The United Nations special rapporteur has called for a halt to arms sales to the Israeli regime, which has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 2023.
Israel and the states that supply it with weapons ‘must be stopped,’ Francesca Albanese tweeted on Sunday.
The special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory called for an end to the continued transfer of Western-made arms and munitions to Israeli forces.
‘Seriously, how many children, along with their parents and grandparents, we must witness being starved, burned alive, or gathered into plastic bags after Western-manufactured bombs have shattered them?’ she said.
Several Western countries have continued to supply lethal weapons to the Israeli regime despite the enormous human toll caused by its war on the Palestinian territory.
The United States is the Israeli regime’s closest ally and main supplier of arms and ammunition.
Washington has provided the bulk of weaponry used by Israel, including 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs.
‘Israel must be stopped, and so should the states supplying it with weapons,’ Albanese said.
Since the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip on October 7th, 2023, more than 52,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed.
The Tel Aviv regime’s merciless war has continued despite calls from the United Nations Security Council for an immediate ceasefire and directives from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) urging measures to prevent genocide and alleviate the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Despite promising to halt weapons trade with Israel, Spain has reportedly signed 46 contracts worth over one billion euros with Israeli military firms since the Gaza war began, it emerged last week.
The revelation came after Spain scrapped a controversial ammunition contract with an Israeli supplier for its Civil Guard, sparking internal divisions in Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s fragile Socialist coalition in recent days.
While Sanchez – one of Europe’s most vocal critics of Israel’s war on Gaza – halted arms transactions with Israel after the regime launched the October 2023 war against Gaza, the Barcelona-based Centre Delàs found that Spain, nevertheless, approved 46 military deals worth 1.045 billion euros ($1.2B) with Israeli firms.
According to a statement released by the think tank last Friday, which previewed an upcoming report, out of the 46 contracts involving rocket launchers and missiles, 10 have yet to be formalised.
According to the statement, while some contracts involved maintenance or upgrades of existing equipment, others represented new agreements that ‘could increase the dependence… on an industry essential to perpetrate a genocide.
‘If the government had agreed a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel that included, among other measures, imports and bans on hiring Israeli (military) companies or their subsidiaries, none of these contracts would have been signed,’ the statement added.
The report’s co-author, Eduardo Melero, said: ‘It is clearly demonstrated that the government lied. There was no pledge, that was pure propaganda.’
Melero explained that under Spanish law, protective gear like bulletproof materials qualify as defence equipment, meaning their purchase directly violates the government’s commitment to halt arms trade with the Israeli regime.
Last Thursday, a Spanish government spokesman said it had decided to stick to its October 2023 commitment not to provide Israeli companies with arms or revenue flows ‘and nor will it do so in future.’
Israel criticised Spain’s decision to scrap the bullet supply contract for the Civil Guard, arguing the government was ‘putting political motives above security needs.’
Last year, Spain urged other European Union nations to halt the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel in response to its continued aggression in the Gaza Strip.
The diplomatic push coincides with escalating Palestinian casualties in Gaza and a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in the blockaded territory.
Meanwhile, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has slammed the ongoing deadly violence committed by Israeli settlers and the regime forces in the occupied West Bank.
‘In the West Bank, high levels of settler violence against Palestinians continue, causing death, injuries and loss of property and undermining Palestinian lives and livelihoods in many areas,’ the UN human rights office said in a statement last Friday, referring to ‘concerning’ recent incidents.
It added that the Israeli forces ‘continued the practice of unlawful killings and large-scale operations in northern West Bank.’
Over the past week, Israeli forces ‘killed three Palestinians who were throwing stones, including two children’, the statement said.
According to the OHCHR, the latest casualties have brought to ‘192 the number of children killed’ by Israeli forces in the West Bank since the start of the Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza on October 7th, 2023.
Referring to the Israeli aggression in the northern West Bank – which is now into its third month – the agency said Israeli forces ‘continuing to prevent Palestinians from returning to their homes in the refugee camps of Jenin and Tulkarm, while carrying out widespread destruction coupled with the creation of pathways and barriers inside the camps and conducting daily raids on Palestinian towns and villages.’
The agency warned that the permanent displacement of Palestinians from key West Bank population centres amounts to ‘forcible transfer’.
Last Thursday night, Israeli settlers, accompanied by the regime’s forces, stormed the town of Kifl Haris, northwest of Salfit, in the West Bank.
The troops blocked the movement of Palestinians in the town, as settlers invaded it and desecrated Muslim holy shrines there.
During the raid, settlers roamed the streets of Kifl Haris in a provocative manner, hanging racist slogans on the walls of homes.
Since a ceasefire in Gaza was announced in January, Israel has intensified its attacks in Jenin and other parts of the West Bank.
Last month, the regime broke the ceasefire, while it proceeded with its large-scale military raids in the West Bank.
Since the formation of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet in late 2022, there has been a marked increase in assaults by Israeli settlers on Palestinians, especially in the northern flank of the West Bank.
Various attacks on Palestinian property, including arson and graffiti, have become a daily occurrence throughout the occupied territories, particularly in the West Bank.
However, Israeli authorities rarely prosecute the Israeli settler assaults, and the vast majority of the files are closed due to deliberate police failure to investigate properly.
The Israeli military initiated its assault on the occupied West Bank on January 21, stating that the objective was to target the resistance fighters linked to the Jenin Battalion.
Since the beginning of the war in Gaza in October 2023, Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 957 Palestinians, and more than 7,000 others were injured in the West Bank.
Last July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared that Israel’s long-standing occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal, demanding the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
- A former head of the Israeli regime’s internal spy agency Shin Bet has openly called for a ‘non-violent revolt’ aimed at ‘stopping’ the Tel Aviv regime amid its surveillance campaign against dissent.
Addressing anti-regime protesters in Tel Aviv on Saturday, Ami Ayalon urged illegal settlers to ‘take to the streets’, saying ‘disobedience’ had become a ‘duty’ in light of the regime’s targeting of protesters.
He said Netanyahu is using Shin Bet and other agencies ‘to surveil those who wish to protest,’ adding that, under such circumstances, ‘a black flag flies before our eyes.’
The remarks invoked a legal doctrine in Israeli law, which deems certain immoral orders inherently illegal.
The comments came after current Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar also denounced Netanyahu for attempting to misuse the spy agency to monitor protesters.
The regime is facing intensifying protest among the settlers concerning its various methods, including its insistence on sustaining its war of genocide against the Gaza Strip instead of reaching a deal that could bring scores of Israeli captives back from the coastal territory.
Thousands-strong rallies converge weekly on the city’s Begin Road in a show of united dissidence.
Israeli activist Shikma Bressler, also addressed the crowd in Tel Aviv, echoed Ayalon’s warning, saying: ‘A black flag flies over all of Netanyahu’s decisions.’
Former Israeli military chief Dan Halutz told the protesters that Netanyahu is perpetuating the Gaza war for his own political survival.
He said ‘this is an unnecessary war, driven by the religious, mystic, messianic delusions of his (Netanyahu’s) coalition partners, not by,’ what he called, ‘security need.’
Halutz described Netanyahu, who still faces trial for multiple corruption charges, as ‘a clear, present, and immediate danger’ to the regime.
