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Trump-Putin Meeting Sidelines Civilian Protection, Justice
United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Alaska on August 15, reportedly to discuss ending Russia’s war in Ukraine. Absent from the discussions will be Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. And according to the publicly available agenda, so too will be the topic of protecting civilians.
Since the Trump administration launched talks on Ukraine earlier this year, rights activists have urged stakeholders to prioritize freeing Ukrainian civilians unlawfully held by Russia, and for both sides to commit to repatriating all prisoners of war (POWs) after the fighting ends.
This message gained traction. The Ukrainian leadership, the US, and many European actors have spoken publicly about the need to free detained civilians. The Kremlin’s spokesperson has referenced prioritizing the “humanitarian perspective.”
Talks so far have yielded POW exchanges between Ukraine and Russia. However, Russia holds thousands more civilians whom authorities systematically torture, which a United Nations body has called a crime against humanity.
President Trump said “territory swapping” is on the Alaska agenda but has not mentioned any violations, including war crimes or other serious crimes under international law Russian forces are committing in the Ukrainian territories they occupy or how civilians will be protected while Russia continues to be the occupying power.
Russian occupying authorities are imposing Russian citizenship, forcibly transferring civilians to other areas, coercing residents to serve in the Russian military, imposing the Russian state curriculum in schools, and politically indoctrinating school children in order to deny them the right to know and express their Ukrainian identity.
It is an affront to victims and survivors that Putin, who, along with five other Russian officials, is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for serious international crimes in Ukraine, will be welcomed on US territory. But it comes as little surprise. The Trump administration has sanctioned key ICC officials and defunded programs that supported investigations into war crimes committed during the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Perpetrators of grave crimes, including widespread, indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilians and civilian infrastructure, torture and ill-treatment in occupied areas and Russian prisons, and the torture and executions of POWs, must be held accountable. At minimum, Trump should act to secure the release of Ukrainian civilians facing daily torture in Russian custody.
Chad: 20-Year Sentence for Opposition Leader
(Nairobi) – The guilty verdict and 20-year sentence imposed on August 9, 2025, on Succès Masra, leader of Chad’s main opposition party, is the culmination of a trial based on politically motivated charges, Human Rights Watch said today.
Masra, the former prime minister, is an ardent critic of President Mahamat Idriss Déby. The criminal court in Ndjamena found Masra guilty of spreading racist and xenophobic messages and of complicity in murder tied to intercommunity conflict.
“The sentence given to Succès Masra sends a chilling message to critics and demonstrates the Chadian government’s intolerance of criticism and political opposition parties,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The courts should not be used for such political purposes.”
Masra was arrested on May 16 and accused of inciting hatred and violence through social media posts after intercommunal clashes killed 42 people on May 14 in Mandakao, in the Logone Occidental province, located in the southwest.
Human Rights Watch has not yet seen the court’s judgment, but spoke with people who were at the trial, including some of Masra’s lawyers. While clashes between herders and farmers are common in southern Chad, intercommunal violence has become more acute over the past several years, resulting in scores of deaths.
Masra, who pleaded not guilty, was tried alongside 74 co-defendants, all accused of collaboration in the killings at Mandakao. While at least 9 of the defendants were released, those remaining also received 20-year sentences. The court also imposed a fine of 1 billion CFA francs (approximately US$1.8 million) against Masra and his co-defendants. Lawyers for Masra and the other defendants have announced their intention to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Masra’s conviction comes amid shrinking political space across Chad. He and supporters of his opposition party The Transformers (Les Transformateurs) faced threats prior to the May 2024 presidential elections, in which Masra ran against Déby, the then-transitional president. The period leading up to the elections was marred by violence.
On February 28, 2024, government security forces killed Yaya Dillo, the president of the Socialist Party Without Borders (Parti socialiste sans frontières), during an attack on the party’s headquarters in N’Djamena. More than one year on, the authorities have not clarified the circumstances of his death.
Political violence has been on the rise since 2021, when security forces used excessive force, including live ammunition, and fired indiscriminately to disperse opposition-led demonstrations across the country. Several protesters were killed. The authorities detained activists and opposition party members, and security forces beat journalists covering the protests. The violence culminated on October 20, 2022, when security forces fired live ammunition at protesters, killing and injuring scores of demonstrators, and beat and chased people into their homes.
The protests were held to mark the date on which the military administration, in power since the death of President Idriss Déby Itno—father of the current president—on April 20, 2021, had initially promised to hand over power to a civilian government. Hundreds of men and boys were arrested and many were taken to Koro Toro, a high security prison 600 kilometers from N’Djamena. Several detainees died en route to Koro Toro, where protesters suffered further abuse.
