IndustryStandard

Pope Francis has said that allegations of a genocide in Gaza should be “carefully investigated” marking some of his strongest criticism yet of Israel’s war with Hamas.

“According to some experts… what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” Vatican News, the Holy See’s official news outlet, cited the pontiff as writing in a forthcoming book. “It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”

A UN Special Committee report released Thursday said Israel’s war conduct in Gaza “is consistent with the characteristics of genocide,” including mass civilian casualties and using starvation as a weapon.

Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass, citing Russia’s ministry of defence, has reported that the debris fell on a military facility in the Bryansk region. It said there was a small fire.

The ministry said it had shot down five of the missiles over the Bryansk region. The attack resulted in no casualties or damage, it said.

The claims have not been independently verified. Ukraine has not commented on the Russian reports, and there has been no confirmation from US or other allied powers

Overnight Ukrainian forces claimed to have successfully targeted a Russian logistics centre near the city of Karachev in Russia’s Bryansk region, causing multiple explosions.

On Wednesday, the US Senate will hold a vote on whether to approve the Pentagon’s request to send another $20bn in armaments to Israel, after a year in which the Biden administration has supplied billions of dollars of arms used in Israel's devastating war on Gaza.

Among the weapons to be approved are 120mm tank rounds, high explosive mortar rounds, F-15IA fighter aircraft, and joint direct attack munitions, known as JDAMs, which are precision systems for otherwise indiscriminate or "dumb" bombs.

Separate resolutions are being brought forward for each weapon type, including its cost to US taxpayers. However, together, the initiative is known as the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs).

As a result of intensive lobbying from pro-Israel groups like Aipac and the Democratic Majority For Israel, no arms transfer to Israel has been blocked.

The resolutions likely to gain the highest levels of support are expected to involve the tank rounds, which have been responsible for killing hundreds of civilians in northern Gaza in particular, and the JDAMs, which caused the death of well-known figures such as Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah in southern Lebanon, and six-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza City.

Britain is expected to supply Storm Shadow missiles for use by Ukraine on targets inside Russia, now that the US president, Joe Biden, has agreed to do the same for the similar American long-range Atacms weapon.

Keir Starmer, the prime minister, said at the G20 summit that the UK recognised it needed to “double down” on its support for Ukraine, while diplomatic sources briefed they expected other European countries to follow the US lead.

The prime minister said that, while he was “not going to get into operational details”, he recognised the need to do more to help Ukraine, whose electricity network was seriously damaged by a wave of Russian bombing on Sunday.

“I’ve been really clear for a long time now, we need to double down. We need to make sure Ukraine has what is necessary for as long as necessary, because we cannot allow Putin to win this war,” the prime minister said.

Spirit Airlines, the no-frills US travel pioneer, has filed for bankruptcy protection after struggling with years of losses, failed merger attempts and heavy debt levels, the company said.

The Florida-based airline said on Monday that it had pre-arranged a deal with its bondholders to restructure its debts and raise money to help it operate during the bankruptcy process, which it expects to exit in the first quarter of 2025.

It is the first major United States-based airline to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in more than a decade, after a proposed $3.8bn merger with JetBlue Airways collapsed in January.

The US, on Monday, said it wants Israel to complete its investigation into the killing of Turkish-American activist, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, before determining any potential next steps, Anadolu Agency reports.

“We want to see the end of the (Israeli) investigation before we speak to that, which does not mean that it is an open-ended timeline,” State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said during a daily press briefing.

His remarks came in response to Anadolu’s question about whether the State Department plans to take any action regarding Eygi’s death instead of waiting for Israel to conclude the investigation, which has been ongoing for over 2 months.

A preliminary investigation by Israel found that Eygi was “highly likely” hit “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli fire that was targeting a “main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks” during the protest.

Video evidence and witness accounts, however, have contradicted Israel’s version of events, with many saying she was directly hit by an Israeli sniper.

Russia has carried out its largest air attack on Ukraine in months, launching 120 missiles and 90 drones that killed several people and caused severe damage to the power system, officials said.

