Latest news with #Gez
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Israel hasn't prosecuted a single suspect for Oct. 7 attack
Advertisement Israel has killed many of the senior Hamas figures from Gaza who were seen as masterminds of the attack. But some in the country worry that the extensive delays in prosecuting the suspects in custody will allow some perpetrators to escape justice. Palestinians and rights groups have other concerns. They say Israel has systematically violated the detainees' rights by holding them without charge or trial in harsh conditions, with limited access to legal counsel. Sweeping gag orders keep most details of their cases under wraps, and for most of these detainees, there is no trace of them in any public records. The way Israel detains those prisoners 'effectively erases these individuals from public awareness and strips them of fundamental rights,' said Nadine Abu Arafeh, a lawyer who has represented detainees from Gaza in other cases in Israeli courts. 'Families in Gaza live with questions: Are their loved ones alive?' Advertisement Israel's Justice Ministry declined to comment. The delays in moving the Oct. 7 cases forward are at least partly because of the chaotic way that law enforcement agents, stretched beyond capacity, collected evidence right after the attack, according to Moran Gez, a former senior prosecutor who oversaw cases of detainees suspected of involvement in the attack, and Yulia Malinovsky, an opposition lawmaker briefed on the issue. The regular criminal justice system was ill-suited to handle the sheer volume of evidence and the compromised state of some of it, they said. Gez said she retired to open up a private practice. Israel has extensively documented the atrocities of Oct. 7, in some cases based on footage recorded by the attackers themselves. Several thousand Palestinian militants from Gaza took part in the assault, according to the Israeli military. They stormed more than a dozen communities, a music festival attended by thousands of people, and several military bases in southern Israel. They killed about 1,200 people and took roughly 250 hostages back to Gaza, in an attack that, according to the United Nations, involved war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. Amid upheaval and shock across Israel in the aftermath, investigators skipped many steps in the collection of evidence, according to Gez and Malinovsky. Some bodies were swiftly buried before forensic examination. The volume of killings made it nearly impossible for ballistic experts to trace bullets to specific weapons. Survivors who witnessed the events often did not immediately report their experiences to legal authorities, and they quickly scattered across the country before authorities could contact them, Gez said. Advertisement Simcha Rothman, a lawmaker from Israel's governing coalition, blamed state prosecutors for failing to find ways to adapt legal proceedings to the unusual scale and nature of the attack. Other considerations may have contributed to the delay in prosecutions. Israeli security agencies objected to having the cases of attack suspects move forward earlier in the Gaza war, according to Rothman. But they have since dropped that objection, he said in an interview. Malinovsky said she believes that senior Israeli officials feared that pursuing the cases could intensify public scrutiny of the failures by the government and military or undermine negotiations to exchange Palestinian detainees for Israeli hostages. 'They don't want that discourse,' she said of the government. The prime minister's office declined to comment on the reasons for the delay in prosecutions. The prison service and Justice Ministry would not provide any information on the detainees. Lawmakers in Israel recently took a first step toward putting some of those suspected of direct involvement on trial. The Knesset, or parliament, passed an initial vote in late May to establish a dedicated tribunal to try suspects in the attack. But the bill requires several more votes, and it will likely be months before the first detainees go to court. Rothman and Malinovsky were co-authors of the bill, which was meant to bypass legal hurdles to prosecutions by establishing a special tribunal of 15 judges with some capacity to override the ordinary criminal system. The bill proposes charging participants in the attack with offenses of genocide, which are punishable by death under Israeli law. Advertisement All of the roughly 2,700 Palestinian detainees who were rounded up in Gaza over the course of the war are designated as 'unlawful combatants,' which, according to Israeli law, means they can be held without charge or trial. Under the terms of a cease-fire earlier this year, Israel released about 1,000 of the 'unlawful combatants' to Gaza, in addition to women and minors detained in Gaza throughout the war. If negotiations between Israel and Hamas over a new cease-fire progress to a deal, some of the remaining detainees could potentially be exchanged for the remaining hostages in Gaza. The lengthy detention of so many people without trial 'risks becoming a life sentence without the usual protections of the criminal process,' said Monica Hakimi, a Columbia Law School professor and an expert on international law. At least 48 of these Palestinian detainees have died in custody, according to data from the military and prison service provided in response to freedom of information requests filed by Physicians for Human Rights — Israel, a rights group. In late July, Israeli lawmakers extended emergency provisions that allow the ongoing detentions of prisoners suspected of involvement in the attack in detention awaiting prosecution through January 2026, an indication that they may not face charges for at least six more months. 'This is a problem,' Rothman told lawmakers before the extensions. 'It's a malfunction.' This article originally appeared in