Masra fled the country after the October 2022 violence but returned after regional peace efforts by President Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in his role as facilitator of the Chad political transition process for the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
The resulting Kinshasa Accord suspended an arrest warrant against Masra and guaranteed him and his supporters safe return from exile. It also provided legal guarantees to The Transformers party to freely conduct political activity. Upon Masra’s return in January 2024, he accepted the position of prime minister, but resigned in May 2024, claiming the presidential vote had been rigged.
President Tshisekedi and ECCAS should call for the restoration of political rights and guarantees and full compliance with the Kinshasa Accord, Human Rights Watch said.
“Masra’s conviction has upended hopes for a meaningful political opposition and an independent judiciary in Chad,” Mudge said. “Chad’s regional and international supporters should denounce this politically motivated judgment and urge the country’s leaders to make good on promises for democratic reform.”
Thailand: Aid Cuts Put Myanmar Refugees at Grave Risk
(Bangkok) – More than 100,000 Myanmar refugees in Thailand have lost access to essential food and medical aid due to US funding cuts, putting them at serious risk, Human Rights Watch said today. The Thai government should immediately permit refugees to lawfully work and travel outside its refugee camps.
The Trump administration’s dismantling of foreign assistance, along with other donor shortfalls, led to the termination of most food assistance provided by The Border Consortium (TBC) and primary healthcare services from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in the nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar border on July 31, 2025. Cuts since January have already led to the deaths of refugees, who are barred from working legally, moving freely, or accessing services in Thailand, leaving them largely dependent on foreign assistance.
Thailand’s National Security Council has proposed measures to address the drop-off in assistance in the camps, but the Ministry of Interior has yet to make any policy announcement.
“The cutting of US funding for humanitarian aid should spur the Thai government to change its policy toward the 100,000 Myanmar refugees in the border camps,” said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These refugees are desperate to provide for their families and, if the government lets them, can contribute to Thailand’s economy.”
The refugee camps were established along the Thai-Myanmar border beginning in the mid-1980s for people fleeing Myanmar military offensives against ethnic armed groups. Currently, they shelter over 107,000 refugees, including about 91,000 verified by the Thai government and the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.
Human Rights Watch interviewed eight refugees from Mae La, the largest camp, in late July. Six had lived in the camps for decades after fleeing fighting in Myanmar’s eastern Karen State; two were born in the camps.
When US funding cuts were first announced in early 2025, the standard monthly allowance was reduced to just 77 baht per adult, about US$2.30. The Border Consortium warned in March that without immediate funding, refugees would “face a precarious and life-threatening situation.” On July 31, all food aid for standard households was cut, affecting over 80 percent of families, with “vulnerable” and “most vulnerable” households receiving limited rations.
“In the past, we had enough rations,” a 34-year-old refugee said. “But the funding’s been cut bit by bit. The cash decreased and prices went up. I get 77 baht a month, but you can’t buy anything with that.”
Between 2022 and 2024, chronic malnutrition among children under age 5 in the camps increased for the first time in at least a decade.
All the refugees who spoke to Human Rights Watch said they would work outside the camps if allowed. Barring them from legal work denies them not only income but a key source of dignity and self-reliance.
“I feel like I’m under house arrest,” the 34-year-old said. “If the Thai government allowed us to work, it would benefit everyone. We could support ourselves and our families.”
Some refugees support themselves through small businesses or stipends from jobs with nongovernmental organizations, which have also been cut. Others find ways out of the camps to work as informal day laborers, harvesting corn or rice, at risk of being caught: One refugee said Thai authorities fined him 500 to 1,000 baht ($15-30) for being outside the camp. Now, with the massive influx of Myanmar nationals into Thailand, refugees are more likely to be detained, extorted, or deported if found traveling without authorization.
Since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, the camp population has grown by 35 percent, as military atrocities have forced more than a million people to flee to neighboring countries. The Myanmar military’s airstrikes and landmine use continue to threaten lives in border areas, which remain unsafe for returns.
“Since I was born here [in Thailand], I used to think this was my country, the place I belong,” said a 37-year-old refugee. “Then I got older and learned: Thailand is not my country. But in Myanmar, we don’t have a place either.”
