VIENNA — United Nations (UN) experts said in a report on Tuesday that Israel committed the crime against humanity of “extermination” by killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites in Gaza, part of a “concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life.”

The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel was due to present the report to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council on June 17.

“We are seeing more and more indications that Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza,” former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who chairs the commission, said in a statement.

“Israel’s targeting of the educational, cultural and religious life of the Palestinian people will harm the present generations and generations to come, hindering their right to self-determination,” she added.

The commission examined attacks on educational facilities and religious and cultural sites to assess whether international law was breached.

Israel disengaged from the Human Rights Council in February, alleging it was biased. Its diplomatic mission said on Thursday that the commission’s latest report was an “attempt to promote its fictitious narrative of the Gaza war,” and proved that its members “care more about bashing Israel than protecting the people of Gaza.”

In its report, the commission said Israel had destroyed more than 90% of school and university buildings and more than half of all religious and cultural sites in Gaza.

“Israeli forces committed war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians and willful killing, in their attacks on educational facilities… In killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites, Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of extermination,” it said.

The war was triggered when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in a surprise attack in October 2023, and took 251 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

Harm done to the Palestinian education system was not confined to Gaza, the report found, citing increased Israeli military operations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as harassment of students and settler attacks there.

“Israeli authorities have also targeted Israeli and Palestinian educational personnel and students inside Israel who expressed concern or solidarity with the civilian population in Gaza, resulting in their harassment, dismissal or suspension and in some cases humiliating arrests and detention,” it said.

“Israeli authorities have particularly targeted female educators and students, intending to deter women and girls from activism in public places,” the commission added. — Reuters

LONDON — Tobacco smugglers and black market salesmen are increasingly using technologies such as social media and drones to deliver cigarettes to smokers in Europe and avoid law enforcers, a report by consulting group KPMG published on Wednesday found.

The report, produced annually and commissioned by Philip Morris International, looks at illegal consumption of cigarettes on the continent — which big tobacco companies say costs them sales and authorities say costs them tax revenues.

In 2024, KPMG found that almost 40 billion illicit cigarettes were consumed across 38 European nations, based in part on a study of empty packs collected in those countries. It also cited interviews with law enforcement.

The gangs’ flexible strategies have helped to drive a 10.8% increase in illicit consumption versus 2023, according to KPMG, which also attributed the rise to higher taxes and prices in markets including France and the Netherlands.

The report said criminal groups had shifted towards smuggling smaller packages, more often, via budget airlines.

They are also making greater use of rail and drones, and are increasingly bypassing physical stores to sell directly to consumers on social media, it continued.

The more recent change in tactics follows another shift from 2020, when the groups moved production closer to end-markets, partly in response to the pandemic disruption, but also reducing the chance of detection.

KPMG said in 2024 the groups had also begun holding less inventory, which is reflected in a decrease in the size of illicit cigarette seizures as the gangs mitigate their risks and reduce the impact of raids by law enforcers.

Big tobacco companies say tax increases have driven growth in illicit cigarette consumption.

Public health campaigners and institutions such as the World Bank, however, have said such claims are overblown and that high taxes can support public health by reducing tobacco consumption, while generating revenues for governments. — Reuters

TAIPEI — The two Chinese aircraft carriers spotted conducting simultaneous operations in the Pacific for the first time send a political message about the country’s “expansionist” aims, Taiwan Defense Minister Wellington Koo said on Wednesday.

Japan’s defense minister said the previous day that the appearance of the Chinese aircraft carriers signified Beijing’s intention to further widen its capabilities beyond its borders.

Mr. Koo said the armed forces had a “full grasp” of the carriers’ movements.

“Crossing from the first island chain into the second island chain sends a definite political message and their expansionist nature can be seen,” he told reporters in Taipei.

The first island chain refers to an area that runs from Japan down to Taiwan, the Philippines and Borneo, while the second island chain spreads further out into the Pacific to include places like the US territory of Guam.

China’s navy, which has been honing its abilities to operate farther and farther from the country’s coast, said on Tuesday the carrier operations were a “routine training” exercise that did not target specific countries or regions. China operates two carriers, with a third undergoing sea trials.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, keeps a close watch on Chinese military movements given the regular drills and war games Beijing stages around the island, and has been modernizing its weapons to better face the People’s Liberation Army.

Taiwan Air Force Chief of Staff Lee Ching-jan, speaking to lawmakers later on Wednesday, said a dozen or so of 66 Lockheed Martin F-16V fighter jets ordered from the United States should arrive this year, with the rest in 2026.

“The US side was optimistic about next year’s scheduled delivery at last month’s meeting on the project, and was very optimistic about the delivery of more than 10 aircraft this year,” he said.

Taiwan has complained about delivery delays for the jets, which have advanced avionics, weapons and radar systems to better face down the Chinese air force, including its J-20 stealth fighter.

Since May, China has been flexing its muscles by sending an unusually large number of naval and coast guard vessels through a swathe of East Asian waters, according to security documents and officials, in moves that have unnerved regional capitals.

Japan’s defense ministry confirmed the two carriers, Liaoning and Shandong, were operating in separate areas of the Pacific on Saturday, both near remote southern islands belonging to Japan.

Earlier, Japan said the Liaoning sailed within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) near Minamitorishima, a remote island east of Iwo Jima. — Reuters