New thread – @amnesty’s Crisis Evidence Lab documented 3 attacks, possible war crimes, killing at least 9 civilians, including children, in #Kharkiv, on 28 February, around the same time that peace talks began at the border with Belarus.
At approximately 12:30 local time, an apparent indiscriminate attack in North #Kharkiv killed at least 4 civilians, including a child and 3 people collecting drinking water. At least 16 more people were injured. Our 3D model is based on verified videos and witness testimonies.
A verified image first acquired by @bellingcat shows the attack included Russian-manufactured 300mm Smerch rockets with 9N235 cluster munitions. The 2019 manufacture date, after Russia stopped selling these arms to Ukraine, indicates that the attack was launched by Russia.
Around the same time, footage verified by the Crisis Evidence Lab from an apartment block on Klochkivska Street in #Kharkiv shows a group of people fleeing and taking cover from another 300mm Smerch rocket.
The impact of the strike blew off the leg of a woman who was reportedly shopping in the area at the time. She later died as a result of her injuries as reported by the @guardian.
A third 300mm Smerch rocket salvo struck the area around a shopping centre and car park in NE Kharkiv. A witness told Amnesty that they saw two people severely injured in the area of the attack.
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In Lebanon, authorities are using criminal defamation laws as a weapon to harass, intimidate and attack journalists and critics who report on allegations of corruption in the country.
🧵 Today’s decision by the @CIJ_ICJ to order additional provisional measures in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel highlights the continuing catastrophic deterioration of conditions & the growing threat to Palestinians in occupied #Gaza since the ICJ’s last ruling.
The Court’s decision to issue additional measures is a clear indication of the State of Israel’s failure thus far to comply with the previous legally binding measures issued by the Court, as already reiterated by @Amnesty and others.
In its decision, the ICJ stressed that Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine, but that famine is “setting in” necessitating the modification of the original provisional measures order to address the exceptionally grave developments.
🚨 The statement published by the office of PM Netanyahu, which instructs the Israeli military to produce a plan for the “evacuation of the civilian population” of #Rafah has spread panic in the southern governorate raising fears that a massive ground operation is imminent.
Such an operation will have catastrophic consequences for more than a million people – the vast majority of them displaced - who are living in desperate conditions in Rafah, squeezed into overcrowded areas, makeshift tents and schools or sleeping on the streets, who have nowhere to go.
Satellite imagery of rural areas of Rafah show a mass of tents and other temporary structures that have risen since mid-October. In urban areas of Rafah, a mass of people and new temporary structures can be seen on the streets ⬇️
🔎 @Amnesty has verified 6 videos of an attack on 13 October 2023, resulting in civilian casualties along Salah-Al Deen street, a route the Israeli army had designated as safe for civilians to flee after an Israeli ‘order’ told them to leave northern #Gaza.
Israeli military have been urging hospitals & Int’l orgs in northern Gaza to rapidly relocate people to the south & airdropping leaflets. This is virtually impossible: w/no transport children, sick & older people, pregnant women, persons with disabilities can’t make this journey.
Our research team found that a convoy, including a truck carrying around 30 people, 8 cars & other nearby people, incl. women, children & people with disabilities, was attacked. Ambulances that arrived at the scene were hit in a second attack & rescuers injured. At least 70 died.
The first draft of new rules required foreigners married to Palestinians to leave the West Bank for 6 months. This has since faced backlash and has been removed.
Now, if the relationship starts after the foreigner has arrived to the west bank, they must still declare this love interest to the Israeli Defense Ministry. These laws further entrench a cruel system of apartheid against Palestinians and isolate them from the outside world.
In New York, facial recognition technology has been used to target people of color in protests, threatening their right to freedom of expression and peaceful protest.
So we sued the NYPD, and won 🧵
Last year, when we asked the NYPD to publish their data on facial recognition, they refused. So we mapped their surveillance cameras.
More than 7,000 digital volunteers joined our global #BanTheScan campaign and searched every intersection in NYC for the CCTV cameras powering the NYPD’s facial recognition system. They identified 25,500 public and private cameras. amn.st/6013zNPwP