Aid cuts have led to an increase in coping strategies, including high-risk migration. Two women in their early 20s paid a broker 15,000 baht ($450) to smuggle them to Bangkok, with money borrowed at 10 percent interest. They had no jobs or housing lined up, leaving them vulnerable to trafficking and abuse. “It’s scary and risky,” one said. “We may be sent back to Myanmar. We may be detained and extorted.” But she said it was her only option: She had lost her job due to aid cuts and needed to pay for her mother’s medical treatment. “In the camps,” she said, “it’s a dead end.”
Out of desperation, some have resorted to stealing, refugees reported. A camp committee member said that in July, a single mother with five children was caught stealing a bag of rice from her neighbor. “She doesn’t want to steal but she doesn’t have any income or way to feed her children,” he said. “So she felt this was her only choice.”
A camp education coordinator said that more children are being sent to work outside the camps to support their families, leading to a significant drop in school attendance. Parents are struggling to afford school fees and feel discouraged about its value. “They see the older generation who graduated but have no jobs,” the education coordinator said. “They think, what’s the point of sending their kids to school if there’s no work.”
Funding cuts have also impacted refugees’ access to health care, forcing the IRC to shut down its health operations by the end of July. Healthcare staff have been reduced by half, patient referrals and hospital transportation have been suspended, and medications are running low, refugees said. The Thai Ministry of Public Health will reportedly provide refugees with access to provincial hospitals.
“Recently there are more depression cases because the situation in Myanmar isn’t getting better, the situation in the camps isn’t getting better,” said a refugee who performs community mental health visits.
Aid workers indicate that drug and alcohol use has increased. “Since they don’t have any work or activities, young people are using drugs and becoming addicted, even students,” a community health worker said. “The problem has always been around, but it’s gotten worse.”
Hope for resettlement abroad has largely vanished. The Trump administration halted a new resettlement program in early 2025, forcing 26 refugees to return to Umpiem Mai camp when their resettlement flight was canceled in February. Others described stalled applications to Australia and Canada.
Many refugees hold UN registration cards but said that the cards only highlight the denial of their rights in Thailand. “Having the card means we can’t go anywhere, we can’t apply for jobs, we can’t study,” said a teacher who has spent 17 years in the camps. Both he and his brother had tried applying for jobs outside the camps, but, “When I showed my card as ID, they said, ‘You’re a refugee!’ We have no future, no opportunities. Our lives are in limbo.”
The Thai government should grant refugees the right to work legally outside the camps through a free, expedited process, a policy that would also support Thailand’s economy, which is facing labor shortages and an aging population. Thai language programs, which are being piloted for a small number of students over 18, should be introduced across all camps, for both adults and children.
The right to work is guaranteed under international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which applies to all individuals regardless of legal status or documentation, including refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless people.
Thailand should engage refugee-led groups, humanitarian agencies, and UNHCR to transition from a closed-camp aid model to an approach that empowers refugees, grants legal status and documentation, and benefits host communities, Human Rights Watch said.
“Donor countries should cover the urgent gaps in camp funding while encouraging Thailand to allow refugees to be self-reliant,” Bauchner said. “Granting refugees permission to work and travel would give them tools for the future while supporting Thailand’s economic growth.”
Niger Junta Dissolves Justice-Sector Unions
The military junta in Niger announced on August 7 the dissolution of four main justice-sector unions, undermining workers’ rights to freedom of association and the independence of the judiciary.
The dissolution of the justice-sector unions follows a pattern of repression by Niger’s military junta. Since taking power in July 2023, the junta has cracked down on the political opposition, media, trade unions, and civil society groups, shrinking the country’s civic and political space.
On August 7, Gen. Mohamed Toumba, the interior minister, signed four decrees dissolving the Autonomous Union of Magistrates (Syndicat autonome des magistrats, SANAM), the Union of Magistrates (Union des Magistrats du Niger, UNAM), the Union of Justice Agents (Syndicat national des agents de justice, SNAJ), and the Union of Executives and Technical Agents of the Ministry of Justice (Syndicat des cadres et des agents techniques du Ministère de la Justice, SYNCAT).
While the decrees did not provide any explanation for the dissolutions, on August 8, Niger’s justice minister, Alio Daouda, said the unions had "deviated” from their roles and prioritized “private interests.” Eliminating the justice-sector unions also raises concerns about judicial independence in the country.
In response, the umbrella union for public sector workers described the move as “a grave violation of workers’ fundamental rights and freedoms,” and called on the government to reverse its decision.
The military authorities have previously cracked down on unions. In April, the junta dissolved three unions representing the country’s paramilitary forces, which have been participating in counterinsurgency operations alongside the army against Islamist armed groups.
