At least 150 people are at risk of imminent "unlawful" execution in Iraq as the country has continued to step up its use of the death penalty in recent months, according to a new report.

Human Rights Watch said that the prisoners' sentences needed only to be confirmed by Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid before they were executed.

Iraq has for many years had one of the world's highest execution rates, despite repeated warnings from lawyers and rights groups that the legal cases of many of those convicted were deeply flawed.

Torture, isolation from family and lawyers, and forced confessions are widespread in Iraqi prisons, while evidence provided in terrorism cases has often been flimsy and, in some cases, linked to disputes over land and businesses.

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🎥 Medics in Gaza's al-Najjar hospital in Rafah city have been treating wounded Palestinians on the hospital floor due to dire shortages.

Hospitals have been at the centre of Israel's deliberate attacks since the conflict started over 100 days ago.

There have been over 645 attacks on the Palestinian health system, including hospitals, ambulances and vehicles delivering vital supplies, resulting in over 619 deaths, according to the World Health Organisation

🎥 “There is significant destruction, very heavy shelling, destruction of infrastructure and vandalism and destruction of houses, and very brutal air strikes.”

Accounts of the destruction in areas west of Gaza City, following 108 days of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 25,295 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since 7 October

🎥 "Our message to the Palestinian people is that we stand with them wholeheartedly"

Protesters and thousands of students from Sanaa University took to the streets in Sanaa, Yemen, to express their solidarity with Gaza and protest against the US and UK attacks on Yemen

Tributes are pouring in to Palestinian academic Fadel Abu Hein, a professor and psychologist at Gaza’s Al-Aqsa University, after he was killed by an Israeli sniper on 23 January.

Abu Hein's death comes as Israeli forces encircled the Khan Younis area of Gaza, which is home to Al-Aqsa University.

Abu Hein was considered an expert in treating trauma and mental health conditions resulting from years of war.

Israel has killed at least 94 other academics in its war on the besieged enclave. A total of at least 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict so far, the vast majority of them civilians.

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🎥 A Palestinian mother refuses to leave the body of her slain son and carries him on her shoulder to escape Israeli bombing in Khan Younis to Rafah.

The mother said Israeli soldiers shot at them and killed her son

The Berlin-based founders of fashion label GmbH, Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Isik, who on Sunday gave a speech in solidarity with Palestine during their show at Paris Fashion Week, have told MEE that colleagues in the industry are scared to speak out about Israel’s war on Gaza.

During the final show of Paris men’s fashion week, Huseby and Isik opened their autumn/winter presentation with a speech calling for a ceasefire.

Many major fashion labels - including Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren and Chanel - have reportedly voiced their support for Israel, or have financial ties to business interests in the country.

In reporting GmbH’s show and the speech given by its designers, fashion magazine Vogue did not mention either Israel or Palestine.

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🎥 Israeli rapper, Dor Stilla, reveals the lyrics that didn’t make his song “Harbu Darbu” on TikTok.

The lyrics contain derogatory slurs and names targeted towards Palestinians, and calls for Gaza to be “turned into a parking lot”

🎥 “Is it now not the time for the Prime Minister to admit that he has the blood of thousands of innocent people on his hands?”

Earlier today at the Prime Minister Question session in Parliament, Tahir Ali, the Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hall Green, questioned the UK Prime Minister on his compliance with Israel and their ongoing aggression in Gaza.

Tahir Ali later apologized for his language towards the Prime Minister on Twitter but did not resign from his stance on the issue

New York City public schools are expanding training on antisemitism and Islamophobia to middle and high schools as a result of tensions over the war in Gaza, underscoring how fallout over the conflict is trickling down to everyday life.

The city’s public schools chancellor, David Banks, said on Monday that all middle and high school principals would be required to receive training on “navigating difficult conversations” among US teenagers and address tensions over the war.

NYC public schools will also expand access to teaching materials on antisemitism and Islamophobia and offer anti-discrimination workshops to members of parent organisations amid reports that parent council meetings have descended into fighting matches over the war

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A video shows bodies across the streets of Qizan Al-Najjar in Khan Younis. Stray animals are seen feeding on the corpses of dead people, amidst scattered bones.

On Monday, the Israeli army escalated its air, land, and sea assaults on the southern city of Khan Younis, resulting in the deaths of many civilians.

Previously designated as a safe zone by the Israeli army, the area is now experiencing some of the most intense fighting since the onset of the war on 7 October.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported on Monday that the Israeli military is attacking its ambulance centre, hindering first responders from reaching the wounded in Khan Younis and targeting anyone moving in the area.

