West Bank strikes: UN rights office condemns Israeli military escalation

Amid further raids, airstrikes and settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, warned that the Israeli military’s actions risked further enflaming an “already explosive situation”.

“At least four” airstrikes were reported by the Israeli Security Forces (ISF) in the Nur Shams Refugee Camp in Tulkarem on Monday night that left five dead – three Palestinian men and two boys aged 13 and 15.

“Three of the fatalities, including the two boys, were killed while they were passing by the targeted house…located in one of the small and crammed alleyways in the camp,” OHCHR said, citing multiple sources.

The UN office warned that the situation in the Occupied West Bank “could worsen dramatically if the Israeli military continues to “systematically use unlawful lethal force and ignore violence perpetrated by settlers”.

In Gaza, meanwhile, UN aid teams confirmed that they have continued to deliver humanitarian assistance “wherever possible and in the most difficult circumstances” - despite the upheaval caused by repeated Israeli evacuation orders and military manoeuvres.

Reporting from the central Gaza Strip, Louise Wateridge, from the UN agency for Palestine refugees, said that hundreds of thousands of people are now “forced to move on a daily basis”.

“What we're seeing now is families, mothers, children dragging their belongings, most people are moving by foot. There’s very limited access to any kind of vehicles for this kind of displacement now, and people just don't know where to go.”

Viet Nam in spotlight over alleged misuse of counter-terrorism law

To Viet Nam, where the authorities’ alleged misuse of counter-terrorism laws has prompted alarm from top independent rights experts.

In an alert over the treatment of the Montagnard indigenous group and Christian religious minorities in the southeast Asian nation, the rights experts highlighted the mass trial by a mobile court that convicted 100 people on charges linked to terrorism.

The hearing was in response to attacks on two police stations in Dak Lak Province in June last year, which led to nine deaths.

The independent rights experts, who include Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, maintained that the authorities had incited civilian vigilantes from a majority ethnic group to “hunt down” suspects believed to be from the Montagnard community.

“Some detainees were subjected to torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in detention, including forced confessions. One detainee, also died in custody … after being tortured,” the experts said, who report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva – and are not UN staff.

They explained that the 100 convicted defendants were “mainly charged with vague and over-broad terrorism offences” during the mass trial. They maintained that the mobile court “lacked a clear legal basis and was not independent of political influence”.

As Paralympics begin, WHO’s Tedros urges support for crucial assistive technology

As the 2024 Paralympic Games get underway in Paris, the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) has urged greater access to the so-called “assistive technology” aides that many people with disabilities rely on.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the devices - which include running blades, wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs - were hugely important for today’s Paralympians, “but around the world, many people still do not have access to crucial assistive technology, due to its high cost and low availability”.

Tedros called on governments, donors and civil society “to prioritize these neglected but critical products, by integrating them in primary care programmes” in the name of universal health coverage – a key Sustainable Development Goal.

WHO estimates that more than 2.5 billion people do not have access to assistive technology today. Only five to 35 per cent of the 80 million people who need a wheelchair actually have access to one - depending on where they live - and only one in 10 people who need hearing aids have them.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.

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