“The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine. Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from hits and falling debris,” Zelenskyy said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

A Russian drone attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv killed at least two people and wounded six others, including children, Zelenskyy said, adding that “all areas” were left without power.

Poland, a NATO member that borders Ukraine to the west, said it had scrambled its air force as a precaution.

Of the 66 Israeli attacks on Lebanon’s hospitals, most have taken place in the country’s southern and western regions and the capital Beirut, with some hospitals struck multiple times.

On October 24, the Health Ministry reported at least eight hospitals had been forced to close, with half of them in the Baabda district in western Lebanon. Seven other hospitals are only partially functioning.

In addition, Israeli forces have attacked primary healthcare facilities at least 25 times, resulting in the forcible closure of 58 facilities.

Israel has perpetrated more than 220 attacks on emergency medical services, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

It has also attacked ambulances, fire trucks and other rescue vehicles 249 times. Israel has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to transport weapons, without providing any evidence.

A captive at Israel’s Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank told Sky News how Israeli forces left Dr Al-Bursh, who had been severely tortured, to die alone in agonising pain and naked from the waist down in the prison’s yard.

After Dr Al-Bursh left he hospital, Israeli soldiers "called his name out" and then “roughly” took him away, according to Obeid.

Dr Al-Bursh was then taken to the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility in the Negev, which whistleblowers and former inmates have likened to a concentration camp.

Reports of physical, mental, and sexual abuse are widespread at Sde Teiman, with instances of rape so severe that prisoners have been died and seriously injured.. Dr Khalid Hamouda, a former inmate of the Sde Teiman camp, told Sky News that many of the prisoners held there were medical professionals.

"He thought he may have broken ribs," Dr Hamouda said. "He was unable to even go to the toilet alone."

It was after this that Dr. Al-Bursh was sent to Ofer Prison where he would die within weeks.

A majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives rejected the bill on Tuesday out of fear that it could grant President-elect Donald Trump the legal tools with which to target his ideological foes, but Republicans are swiftly pressing ahead.

“This bill was designed to criminalize organizations and activists who oppose the U.S.’s unconditional support of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians and the slaughter of Lebanese civilians,” read the statement, which was signed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, American Muslims for Palestine, and others. “We will continue to stand firm in protecting all organizations’ freedom to speak and operate without fear of political retribution.”

With pro-Israel groups lobbying for the bill, it gained popularity among House Democrats, in part due to a provision providing tax relief to Americans held hostage abroad.

Ultimately, 144 Democrats voted no, along with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., barely meeting the threshold to block the bill from fast-track passage. Voting in favor were 204 Republicans and 52 Democrats. The narrow loss — with so many Democrats supporting the bill, opponents had no votes to spare — provoked outrage from supporters of the bill like Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., who had spoken in favor of it prior to the vote.

Keir Starmer said he would defend the budget “all day long” at the Welsh Labour conference, amid protests by farmers outside the venue.

In his first address to the Welsh Labour conference since taking power, the prime minister went on to hail a “path of change” with Labour governments in Wales and Westminster.

“Make no mistake, I will defend our decisions in the budget all day long,” he said. “I will defend facing up to the harsh light of fiscal reality.

There are over 100 sick prisoners here with me, all of them from Gaza. Some have chronic diseases, some have been injured under torture, and all of them scream from the pain, as there is no treatment.

One day after your visit, a group of soldiers came with dogs, they came to where we were. They selected prisoners at random from every age group … children, young men, old men. They made them lie on the ground, face down, their hands tied behind their heads.

Then they set the dogs on them again, and then one of the soldiers tried to get one of the dogs to rape one of the prisoners! They teach their dogs to have sex with prisoners! Can you imagine?

They made the dogs attack them, tearing at the skin and flesh of the prisoners […], then they stood them up and put them in a corner where there was a big "iron window". They put [the prisoners'] hands on the window, then began beating them on their backs, their buttocks, and their legs from behind.

They attacked another prisoner called "J.M." in the same way - they beat him and abused him, and brought in dogs to rape him. They stripped him naked and put the dogs on top of him, they were ripping at his flesh, then a soldier came carrying an "electrical baton", which emitted high-voltage electric shocks, and they started beating the prisoner on his genitals.