Alice Jill Edwards, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, speaks about the report on the duty to investigate crimes of torture in national law and practice of the Special Rapporteur on Torture, presented at the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, 15 March 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / MARTIAL TREZZINI) 
The brother of an Israeli man held hostage in the Gaza Strip by Palestinian militants Hamas criticised the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday for inaction and urged it to “send a resonating message that terror will never prevail”.
The US, joined by Arab mediators, sought on Wednesday to conclude an agreement between Israel and Hamas to halt the 14-month-old war in the Gaza Strip, where medics said Israeli strikes killed at least 20 Palestinians overnight.
UN torture expert visits Israeli scenes of 7 October Hamas attack
The United Nations’ senior expert on torture visited the Israeli kibbutz communities attacked on 7 October 2023, for the first time, on Wednesday to offer support to families of Israelis abducted by Hamas fighters to the Gaza Strip.
Alice Jill Edwards, the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment, spoke to Reuters as talks gained momentum in Egypt and Qatar on a ceasefire deal and the release of hostages and Palestinians detained by Israel.
“I’m very hopeful for a deal. I’ve been calling for a long time for the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages. This is an unlawful act under international law. It’s an atrocity. It’s a war crime,” she said in an interview.
“I am hopeful that the families will be able to see their loved ones as soon as possible and that there will be peace restored in this region.”
Hamas fighters killed some 1,200 people and seized more than 250 hostages, of whom 100 remain captive, says Israel. Israeli troops have since killed some 45,000 Palestinians in an assault on Gaza, say health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave.
On her visit, Edwards described the scene as both eerie and uneasy, a mix of flowers and greenery amid broken windows and shattered glass, the result of fire bombings that October day 14 months ago.
Edwards said she had written to the Palestinian Authority about independent and verifiable reports of sexual torture and violence that occurred on 7 October. She said she would also speak to Israeli authorities about credible allegations of torture and mistreatment of Palestinians in Israeli detention.
“It is very important that when you have two communities that are suffering and live so close together, that we recognise the suffering of each. They are different. They are of different scale. They will be different individually,” she said.
“But, you know, everybody counts and every life counts and we should preserve that. And that is the essence of human rights. It’s not about, you know, picking sides. The side is of human rights and the people’s right to live in safety, peace and security.”
Edwards said her goal was to document what happened in Israel and to let the hostages and their families know people are fighting for the captives’ safe return, whether they are alive or may have been killed or perished.
Yuval Haran (38), whose father was killed and whose seven relatives were abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri, stood outside the rubble of his parents’ home.
“This isn’t about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it isn’t about politics or right or left, it isn’t about war, it’s about human beings and we need to remember these are human beings that for almost 440 days are being held,” he said.
"We don’t care about revenge. You know, my father was murdered here, but I don’t want revenge for my father ... I want all the hostages back. I want that we have a quiet and peaceful life. This is what I pray for.”
At UN, brother of Hamas hostage urges action against terror
The brother of an Israeli man held hostage in the Gaza Strip by Palestinian militants Hamas criticised the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday for inaction and urged it to “send a resonating message that terror will never prevail”.
Michael Levy’s brother Or was taken hostage and Or’s wife was killed when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023. Levy was the first person from a hostage family to brief the 15-member Security Council, which has met dozens of times on the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza over the past 14 months.
“Your silence is deafening, your inaction is suffocating. For every day this council fails to act, the message to the world is clear — that some lives are worth saving and others are not,” he said. “I refuse to accept a world where my brother’s life can be used as a bargaining chip and be forgotten.”
The Security Council has repeatedly demanded — in four resolutions — the immediate and unconditional release of hostages held by Hamas and other groups. But it has not condemned the militant group’s attack on 7 October 2023.
Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people
The US, joined by Arab mediators, sought on Wednesday to conclude an agreement between Israel and Hamas to halt the 14-month-old war in the Gaza Strip, where medics said Israeli strikes killed at least 20 Palestinians overnight.
A Palestinian official close to the negotiations said on Wednesday that mediators had narrowed gaps on most of the agreement’s clauses. He said Israel had introduced conditions which Hamas rejected, but would not elaborate.
On Tuesday, sources close to the talks in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, said an agreement could be signed in the coming days on a ceasefire and a release of hostages held in Gaza in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in a house in the northern town of Beit Lahiya while six were killed in separate airstrikes in Gaza City, Nuseirat camp in central areas, and Rafah near the border with Egypt.
In Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said four people were killed in an airstrike on a house. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military spokesperson.
Israeli forces have operated in the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya as well as the nearby Jabalia camp since October, in a campaign the military said aimed to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.
Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out acts of “ethnic cleansing” to depopulate the northern edge of the enclave to create a buffer zone. Israel denies it.
Hamas does not disclose its casualties, and the Palestinian health ministry does not distinguish in its daily death toll between combatants and non-combatants.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants planning an imminent attack against Israeli forces operating in Jabalia.
Later on Wednesday, Muhammad Saleh, the director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, said Israeli shelling in the vicinity damaged the facility, wounding seven medics and one patient inside the hospital.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
In the Central Gaza camp of Bureij, Palestinian families began leaving some districts after the army posted new evacuation orders on X and in written and audio messages to cellphones of some of the population there, citing the new firing of rockets by Palestinian militants from the area.
The US administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, has made intensive efforts in recent days to advance the talks before President Joe Biden leaves office next month.
In Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met Adam Boehler, US President-elect Donald Trump’s designated envoy for hostage affairs. Trump has threatened that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas does not release its hostages by 20 January, the day Trump returns to the White House.
CIA Director William Burns was due in Doha on Wednesday for talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on bridging the remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, said other knowledgeable sources. The CIA declined to comment.
Israeli negotiators were in Doha on Monday looking to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas on a deal Biden outlined in May.
Soldiers remove group of Israeli civilians who crossed into Lebanon
Israeli soldiers removed a small far-right group of Israeli civilians who had crossed into Lebanon, appearing to put up a tent settlement, in what the military said on Wednesday was a serious incident now under investigation.
The Times of Israel reported 10 days ago that the group, advocating the annexation and settlement of southern Lebanon, said they had crossed the border and established an outpost.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military said they had been promptly removed.
“The preliminary investigation indicates that the civilians indeed crossed the blue line by a few metres, and after being identified by IDF forces, they were removed from the area,” said a statement by the IDF, Israel’s military.
“Any attempt to approach or cross the border into Lebanese territory without coordination poses a life-threatening risk and interferes with the IDF’s ability to operate in the area and carry out its mission,” according to the statement.
The Times of Israel said the area the group claimed to have entered was under Israeli military control as part of a ceasefire deal signed last month between Israel and the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.
Leader of former Syrian opposition calls for inclusive transitional government
Hadi al-Bahra, head of the Syrian National Coalition that grouped opponents of Bashar al-Assad during the civil war, said on Wednesday that Syria’s transitional government should be credible and not exclude any Syrian party or be based on sectarianism.
In a seismic moment for the Middle East, Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on 8 December, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war, ending his family’s decadeslong rule.
The lightning offensive raised questions over whether the rebels would be able to ensure an orderly transition.
Representatives of the Syrian National Coalition had not met Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, but had communications with the caretaker government and parties close to him, said al-Bahra during a press conference in Istanbul.
Forces under the command of al-Sharaa — better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani — replaced the Assad family rule with a three-month transitional government that had been ruling a rebel enclave in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib.
Al-Sharaa is the leader of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is designated a terrorist group by Western and regional powers.
Newly appointed Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir formerly led an HTS-affiliated government in Idlib.
The Syrian National Coalition would return to Syria and set up headquarters there, said former Syrian opposition leader al-Bahra, adding that he intended to return as well.
“Logistics should be worked out and freedom of speech should be guaranteed,” he added.
Israel will remain on Mt Hermon ‘until another arrangement is found’
Israel would remain on the strategic Mount Hermon site on the Syrian border until another arrangement was found, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli troops occupied Mount Hermon when they moved into a demilitarised zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights following the collapse of Assad’s government this month.
Officials have described the move as a limited and temporary measure to ensure the security of Israel’s borders but have given no indication of when the troops might be withdrawn. Defence Minister Israel Katz last week ordered troops to prepare to remain on Mount Hermon over the winter.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu went to the site for an operational briefing with military commanders and security officials.
“We are holding this assessment in order to decide on the deployment of the IDF in this important place until another arrangement is found that ensures Israel’s security,” he said.
Israel’s move into the buffer zone created following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war has been criticised as a violation of international agreements by a number of countries and the United Nations, which have called for the troops to be withdrawn. DM
Read more: Middle East crisis news hub