Middle East Eye

🎥 Lebanese army forces carried out a controlled explosion of a communication device discovered in the village of Klayaa, southern Lebanon. The incident follows a series of unprecedented deadly attacks over two days, in which hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon, killing 32 people and injuring over 3,000. 🔴 Live updates: https://www.middleeasteye.net/live/gaza-israel-war-palestine-west-bank-lebanon-strike-updates?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

📰 The managers of the University of Virginia’s (UVA) multi-billion-dollar endowment announced on Friday that they will not divest from Israel, a decision taken despite a February referendum passing a pro-boycott, divestment and sanctions resolution targeting Israel. Students and faculty had been engaged in a divestment campaign since the fall of 2023, among many other college campuses. Over 8,000 students voted in the referendum calling for full divestment from Israel in the university’s $13.6bn endowment in companies “that engage with or profit from Israel’s apartheid regime and its acute violence against Palestinians”. 🔗Read more: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-university-virginia-refuses-divest-israel-despite-student-referendum?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

📰 A United Nations committee on Thursday accused Israel of committing historically unprecedented violations against Palestinian children, including mass killings and arbitrary detentions. “The outrageous death of children is almost historically unique. This is an extremely dark place in history,” Bragi Gudbrandsson, vice chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), told reporters. “I don’t think we have seen before a violation that is so massive as we’ve seen in Gaza. These are extremely grave violations that we do not often see.” 🔗 Read more: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-killings-children-gaza-historically-unprecedented-says-un-committee?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

🎥 Videos circulating on social media show Israeli soldiers throwing the bodies of three Palestinians, killed in the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya, off a rooftop on Thursday morning. The footage shows three Israeli soldiers standing on the roof of a building, throwing the bodies of the three Palestinians, one by one, from the rooftop. 🔴Live updates on Israel's war on Gaza: https://www.middleeasteye.net/live/gaza-israel-war-palestine-west-bank-lebanon-strike-updates?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

📰 According to a letter from Lebanon’s mission to the United Nations, a preliminary investigation by Lebanese authorities found that explosives had been implanted in the communications devices before they entered the country. The authorities also determined the devices, which included pagers and hand-held radios, were detonated by sending electronic messages to the devices, says the letter, seen by Reuters on Thursday. Israel was responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks, Lebanon’s U.N. mission said. 🔴Live updates on this story: https://www.middleeasteye.net/live/gaza-israel-war-palestine-west-bank-lebanon-strike-updates?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

🎥 “Is the U.S. committed to enforcing this decision, or will it be like previous resolutions, such as Resolution 181 and others, that were never put into effect?" Palestinians in the West Bank remain skeptical of the UN resolution calling for an end to the illegal Israeli occupation of territories within a year. UN member states voted Wednesday to formally demand an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories within 12 months and the imposition of sanctions for non-compliance. The resolution "demands" the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian territories, a halt to new settlements, the return of seized land and property, and the possibility of return for displaced Palestinians. It also calls on states "to take steps toward ceasing" arms provisions to Israel. 🔴 Live updates: https://www.middleeasteye.net/live/gaza-israel-war-palestine-west-bank-lebanon-strike-updates?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

📰 “Palestinians have long known that the entirety of the Israeli economy is premised on their dispossession and, in July, the ICJ ruled that all states are obligated to not support the illegal occupation. Instead, Labour has chosen to reward Israel, literally conducting business as usual during occupation and genocide. The Palestine solidarity movement refuses to go back to “life as normal” amid a genocide in Gaza, which has now spread to the West Bank. Since Labour came into power, over 3,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, with the death toll now having surpassed 41,000. Palestine solidarity movement must mobilise again at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool and disrupt the delegates’ celebratory mood” ✍️Opinion by Sharaiz Chaudhry 🔗https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/labour-gaza-promised-change-israel-business-usual?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

🎥 The Uncommitted Movement has announced it won’t endorse Kamala Harris for the 2024 US Elections, but has decided not to endorse a third party candidate, saying the priority is to stop Trump from getting back into office. Speaking on The Big Picture Podcast, the movement’s founder Abbas Alawieh tells MEE that the Arab-American community doesn’t yet have the political power to force the Democrats to change their policy on Gaza, but needs to work on a long term alliance with other groups to create internal change within the party. He says while the movement hasn’t been able to sway Kamala Harris’ blanket support for arms trade to Israel, he cannot tell his supporters to mobilise against the Democrats, fearing that a Trump presidency would be disastrous for Muslims as well as for Palestine. 🔗Watch The Big Picture Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhoNxkB2-cQ&utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

📰 The UN Child Rights Committee on Thursday accused Israel of committing historically unprecedented violations against Palestinian children. “The outrageous death of children is almost historically unique. This is an extremely dark place in history,” Bragi Gudbrandsson, Vice Chair of the CRC, told reporters. The committee, which monitors compliance of state parties to the 1989 Child Rights Convention, on Thursday released its findings on six states, including Israel, after a review during its latest session. In its report, the committee said it was “greatly concerned about the high number of children in Gaza killed, maimed, injured, missing, displaced, orphaned and subjected to famine, malnutrition and disease, as a result of the State party’s indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks.”

📰 Lebanon has been rocked this week by an Israeli attack targeting Hezbollah that turned communication devices into bombs, leaving dozens dead and injuring thousands more. On Tuesday afternoon, thousands of pagers exploded across the country, killing at least 14 people. On Wednesday, walkie-talkies blew up, including at the funerals of some of those who died the previous day: at the time of writing at least 20 people are dead from that attack. Many of the estimated 4,000 people who have been maimed have injuries to the head and stomach. Some have lost their eyesight or limbs, notably fingers. Hundreds are still in a critical condition. As is its policy, Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its alleged involvement in the attacks. Here's what we know so far 👆 🔗 https://www.middleeasteye.net/explainers/israel-pager-attack-lebanon-break-international-law-hezbollah?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic