HomeSeek

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Thursday reported 262,270 more cases of people with suspected symptoms of COVID-19 as its pandemic caseload neared 2 million — a week after the country acknowledged the outbreak and scrambled to slow the rate of infections despite a lack of health care resources.

The country is also trying to prevent its fragile economy from deteriorating, but the outbreak could be worse than officially reported because of scarce resources for virus testing and the deliberate possibility that North Korea could be underreporting deaths to soften the political impact on authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korea’s anti-virus headquarters reported a single death in the 24 hours to 6 pm Wednesday to bring its death toll to 63, which experts have said is abnormally small compared to the suspected number of infections.

The official Korean Central News Agency reported that more than 1.98 million people have become sick with feverish symptoms since late April, which are mostly believed to be coronavirus omicron variant infections, although the country has only confirmed a small number of cases because of the scarcity of tests. At least 740,160 people are in quarantine, the news agency reported.

After maintaining a dubious claim that it had kept the virus out of the country for two and a half years, North Korea acknowledged its first COVID-19 infections last Thursday, saying that tests from an unspecified number of people in capital Pyongyang showed they were infected with the omicron variant.

Kim has called the outbreak a “great upheaval” and has imposed what the country described as maximum preventive measures that strictly restricted the movement of people and supplies between cities and cities.

He mobilized more than 1 million workers to find and people with fevers and other suspected COVID-19 symptoms. Thousands of troops were ordered to help transport medicine in the capital of Pyongyang.

Story continues

State media images showed health workers in white and orange hazmat suits guarding the city’s closed-off streets, disinfecting buildings and streets and delivering food and other supplies to apartment blocks.

But large groups of workers continue to gather at farms, mining, power stations and construction sites to spur production because Kim has demanded that economic goals must be met, the Korean Central News Agency reported.

Experts have said Kim cannot afford to bring the country to a standstill because that would unleash further shock on a broken economy damaged by mismanagement, crippling US-led sanctions over his nuclear weapons ambitions and pandemic closures.

The country faces an urgent push to protect crops amid an ongoing drought that hit the country during a crucial rice-planting season, a worrisome development in a country that has long suffered from food insecurity. North Korean state media also said that Kim’s trophy construction projects, including the building of 10,000 new houses in the town of Hwasong, are being “propelled as scheduled.”

“All sectors of the national economy are stepping up the production to the maximum while strictly observing the anti-epidemic steps taken by the party and the state,” Korean Central News Agency reported, referring to the travel restrictions and a virus controls at workplaces, Including keeping workers separated in groups by their job classifications.

The news agency added: “Units are quarantined reasonably at major construction sites in which the cherished desire of our party is coming into reality and at key industrial sectors including metal, chemical, electricity and coal industries. And construction and production are being steadily accelerated, with precedence given to the anti-epidemic work.”

Kee Park, a global health specialist at Harvard Medical School who has worked on health care projects in North Korea, said the country’s number of new cases should start to slow because of the strengthened preventive measures.

But it will be challenging for North Kore to provide treatment for the already large number of people with COVID-19 and deaths may possibly approach a scale of tens of thousands, considering the size of the country’s caseload, Park said.

It’s clear of whether North Korea’s admission of the outbreak communicates a willingness to receive outside help. The country has shunned millions of vaccine shots offered by the UN-backed COVAX distribution program, likely because of international monitoring requirements that are required to receive the vaccines.

Kim Tae-hyo, deputy national security adviser for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, told reporters on Thursday that North Korea has ignored offers of help from South Korea and the US to contain the outbreak.

Experts have said North Korea may be more willing to accept help from China, its main ally.

Legal experts urge UN special rapporteur to visit Brazil to report on president’s attacks on Brazilian judicial bodies.

Brazil’s democracy and the independence of its judiciary are under threat from the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, a group of lawyers and legal experts have said in a petition to the United Nations, as the country prepares for elections in October.

