Israel
Israeli war spending in Gaza, Lebanon tops $30 billion in 2024 -Finance Ministry
Israel spent 112 billion shekels ($31 billion) on its military conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon in 2024, the Finance Ministry said in a report on Monday.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories said on Thursday that Israel's decision to withdraw from the U.N. Human Rights Council was "extremely serious".
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, Reuters/ Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories said on Thursday that Israel's decision to withdraw from the U.N. Human Rights Council was "extremely serious".
Earlier, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said his country had informed the UNHRC that it was following the United States in withdrawing from the Council, accusing it of "ongoing and unrelenting institutional bias" against Israel.
"It shows the hubris and the lack of realisation of what they [Israel] have done. They insist in self-righteousness, that they have nothing to be held accountable for, and they are proving it to the entire international community," Francesca Albanese told Reuters.
Albanese said she feared Israel's "genocide" against the Palestinians would expand and intensify on the West Bank, which Palestinians want along with Gaza as the core of a future independent state.
Israel denies accusations that it is committing genocide and says it is protecting its legitimate security interests in both the West Bank and in Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire now holds after a 16-month war against the Islamist militant group Hamas.
"The north (of the West Bank) is being attacked primarily by soldiers. The south has been attacked primarily by (Israeli) settlers, and you can see this as an assault on the Palestinian people as a whole," Albanese said.
Commenting on U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise proposal this week that the United States could "take over" Gaza, Albanese said: "Trump is destroying the basic principles of respect for human rights across a huge spectrum, not just in Palestine... We have moved further towards the abyss."
"I'm surprised that European states are staying silent instead of rising up and saying,: 'This is utter nonsense, and we will not tolerate this'," she added.
Francesca Albanese is anything but neutral in her mission. She openly supports the Palestinian cause and displays fierce hostility toward Israel.
Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin
Israel spent 112 billion shekels ($31 billion) on its military conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon in 2024, the Finance Ministry said in a report on Monday.
Lebanon's Defence Minister Michel Menassa and his Syrian counterpart Murhaf Abu Qasra agreed on a ceasefire, the Lebanese and Syrian defence ministries said in statements on Monday, as cross-border clashes in the last two days left 10 dead.
The interim government in Damascus will take part on Monday in an annual international conference to gather aid pledges for Syria, facing dire humanitarian problems and an uncertain political transition after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
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