 — Malaysia’s top men’s doubles pair, Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin Rumsani, have booked their place in the Japan Open final for the second year in a row.
PARIS, April 29 — Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of carrying out a "live-streamed genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing the majority of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian disaster.
In its annual report, Amnesty alleged that Israel acted with “specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide.”
Israel has rejected accusations of genocide made by Amnesty, other human rights organisations, and some governments in relation to its war in Gaza.
The conflict began after Hamas launched deadly attacks inside Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures. Hamas also abducted 251 people, with 58 still held in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.
In response, Israel launched intense airstrikes and a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, which, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, has killed at least 52,243 people.
"Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas committed horrific crimes against Israeli civilians and others and took over 250 hostages, the world has witnessed a live-streamed genocide," Amnesty’s secretary general Agnes Callamard wrote in the report’s introduction.
"States watched on, seemingly powerless, as Israel killed thousands of Palestinians, obliterated entire multigenerational families, and destroyed homes, livelihoods, hospitals, and schools," she added.
‘Extreme levels of suffering’
Gaza’s civil defence agency reported early Tuesday that an Israeli airstrike killed four people and injured others at a displaced persons’ camp near the Al-Iqleem area in southern Gaza.
The agency also warned that fuel shortages had forced the suspension of eight out of 12 emergency vehicles in the south, including ambulances. The lack of fuel "threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced persons in shelter centres," it said.
Amnesty’s report detailed that Israel’s military campaign has left most Palestinians in Gaza displaced, homeless, hungry, vulnerable to life-threatening diseases, and without access to medical care, electricity, or clean water.
Throughout 2024, Amnesty documented multiple war crimes by Israel, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, as well as indiscriminate and disproportionate strikes.
The organisation said Israeli actions forcibly displaced 1.9 million Palestinians — roughly 90 per cent of Gaza’s population — and "deliberately engineered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe."
Despite widespread protests in Western capitals, "the world’s governments, both individually and collectively, failed time and again to take meaningful action to end the atrocities and were slow even to call for a ceasefire," Amnesty said.
Amnesty also raised concerns over Israeli conduct in the occupied West Bank, repeating its charge that Israel is operating an apartheid system there.
"Israel’s system of apartheid became increasingly violent in the occupied West Bank, with a sharp rise in unlawful killings and state-supported attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians," the report stated.
Heba Morayef, Amnesty’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, condemned "the extreme levels of suffering endured daily by Palestinians in Gaza over the past year," and criticised "the world’s complete failure or unwillingness to intervene to stop it." — AFP