The group of 80 jurists and legal researchers on Wednesday appealed to the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Diego Garcia-Sayan, to visit Brazil and report on attacks on the Supreme Court and the Superior Electoral Court that oversees elections.

The courts face an campaign of distrust public threats to judges who decide against the government’s agenda, they said in their petition.

“Moreover, without any evidence, Bolsonaro publicly claims that the Brazilian electoral system can be and has been rigged, and has even claimed that the TSE judges are behind such alleged frauds,” the petition to the UN rapporteur read.

Facing a drop in popularity, Bolsonaro over the past several months has claimed — without providing any evidence — that Brazil’s electronic voting system is vulnerable to fraud.

Critics and judicial experts have rejected his claims as baseless, accusing Bolsonaro of planning to use his fraud claims to contest the election results, similar to former United States President Donald Trump, whom Bolsonaro has emulated.

Earlier this month, the president said his party would seek an audit of the voting system before the election. He has also suggested that the armed forces, whose current and former members are employed throughout his government, should conduct their own parallel vote count.

On Wednesday, the president’s son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, said Brazil could face political instability if the electoral court did not provide more transparency about its voting system.

Meanwhile, Wednesday’s petition said that Bolsonaro uttered a series of direct threats to the Supreme Court in a speech to a crowd of thousands of supporters in September of last year.

“The Brazilian Judiciary is under siege. Judicial independence in Brazil is facing challenges that are since democratization in the 1980s,” the letter said.

Bolsonaro is facing a stiff challenge in his re-election bid from former left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who recently launched his presidential campaign and a clear lead over Bolsonaro, according to recent polls.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — With global hunger levels at a new high, the United Nations chief said Wednesday he is in “intense contacts” with Russia and other key countries hoping for an agreement to allow the export of grain stored in Ukrainian ports and ensure Russian food and fertilizer have unrestricted access to global markets.

But Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a ministerial meeting on the escalating food security crisis, which has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, that “there is still a long way to go.”

“The complex security, economic and financial implications require goodwill on all sides for a package deal to be reached,” he said. “I will not go into details because public statements could fail the chances of success.”

Guterres said global hunger levels “are at a new high,” with the number of people facing severe food insecurity doubling in just two years from 135 million before the pandemic to 276 million today. He said more than 500,000 people are living in famine conditions — an increase of more than 500% since 2016.

He said Ukraine and Russia together produce almost a third of the world’s wheat and barley and half of its sunflower oil, while Russia and its ally Belarus are the world’s number two and three producers of potash, a key ingredient of fertilizer.

“There is no effective solution to the food crisis without reintegrating Ukraine’s food production, as well as the food and fertilizer produced by Russia and Belarus, into world markets, despite the war,” he said.

The secretary-general said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 is “amplifying and accelerating” the drivers of food insecurity and global hunger — climate change, COVID-19 and inequality.

The conflict has closed Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, halting families food exports to many developing countries, Guterres said that during his recent visit to Africa’s Sahel region, he met who didn’t know where their next meal was coming from.

Story continues

David Beasley, head of the UN World Food Program, warned that “failure to open the ports will be a declaration of war on global food security, resulting in famine and destabilization of nations as well as mass migration by necessity.”

“This is not just about Ukraine,” he said. “This is about the poorest of the poor around the world who are on the brink of starvation as we speak. So I ask (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin, if you have any heart at all, to please open these ports … so that we can feed the poorest of the poor and avert famine, as we’ve done in the past, when nations in this room have stepped up together.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who chaired the meeting called by the United States, said the world is facing “the greatest global food security crisis of our time.”

Blinken said that between 2016 and 2021, the number of people living in acute food insecurity — where their inability to eat adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods “in immediate danger” — skyrocketed from 108 million to 161 million.

America’s top diplomat urged countries to make significant new contributions for humanitarian organizations and agencies battling food in security, and he called on countries with significant grain and fertilizer reserves to also come forward quickly.

