■ APPLICATION OF THE CONVENTION ON THE PREVENTION AND PUNISHMENT OF THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE IN THE GAZA STRIP (ORDER OF 26 JANUARY 2024) (.pdf) + APPLICATION INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS (.pdf)
■ THE EXPRESSION OF HATRED FOR GENTILES (Richard Edmondson/Nahida Izzat) (10/04/14)

Israeli occupation forces continue to bombard civilian houses across the Gaza Strip. | Israeli occupation forces bombarded a house sheltering displaced people in northern Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, early Tuesday morning, resulting in the martyrdom of 15 Palestinians, including four children, and injuring dozens. ● A Palestinian was also martyred and others were injured when Israeli occupation forces targeted a group of residents in the Saudi neighborhood west of Rafah. Ambulance crews were unable to transport several injuries, most of which were serious, due to the relentless Israeli strikes. ● In northern Rafah, several Palestinians were martyred after Israeli occupation forces bombarded a house near the al-Nojoum Stadium. ● In a related context, Al Mayadeen's correspondent in Gaza reported that the Israeli occupation forces bombed a house in the al-Maghazi refugee camp, adding that Israeli warplanes targeted the city of Deir al-Balah in the center of the Strip.

■ Feeding the Monster: US Secretly Sending more Bombs to ‘Israel’ (Alahed News)
■ Day 176: Israeli killings ongoing, toll on the rise, nearing 73,000 (Al Mayadeen)

A senior Biden administration official acknowledged the talks but declined to address specifics, saying instead, “we are working with partners on various scenarios for interim governance and security structures in Gaza. | The Pentagon is in initial discussions about the deployment of a peacekeeping force in Gaza where Israel's ongoing war has wrought mass destruction, death and displacement, and shows no signs of ending anytime soon. The Defence Department's planning does not currently include plans for any US troops to be deployed to Gaza. Instead, it is looking at the prospects for a multinational or Palestinian peacekeeping mission, the Politico news website reported on Thursday, citing four anonymous officials, including two from the Pentagon.

The Netherlands has unveiled its intentions to dispatch a Patriot air defense unit to Lithuania, a fellow NATO member, as part of an upcoming joint air defense exercise slated for the summer. | The Netherlands has announced plans to send a Patriot air defense unit to Lithuania, a NATO ally, as part of a joint air defense exercise scheduled for the summer, as per a recent announcement from the Dutch Defense Ministry. ● In a press release, the Dutch military said that the exercise, spanning several weeks, aims to bolster air defenses along the eastern flank. The primary objective is to assess NATO troops' capacity to rapidly transport and deploy air defense systems within a designated deployment area, as per the press release. Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said that the decision to deploy a US-made system near the Russian border serves to enhance NATO air defense readiness.

■ Netherlands to field Patriot missiles close to Russian border (RT.com)

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo directs a verbal attack against Russian and Belarusian athletes taking part in the Paris 2024 Olympics. | Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Saturday that Russian and Belarusian athletes "were not welcome" at the Olympics being staged in the French capital this year. 💬 "I want to tell Russian and Belarusian athletes that they are not welcome in Paris and to tell Ukrainian athletes and all the Ukrainian people that we support them very strongly," Hidalgo said in a video posted by Ukrainian YouTube channel, United News. Hidalgo made her comments on a trip to Kyiv, where she visited a training center for Ukrainian athletes. Russian athletes can compete in the Paris Olympics, which run from July 26 until August 11, but only as neutrals. Russia and Belarus have been banned from taking part in the opening ceremony, which will be staged on the River Seine in the heart of the city. The IOC suspended Russia from the 2024 Games last year but gave the green light for its athletes to compete as neutrals as long as they did not actively support the war in Ukraine. In response, Moscow argued that the International Olympic Committee's restrictions on Russian athletes amounted to "neo-Nazism".

■ Russian athletes ‘not welcome’ at Olympics – Paris mayor (RT.com)

Interview with Glenn Diesen | Glenn Diesen is Professor at the University of South-East Norway. His research interests include Russian foreign policy and the geoeconomics of European and Eurasian integration. He is the author of the new book The Ukraine War & the Eurasian World Order. | Felix Abt: A great European religious war and the first pan-European conflict over superpower status came to an end in 1648. After 30 years of devastating wars and chaos, especially on German soil, with millions of deaths and shattered economies, the Peace of Westphalia brought a new, rules-based order to Europe, as the Western political class would call it today. This included the inviolability of borders and non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign and equal states; it is regarded as a milestone in the development toward tolerance and secularization. How did this affect the new powers that emerged afterward and their quest for hegemony?