|
I'm VOA's Joe Ramsey with your worldwide news update.
A rights group on Thursday said Israel has caused a forced displacement of civilians in Gaza to such an extent that it constitutes war crimes and crimes against humanity. Reuters correspondent Zachary Goelman reports. "Israel claims that it set up an evacuation system to allow Palestinians, civilians in Gaza, to seek safety." Human Rights Watch said its investigation showed that Israel failed to show its efforts to relocate Palestinian civilians met the required conditions under international law. Adam Kugel is the deputy director of the group's Middle East and North Africa Division. "Our report and documentation shows that Israel has failed to meet the burden. Therefore they are committing forced displacement and because it's pursuant to a state policy, it is a crime against humanity." Israel in response accused the organization of using rhetoric that is, quote, "completely false" and "detached from reality." Israel invaded the Gaza Strip last year after Hamas gunmen led an assault on communities in southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and abducting more than 250 as hostages. Since then the Israeli campaign has killed more than 43,500 people, according to Gaza health authorities. The onslaught destroyed much of the enclave's infrastructure, forcing most of the population's 2.3 million people to move several times. For the past month Israeli troops have moved tens of thousands of people from areas of Gaza's north as they have sought to destroy Hamas forces the military says are regrouping. Human Rights Watch said the displacement of Palestinians, quote, "is likely planned to be permanent in the buffer zones and security corridors," an action it said would amount to, quote, "ethnic cleansing." The Israeli military has denied seeking to create permanent buffer zones. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said on Monday that Palestinians displaced from their homes in northern Gaza would be allowed to return at the end of the war. Reuters correspondent Zachary Goelman. This is VOA News. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he'll nominate vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be America's health secretary. AP correspondent Sagar Meghani reports. Kennedy would head the massive Health and Human Services Department, which oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to Medicare. "We will make Americans healthy again." Kennedy endorsed Trump in August after dropping his own independent presidential bid. The son of the late attorney general is one of the world's most prominent anti-vaccine activists and has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. During a House hearing, California Democrat Robert Garcia was aghast. "... that someone that wants to gut the NIH, HHS, and other services could be put in charge of health of any kind in this country." Sagar Meghani, Washington. Smog has descended on New Delhi earlier than usual this year, impacting disability, including near the Indian city's international airport. Reuters correspondent Rachel Graham has more. Smog caused a sharp drop in visibility in Delhi this week, causing a raft of delays at the city's airport. More patients flocked to hospitals, particularly children. One pediatrician told a news agency he'd seen a spike in asthma attacks. Officials blamed high pollution, combined with humidity, low wind speed, and a slight drop in temperature. Daily air quality in the region crossed into the severe category for the first time this season. Air quality monitoring group IQAir ranked New Delhi the second most polluted major city on Thursday, behind Lahore in neighboring Pakistan. Dense smog has engulfed other parts of northern India, such as the states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, where visibility fell to zero in some areas on Thursday. Reuters correspondent Rachel Graham. China's president will unveil a mega port in Peru, but locals say they're being left out. AP correspondent Charles De Ledesma reports. Chancay is a remote fishing town on the edge of Peru's coastal desert, where a third of all residents have no running water, but is now being transformed into a huge deep water port to cash in on the inexorable rise of Chinese interests in resource-rich South America. Local fisherman Julius Caesar tells the AP "all kinds of fish used to come. They destroyed an appropriated part of the sea." The mega port, a $1.3 billion project, majority owned by the Chinese shipping giant Cosco, wants to turn the outpost of bobbing fishing boats into an important node of the global economy. I'm Charles De Ledesma. That wraps up this update, but the world and news never stop. For additional updates visit our website. I'm Joe Ramsey, VOA News. |