“Governments and international organizations can also come together to compel the Russian Federation to create corridors so that food and other vital supplies can safely leave Ukraine by land or by sea,” Blinken said. “There are an estimated 22 million tons of grain sitting in silos in Ukraine right now, a food that could immediately go toward helping those in need if it can simply get out of the country.”

French court confirms charge of complicity in ‘crimes against humanity’ for Lafarge over alleged payoffs to ISIL (ISIS) and other armed groups.

A French appeals court has confirmed a charge of complicity in crimes against humanity for cement group Lafarge over alleged payoffs to ISIL (ISIS) and other armed groups during Syria’s war, paving the way for an eventual trial.

Rights a hope the case will serve as bellwether for prosecuting multinationals accused of turning a blind eye to “terrorist” operations in exchange for continuing to operate in war-torn countries.

Lafarge, now part of the Swiss building materials conglomerate Holcim, has acknowledged that it paid nearly 13 million euros ($13.6m) to middlemen to keep its Syrian cement factory running in 2013 and 2014, long after other French firms had pulled out of the country .

The company contends that it had no responsibility for the money winding up in the hands of armed groups, and in 2019 it won a court ruling that threw out the charge of complicity in crimes against humanity.

But that ruling was overturned by France’s supreme court, which ordered a retrial in September 2021. The decision on Wednesday means that a judge could order Lafarge and eight of its executives, including former CEO Bruno Lafont, to stand trial.

The appeals court sided with prosecutors who said Lafarge had “financed, via its subsidiaries, Islamic State [ISIL] operations with several millions of euros in full awareness of its activities.”

It also upheld charges of financing terrorism and endangering the lives of others for putting its Syrian employees at risk as ISIL (ISIS) fighters took over large swathes of the country, before Lafarge abandoned its cement plant in Jalabiya, near Aleppo, in September 2014.

Holcim, which merged with Lafarge in 2015, said the company would appeal the court’s decision.

“We firmly believe that this offence should not be held against Lafarge, which will file an appeal,” the group added.

By Idrees Ali and Josh Smith

WASHINGTON/SEOUL, May (Reuters) – Despite battling a wave of suspected COVID-19 infections, North Korea is to be preparing to test an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) ahead of US President Joe Biden’s first official trip to South Korea, a US official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the latest intelligence showed North Korea could carry out an ICBM test as soon as Thursday or Friday.

Biden is expected to arrive in South Korea on Friday and hold talks with his South Korean counterparts over several days before visiting Japan. The White House said last week Biden was considering a trip to the Demilitarized Zone on the border with North Korea.

A weapons test could overshadow Biden’s broader focus on China, trade, and other regional issues, and underscore the lack of progress in denuclearisation talks despite his administration’s vow to break the stalemate with practical approaches.

It could also complicate international efforts to offer Pyongyang aid as it battles its first confirmed COVID outbreak.

The trip is Biden’s first to the region as president, and will be the first summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office on May 10.

Yoon has vowed to take a harder line against North Korean “provocations,” and is expected to seek greater assurances from Biden that the United States will strengthen its “extended deterrence” against the North.

When asked about the US assessment on a missile launch, a spokesperson for Seoul’s ministry of defense said that South Korean and US intelligence authorities are monitoring such activities and closely coordinating, and that its military is maintaining a firm readiness posture.

US officials have warned that the North could also test a nuclear weapon around the visit, and the State Department said on Tuesday there is no expectation that the COVID outbreak would delay a resumption of nuclear testing, paused since 2017.

“Even as (North Korea) continues to refuse the donation of … apparently much-needed COVID vaccines, they continue to invest untold sums in ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs that do nothing to alleviate the humanitarian plight of the North Korean people, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told a briefing.

A new report by the US-based Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS) said commercial satellite imagery shows work continuing at the nuclear site, whose underground testing tunnels were shuttered in 2018 after leader Kim Jong Un declared a moratorium on nuclear and ICBM tests .