Niger’s military authorities also continue to arbitrarily detain former President Mohamed Bazoum and his wife in the capital, Niamey, despite a regional court decision ordering their release. They have also arbitrarily detained the prominent human rights activist and government critic Moussa Tiangari since December 2024.
In February, the junta leader, Brig. Gen. Abdourahmane Tiani, extended the junta’s rule by delaying elections.
Unions have played a critical role in strengthening democracy in Niger. The Autonomous Union of Magistrates has warned successive governments over the years not to interfere in judicial matters.
The Nigerien authorities should be allowing workers to associate and organize freely in compliance with their international obligations, not shutting down key workers’ organizations. They should revoke their decision to dissolve the four unions and protect freedom of association and the independence of the courts.
Saudi Arabia: Executions Surge in 2025
(Beirut) – Saudi authorities have been carrying out an unprecedented surge in executions in 2025 without apparent due process, Human Rights Watch and the Middle East Democracy Center said today. The June 14 execution of Turki al-Jasser, a journalist known for exposing corruption within the Saudi royal family, raises concerns that the Saudi government is using the death penalty to crush peaceful dissent.
Saudi authorities had executed at least 241 people in 2025 as of August 5, with 22 executions in the previous week alone, according to the international human rights organization Reprieve. Reprieve reported that the number of executions in 2025 would exceed all prior records if executions continue at the same rate.
“Saudi authorities have weaponized the country’s justice system to carry out a terrifying number of executions in 2025,” said Joey Shea, researcher for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates at Human Rights Watch. “The surge in executions is just the latest evidence of the brutally autocratic rule of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”
Rampant due process violations and systemic abuses against defendants in Saudi Arabia’s courts and criminal justice system make it highly unlikely that any of those executed in 2025 received a fair trial. They include 162 people executed for nonlethal drug-related offenses, and more than half of those executed have been foreign nationals, according to Reprieve. Al-Jasser was the first journalist Saudi authorities had executed since the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018. Saudi law requires the king or crown prince to approve all executions.
Al-Jasser, in his late 40s, was a prominent Saudi writer, journalist, and blogger. He wrote for Al[KA1] -Taqreer, an independent newspaper that championed democracy and human rights, which Saudi authorities shuttered in September 2015. Al-Jasser operated the popular anonymous X account “Kashkool,” which regularly exposed corruption and human rights abuse linked to the Saudi royal family. The account was closed soon after al-Jasser’s 2018 arrest.
On June 14, the Interior Ministry issued a statement announcing al-Jasser’s execution, accusing him of various “terrorist crimes,” including “destabilizing the security of society and the stability of the state.” The authorities did not detail nor provide evidence for these alleged crimes.
Al-Jasser’s arrest, detention, trial, and execution were shrouded in secrecy. His family visited him shortly before his execution but received no information or indication that he had been sentenced to death or that his execution was imminent, the Middle East Democracy Center reported. Al-Jasser’s family has not received his body.
In March 2018, Saudi authorities raided al-Jasser’s home, seized his electronic devices, and arrested him during a widespread crackdown on dissent. The authorities held al-Jasser in the country’s notorious al-Hai’r prison, where he was allegedly tortured. No information is available about al-Jasser’s trial: no family members or lawyers were able to attend, nor did anyone receive any court documents related to his case. It is unclear whether al-Jasser himself received any court documents related to his own case.
Saudi activists believe that al-Jasser’s execution was deliberately carried out the day after Israel attacked key Iranian military and nuclear sites, when regional and international media would not be focused on events in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Jasser’s execution is one of at least two recent executions in which activists suspect the death penalty was used to crush dissent.
On February 27, 2024, Saudi authorities executed Abdullah al-Shamri, a Saudi political analyst specializing in Türkiye. In a statement announcing the execution, the Interior Ministry accused al-Shamri of various terrorist crimes including “threatening the stability and endangering the security” of Saudi Arabia. Al-Shamri met regularly with journalists from prominent news outlets and had appeared as a political commentator on television.
In July 2023, the Specialized Criminal Court, Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism tribunal, convicted Muhammad al-Ghamdi, a retired Saudi teacher, of several criminal offenses related solely to his peaceful expression online and sentenced him to death, using his tweets, retweets, and YouTube activity as the evidence against him. His sentence was later commuted to 30 years in prison.
Saudi prosecutors are also seeking the death penalty against the prominent Islamic scholar Salman al-Alodah on various vague charges related to his peaceful political statements, associations, and positions, as well as religious reformist thinker Hassan Farhan al-Maliki on vague charges relating to his peaceful religious ideas.