🎥: @abdullahobead

🎥 "What a shame, what a shame. Closing the crossing is the biggest disgrace"

On Tuesday, protesters gathered in front of the Egyptian embassy in Amman, Jordan, to demand the opening of the Rafah crossing and lifting the siege off Gaza.

In the last few weeks, many Arab countries, including Egypt, saw demonstrations trying to pressure the Egyptian government to open the Rafah crossing and get aid and medicine to the people of Gaza

On Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will decide whether to implement provisional measures against Israel, in response to South Africa’s allegations that Israel’s military actions in Gaza constitute state-led genocide.

On Wednesday, the United Nations’ highest court announced that its 17-member judge panel will deliver its verdict in court on 26 January at 1200 GMT.

South Africa has called upon the ICJ to take provisional measures against Israel, which includes an immediate halt to Israeli military activity in Gaza. A final verdict, however, is expected to take years

🎥 Over a dozen individual pro-Palestine protesters repeatedly interrupted a Biden campaign rally about abortion rights in Virginia on Tuesday to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.

Protesters took turns shouting concerns about the situation in Gaza and pro-Palestine slogans before being drowned out by Biden supporters chanting “four more years” as the protesters were escorted out of the building.

In December last year the Biden administration bypassed US Congress twice for emergency weapons sales to Israel and in November

🎥 British Journalist Peter Oborne explains how the ‘coercive liberalism’ of think tanks like Policy Exchange and Henry Jackson Society targeted and criminalised Muslim citizens.

Watch the full interview on The Big Picture ⤵️
https://youtu.be/5ncp2jRFUEo

🎥 An Israeli journalist from Channel 13 News, refuted claims made by the military regarding alleged crimes committed by Hamas, which were published around the world.

The journalist highlighted a particular incident involving the Kfir Brigade commander, who spoke to another channel giving detail on events in Kibbutz Be'eri, alleging the killing of eight babies and an elderly woman.

However, the Israeli journalist said, “Well, no eight babies were killed in Be'eri, according to the Kibbutz spokesperson and there's no woman named Jenya in Be'eri”

🎥 "In exchange for what they are doing, we will colonise this country”

Israeli politician Miki Zohar alongside ministers from the Likud party, including Yossi Dogan and Daniella Weis call for the people of Israel to attend an upcoming conference.

Miki Zohar states that the conference will show the importance of establishing Israeli settlements in Gaza

🔴 RECAP: #Israel #Palestine (as of 23:30 GMT, 24 January)

• Over 25,700 people have now been killed in the besieged Palestinian territory since the war began

• On Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will decide whether to implement provisional measures against Israel, in response to South Africa’s genocide allegations against Israel

• Italy is set to provide hospital treatment to 100 Palestinian children from Gaza, with plans to transport them by air and sea

• UK Foreign Minister David Cameron visited Israel on Wednesday to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu

• The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that seven out of 24 hospitals are “partially functioning” in northern Gaza

• The Israeli occupation has deprived more than 625,000 students in the Gaza Strip of education, said the Palestinian Ministry of Education

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🎥 Soumaya Ghannoushi, a writer and editor, explains why David Cameron, Britain’s former Prime Minister, and John Kirby, the White House spokesperson, repeated almost the same words when asked about South Africa's case against Israel in the ICJ, and the reasons the US took over the UK’s former role in fully supplying Israel with weapons, ammunition, and political cover, effectively enabling the elimination of the local Palestinian population.

She added, 'Palestine is the world’s moral test. And many are sadly failing it abysmally.' Talking about how colonialism and apartheid, often confined to history books and library archives, are starkly visible in modern-day Palestine.

Ghannoushi said that Palestine represents Europe's last colonial outpost, an anachronistic colonial endeavour in a post-colonial world. Israel and its allies attempt to impose a settler colonial project in a world that rejects colonialism

🎥 Protests are erupting in Tel Aviv where demonstrators are blocking the highways, demanding the Israeli government engage in a swap deal with Hamas for the return of all the Israeli hostages left in Gaza

Israel’s head of Antiquities Authority said in a series of photos and videos last week that the Israeli military had stolen artefacts from Gaza and displayed them in the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset, but later backtracked on his statements.

Askozido took down the previous post and issued a statement in Hebrew on Monday saying that the items were only “examined and left undisturbed at the site”.

The post was slammed by a pro-Palestine activist, Khaled Yousry, who denounced the director and called the move a “war crime”.

Earlier this month, the Gaza government media office said the Israeli army has, since 7 October, looted money, gold, and artefacts worth around $25m.

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