He has since said that the country is no longer bound by that moratorium because of a lack of progress in talks with the United States. The North resumed testing ICBMs in March.

“Refurbishment work and preparations at Tunnel No. 3 has been proceeding over the past three months, and presumably will be nearing completion for the oft-speculated seventh nuclear test,” the CSIS report on the nuclear site said. “The timing of this test rests within the hands of Kim Jong Un.”

North Korea has also resumed construction at a long-dormant nuclear reactor that would increase its production of plutonium for nuclear weapons by a factor of 10, researchers at the US-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) reported last week, citing satellite imagery.

Analysts say that even if North Korea tests a weapon, South Korea and the United States should offer unconditional COVID aid.

North Korea sent aircraft to China to pick up medical supplies days after it confirmed its first COVID-19 outbreak, media reported on Tuesday, but Pyongyang has yet to respond to offers of aid from South Korea. Washington says that it supports providing assistance to North Korea, but that there were no current plans to provide vaccines. (Reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington and Josh Smith in Seoul; Additional reporting by Soo-hyang Choi. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Leading US-based rights group says Russian forces had subjected civilians to summary executions, torture and other grave abuses in two regions.

A leading human rights watchdog has accused Russian troops of carrying out summary executions, torture and other grave abuses in two regions of Ukraine, as it published a report documenting further cases of “apparent war crimes” by the invading forces.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its report published on Wednesday documented 22 apparent summary executions, nine other unlawful killings, six possible enforced disappearances and seven cases of torture from late February through March.

Twenty- civilians told HRW about unlawful confinement in inhuman and degrading conditions during the period the Russian forces controlled much of the Kyiv and Cherniv regions, it said.

HRW called for the alleged abuses to be “impartially investigated and appropriately prosecuted”.

Torture
Inhumane Detention
Enforced Disappearances
Summary Executions

During Russia’s occupation of parts of Ukraine’s Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, its forces committed horrific abuses against civilians. pic.twitter.com/BXkBGG1jgi

— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) May 18, 2022

Kremlin, Spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Russia’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to the Reuters news agency requests for comment on the HRW report. Russia has denied targeting civilians or involvement in war crimes and has accused Ukraine of staging atrocities to smear its forces.

Asked more broadly about war crimes allegations against Russian forces in Ukraine, Peskov told Reuters, “We consider it impossible and unacceptable to throw such terms around.”

“Many of the cases that Ukraine is talking about are obvious fakes, and the most egregious ones are staged, as has been convincingly proved by our experts,” he said.

Global outrage

There was a global outrage dozens of bodies, some with their hands bound, were found in towns, including Bucha, near the Ukrainian capital after invading Russian troops retreated from the area.

HRW said it had visited a total of 17 villages and small towns in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions and interviewed 65 people between April 10 and May 10, including the former detainees, people who said they had survived torture, families of victims and other witnesses.

The report went further than a statement issued in April in which HRW said it had documented “several cases of Russian military forces committing laws-of-war violations” in Russian-controlled regions such as Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Kyiv.

“The numerous atrocities by Russian forces occupying parts of northeastern Ukraine early in the war are abhorrent, unlawful, and cruel,” said Giorgi Gogia, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “These abuses against civilians are evident war crimes that should be promptly and impartially investigated and appropriately prosecuted.”

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” aimed at weakening its southern neighbor’s military capabilities and capturing what it regards as dangerous nationalists.

A Kyiv district court on Wednesday began hearing its first war crimes trial against a Russian soldier who took part in Moscow’s February 24 invasion. The soldier, who is accused of murdering a 62-year-old civilian, told the court he pleaded guilty.

Ukraine has said it has identified more than 10,000 possible war crimes in total.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pakistan’s new Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari met for the first time Wednesday and both said they want to strengthen ties between the two countries.