The Advertiser
16-05-2025
- Politics
- The Advertiser
Israel kills Palestine militants, pregnant settler dies
Israel's military has killed five Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank, hours after a pregnant settler was killed in a shooting, as hardline pro-settler leaders including a government minister call for Palestinian towns to be razed. The military said in a statement on Thursday it had killed five "terrorists" and arrested a sixth who had barricaded themselves in a building in Tamoun, following an exchange of gunfire and the use of shoulder-fired missiles by Israeli soldiers. The military wing of Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad later issued a statement saying five of its members were killed while clashing with Israeli forces that surrounded their house in the town of Tamoun, north of the West Bank. Tamoun is a Palestinian town about 35km from the Israeli settlement of Brukhin, near which the heavily pregnant woman, Tzeela Gez, was killed on Wednesday night in a shooting that drew strong condemnation from Israeli leaders. The military said it was searching for those responsible for Wednesday's shooting - whom it did not identify - though it was not immediately clear whether the Tamoun operation was linked. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting, which occurred amid one of the largest Israeli military operations in the West Bank in two decades and while the Israeli military bombards Gaza. Gunfire could be heard in Tamoun on Thursday, while Reuters footage showed flames and black smoke on the top floor of a house as Israeli soldiers stood on the street outside. The Palestinian WAFA news agency said the Israeli military was demolishing the house where the Palestinian men had been killed. The Israeli military said soldiers had identified the "terrorists" in a building during an overnight operation in Tamoun and the nearby city of Tubas. It recovered rifles used by the militants in the building in Tamoun, it said. The military also said that three armed individuals had been arrested in Tubas. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the military had taken the bodies of four of the deceased. The local Red Crescent said it had recovered a fifth body from a burning building. Gez, the pregnant woman, was shot near the Brukhin settlement while travelling to hospital with her husband to give birth. She was pronounced dead at the hospital where her baby was delivered by caesarean section, Israeli media reported. The baby was reportedly in serious but stable condition, while Gez's husband Hananel was lightly injured. As retribution, Israel's far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the nearby Palestinian towns of Bruqin and az-Zawiya should be destroyed, just as cities in Gaza have been. "Just as we are flattening Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza (in the Gaza Strip), we must also flatten the terror nests in Judea and Samaria," Smotrich said on social media, employing the term often used in Israel for the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped security forces would quickly find those responsible for Gez's death, while President Isaac Herzog expressed his condolences to her family. The chief of Israel's general staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, visited the troops searching for Gez's killer on Thursday near Brukhin. The Israeli military has killed dozens of Palestinians and destroyed many homes since it launched an operation in January in the West Bank city of Jenin to root out militants. Those killed have included members of Hamas and other militant groups but also some civilians, including women and children. Israel's military has killed five Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank, hours after a pregnant settler was killed in a shooting, as hardline pro-settler leaders including a government minister call for Palestinian towns to be razed. The military said in a statement on Thursday it had killed five "terrorists" and arrested a sixth who had barricaded themselves in a building in Tamoun, following an exchange of gunfire and the use of shoulder-fired missiles by Israeli soldiers. The military wing of Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad later issued a statement saying five of its members were killed while clashing with Israeli forces that surrounded their house in the town of Tamoun, north of the West Bank. Tamoun is a Palestinian town about 35km from the Israeli settlement of Brukhin, near which the heavily pregnant woman, Tzeela Gez, was killed on Wednesday night in a shooting that drew strong condemnation from Israeli leaders. The military said it was searching for those responsible for Wednesday's shooting - whom it did not identify - though it was not immediately clear whether the Tamoun operation was linked. