According to the United Nation's Genocide Convention, enshrined after World War Two, genocide is considered the most heinous of crimes. Now experts warn the situation in Gaza could prompt legal challenges, but prosecuting it is incredibly difficult.

Sderot

Allegations of genocide in Gaza under UN rules

Genocide, a combination of the Greek word genos, meaning race or tribe, and the Latin word side, meaning to kill. The term was coined by Jewish-Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944. Near the end of the Second World War, the extent of Nazi Germany's murder of about two-thirds or more than six million Jews in Europe horrified the world. In 1951, Lemkin's work led to the United Nations establishing a legal instrument through which to hold nations and individuals accountable in the future. It's called the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide. It defines it as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. These acts include killing people, causing mental or physical harm, creating conditions that lead to a group's physical destruction, preventing births, or forcibly moving children. To be clear, any of the five acts mentioned would be enough and would lead, in light of what is happening in Gaza and what is increasingly happening also in other occupied Palestinian territories, to prima facie of a genocidal campaign. That assessment echoed by other UN experts. A very large number of rapporteurs and UN experts. We have raised days ago the alarm about the risk of genocide in Gaza. Some analysts agree. To my mind, genocide is already happening. When the Israeli government ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza, it was committing genocide as of that moment. Others urge caution, saying the term carries with it the need to meet the highest legal threshold. Particularly in the case of genocide, it's an extremely, extremely difficult crime to convict a state on. And the reason for that is you have to prove intent. Many believe recent comments from several senior Israeli government officials have made their objective clear. Remember what the angel has done to you, our compatriots. We remember and we fight. He's referring to a biblical passage that called on ancient Israelites to wipe out its arch-rival nation of Amalek, to avenge a surprise ambush, to kill man, woman, child, infant and animals. There is no electricity, no food, no water, no electricity. Everything is closed. We are being warmed by human beings and we are acting on their behalf. What Israel has said, what its leaders have said, from the top down, from the prime minister down is more the eradication of Gaza using genocidal language. The officials are saying things that establish intent. Prominent human rights experts, entrusted with ringing genocidal alarm bells, say the world must not look away at what could well be won in the making. Mike Lapple, Al Jazeera.

The federal government is set to unveil a major new migration strategy tomorrow that aims to dramatically cut Australia's intake.

Canberra

Government plans to 'drastically cut' migration

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday approved two gene therapies for sickle cell disease, making one of them the first treatment in the United States based on the Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR gene editing technology.

Maryland

US approves two gene therapies for sickle cell disease

Israel bombing of the Gaza Strip has intensified in an expanded phase of its war against Hamas. This is after the United States wielded its U.N. Security Council veto to shield its ally from a global demand for a ceasefire.

Jerusalem

Israel-Gaza War

Intensified fighting in Gaza as U.S. vetoes ceasefire

EU lawmakers and policymakers have reached a deal on rules regulating the use of artificial intelligence, EU industry chief Thierry Breton said on the X social platform.

Brussels

Rise of AI

EU reaches landmark deal to regulate AI threat

The U.S. has vetoed an emergency resolution at the UN security council — triggered by the secretary-general with a rarely-used power to force a vote — for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to allow more aid into the area.

New York

United States vetoes UN vote on immediate Gaza ceasefire

Israel's military says it has struck 450 targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours, roughly double the figure it's typically reported since the end of the truce with Hamas. It marks a new expansion of the war.

Israel ramps up airstrikes on Gaza targets amid new phase

Russians and Belarusians who qualify in their sport for the Paris 2024 Olympics can take part as neutrals without flags, emblems or anthems at the event next year, the International Olympic Committee has ruled.

Paris

IOC rules Russian athletes can compete at Paris Olympics

Cyclone preparations are underway in north Queensland. Communities in North Queensland are bracing for Category Four Jasper to approach mainland Queensland by mid-next week.

Townsville City

North Queensland braces for Category Four cyclone

The Hamas-run health ministry reported 40 dead in strikes near Gaza City on Friday, and dozens more in Jabalia and the main southern city of Khan Yunis. So far, the fighting in the Palestinian enclave has left 17,487 people dead, according to the ministry's latest published figures. 

