■ 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)

Iran's permanent ambassador to the United Nations has denounced Israel’s destabilizing activities in West Asia, urging the UN Security Council to hold the Israeli regime accountable for its atrocities in Gaza and elsewhere. |

💬 “Israel's ongoing destabilized and irresponsible actions and atrocities against the nations in the region are a real threat to regional and international peace and security,” Amir Saeid Iravani said as he addressed a UN Security Council session in New York on Thursday. ● “It is time for the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility and address the real threat to international peace and security. The Security Council must promptly fulfill its duty under Chapter 7 of the Charter in response to Israel's reckless defiance. ● “It must take urgent and punitive measures to compel this regime to stop its genocide and massacre against the people of Gaza and uphold its obligations especially fully implement the UNSC resolutions and legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice.”

He noted that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to expand and escalate the conflict in the region to stay in power, emphasizing that the members of the Security Council must not allow the body to be held hostage to the ambitions of such a "belligerent regime." [...] The Iranian UN ambassador finally stated that the Islamic Republic has no intention of engaging in conflict with the US in the region; however, it will use its inherent right to respond proportionately if Washington initiates military operations against Iran, its citizens, or its security and interests.

■ Iran to launch missiles anywhere in Israel if necessary (Mehr News)

Maha Hussaini | At Nasser hospital, dozens of bodies are exhumed every day. Mothers of missing Palestinians check their faces, teeth and clothes for signs their son is among them | For the past four mornings, Amal al-Baiouk has come to Nasser hospital to watch the dead bodies be brought out. Like the other parents of missing people, who keep returning to this devastated corner of Khan Younis, disappointment is etched across her face. Rescue workers begin exhuming early, with dozens pulled out of the ground as the day goes on. For Palestinian mothers waiting patiently around the burial pits, any news of their sons is good news, even if that means they are dead. Some have been missing for three months. [...] It can be difficult to distinguish the corpses’ features. Bodies can be badly decomposed or have been mutilated in some way.

■ The Nasser Hospital Mass Grave is beyond what humans can cope with (04/25/24)
■ 50 bodies found in mass grave in Gaza hospital days after Israeli withdrawal (04/21/24)

Andy Worthington | End Times for Humanity, With the West Fully Committed to Israel’s Genocide of the Palestinians and to Complete Climate Collapse | Over the last few weeks, I’ve been suffering from a state of exhaustion that made me wonder if I had some undiagnosed terminal illness. I’ve been unable to concentrate, and, as soon as I woke up, I was wondering when I could go back to bed again. ■ Yesterday, the fog finally lifted, and I realized that my exhaustion was almost certainly a result of the dire state of the world right now — primarily related to Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza (still, after the murder of over 37,000 civilians, largely supported by western politicians and the mainstream media), but also to the cascading climate collapse that these same politicians and media outlets don’t want to talk about. ■ On Gaza, I suspect that my exhaustion was primarily related to an overwhelming sense of futility and powerlessness regarding any hope that the relentless genocide might be stopped. For those, like myself, who have been watching this grotesque live-streamed genocide unfold for over six months — ever since Hamas militants and other Gaza-based militants broke out of the “open-air prison” of the Gaza Strip on October 7 and killed 695 Israeli civilians, 373 members of the military and the police, and 71 foreign nationals — there have only been a few moments when hope appeared to be in the ascendant, and on each occasion the aftermath, when that hope was crushed, has been difficult to negotiate.

Belarus has announced that it intercepted a kamikaze drone attack from Lithuania. It is the first time that Minsk has officially spoken of an attack by NATO forces stationed in Lithuania. | In their statements, the Belarusian security authorities and the country's president have implicated Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine. ● In particular, the head of the Belarusian security service said this morning that it had prevented an attack on the capital Minsk by drones launched from Lithuania. ● The president of Belarus, A. Lukashenko, emphasized that there is a NATO attack plan against his country. According to him, the plans of the opposition and its Western facilitators are to occupy the Kobrin region of Belarus, declare a new government, turn to NATO and ask NATO to send troops. “64,000 US troops along with 33,000 more from NATO are permanently stationed in Europe. Of these, 20,000 have been deployed in Poland and the Baltics," Lukashenko added. He claimed that 120,000 Ukrainian soldiers were deployed near the border with Belarus and that he is "very sure" that a serious incident is about to happen.