Bhutto Zardari flew to New York to attend a ministerial meeting at UN headquarters called by the United States later Wednesday that will be chaired by Blinken on growing food in security around the world, which has been exacerbated by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The Pakistani minister welcomed the US initiative at the start of his meeting with Blinken at UN headquarters, saying “recent geopolitical events have indeed aggravated the situation, and countries like Pakistan have already been facing challenges in food security, water security, energy security because of a whole host of issues ranging from climate change to issues in our neighborhood.”

“I also look forward to the opportunity to increase engagement between Pakistan and the United States, working with yourself and your administration to improve trade relations between Pakistan and the United States and create opportunities for American investors and Pakistani investors and Pakistani businessmen and American entrepreneurs to work together,” Bhutto Zardari said.

Blinken welcomed Pakistan’s participation at the food security event and called his meeting with the foreign minister “an important opportunity for us to talk about the many issues we’re working together.”

“We want to focus on the work we’re doing to strengthen our economic and commercial ties between the United States and Pakistan,” and to focus on regional security, America’s top diplomat said.

Pakistan is the current chair of the Group of 77 — a powerful coalition of 134 mainly developing nations and China at the United Nations — and Blinken said “the United States is looking forward to strengthening our own relations and dialogue with the G77.” He said he looked forward to talking to the foreign minister about that.

Story continues

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said later that Blinken met with Bhutto Zardari “to affirm the shared desire for a strong and prosperous bilateral relationship.”

During the meeting, which lasted about 45 minutes, Price said they discussed “expanding partnership in climate, investment, trade, and health as well as people-to-people ties.”

“They underscored the importance of US-Pakistan cooperation on regional peace, counterterrorism, Afghan stability, support for Ukraine, and democratic principles,” the spokesman said.

Bhutto Zardari, the son of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto who was killed in 2007, is co-chair of one of the two largest opposition parties that ousted former prime minister Imran Khan on April 11.

Pakistan’s elected parliament lawmaker Shahbaz Sharif as the country’s new prime minister and he appointed Bhutto Zardari as foreign minister on April 27.

By entering the plea, Thomas Lane avoided the more serious charge of aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

A former United States police officer has pleaded guilty to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died in 2020 when a fellow police officer knelt on his neck.

As part of the plea deal announced on Wednesday, Thomas Lane a former Minneapolis police officer will have a count of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder dismissed. Lane, along with J Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, has already been convicted on federal counts of willfully violating Floyd’s rights during the events that led to Floyd’s death.

The state is recommending a sentence for Lane of three years — which is below state sentencing guidelines — and has agreed to allow him to serve the time in a federal prison. He has not yet been awarded in the federal case.

Floyd died May 25, 2020, after another officer, Derek Chauvin, who is white, pinned him to the ground with a knee on his neck, as Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe. Lane and Kueng helped to restrain Floyd, who was handcuffed. Lane held down Floyd’s legs and Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back. Thao kept bystanders from intervening during the 9.5-minute restraint.

Thomas Lane has pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. My thoughts are once again with the victims, George Floyd and his family. Floyd should still be with us. But I am pleased Thomas Lane has accepted responsibility for his role in Floyd’s death.

— Attorney General Keith Ellison (@AGEllison) May 18, 2022

Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office prosecuted the case, said he was pleased that Lane accepted responsibility for his role in Floyd’s death.

“My thoughts are once again with the victims, George Floyd and his family,” Ellison said in a tweet. “Floyd should still be with us. But I am pleased Thomas Lane has accepted responsibility for his role in Floyd’s death.”

In an earlier statement, he said the move was necessary towards achieving justice.

“His acknowledgment he did something wrong is an important step toward healing the wounds of the Floyd family, our community, and the nation,” Ellison said. “While accountability is not justice, this is a significant moment in this case and a necessary resolution on our continued journey to justice.”