These cases highlight that Saudi authorities are increasingly weaponizing the use of the death penalty to repress freedom of expression in the country, Human Rights Watch and the Middle East Democracy Center said.
Human Rights Watch and the Middle East Democracy Center have repeatedly criticized rampant abuses in Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system, including long periods of detention without charge or trial, denial of legal assistance, and the courts’ reliance on torture-tainted confessions as the sole basis for conviction. The violations of defendants’ rights are so fundamental and systemic that it is hard to reconcile Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system with a system based on the basic principles of the rule of law and international human rights standards, the groups said.
Saudi authorities executed 81 men on March 12, 2022, the country’s largest mass execution in years, despite the leadership’s promises to curtail the use of the death penalty. Saudi activists told Human Rights Watch that 41 of the men belonged to the country’s Shia Muslim minority, who have long experienced systemic discrimination by the government. Saudi Arabia executed 47 men for terrorism offenses in January 2016. In April 2019, it executed 37 men, at least 33 of whom were Shia and had been convicted following unfair trials for various alleged crimes, including protest-related offenses, espionage, and terrorism.
International human rights standards, including the Arab Charter on Human Rights, ratified by Saudi Arabia, obligate countries that use the death penalty to only do so for the “most serious crimes” and in exceptional circumstances. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement in November 2022 on the alarming rate of executions in Saudi Arabia after it ended a 21-month unofficial moratorium on the use of the death penalty for drug-related offenses.
“Behind closed doors, Saudi Arabia is executing peaceful activists and journalists following politicized trials,” said Abdullah Alaoudh, senior director of countering [KA2] authoritarianism at the Middle East Democracy Center. “These state-sanctioned killings are an assault on basic human rights and dignity that the world cannot afford to ignore.”
Australia: Set Human Rights Benchmarks for Vietnam
(Sydney, August 11, 2025) – Australia should press the Vietnamese government on human rights by seeking clear, concrete, and measurable benchmarks for progress, Human Rights Watch said today in a recent submission to the Australian government. The 20th Australia-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue will take place tomorrow on August 12, 2025, in Vietnam.
Vietnam has incarcerated more than 170 political prisoners under draconian laws restricting free expression and peaceful activism for human rights and democracy. The Vietnamese authorities harshly repress independent rights groups, labor unions, media, religious groups, and other organizations seeking to operate outside of government control.
“Australia has now held 19 human rights dialogues with Vietnam over the past two decades and it’s virtually impossible to identify any lasting human rights progress,” said Daniela Gavshon, Australia director at Human Rights Watch. “These dialogues will only be worthwhile if Australia’s leadership sets specific and measurable human rights benchmarks for the Vietnamese government to meet.”
Human Rights Watch, in its submission, recommended that the Australian government focus on five priority human rights concerns in Vietnam: releasing political prisoners and arbitrarily held activists; ending persecution of environmental activists; respecting labor rights; ensuring due process for criminal suspects and defendants; and allowing the right to freely practice religion and belief.
The Australian government should raise the cases of detained rights activists including
Pham Doan Trang, Bui Tuan Lam, Pham Chi Dung, Dang Dinh Bach, Le Dinh Luong, Dinh Van Hai, and Nguyen Thai Hung.
“The Vietnamese government’s increasingly broad and intense crackdown on freedom of speech and assembly is a direct affront to the human rights dialogues,” Gavshon said. “The Australian government should press for systemic reforms that recognize these dialogues are only one part of its human rights relationship with Vietnam.”
Trump Should Raise Rights Issues with Azerbaijan Leader
US President Donald Trump is set to host Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the White House on August 8 to sign a memorandum of understanding that could lead to a peace deal between the two countries.
President Trump is expected to hold bilateral meetings with both leaders as well. While the Washington meetings are intended to cement progress toward regional stability, Trump’s meeting with Aliyev also presents a critical opportunity for the United States to raise urgent concerns about Azerbaijan’s staggering crackdown on dissent.
Since late 2023, Azerbaijan has conducted an all-out assault on independent media, civil society, and the political opposition. It has silenced most independent and opposition media. Nongovernmental groups face an increasingly hostile environment that has forced many to dissolve or operate surreptitiously.
Human Rights Watch has documented dozens of arbitrary detentions and politically motivated prosecutions of journalists, activists, and rights defenders. Among them are at least 25 journalists from the top independent Azerbaijani news outlets who are behind bars.
