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Resources updated between Monday, June 17, 2019 and Sunday, June 23, 2019

June 21, 2019

"An Israeli advocacy group has recently appealed to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, demanding it be allowed to be a respondent in the complaints filed against Israeli soldiers and officers with respect to the Mavi Marmara ship.

The Mavi Marmara was a Turkish vessel that in 2010 attempted to breach the maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip. Upon approaching Gaza's waters, the Israeli Navy hailed the ship several times, ordering it to stop and turn around. The Marmara refused and Israeli commandos raided the ship. The operation was met with violence by the passengers, 10 Turkish nationals were killed and several Israeli soldiers were beaten.

The incident caused a rift between Israel and Turkey, and the once warm diplomatic relations between Jerusalem and Ankara have become chilly, at best, despite Israel's $20 million reparations to the victims' families.

Despite the settlement, the ICC has recently ordered Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to reopen the investigation following an appeal by the IHH, which organized the flotilla led by the Mavi Marmara.

The Turkey-based IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation has been designated as a terrorist group by Israel, Germany and the Netherlands..."

'INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT HAS NO AUTHORITY TO HEAR MARMARA CASE' Article

June 20, 2019

June 18, 2019

Police at the scene of the incident (Photo credit Israel Police)

The plot thickens in the shocking rape of a 7-year-old Jewish girl in the Binyamin region in Samaria. The suspected rapist was reportedly helped by two accomplices who are still at large, likely working in the same town where the rape took place.

Forty-six year old Mahmoud Nazmi Abd Alhamid Katusa was indicted on Sunday at a military court outside Jerusalem for the brutal rape of the little girl following a long investigation.

Working as a janitor and maintenance man at the elementary school which the girl attended, he gradually won her trust by being friendly and giving her sweets. Nevertheless, when he asked her to accompany him to a nearby house, she refused. He then took her by force.

"I'm going to do something fun for you," Katusa told the girl.

Katusa, however, did not act alone, according to Haim Bleicher, the attorney from the legal aid group Honenu who is representing the girl's family.

Two other Arab workers were present at the time. They held the girl's arms and legs and covered her eyes as she cried and begged to go home. They humiliated the girl as she was raped, saying she "deserved it," Arutz 7 reports.

Crime location

Police say the crime took place at a house that the suspect had been renovating as a part-time construction worker. This was revealed when, a few days after Katusa was arrested on May 1, a local resident appeared at the police station inquiring as to the reasons that he'd been arrested.

When the police asked the resident why he was interested, he said that he had hired Katusa to work on his home. The police then discovered the home matched the girl's description of the location where the rape had taken place.

Katusa's attorney, Nashef Darwish, tried to poke holes in the investigation on Tuesday.

"After I reviewed the details of the case, I can tell you – this is the Dreyfus trial – the case will be reversed in the coming days," he told Israel's Channel 12 News. "I say with certainty that people are going to be shocked by the result that will be received in the coming days."

The crime sparked a sharp reaction from Israeli politicians, several of whom called for the death penalty against the perpetrators.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted: "The shocking rape of a little girl shakes the hearts of all of us. I would like to strengthen the family. It is on the courts to exercise the full extent of the law on everyone responsible for this terrible act."

The Lehava organization, an anti-assimilation group, blocked the entrance to the village of Deir Kadis in Samaria where the suspect lives.

Some in the media are also upset, wondering why the case was kept hidden from the press. Noam Amir, correspondent for Israel's Channel 20, tweeted on Monday:

"Many are very angry at the scant coverage of the shocking rape story... I am more disturbed by the fact that the story was "leaked" last night ... only after the indictment. How is it possible that such a shocking story does not reach the public at the time of arrest, interrogation, detention extensions??"

Yediot Ahronot reports that a source close to the family says that the parents are in terrible shape.

"It is important to them that no one know about the incident, except for the court. They are very worried ever since the incident went public. It has really affected them physically," the source said. "They really cannot deal with this incident. The mother is on the verge of total collapse."

Arab accomplices still at large in rape of Jewish girl, 7, report says Document

June 17, 2019

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (left) at an Iranian nuclear plant (File photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Iran says it will break key nuclear deal uranium limit in 10 days Document

Protesters in Khartoum in front of the Sudanese Army headquarters (Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Sudan's military acknowledge 'outrageous' violations as mass rape and killings alleged Document

A Nigerian soldier deployed against Boko Haram (File photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

At least 30 people have been killed in a suicide attack in north-eastern Nigeria, while watching a televised football match, officials say.

Another 40 were injured in the triple suicide bombing, according to the state emergency management agency.

The bombers detonated their explosives outside a hall in Konduga village in Borno State.

Militant Islamist group Boko Haram is being blamed for the attack. There was no immediate comment from the group.

Formed in Borno State, the group has waged a brutal insurgency across the north-east for a decade.

Ali Hassan, leader of a self-defence group in Konduga, told AFP news agency that the owner of the hall had prevented one bomber from entering..

"There was a heated argument between the operator and the bomber who blew himself up," he said.

Two other attackers who were nearby then set off their devices.

Konduga has been targeted before. In July 2018, eight people were killed after a suicide bomber detonated explosives in a mosque.

At least 27,000 lives have been lost and about two million people have been forced to flee their homes in the conflict with Boko Haram.

Nigeria suicide blast kills 30 football fans in Borno Document

An UNRWA school (File photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Hamas endorsement of UNRWA elections underscores the agency's inherent flaws Article

Fire teams battle a blaze caused by arson balloons launched from Gaza into Israel on June 14, 2019 (Fire Services and Rescue)

Gazans launch dozens of fire balloons into Israel as hundreds riot on border Document