The plea by Lane, who is white, comes during a week when the country is focused on the deaths of 10 Black people in Buffalo, New York, at the hands of an 18-year-old white man, who carried out the racist, livestreamed shooting Saturday in a supermarket.

Lane’s lawyer, Earl Gray, said he and Lane would have no comment. Lane was not taken into custody and a pre-sentence investigation was ordered. He is scheduled to be scheduled on September 21 on the state charge.

Lane was convicted along with Kueng and Thao of federal charges in February, after a month-long trial that focused on the officers’ training and the culture of the police department. All three were convicted of depriving Floyd of his right to medical care and Thao and Kueng were also convicted of failing to intervene to stop Chauvin during the killing, which was caught on video and sparked protests in Minneapolis and around the globe as part of a reckoning over racial.

Chauvin, pleaded guilty last year to a federal charge of violating Floyd’s civil rights and faces a federal sentence ranging from 20 to 25 years. Earlier, he was convicted of state charges of murder and manslaughter and decisions to 22.5 years in the state case.

After their federal conviction, there was a question as to whether the state trial would proceed. At an April hearing in state court, prosecutors revealed that they had offered plea deals to all three men, but they were rejected. At the time, Gray said it was hard for the defense to negotiate when the three still did not know what their federal sentences would be.

Thao’s lawyer, Robert Paule, was in the courtroom for Lane’s plea hearing. When asked if his client would also take a plea deal, he replied “No comment.”

Kueng, who is Black, and Thao, who is Hmong American, are scheduled to go to trial in June on the state charges.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations on Wednesday significantly lowered its forecast for global economic growth this year from 4% to 3.1%, saying the war in Ukraine has triggered increasing global food and commodity prices and exacerbated inflationary pressures, upending the fragile recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The mid-2022 forecast from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs said the downgrade in growth prospects is broad-based, including the world’s largest agricultural — the United States, China and most significantly the European Union — and the majority of other developed and developing countries.

The World Economic Situation and Prospects report also warned that the current forecast of 3.1% “faces significant downside risks from further intensification of the war in Ukraine and potential new waves of the pandemic.”

“This slowdown and the war in Ukraine — triggering sharp increases in food and fertilizer prices — will hit the developing countries particularly hard, exacerbating food insecurity and increasing poverty,” the report said.

According to the UN forecast, global inflation is projected to increase to 6.7% in 2022, twice the average of 2.9% during 2010-2020, with sharp rises in food and energy prices.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “The war in Ukraine — in all its dimensions — is setting in motion a crisis that is also devastating global energy markets, disrupting financial systems and exacerbating extreme vulnerabilities for the developing world.”

He urged “quick and decisive action” to ensure a steady flow of food and energy supplies to open markets, saying this requires the lifting of export restrictions, releasing surpluses and reserves to countries in need, and addressing the increase in food prices “to calm” market volatility.”

The 26-page report said the war in Ukraine is not only exacting heavy tolls on its economy and Russia’s but is also affecting the outbreak of neighbors in Central Asia and Europe.

Story continues

The economy of the European Union — which in 2020 imported 57.5% of its energy consumption and is most directly hit by disruptions in energy supplies from Russia — is now expected to grow by only 2.7% this year, down from the January forecast of 3.9%, the report said.

The US economy is expected to grow by 2.6% in 2022 and 1.8% in 2023, a significant downward revision from the January forecast, the report said, pointing to stubbornly high inflation, aggressive monetary tightening by the US Federal Reserve and the direct spillover of the war in Ukraine.

In China, the UN said, the economy is projected to grow by 4.5% this year, down from 8.1% in 2021. It cited rolling lockdowns in major cities to contain the Omicron wave of the COVID-19 in the first quarter of the year.

“The resulting slowdown in economic activities contributed to prolonging supply chains disruptions, negatively affecting other developing countries through trade channels,” the report said. “In addition, soaring commodity prices contributed to higher manufacturing costs across the region, adversely affecting exports.”