Most recently, in June, a court handed down long prison terms for seven journalists: Farid Mehralizada of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and six from Abzas Media. The convictions, based on bogus allegations of smuggling and tax evasion, are widely viewed as retaliation for uncovering government corruption, and emblematic of the broader campaign to silence critical media.
The crackdown builds on long-term, systemic efforts to marginalize civic groups and prosecute activists, including by denying them registration, restricting access to funding, and criminalizing unregistered activity. New measures require groups and individuals to register all contracts, including for services, if they involve any foreign funding, with penalties for failing to comply, shutting down a pathway independent media had used to finance their work.
The upcoming White House meeting signals that the Trump administration has influence with Aliyev that it should use including to press for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and for meaningful reforms to protect freedom of the press and ensure space for civil society. Trump should ensure, and communicate this clearly to his counterparts, that future high-level engagement can’t be uncoupled from respect for fundamental freedoms.
Gaza: Israeli School Strikes Magnify Civilian Peril
(Jerusalem, August 7, 2025) – Israeli forces’ deadly attacks on schools sheltering Palestinian civilians highlight the absence of safe places for Gaza’s displaced people, Human Rights Watch said today. Since October 2023, Israeli authorities have carried out hundreds of strikes on schools sheltering displaced Palestinians, including unlawfully indiscriminate attacks using US munitions, that have killed hundreds of civilians and damaged or destroyed virtually all of Gaza’s schools.
Recent Israeli strikes on schools-turned-shelters are part of Israeli forces’ current military offensive that is demolishing much of Gaza’s remaining civilian infrastructure, displacing again hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and worsening the already dire humanitarian situation. Governments, including the United States, which has provided weapons used in unlawful attacks, should impose an arms embargo on the Israeli government and take other urgent measures to enforce the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention).
“Israeli strikes on schools sheltering displaced families provide a window into the widespread carnage that Israeli forces have carried out in Gaza,” said Gerry Simpson, associate crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch. “Other governments should not tolerate this horrendous slaughter of Palestinian civilians merely seeking safety.”
Human Rights Watch investigated Israeli attacks that struck the Khadija girls’ school in Deir al-Balah on July 27, 2024, killing at least 15 people, and al-Zeitoun C school in al-Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on September 21, 2024, killing at least 34 people. Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target at either school.
These findings were based on a review of satellite imagery, photos, and videos of the attacks and their aftermath, social media material relating to men known to have died in the two strikes, and phone interviews with two people who witnessed the aftermath of the Khadija school strike and another present during the attack on al-Zeitoun C school.
The Israeli authorities have not publicly provided information about the attacks that Human Rights Watch documented, including details about the intended target or any precautions taken to minimize harm to civilians. They did not respond to a July 15 letter summarizing Human Rights Watch findings on these strikes and requesting specific information.
The absence of a military target in the Khadija and al-Zeitoun school strikes would make the attacks unlawfully indiscriminate in violation of international humanitarian law. Schools and other educational facilities are civilian objects and protected from attack. They lose that protection when used for military purposes or are occupied by military forces. The use of schools to house civilians does not alter their legal status.
Between July 1 and 10, 2025, Israeli forces struck at least 10 schools-turned-shelters, including some that had been damaged previously, reportedly killing 59 people and displacing again dozens of families, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reported that about one million displaced people in Gaza had sheltered in schools amid the hostilities, and that as of July 18, at least 836 people sheltering in schools had been killed and at least 2,527 injured.
The most recent assessment by the Occupied Palestinian Territory Education Cluster found that 97 percent of school buildings in Gaza (547 out of 564) have sustained some level of damage, including 92 percent (518) that were “directly hit” and require “full reconstruction or major rehabilitation work to be functional again.”
The Israeli attacks have denied civilians safe access to shelter and will contribute to the disruption of access to education for many years, as repair and reconstruction of schools can require significant resources and time, with a significant negative impact on children, parents, and teachers.
The Israeli publications +972Magazine and Local Call reported on July 24 that the Israeli military set up “a special strike cell to systematically identify schools, which are referred to as ‘centers of gravity,’ in order to bomb them, claiming that Hamas operatives hide among the hundreds of civilians.” The report noted that “double tap” strikes—second attacks in the same location designed to hit survivors of the initial strike and first responders—have “become particularly common in recent months when Israel bombs schools in Gaza.”
