EXCLUSIVE Pentagon insider reveals Trump's only option to completely obliterate Iran's deadly labs
It comes amid doubts that 30,000-pound 'bunker buster' bombs would be enough to destroy the secretive facility at Fordo, 60 miles south of Tehran.
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Turned back from Gaza, aid shipments languish in warehouses, on roadsides
RAFAH, Egypt, Aug 13 (Reuters) - - Boxes of Gaza-bound aid turned back by Israel on Sunday languished atop a truck and flatbed trailer parked metres from its border with Egypt, as exasperated drivers and U.N. officials criticised delays in sending food and medicine to the enclave. Seven aid officials and three truckers interviewed by Reuters listed a host of obstacles, ranging from rejections of shipments for minor packing and paperwork issues to heavy scrutiny over possible dual military use for a range of goods, as well as short working hours at the Israeli border crossing. The supplies seen by Reuters on Monday on the stalled truck and trailer outside Egypt's Rafah border crossing carried blue logos of the World Health Organisation and labels describing contents like topical medications and suction devices to clean wounds. A WHO employee working at the border said the cargo was blocked for carrying "illegal medicines". Reuters could not independently verify why the trucks were not allowed to enter Gaza and the Israeli military authority in charge of coordinating aid did not respond to a question about why they were not let into the enclave. Reuters visited Egypt's border with Gaza on Monday on a trip organised by the Elders, a group of former world leaders set up by late South African President Nelson Mandela that backs a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some Elders members have been highly critical of Israel's conduct in Gaza, including former Irish President Mary Robinson and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who joined the border trip. Responding to international outrage sparked by images of starving Gazans, Israel on July 27 announced measures to let more aid into Gaza. But aid agencies say only a fraction of what they send is getting in. Israel strongly denies limiting aid supplies. Speaking to reporters at the Rafah crossing, Clark expressed shock at the amount of aid turned back at the border. 'To see this crossing, which should be a place where people interact with each other, where people can come and go, where people aren't under blockade, where people who are ill can leave to come out – to see it just silent for the people, it's absolutely shocking for us,' Clark said. Approvals and clearance procedures that got a shipment through the Rafah border crossing "within a few days" of arrival in Egypt during a ceasefire earlier in the war now took "minimum one month,' according to the WHO employee at the border. On Monday, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said at least 1,334 trucks had entered Gaza through all land crossings, including from Egypt, since the Israeli measures announced on July 27, but this was far short of the 9,000 that would have gone in if 600 trucks had entered per day. The United States has said a minimum of 600 trucks per day are needed to feed Gaza's population. Reuters could not independently confirm the reasons for the delays described in this article or the specific figures supplied by those interviewed. Asked for its response to allegations of curbs on aid flows, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, COGAT, said Israel invests 'considerable efforts' in aid distribution. It said about 300 trucks had been transferred daily in "recent weeks," mostly carrying food, via all land crossings. "Despite the claims made, the State of Israel allows and facilitates the provision of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip without any quantitative limit on the number of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip,' COGAT said. The agency did not address specific questions about aid shipment volumes. In mid-July, Israel introduced a requirement that shipments of humanitarian aid arriving from Egypt undergo customs clearance. According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israel's move led to "additional bureaucratic hurdles, delays, and costs for humanitarian organisations." U.N. agencies were exempted from customs clearance from Egypt from July 27 to Aug. 3, OCHA said in a report, opens new tab on August 6. While not officially extended, the exemption still appeared to be in place, it said. Other international NGOs could be exempted only on a case-by-case basis and only for health items. More than 200 Gazans have died of malnutrition or starvation in the war, according to Palestinian health authorities, adding to the over 61,000 dead they say have been killed by military action. The U.N. human rights office and several expert studies have said the number is probably an undercount. Israel has disputed the Gaza health ministry figures, which do not distinguish between fighters and civilians, and says at least a third of the fatalities are militants. On Monday, COGAT said a review by its medical experts found the number of deaths reported by the