As a group, the UN said the developing of developing countries are forecast to grow by 4.1% this year, down from 6.7% in 2021.

Geneva, Switzerland – Israel’s decision to evict approximately 1,200 Palestinians from their homes in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank may amount to a war crime, UN human rights experts said.

The decision to forcibly transfer the Palestinian residents is a serious breach of international humanitarian and human rights laws, and an independent and impartial investigation into the matter should be established, the experts said.

“By upholding this policy to drive Palestinians out of Masafer Yatta, the Israeli judicial system has given carte blanche to the Israeli Government to perpetuate the practice of systematic discrimination against Palestinians,” three UN special rapporteurs said in a joint statement on Monday.

The court decision to permit the forced eviction was “all the more disconcerting”, the UN expert said, as it is being undertaken to allow Israeli military training in the area.

“How can this be given priority over the rights of the Palestinian residents? Israel has shown no ‘imperative military necessity’ to vacate the area. The displacement of the Masafer Yatta communities may thus amount to a war crime,” the rapporteurs said.

Some 500 children are among the estimated 1,200 Palestinian residents who are now at imminent risk of forcible transfer from their land following the judgment of the Israeli High Court of Justice earlier this month.

On May 4, the high court rejected appeals by the residents of Masafer Yatta to prevent their eviction. The court’s ruling effectively ended two decades of legal battles by the residents who had fought to continue living on their land, which the Israeli army has designated a closed military training site – code-named “Firing Zone 918” – located south of Hebron.

Israeli forces have reportedly already demolished structures in the Masafer Yatta communities of Khribet al Fakhiet and al-Markez, according to the rapporteurs.

Francesca Albanese, a lawyer and UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, told Al Jazeera that Israel has not “respected the duties of an occupying power”.

Those duties, which Israel has breached, are delineated in the 1907 Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention, said Albanese, who was one of the three signatories to the UN statement.

“Instead, it has decided to prioritise the establishment of Jewish-only settlements and infrastructure in occupied Palestine, which is in itself a war crime as it violates the absolute prohibition against the forcible transfer by an occupying power of parts of its civilian population into an an occupied territory,” Albanese said.

The occupation of Palestinian lands has benefitted Israeli settlers over the right to life, livelihoods, and housing for Palestinians, she said.

“The occupying power has no right to do so and should instead carry out military training in its own metropolitan territory,” she added.

According to data provided by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, between January 2009 and May 2022, Israel demolished some 8,413 Palestinian buildings, including residential, educational, business and medical infrastructure of which 1,513 were funded by donors.

Israel’s destruction of Palestinian buildings has displaced more than 12,000 residents from their homes and affected a total of 136,494 Palestinian people.

The residents of Masafer Yatta have now exhausted all legal avenues to legally challenge the eviction order, Albanese said, noting that an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into the situation in Palestine is ongoing and that the court could investigate these most recent developments .

“All the attention is now on the office of the current ICC prosecutor,” she said.

Albanese also said that a number of EU member states, who are part of the West Bank Protection Consortium – which provides legal and material support to the Masafer Yatta communities, could use their voice to call on the Israeli government and demand that it respect and comply with international law.

“More broadly, it is necessary to exert pressure on Israel to dismantle the regime of full control and subjugation of the Palestinians it has put in place through the vehicle of the occupation,” she said.

Between January 2008 and April 2022, the Israeli occupation has killed some 6,030 Palestinians and 268 Israelis, while injuring 137,349 Palestinians and 5,912 Israelis.

In their joint statement, the three UN human rights experts also expressed particular concern that the Israeli court’s decision on Masafer Yatta had dismissed as not relevant or not binding, norms and principles that are the very foundation of international law.

“A Court that does not provide justice based on international norms and that perpetuates the violations of fundamental human rights of people who have been under military occupation for 55 years, becomes itself part of the structural system of statement,” the experts said in their .