Hamas health ministry says over 17,000 dead in Gaza

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday told soldiers who had fought in Ukraine that he would run for the top job again in the 2024 election - a move that will allow the former KGB spy to stay in power until at least 2030. 

Moscow

Ukraine Invasion

Russia's Putin tells soldiers he will run for president again

Ahead of a U.N. Security Council vote on a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his strongest public criticism of Israel's conduct of the war on Hamas in south Gaza, said there was a gap between the government's declared intentions to protect civilians and the casualties.

Washington

U.S criticizes Israel over Gaza civilian toll

2023 has been declared the hottest year in recorded history a month earlier than scientists would usually confirm the evidence. Temperatures are now nudging one and a half degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels, giving the UN climate talks in Dubai a heightened sense of priority.

Council of the City of Sydney

Climate Crisis

Scientists confirm 2023 is the hottest year on record

The Department of Justice filed new criminal charges against U.S. President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, indicting him for allegedly failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes while spending millions of dollars on a lavish lifestyle. 

Delaware

Hunter Biden hit with new charges for tax evasion

Two months since the initial Hamas attack on southern Israel, doctors in Gaza are treating many times the number of patients they are equipped to handle, and a UN official says there is no safe place for humanitarian operations to continue.

Israel pushes deeper south as war with Hamas passes 2 months

Emergency authorities are on alert as severe Tropical Cyclone Jasper intensifies in the Coral Sea. The category four system is continuing its gradual march towards the North Queensland coast, but its exact path remains uncertain.

Tropical Cyclone Jasper strengthens off Queensland coast

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan visited Greece and met with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday. The two leaders agreed to reboot their relations, establishing a roadmap designed to usher in a new era of closer ties between the two NATO allies but historical foes. 

Athens

Historic foes Greece and Turkey agree to turn page

Italy has officially informed China that it is leaving the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), dismissing fears the decision could sour relations and damage the Italian economy, government sources said. 

Rome

Italy to leave China's Belt and Road Initiative

Legislation that would provide new security assistance for Ukraine and Israel was blocked in the U.S. Senate as Republicans demanded tougher measures to control immigration at the U.S. border with Mexico. 

Ukraine aid bill blocked in U.S Senate

Ukraine is having trouble getting other economic and humanitarian assistance delivered as aid from the U.S. is stalled in Congress. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin is shoring up support from his allies in the Middle East.

Riyadh

Putin visits Middle East as Ukraine's foreign aid dwindles

The UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has invoked his most powerful diplomatic tool to try to stop the killing of Palestinians in Gaza. In the letter, Guterres calls for the Security Council to press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and appeals for a ceasefire to be declared in Gaza.



UN chief invokes article 99 on Gaza in rare move

Israeli forces declare a disputed safe zone along Gaza's southern coast, lacking humanitarian aid and raising concerns.

Palestinians flee to Al Mawasi as Israel expands offensive

Another man who was recently released from immigration detention has been charged by police. His capture in Melbourne comes as Federal Parliament is on the brink of passing laws to have some former detainees put back behind bars.

Detainee released after High Court ruling arrested

The first survivor has been pulled out alive after last Friday's landslide in Zambia that flooded a copper mine. It trapped at least 25 people who were working there. The rescue mission for the others continues.

Lusaka

First survivor pulled out of Zambia mine after landslide

Members of the Iranian security forces raped and used other forms of sexual violence against women and men detained in the crackdown on nationwide protests that erupted from September 2022, Amnesty International said Wednesday. 

Tehran

Report reveals detained protesters in Iran raped, assaulted

Several Republican senators walked out of a classified briefing on Ukraine as it descended into a row over the border crisis, after President Volodymyr Zelensky unexpectedly canceled a video link appearance to appeal for continued US funding. 

Kyiv

Zelensky cancels U.S Senate briefing amid funding row

Israeli ground forces are heading south toward the city of Khan Younis as the hospital system in the area is collapsing. Red Cross officials paid a visit to Gaza and called for de-escalation in the Israel-Hamas war.

Israeli ground forces enter Gaza's Khan Younis

The US Department of State has said that it will impose visa restrictions on Israeli settlers involved in undermining peace, security or stability in the occupied West Bank. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the move on Tuesday.