14/05/2025

WEDNESDAY | MAY 14, 2025

9 Rights groups drag UK govt to court over arms sales

RAIDS ACROSS GERMANY AFTER GROUP BANNED BERLIN: Hundreds of police officers were conducting raids across Germany early yesterday after the Interior Ministry banned a hard right militant group it referred to as the biggest arm of the Reichsbuerger (Citizens of the Reich) movement. The raids in seven federal states took place in properties associated with the Koenigreich Deutschland (Kingdom of Germany) group and the homes of its leading members yesterday, the ministry said. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the group’s 6,000 members had created a “counter-state” in Germany and were undermining the legal system and the state’s monopoly on the use of force. The order to ban the group was made just before the raids, the ministry said. – Reuters MAN HELD AFTER FIRE AT STARMER’S HOUSE LONDON: British police said they had arrested a 21-year-old man on suspicion of arson after counter terrorism officers launched an investigation into three fires, including one at Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s private home. Police were called to reports of a fire early on Monday at the property in Kentish Town in north London, the area that Starmer represents in parliament. Nobody was injured but damage was caused to the property’s entrance, police said. The man was arrested early yesterday on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life in connection with the fire and two further incidents, police said. Police are investigating whether a fire at the entrance of a property in nearby Islington on Sunday and a vehicle fire in Kentish Town on Thursday are linked to the incident on Monday. – Reuters

BR I E F S

LONDON: Rights groups and NGOs dragged the UK government to court yesterday accusing it of breaching international law by supplying fighter jet parts to Israel amid the war in Gaza. Supported by Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam and others, the Palestinian rights association Al-Haq is seeking to stop the government’s export of UK-made components for Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets. Israel has used the American warplanes to devastating effect in Gaza and the West Bank, and the head of Amnesty UK said Britain o Suit seeks to stop export of parts for F-35 fighter jets

journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Israel and Lebanon since the start of the war. Israel had paused military operations in Gaza to allow for the release of Edan Alexander, a 21 year-old US-Israeli soldier who had been held hostage since October 2023. Alexander, believed to be the last surviving hostage with US citizenship, was released on Monday ahead of a Middle East visit by US President Donald Trump. Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas. – AFP wider for international peace and security”. “Within a couple of months of coming to office, we suspended relevant licences for the IDF that might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of International Humanitarian Law in Gaza,” they said. The government insisted it had “acted in a manner consistent with our legal obligations” and was “committed to upholding our responsibilities under domestic and international law”. But GLAN described the F-35 exemption as a “loophole” which allowed the components to reach Israel indirectly through a global pooling system. Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe, a lawyer for GLAN, told a briefing last week the UK government had “expressly departed from its own domestic law to keep arming Israel”, with F-35s being used to drop “multi-tonne bombs on the people of Gaza”. The 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians. The Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday that at least 2,749 people have been killed since Israel ended a two-month ceasefire in mid-March, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,862. “Under the Genocide Convention, the UK has a clear legal obligation to do everything within its power to prevent genocide,” said Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive. “Yet the UK government continues to authorise the export of military equipment to Israel – despite all the evidence that genocide is being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza. This is a fundamental failure by the UK to fulfil its obligations.” Al-Haq’s general director Shawan Jabarin said: “The United Kingdom is not a bystander. It’s complicit, and that complicity must be confronted, exposed and brought to account.” – AFP implications

accusations of genocide in Gaza. The lawyers said the UK government had decided in December 2023 and April and May 2024 to continue arms sales to Israel, before suspending licences in September 2024 for weapons which were assessed as being for military use by the Israeli army in Gaza. The new Labour government suspended around 30 licences following a review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law, but the partial ban did not cover British-made parts for the advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets. A British government spokesperson told AFP it was “not currently possible to suspend licensing of F-35 components for use by Israel without prejudicing the entire global F-35 programme, due to its strategic role in Nato and

had failed to uphold its “legal obligation ... to prevent genocide” by allowing the export of key parts to Israel. The plane’s refuelling probe, laser targeting system, tyres, rear fuselage, fan propulsion system and ejector seat are all made in Britain, according to Oxfam, and lawyers supporting Al-Haq’s case said the aircraft “could not keep flying without continuous supply of UK-made components”. It is not clear when a decision could be made following the four-day hearing at London’s High Court, the latest stage in a long-running legal battle. Lawyers for the Global Action Legal Network (GLAN) have said they launched the case soon after Israel’s assault on Gaza was triggered by the Oct 7, 2023 attacks. Israel has repeatedly denied

Hollywood stars condemn genocide CANNES: More than 380 figures from the cinema world including Schindler’s List actor Ralph Fiennes condemned genocide in Gaza in an open letter published yesterday. “We cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza,” read the letter initiated by several pro-Palestinian activist groups and published in French newspaper Liberation and US magazine Variety . The signatories – which include Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon as well as acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and former Cannes winner Ruben Ostlund – decried the death of Gazan photojournalist Fatima Hassouna. Hassouna, 25, is the subject of a documentary which will premiere in Cannes tomorrow by Iranian director Sepideh Farsi, titled Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk . Hassouna was killed along with 10 relatives in an Israeli air strike on her family home in northern Gaza last month, the day after the documentary was announced as part of the ACID Cannes selection. Farsi welcomed the impact of her film but called on Cannes Festival organisers to denounce Israel’s bombardment. “There needs to be a real statement,” she said. “Saying ‘the festival isn’t political’ makes no sense.” Cannes jury president Juliette Binoche was initially said by organisers to have signed the petition, but her spokeswoman told AFP that she had not endorsed it and her name was not published by Liberation . Other signatories include Jonathan Glazer, the British director of Jewish origin who won an Oscar for his 2023 Auschwitz drama The Zone of Interest , as well as US star Mark Ruffalo and Spanish actor Javier Bardem. – AFP

A Palestinian girl carrying a ration of hot food received from a charity kitchen set up at the Islamic University campus in Gaza City on Monday. – AFPPIC

Israel hits Gaza hospital, kills wounded journalist TEL AVIV: The Israeli military said it struck a Gaza hospital housing gunmen in a raid yesterday that, according to Hamas, killed a journalist wounded in an Israeli attack last month. civilians and IDF (army) troops,” it said. In a statement, Hamas said the strike killed a journalist and wounded a number of civilians. The Israeli military said the April strike had targeted Aslih, alleging he operated for Hamas “under the guise of a journalist”.

It said Aslih had “infiltrated Israeli territory and participated in the murderous massacre carried out by the Hamas terrorist organisation” on Oct 7, 2023. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the strike. It said Aslih had worked for international media outlets until 2023, when the pro-Israeli watchdog HonestReporting published a photo of him being kissed by then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The CPJ says at least 178

“The Israeli army bombed the surgeries building at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis at dawn yesterday, killing journalist Hassan Aslih,” said Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal. Aslih, head of the Alam24 news outlet, had been at the hospital for treatment after being wounded in a strike on April 7, he said. Two other journalists, Ahmed Mansur and Hilmi al-Faqaawi, were killed in that bombing, according to reports at the time.

The strike, which Hamas said happened at dawn, ended a brief pause in fighting to allow the release of a US-Israeli hostage. The military said in a Telegram post that “significant Hamas terrorists” had been “operating from within a command and control centre” at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city. “The compound was used by the terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against Israeli