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting, which occurred amid one of the largest Israeli military operations in the West Bank in two decades and while the Israeli military bombards Gaza. Gunfire could be heard in Tamoun on Thursday, while Reuters footage showed flames and black smoke on the top floor of a house as Israeli soldiers stood on the street outside. The Palestinian WAFA news agency said the Israeli military was demolishing the house where the Palestinian men had been killed. The Israeli military said soldiers had identified the "terrorists" in a building during an overnight operation in Tamoun and the nearby city of Tubas. It recovered rifles used by the militants in the building in Tamoun, it said. The military also said that three armed individuals had been arrested in Tubas. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the military had taken the bodies of four of the deceased. The local Red Crescent said it had recovered a fifth body from a burning building. Gez, the pregnant woman, was shot near the Brukhin settlement while travelling to hospital with her husband to give birth. She was pronounced dead at the hospital where her baby was delivered by caesarean section, Israeli media reported. The baby was reportedly in serious but stable condition, while Gez's husband Hananel was lightly injured. As retribution, Israel's far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the nearby Palestinian towns of Bruqin and az-Zawiya should be destroyed, just as cities in Gaza have been. "Just as we are flattening Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza (in the Gaza Strip), we must also flatten the terror nests in Judea and Samaria," Smotrich said on social media, employing the term often used in Israel for the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped security forces would quickly find those responsible for Gez's death, while President Isaac Herzog expressed his condolences to her family. The chief of Israel's general staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, visited the troops searching for Gez's killer on Thursday near Brukhin. The Israeli military has killed dozens of Palestinians and destroyed many homes since it launched an operation in January in the West Bank city of Jenin to root out militants. Those killed have included members of Hamas and other militant groups but also some civilians, including women and children. Israel's military has killed five Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank, hours after a pregnant settler was killed in a shooting, as hardline pro-settler leaders including a government minister call for Palestinian towns to be razed. The military said in a statement on Thursday it had killed five "terrorists" and arrested a sixth who had barricaded themselves in a building in Tamoun, following an exchange of gunfire and the use of shoulder-fired missiles by Israeli soldiers. The military wing of Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad later issued a statement saying five of its members were killed while clashing with Israeli forces that surrounded their house in the town of Tamoun, north of the West Bank. Tamoun is a Palestinian town about 35km from the Israeli settlement of Brukhin, near which the heavily pregnant woman, Tzeela Gez, was killed on Wednesday night in a shooting that drew strong condemnation from Israeli leaders. The military said it was searching for those responsible for Wednesday's shooting - whom it did not identify - though it was not immediately clear whether the Tamoun operation was linked. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting, which occurred amid one of the largest Israeli military operations in the West Bank in two decades and while the Israeli military bombards Gaza. Gunfire could be heard in Tamoun on Thursday, while Reuters footage showed flames and black smoke on the top floor of a house as Israeli soldiers stood on the street outside. The Palestinian WAFA news agency said the Israeli military was demolishing the house where the Palestinian men had been killed. The Israeli military said soldiers had identified the "terrorists" in a building during an overnight operation in Tamoun and the nearby city of Tubas. It recovered rifles used by the militants in the building in Tamoun, it said. The military also said that three armed individuals had been arrested in Tubas. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the military had taken the bodies of four of the deceased. The local Red Crescent said it had recovered a fifth body from a burning building. Gez, the pregnant woman, was shot near the Brukhin settlement while travelling to hospital with her husband to give birth. She was pronounced dead at the hospital where her baby was delivered by caesarean section, Israeli media reported. The baby was reportedly in serious but stable condition, while Gez's husband Hananel was lightly injured. As retribution, Israel's far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the nearby Palestinian towns of Bruqin and az-Zawiya should be destroyed, just as cities in Gaza have been. "Just as we are flattening Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza (in the Gaza Strip), we must also flatten the terror nests in Judea and Samaria," Smotrich said on social media, employing the term often used in Israel for the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped security forces would quickly find those responsible for Gez's death, while President Isaac Herzog expressed his condolences to her family. The chief of Israel's general staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, visited the troops searching for Gez's killer on Thursday near Brukhin. The Israeli military has killed dozens of Palestinians and destroyed many homes since it launched an operation in January in the West Bank city of Jenin to root out militants. Those killed have included members of Hamas and other militant groups but also some civilians, including women and children. Israel's military has killed five Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank, hours after a pregnant settler was killed in a shooting, as hardline pro-settler leaders including a government minister call for Palestinian towns to be razed. The military said in a statement on Thursday it had killed five "terrorists" and arrested a sixth who had barricaded themselves in a building in Tamoun, following an exchange of gunfire and the use of shoulder-fired missiles by Israeli soldiers. The military wing of Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad later issued a statement saying five of its members were killed while clashing with Israeli forces that surrounded their house in the town of Tamoun, north of the West Bank. Tamoun is a Palestinian town about 35km from the Israeli settlement of Brukhin, near which the heavily pregnant woman, Tzeela Gez, was killed on Wednesday night in a shooting that drew strong condemnation from Israeli leaders. The military said it was searching for those responsible for Wednesday's shooting - whom it did not identify - though it was not immediately clear whether the Tamoun operation was linked. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting, which occurred amid one of the largest Israeli military operations in the West Bank in two decades and while the Israeli military bombards Gaza. Gunfire could be heard in Tamoun on Thursday, while Reuters footage showed flames and black smoke on the top floor of a house as Israeli soldiers stood on the street outside. The Palestinian WAFA news agency said the Israeli military was demolishing the house where the Palestinian men had been killed. The Israeli military said soldiers had identified the "terrorists" in a building during an overnight operation in Tamoun and the nearby city of Tubas. It recovered rifles used by the militants in the building in Tamoun, it said. The military also said that three armed individuals had been arrested in Tubas. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the military had taken the bodies of four of the deceased. The local Red Crescent said it had recovered a fifth body from a burning building. Gez, the pregnant woman, was shot near the Brukhin settlement while travelling to hospital with her husband to give birth. She was pronounced dead at the hospital where her baby was delivered by caesarean section, Israeli media reported. The baby was reportedly in serious but stable condition, while Gez's husband Hananel was lightly injured. As retribution, Israel's far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the nearby Palestinian towns of Bruqin and az-Zawiya should be destroyed, just as cities in Gaza have been. "Just as we are flattening Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza (in the Gaza Strip), we must also flatten the terror nests in Judea and Samaria," Smotrich said on social media, employing the term often used in Israel for the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped security forces would quickly find those responsible for Gez's death, while President Isaac Herzog expressed his condolences to her family. The chief of Israel's general staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, visited the troops searching for Gez's killer on Thursday near Brukhin. The Israeli military has killed dozens of Palestinians and destroyed many homes since it launched an operation in January in the West Bank city of Jenin to root out militants. Those killed have included members of Hamas and other militant groups but also some civilians, including women and children.
Toronto Star
15-05-2025
- Toronto Star
An Israeli woman on her way to give birth is killed in a West Bank attack
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Tzeela Gez was on her way to the hospital to bring new life into this world when hers was suddenly cut short. As her husband drove their car through the winding roads of the occupied West Bank late Wednesday, a Palestinian attacker shot at them. Within hours, Gez, nine months pregnant, was dead. Doctors barely saved the life of the baby, who is in serious but stable condition.