The Israeli military has claimed with respect to dozens of attacks on schools that Hamas or other Palestinian fighters or “command and control” centers were deployed at the school, without providing specific information. Human Rights Watch is aware of only seven instances in which the Israeli military published names and photographs of alleged members of Palestinian armed groups it said were present in a school at the time of the attack.
After a June 6, 2024, attack on al-Sardi school, the Israeli military identified 17 names of alleged fighters. However, a Human Rights Watch review of the names found that three were people who appeared to have been killed in earlier attacks.
The presence of Palestinian armed groups at any of the attacked schools would not necessarily make the attacks lawful. The laws of war prohibit attacks on military objectives if the anticipated harm to civilians and civilian objects is disproportionate compared to the expected military gain from the attack.
The laws of war also require, unless circumstances do not permit, warring parties to give “effective advance warning” of attacks that may affect the civilian population.
Armed groups deployed at schools-turned-shelters would place civilians at unnecessary risk. The laws of war obligate warring parties to take all feasible precautions against the effects of attacks and to avoid locating military targets near densely populated areas.
Serious violations of the laws of war by individuals with criminal intent—that is, deliberately or recklessly—are war crimes. Individuals may also be held criminally liable for assisting in, facilitating, aiding, or abetting a war crime. All state parties to an armed conflict are obligated to investigate alleged war crimes by members of their armed forces.
The Safe Schools Declaration, an international political commitment endorsed by 121 countries, aims to protect education during times of war by strengthening the prevention of, and response to, attacks on students, teachers, schools, and universities, including by avoiding the use of education facilities for military purposes. While Israel has not joined, Palestine endorsed the declaration in 2015.
Governments should suspend arms transfers to Israel, given the clear risk that the arms might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law. The US government’s provision of arms to Israel, which have repeatedly been used in strikes on schools-turned-shelters and to carry out apparent war crimes, has made the United States complicit in their unlawful use.
On June 10, the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel reported that Israeli authorities had “obliterated Gaza’s education system” and that its attacks on educational, as well as religious and cultural sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, were “part of a widespread and relentless assault against the Palestinian people in which Israeli forces have committed war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination.”
“After nearly two years of frequent Israeli attacks killing civilians in schools and other protected locations, governments providing military support to Israel can’t say they weren’t aware of the consequences of their actions,” Simpson said. “Governments should suspend all arms transfers to Israel and take other actions to prevent further mass atrocities.”
Israeli Attacks on Schools-Turned-SheltersHuman Rights Watch was unable to visit sites of the strikes on Khadija girls’ school and al-Zeitoun C school because Israeli authorities have blocked virtually all entry into Gaza since October 2023. Israel has repeatedly denied Human Rights Watch requests to enter Gaza since 2008.
Khadija Girls’ School, Deir al-Balah, July 27, 2024On July 27, 2024, starting shortly before noon and until about 3 p.m., Israeli forces carried out at least three airstrikes, two with US munitions, on Khadija girls’ school in Deir al-Balah, killing at least 15 people. The Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza, a body providing emergency and rescue services, reported that the school had sheltered about 4,000 displaced people for many months. The director of al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, about a kilometer east of the school, said the school had a “field hospital” connected to his hospital. Reports of the attack started appearing on social media shortly before noon.
The school consists of five buildings next to a playground on about 5,000 square meters of land.
Click to expand Image A boy stands on the rubble of Khadija School in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, which an Israeli airstrike hit on July 27, 2024, killing at least 15 displaced Palestinians. © 2024 Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua via Getty ImagesHuman Rights Watch found no indication of a military objective in or near the school on the day of the attack. A review of social media on the men known to have been killed in the attack and the online pages of Palestinian armed groups and Israeli forces showed no evidence of a Palestinian armed group’s presence at the school. The Israeli military did not reply to a Human Rights Watch request for more information about the target.
Airwars, a nongovernmental organization that investigates civilian harm in conflict zones, reviewed social media and other open sources and found the names of 15 people killed, including 7 men, 4 women, and 4 children, as well as 2 others without their complete names. Airwars also found the full names of 9 people injured, including 4 men, 2 children, and 3 males whose ages are unknown. The identified dead and injured are from 18 families. Human Rights Watch reviewed social media and other open sources, but found no additional names.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said that the attack killed at least 30 people and injured 100. The victims were taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital nearby.
Human Rights Watch spoke by phone with a journalist who was based at the hospital. He said that at around noon, he heard a single explosion from the direction of the school and ran toward it. “When we arrived, I saw a horrific scene,” the journalist said. “I saw injured women, children, the elderly and some doctors in their medical clothes. Women were shouting, ‘Where are my children?’ or ‘My son, I want my son.’”
