UN says Israeli military killed over 1,000 seeking Gaza aid since late May
An officially private effort, the GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel halted supplies into the Gaza Strip for more than two months, sparking famine warnings.
GHF operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations in the Palestinian territory.
"Over 1,000 Palestinians have now been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food in Gaza since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operating," UN human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told AFP.
"As of July 21, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food; 766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organisations' aid convoys."
Kheetan added, "Our data is based on information from multiple reliable sources on the ground, including medical teams, humanitarian and human rights organisations."
The war in Gaza has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people who live in the coastal territory.
Gaza's population faces severe shortages of food and other essentials.
GHF says it has distributed more than 1.4 million boxes of foodstuffs to date.
"We're adjusting our operations in real time to keep people safe and informed, and we stand ready to partner with other organisations to scale up and deliver more meals to the people of Gaza," GHF interim director John Acree said Monday.
The United Nations and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives and violates basic humanitarian principles.
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Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Iraq's prime minister seeks closer US ties while keeping armed groups at bay
The prime minister of Iraq has kept his country on the sidelines as military conflicts raged nearby for almost two years. This required balancing Iraq's relations with two countries vital to his power and enemies with each other: the US and Iran. The feat became especially difficult last month when war broke out between Israel, a US ally, and Iran — and the US struck Iranian nuclear sites. Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said he used a mix of political and military pressure to stop armed groups aligned with Iran from entering the fray. In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Al-Sudani explains how he did this, how he plans to keep these groups in check going forward and — as he seeks a second term — why he wants to get closer to the Trump administration, even as he maintains strong ties to Iran-backed political parties that helped propel him to power in 2022. After Israel launched airstrikes on Iran and it responded by firing missiles at Tel Aviv, armed groups in Iraq attempted to launch missiles and drones toward Israel and at bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops, al-Sudani said. But they were thwarted 29 times by Iraqi government 'security operations' that he did not detail. 'We know that the (Israeli) government had a policy — and still does — of expanding the war in the region,' al-Sudani said. 'Therefore, we made sure not to give any justification to any party to target Iraq.' Al-Sudani said his government also reached out to leaders in Iran 'to urge them toward calm and to make room for dialogue and a return to negotiations.' The U.S. and Iraq last year announced an agreement to wrap up the mission of an American-led coalition in Iraq fighting the Islamic State — and in March al-Sudani announced that the head of IS in Iraq and Syria had been killed in a joint Iraqi-U.S. operation. The first phase of the coalition's drawdown was supposed to be completed by September 2025, but there has been little sign of it happening. Al-Sudani said the U.S. and Iraq will meet by the end of the year to 'arrange the bilateral security relationship' between the two countries. He also hopes to secure U.S. economic investment — in oil and gas, and also artificial intelligence — which he said would contribute to regional security and make 'the two countries great together.' A variety of militias sprung up in Iraq in the years after the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled former autocratic leader Saddam Hussein. And since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023, sparking regionwide conflicts, an array of pro-Iran armed factions have periodically launched strikes on bases housing U.S. troops. Al-Sudani said the presence of the coalition forces had provided a 'justification' for Iraqi groups to arm themselves, but that once the coalition withdrawal is complete, 'there will be no need or no justification for any group to carry weapons outside the scope of the state.' One of the most complicated issues for al-Sudani is how to handle the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of mostly Shiite, Iran-backed militias that formed to fight IS. This coalition was formally placed under the control of the Iraqi military in 2016, although in practice it still operates with significant autonomy. The Iraqi parliament is discussing legislation that would solidify the relationship between the military and the PMF, drawing objections from Washington. The State Department said in a statement last week that the legislation 'would institutionalize Iranian influence and armed terrorist groups undermining Iraq's sovereignty.' Al-Sudani defended the proposed legislation, saying it's part of an effort to ensure that arms are controlled by the state. 'Security agencies must operate under laws and be subject to them and be held accountable,' he said. In recent weeks, a series of drone attacks have targeted oil facilities in northern Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region. Kurdish regional authorities accused groups in the PMF of carrying out the attacks. Authorities in Baghdad disputed this, but haven't assigned blame. Al-Sudani called the attacks a 'terrorist act' and said his government is working with Kurdish authorities and coalition forces to identify those responsible and hold them accountable. Just as the drone attacks have called into question Baghdad's control over armed groups, so has the case of Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who went missing in Iraq in 2023. Her family believes she is being held by the Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah, and there have reportedly been U.S.-mediated negotiations to negotiate her release. Al-Sudani did not name the group responsible for Tsurkov's kidnapping, but he pushed back against the idea that his government has not made serious efforts to free her. He said his government has a team dedicated to finding her. 'We do not negotiate with gangs and kidnappers,' he said, but the team has been in discussions with political factions that might be able to help locate her. Relations between Iraq and the new government in Syria have been tenuous since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in December, after a lightning offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgents. Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa was formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani. He once joined the ranks of al-Qaida insurgents battling U.S. forces in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Al-Sharaa still faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges in Iraq. Al-Sharaa has since broken with al-Qaida and has fought against the Islamic State. Al-Sudani said his government is coordinating with the new Syrian government, particularly on security matters. 'We and the administration in Syria certainly have a common enemy, ISIS, which is clearly and openly present inside Syria,' he said. Al-Sudani said his government has warned the Syrians against the mistakes that occurred in Iraq after Saddam's fall, when the ensuing security vacuum spawned years of sectarian violence and the rise of armed extremist groups. In recent weeks, sectarian violence in Syria has shaken the country's fragile postwar recovery. Al-Sudani called for Syria's current leadership to pursue a 'comprehensive political process that includes all components and communities.' 'We do not want Syria to be divided,' he said. 'This is unacceptable and we certainly do not want any foreign presence on Syrian soil,' apparently alluding to Israel's incursions into southern Syria.