Hindustan Times
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Israeli woman on way to give birth killed in West Bank attack; baby survives
An Israeli woman, on the way to give birth to a child, was shot by a Palestinian attacker in the West Bank late on Wednesday. The woman, identified as Tzeela Gez, was on her way to the hospital for delivery with her husband when they were shot at. Within hours, Gez was dead. Doctors barely saved the life of the baby, who is in serious but stable condition. Gez, 37, and her husband Hananel, were residents of Bruchin, a settlement of some 2,900 in the northern West Bank. She worked as a therapist and on her Facebook page, shared developments in her professional life as well as her thoughts on the war in Gaza, the fallen Israeli soldiers, and the hostages still held by Hamas. Israel has claimed that its month-long crackdown in the West Bank on militants is trying to prevent such attacks. But the escalating offensive, which has killed hundreds of Palestinians over 19 months, displaced tens of thousands, and caused widespread destruction, has ultimately not snuffed out attacks. And the latest bloodshed is only likely to fuel a cycle of violence that has persisted for decades between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel has pledged to find the attacker, who fled the scene, and the military chief of staff, who visited the area on Thursday, told troops that the broader operation would continue alongside the manhunt. "We will use all the tools at our disposal and reach the murderers in order to hold them accountable,' Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. The statement also said that the IDF had sealed Palestinian villages in the area of the attack and set up checkpoints. The shooting, especially because the victim was a pregnant mother with three other children, has the potential to ignite vigilante violence against Palestinians. Photos of the car released by the military showed a bullet hole on the passenger side of the windshield and a streak of blood on the back door. Soldiers searched the rugged brush on the sides of the road following the attack, according to video released by the Israeli military. Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas' armed wing, praised the attack as 'heroic' in a video statement Wednesday but stopped short of saying the militant group was behind it. On Thursday, military checkpoints slowed down traffic on roads in the vicinity of the attack, and many Palestinian motorists were at a standstill as they tried to make their journeys, according to video shared on social media. Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, all territories the Palestinians seek for a future independent state. Around 500,000 Jewish settlers now live in about 130 settlements scattered across the West Bank.
India Today
15-05-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Israeli army kills 5 Palestinians after pregnant Israeli settler killed
Israel's military killed five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, hours after a pregnant settler was killed in a shooting, as hardline pro-settler leaders, including a government minister, called for Palestinian towns to be military said in a statement it had killed five "terrorists" and arrested a sixth who had barricaded themselves in a building in Tamoun, following an exchange of gunfire and the use of shoulder-fired missiles by Israeli is a Palestinian town about 35 km (22 miles) from the Israeli settlement of Brukhin, near which the heavily pregnant woman, Tzeela Gez, was killed on Wednesday night in a shooting that drew strong condemnation from Israeli leaders. The military said it was searching for those responsible for Wednesday's shooting - whom it did not identify - though it was not immediately clear whether the Tamoun operation was was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting, which occurred amid one of the largest Israeli military operations in the West Bank in two decades and while the Israeli military continues to bombard could be heard in Tamoun on Thursday, while Reuters footage showed flames and black smoke on the top floor of a house as Israeli soldiers stood on the street outside. The Palestinian WAFA news agency said the Israeli military was demolishing the house where the Palestinian men had been Israeli military said soldiers had identified the "terrorists" in a building during an overnight operation in Tamoun and the nearby city of did not say how it determined they were terrorists but said soldiers had discovered rifles used by them. The military also said three armed individuals had been arrested in Palestinian health ministry said the military had taken the bodies of four of the deceased. The local Red Crescent said it had recovered a fifth body from a burning FOR RETRIBUTIONGez, the pregnant woman, was shot near the Brukhin settlement while travelling to hospital with her husband to give birth. She was pronounced dead at the hospital where her baby was delivered by caesarean section, Israeli media baby was reportedly in a serious but stable condition, while Gez's husband Hananel was lightly retribution, Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the nearby Palestinian towns of Bruqin and az-Zawiya should be destroyed just as cities in Gaza have been."Just as we are flattening Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza (in the Gaza Strip), we must also flatten the terror nests in Judea and Samaria," Smotrich said on X, employing the term often used in Israel for the West Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped the security forces would quickly find those responsible for Gez's death, while President Israel Herzog expressed his condolences to her chief of Israel's general staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, visited the troops searching for Gez's killer on Thursday near Israeli military has killed dozens of Palestinians and destroyed many homes since it launched an operation in January in the West Bank city of Jenin to root out killed have included members of Hamas and other militant groups but also some civilians, including women and Watch