Gaza health ministry due to malnutrition was inflated and most of those "allegedly dying from malnutrition" had pre-existing conditions. Drivers coming from Egypt cannot go directly to the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, which had been operated by the Hamas-run border authority but is now closed. Instead, they route to the Israeli crossing of Kerem Shalom, about three km (two miles) to the south, where shipments undergo checks. Kamel Atteiya Mohamed, an Egyptian truck driver, estimated that of the 200 or 300 trucks trying to get through this route every day, only 30 to 50 make it. "They tell you, for example, that the pallet doesn't have a sticker, the pallet is tilted, or the pallet is open from the top. This is no reason for us to return it,' he told Reuters. He said that while the Egyptian crossing was open day and night, drivers often arrived at Kerem Shalom only to find it closed, as it does not normally operate beyond weekday business hours. 'Every day it's like this,' he said. 'Honestly, we're fed up.' While COGAT did not address specific questions about the driver's remarks and allegations of inflexible working hours, it said that "hundreds of truckloads of aid still await collection by the UN and international organizations" on the Palestinian side of the border crossings. A logistics site set up by the Egyptian Red Crescent near El Arish town, 40 km (25 miles) from the border, where shipments coming from Egypt to Gaza are loaded, has a tarp tent warehouse devoted to goods turned back from the border. A Reuters reporter saw rows of white oxygen tanks, as well as wheelchairs, car tires and cartons labelled as containing generators and first-aid kits and with logos of aid groups from countries such as Luxembourg and Kuwait, among others. Reuters was not able to verify when the items at the Red Crescent site were turned back or on what grounds. Aid workers describe such rejections as routine. Speaking at the meeting with the Elders that Reuters attended, one World Food Programme worker said that only 73 of the 400 trucks the agency had sent since July 27 had made it in. U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA has not been allowed to send aid into Gaza since March. The OCHA August 6 report said no shelter materials had been allowed to enter Gaza since March 2 and those available on the local market were "prohibitively expensive and limited in quantity." The WHO employee who works on the border said the truck and trailer seen by Reuters were among three trucks that had been turned back on Sunday. A manifest given for their cargo, seen by Reuters, included urine drainage bags, iodine, plasters and sutures.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Israeli airstrikes on Tehran killed inmates in ‘apparent war crime'
Israeli airstrikes on Tehran's Evin prison in June killed scores of detainees, visitors and staff in what Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called an 'apparent war crime'. Iranian authorities have since subjected survivors to abuse, enforced disappearances and inhumane detention conditions, the rights group said on Wednesday. HRW's investigation, based on satellite imagery, videos and witness accounts, found the 23 June Israeli airstrikes destroyed visitation halls, prison wards, the central kitchen, the medical clinic and administrative offices. No evident military targets were identified in the facility, which held more than 1,500 prisoners at the time, many of whom had been jailed for peaceful activism. 'Israel's strikes on Evin prison on June 23 killed and injured scores of civilians without any evident military target in violation of the laws of war and is an apparent war crime,' said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at HRW. 'The Israeli attack placed at grave risk the already precarious lives of Evin's prisoners, many of them wrongfully detained dissidents and activists.' At least 80 people died in the attack, which occurred during visiting hours, when public areas were at their busiest. HRW described the strike as unlawfully indiscriminate. Israeli officials have called Evin a 'symbol of oppression' but have provided no evidence of military use. The prison attack took place during a 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran in which hundreds of civilians were killed on both sides. US-based rights group Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) said the Israeli strikes on Iran resulted in at least 5,665 casualties, including 1,190 killed and 4,475 injured, both military and civilian. The Iranian security forces also arrested 1,596 individuals during the 12-day war, the group added. In the aftermath, HRW said, Iranian authorities moved prisoners to two main detention centres in Tehran province – Shahr-e Rey prison, or Qarchak, for women, and the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary, or Fashafouyeh, for men – shackling male inmates in pairs, beating some with batons and using electric shocks (on return to Evin) for protesting their handcuffing and the transfer of death row prisoners. Women were locked in their ward without water or phone access before being moved on 24 June to Qarchak, notorious for overcrowding and inhumane conditions. 