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First Post
an hour ago
- First Post
Radio silence: Trump's fund cuts gift Kim Jong-un a tighter grip on North Korea's ‘mind apartheid'
As US-funded broadcasts are slashed, millions of North Koreans are left more isolated than ever cut off from the outside world and solely at the mercy of the regime's propaganda read more In the world's hermit kingdom, the rulers appear anything but hermits — the face allegations of relentlessly hounding their hapless citizens in a, what many describe as, barbaric fashion, crushing human rights as a hippopotamus crushes a watermelon: with brute force and no second thought. While the rest of the world thrives fighting for greater and unrestricted access to information, those in North Korea are understood to live under an apartheid of the mind, cut off from realities of the world, deliberately by a regime that distorts or blocks information to suit its grip on power. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD For many in North Korea, the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia stood as rare lifelines — vital sources of uncensored news for the bold few willing to risk everything to tune in. But that's now a thing of the past. In a Maga move, US President Donald Trump — who once claimed he 'developed a very good relationship' with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un — pulled the plug from these radio services. A switch in DC, silence in Pyongyang When the US Senate passed a funding cut earlier this month, it effectively ended decades of American support for independent media channels that had managed to pierce North Korea's ironclad information barrier. The decision prompted widespread alarm as it became obvious that this move could plunge North Korea's 26 million citizens into even deeper informational darkness, a report in South China Morning Post said. Broadcasts from the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia — two long-standing American-backed radio channels — had served as vital channels, providing North Koreans with unfiltered insights into global affairs, human rights and life beyond their tightly controlled borders. The radio programmes reportedly saw their broadcasts reduced by as much as 80 per cent after an executive order issued by Trump in March called for the dismantling of their parent agency, the United States Agency for Global Media, the Hing Kong-based newspaper reported. Silence after the signal North Korea experts, including Human Rights Watch's Teppei Kasai, expressed concern that this informational blackout would hinder international awareness of North Korea's worsening human rights situation. According to Martyn Williams, a senior fellow at the Stimson Centre, the timing could not have been better for Pyongyang's censors. In his analysis for 38 North, he observed that North Korean propagandists had been battling the flow of foreign broadcasts for decades. Suddenly, with no effort on their part, the playing field had tilted decisively in their favour, the South China Morning Post reported. From unity to discord The blow to North Korea-focussed media and human rights efforts didn't occur in a vacuum. For nearly two decades, the North Korean Human Rights Act had anchored America's engagement with the country on a bipartisan basis. Passed in 2004 and renewed in subsequent years, the legislation ensured funding for radio broadcasts, satellite analysis and human rights documentation. These efforts informed everything from US sanctions policy to United Nations reports on crimes against humanity. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD However, that act quietly expired in 2022. Though funding had temporarily continued through the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour (DRL), recent cuts proposed by the Trump administration aim to all but eliminate DRL's global funding. Human rights advocates have warned that this move will not only gut existing projects but destroy the infrastructure and institutional expertise necessary to rebuild them later, senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch Lina Yoon wrote in Foreign Policy in Focus. Real-world consequences The stakes go far beyond theoretical policy losses. Civil society organisations once supported by the act are now struggling to survive. Groups like the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, which had previously traced illicit financial networks tied to North Korea's cyber theft operations, are at risk of shuttering. The DailyNK, a Seoul-based newsroom that reports using sources inside North Korea, may soon fall silent. Similarly, the Transitional Justice Working Group, known for its geocoding of execution and burial sites using scapee testimony and satellite imagery, may no longer be able to continue its work, Lina wrote. She feared that cutting off these data sources would severely compromise the US government's ability to make informed policy decisions. A regional reversal Compounding the problem, the recently elected South Korean administration under President Lee Jae-myung has reportedly taken a softer stance toward Pyongyang. In addition to ending government-led broadcasts into the North, Seoul has banned activists from launching balloons containing leaflets, rice, medicine and cash across the demilitarised zone. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Human rights observers noted that while this strategy may aim for diplomatic rapprochement, it simultaneously weakens the already scarce flow of outside information into North Korea. Williams from the Stimson Centre told South China Morning Post that the reduced broadcasts would leave North Koreans even more cut off from both local and global events. In a deteriorating security climate, such isolation could come at a high price, not only for North Koreans but for neighbouring countries and allies relying on accurate, timely intelligence. Why the world should pay attention The broader message from policy analysts and human rights organisations is clear: supporting independent media in North Korea is not charity — it's strategy, said Lina. And yet, the Trump administration's broad-stroke cuts threaten to erase years of painstaking progress. Organisations holding DRL grants, including the Unification Media Group and the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, may soon have no funds left to continue. Radio Free Asia has already ceased its Korean-language broadcasts, a move that could embolden Pyongyang's censors and silence dissident voices before they ever reach the airwaves. A future in the dark? Unless the US Congress takes urgent action to renew the North Korean Human Rights Act and protect funding for programmes that monitor and expose the regime's abuses, the world could lose its last windows into the country. As one expert put it, North Korea thrives in the dark. And with Washington now dimming the light, the shadows are growing longer.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
North Korea says Kim-Trump ties 'not bad' but ‘not giving up nuclear weapons'
The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un dismissed the US's intent to resume diplomacy on North Korea's denuclearisation, as she urged Washington to accept her country as a nuclear weapons state and find a new approach to restart talks. Donald Trump has recently bragged about his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed hopes of restarting nuclear diplomacy between them.(AP) Kim Yo Jong's statement suggested North Korea would only return to talks if the US rewards it for a partial surrender of its nuclear capability. Some experts say US President Donald Trump could still pursue talks with North Korea to make a diplomatic achievement. Trump has recently bragged about his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed hopes of restarting nuclear diplomacy between them. Their high-stakes diplomacy in 2018-19 that occurred during Trump's first term unravelled after Trump rejected Kim's calls for extensive sanctions relief in return for dismantling his main nuclear complex, a limited denuclearisation step. Kim has since executed weapons tests to modernise and expand his nuclear arsenal. Kim's sister calls relations between her brother, Trump, 'not bad' In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo Jong said she doesn't deny the personal relationship between her brother and Trump 'is not bad.' But she said if their personal relations are to serve the purpose of North Korea's denuclearisation, North Korea would view it as 'nothing but a mockery.' She said North Korea's nuclear capability has sharply increased since the first round of the Kim-Trump diplomacy and that any attempt to deny North Korea as a nuclear weapons state would be rejected. 'If the U.S. fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK-US meeting will remain as a 'hope' of the U.S. side,' Kim Yo Jong said, referring to her country by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. She said it would be 'advisable to seek another way of contact." Kim Yo Jong is a key official on the Central Committee of the North's ruling Workers' Party. She handles the country's relations with South Korea and the United States, and South Korean officials and experts believe she is the North's second-most powerful person after her brother. North Korea likely wants talks on partial denuclearisation Kim Yo Jong said she was responding to reported comments by a U.S. official that Trump is open to talks on denuclearisation. She likely was referring to a Saturday article by Yonhap news agency that cited an unidentified White House official as saying Trump 'remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearised North Korea.' 'North Korea wants to say it's not interested in talks on denuclearisation and the U.S. must determine what benefits it can give to the North first,' said Nam Sung-wook, a former head of the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank run by South Korea's spy agency. Nam said Trump's likely desire to win a Nobel Peace Prize would prompt him to seek talks with Kim Jong Un and give him corresponding benefits for taking phased denuclearisation steps. Nam said North Korea would want broad sanctions relief, a suspension of U.S.-South Korea military drills that it regards as invasion rehearsals and other economic incentives. Kim Yeol Soo, an analyst at South Korea's Korea Institute for Military Affairs, said U.S. and North Korean officials could meet if they narrow some differences on terms for restoring talks. But he said Trump's unpredictability would make it extremely difficult to predict what concessions the Americans would offer. Prospects for early U.S.-North Korea talks likely depend on the Russia-Ukraine war Other experts have earlier said that North Korea — now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia — sees no urgent need to resume diplomacy with the US and South Korea. On Monday, Kim Yo Jong rebuffed overtures by South Korea's new liberal government, saying its 'blind trust' in the country's alliance with the US and hostility toward North Korea make it no different from its conservative predecessor. Nam said prospects for an early resumption of U.S.-North Korea diplomacy would depend on whether the Russia-Ukraine war ends soon and U.S. tariff negotiations with other countries are proceeded in a direction that Trump wants. Kim, the analyst, said Trump may use his likely attendance of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea this autumn as a chance to travel on to North Korea or a Korean border village to meet Kim Jong Un. Kim Yo Jong on Monday described as 'a daydream' a reported South Korean idea of inviting her brother to the regional summit.
