Deaths and blackouts as Russian missiles hit multiple cities in Ukraine

News Network

January 15, 2023

Russia has launched a new barrage of missiles at targets across Ukraine, killing at least 14 people in the eastern-central city of Dnipro and disrupting power supplies in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions, officials said.

The attacks on Saturday smashed a nine-storey apartment block in Dnipro, reducing an entire section of the building to rubble and sending smoke billowing into the sky. The deaths included that of a 15-year-old girl, according to officials.

Some 64 others were also wounded.

“Tragedy!” said Borys Filatov, mayor of the rocket-making city on the Dnieper River.

“I’ve gone to the site. … We will be going through the rubble all night.”

Pictures from the scene showed firefighters putting out a blaze around the carcasses of some cars in Dnipro. A broad chunk of the apartment block was missing, while the exterior of the rest of the building was badly damaged.

Trapped residents were signalling their location under the debris with their mobile phone torches, according to Ukrainian media reports.

“They keep sending SMS-es,” Mikhailo Lysenko, deputy mayor of Dnipro said in a social media video. “We stop our work now and then to keep silence and we hear people scream from underneath the rubble.”

Regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said seven children were among the wounded, the youngest three years old.

“The fate of 26 people is still unknown,” he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was not yet known how many were under the rubble.

The strikes – Russia’s largest wave of attacks on Ukraine in two weeks – came as the country was observing the traditional New Year.

Besides Dnipro, other cities hit on Saturday included Odesa in the south, Kharkiv in the east, Lviv in the west and the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Civilian infrastructure, including electricity sites, were once again damaged and power outages were reported.

Emergency blackouts were applied in “most regions” of Ukraine on Saturday due to the raids, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said.

He warned that the coming days would be “difficult”.

Officials said the Kharkiv region lost power completely and that disruptions to electricity and water supplies in Lviv were also possible.

Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with missiles and drones since October, causing sweeping blackouts and disruptions to central heating and running water.

Military top commander Valerii Zaluzhny said that Russia fired 33 cruise missiles overall on Saturday, of which 21 were shot down.

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Hundreds of Palestinian kids kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured by Israel: UN expert expresses shock

News Network

November 14,2024

The UN special rapporteur for Palestine has slammed Israel’s parliament for passing a law authorizing the detention of Palestinian children, who are “tormented often beyond the breaking point” in Israeli custody.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in a Thursday post on X, characterized the experiences of Palestinian minors in Israeli detention as extreme and often inhumane.

The UN expert highlighted the grave impact of this policy, noting that up to 700 Palestinian minors are taken into custody each year, a practice she described as part of an unlawful occupation that views these children as potential threats.

Albanese said Palestinian minors in Israeli custody are “tormented often beyond the breaking point” and that “generations of Palestinians will carry the scars and trauma from the Israeli mass incarceration system.”

She further criticized the international community for its inaction, suggesting that ongoing diplomatic efforts, which often rely on the idea of resuming negotiations for peace, have contributed to normalizing such human rights violations against Palestinian children and the broader population.

The comments by Albanese came in response to Israel’s parliament (Knesset) passing a law on November 7 that authorizes the detention of Palestinian children under the age of 14 for “terrorism or terrorist activities.”

Under the legislation, a temporary five-year measure, once the individuals turn 14, they will be transferred to adult prison to continue serving their sentences.

Additionally, the law allows for a three-year clause that enables courts to incarcerate minors in adult prisons for up to 10 days if they are considered dangerous. Courts have the authority to extend this duration if necessary, according to the Knesset.

The legislation underscores a shift in the treatment of minors and raises alarms among human rights advocates regarding the legal and ethical ramifications of detaining children and the conditions under which they may be held.

Thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of children and women, are currently in Israeli jails—around one-third without charge or trial. Also, an unknown number are arbitrarily held following a wave of arrests in the wake of the regime's genocidal war on Gaza.

Since the onset of the Gaza war, the Israeli regime, under the supervision of extremist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has turned prisons and detention centers into “death chambers,” the ministry of detainees and ex-detainees’ affairs in Gaza says.

Violence, extreme hunger, humiliation, and other forms of abuse of Palestinian prisoners have been normalized across Israel’s jail system, reports indicate.

Over 270 Palestinian minors are being detained by Israeli authorities, in violation of UN resolutions and international treaties that forbid the incarceration of children, as reported by Palestinian rights organizations.

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