'Iranian authorities have committed a catalogue of violations against prisoners in the aftermath of the attack, including beatings, insults, and threats during transfers, and holding prisoners in appalling conditions that have endangered their lives and health. Death-row inmates and those forcibly disappeared are now at heightened risk of torture or execution,' added Page. Some detainees were returned to Evin 46 days later only to face similar violence during transfers. Authorities have withheld information on the fate and whereabouts of some detainees held by security and intelligence agencies, including dissidents, human rights activists, and dual or foreign nationals. Among them is Swedish-Iranian physician Ahmadreza Djalali, on death row since 2017. Families have reported only brief, monitored calls from missing prisoners, with no information on their location or condition, a situation HRW says amounts to enforced disappearance. Transferred prisoners have faced overcrowded, insect-infested cells, with some forced to sleep on floors. 'Iranian authorities should not use Israel's strikes on Evin prison as another opportunity to subject prisoners, including those who should never have been in prison in the first place, to ill-treatment,' he said. HRW has called for independent investigations into violations by both Israel and Iran, with those responsible held accountable for possible war crimes.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Sudan's hidden horror: inside the 15 August Guardian Weekly
While the wars raging in Ukraine and Gaza have dominated global news agendas for months turning into years, relatively little attention has been paid to the ongoing civil war in Sudan – which for many western media outlets remains out of sight and largely out of mind. This can't be said of the Guardian's Mark Townsend, who has reported tirelessly on the effects of the war between the Arab-led Rapid Support Forces and Sudanese military since it broke out in April 2023. It's a conflict that has been characterised by repeated atrocities, forcing millions from their homes and causing the world's largest humanitarian crisis. In April this year, just as a British-led conference was being held in London to explore how to end the war, one such atrocity was unfolding in Zamzam refugee camp in North Darfur. Details were at first sketchy, but only now – thanks to the piecing together of intelligence reports and witness testimony – can it be revealed what happened during the attack on the camp by RSF forces and why it was not stopped. As Mark's remarkable account reveals, the 72-hour rampage in April may have taken the lives of more than 1,500 civilians in one of the most notorious war crimes of Sudan's catastrophic conflict. Get the Guardian Weekly delivered to your home address The big story | The ruins of Gaza, as seen from aboveGuardian international correspondent Lorenzo Tondo joins a Jordanian military airdrop for a rare chance to observe a landscape devastated by Israel's offensive. With photography by Alessio Mamo Science | The truth about sunscreenToo much exposure to the sun has traditionally been seen as a danger. Now claims that sunscreen is toxic flood the internet. Our science editor, Ian Sample, weighs up the evidence Interview | Demis Hassabis, the cautious AI optimistThe head of Google's DeepMind tells Steve Rose how artificial intelligence could usher in an era of 'incredible productivity' and 'radical abundance'. But who will it benefit? Opinion | The world is in flames. But I've found some hope amid the gloomColumnist Jonathan Freedland makes a moral case for escapism, as a means of retaining the ability to see the world – and the people – around us Culture | The films that capture a nation's soulWhat single film best represents a nation? Twelve writers choose the one work they believe most captures their home's culture and cinema – from a bold cricket musical to a nine-hour documentary, gritty crime dramas to frothy tales of revenge The relationship between British pubs and food has always been an odd one. Traditionally they offered little more than a curled-up cheese sandwich – or more often nothing at all. Then in the 1990s, gastropubs arrived and changed the game. Nowadays, big chains dominate pub kitchens with microwaves and disappointing fare once again. Steve Rose bemoans the current state of British pub food, but offers grounds for hope. Anthony Naughton, assistant editor Sylvia Arthur's interviews with women across west Africa who'd beaten an average life expectancy of 59 was wise and life-affirming. I heartily agree with this pearl from eightysomething Isatou Jarju: 'Men are just a hindrance. They are the very definition of driving backwards.' Isobel Montgomery, deputy editor Audio | The Trump-Putin summit – podcast Video | 'I'm retired, and I'm not scared': hundreds arrested at Palestine Action protest Gallery | Fish, teapots and a pineapple! Ghana's most stylish coffins We'd love to hear your thoughts on the magazine: for submissions to our letters page, please email For anything else, it's Facebook Instagram Get the Guardian Weekly magazine delivered to your home address