Human Rights Watch also spoke with another journalist who was about two kilometers from the school when at around noon, he heard a bomb falling and then an explosion. He arrived at the school about 20 minutes later.
“I saw that a two-story building on the eastern side of the school had been completely destroyed,” he said. “Can you imagine, a building full of displaced people levelled in the blink of an eye? I saw people with serious and more minor injuries, and then saw human remains on the ground.”
Human Rights Watch verified four videos relating to the attacks on the school, though none showed the initial attack. The first was posted to social media by the Saudi news channel Asharq News, which an analysis of the shadows in the video show it was filmed around midday. The video shows damage to, and debris from, the northern part of the campus, as well as injured people being carried out of one of the buildings.
Human Rights Watch analyzed two further videos uploaded to social media on July 27 that were filmed sometime between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. The first captures the moment two munitions strike the school almost simultaneously. The second, filmed approximately 200 meters southeast of the school, captures a loud explosion, followed by a group of people running through a plume of smoke and into the school compound. It then shows significant damage to the western and southern parts of the school campus, including two entirely destroyed buildings. The camera then pans onto a munition remnant lodged in the ground in the middle of the school compound.
A fourth video uploaded to social media from an account that posted two other videos from the attack shows an unexploded munition inside what is said to be one of the school’s rooms. Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm where the video was filmed or at what time, although the color of blown-out window frames matches the first video from the school.
Based on the photos and videos, and identifiable munition remnants, including an unexploded item, Human Rights Watch determined that at least two air-dropped GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs were used in the attack. These munitions are produced by the Boeing Company and transferred to Israel with US government approval under the Foreign Military Sales or Direct Commercial Sales programs.
The Gaza Media Office reported that Israeli fighter jets dropped three bombs on the field hospital in the school. A witness told the Washington Post that four munitions had hit the school, all around noon.
A man who said he was about 500 meters from the school around midday described two attacks involving multiple munitions. He told Human Rights Watch that after the first attack, Israeli authorities contacted the residents of a house near the school and said that people should “leave the area as they were going to strike the school again.” He also said that the second set of attacks involved multiple bombs that completely destroyed the building that had been hit during the first strikes.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights also found that the Israeli military had issued a warning ahead of the second and third strikes, “but not the first in which most of the casualties had reportedly occurred.”
About an hour after the attack, the Israeli military said on their Telegram channel that they had “struck terrorists operating a Hamas command and control center embedded inside the Khadija School in central Gaza.” The Israeli military provided no further details.
Human Rights Watch reviewed online materials concerning the seven men listed as killed by Airwars, as well as the Telegram channels and associated social media channels of Hamas’ armed wing, Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, al-Quds Brigade. These groups often announce the killing of their fighters, but neither group mentioned the strike.
The Israeli military has presented no information demonstrating the presence of a military target or other military objective within or near the building. The military also has not said why it did not provide an effective advance warning to those taking shelter at the school and the residents of nearby buildings to evacuate before the initial noon attack.
Al-Zeitoun C School, Gaza City, September 21, 2024On September 21, 2024, at about 10:45 a.m., an Israeli airstrike struck al-Zeitoun C school in al-Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza city, killing at least 34 people.
Human Rights Watch found no indication of a military objective in or near the school the day of the attack. A review of social media of men known to have been killed in the attack and of the online pages of Palestinian armed groups and Israeli forces, as well as an interview with a man who lived at the school, showed no evidence of a Palestinian armed group presence at the time of the attack. The Israeli military did not reply to a Human Rights Watch request for more information about the target of the attack, nor to a request by journalists for information about the intended target. The BBC reported that an undisclosed source said that the attack had targeted and killed “a local Hamas figure” without providing more details.
The Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza reported that the school was sheltering “thousands” of displaced people. The Gaza Media Office said that many of the displaced were widows and orphans who also received small cash payments to help cover food costs.
Click to expand Image Al-Zeitoun C school in Gaza City, which an Israeli airstrike hit on September 21, 2024, killing at least 34 displaced Palestinians, including at least 21 children, who were sheltering there. © 2024 Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty ImagesAl-Zeitoun C school is part of a three-school complex, including Al-Zeitoun A/B and al- Falah Elementary Boys B school and al-Falah preparatory Boys B school. Al-Zeitoun C has two main buildings along with several smaller structures, all situated on approximately 5,000 square meters of land.
Airwars reviewed social media and other open sources for information about the attack, and found the full names of 23 people killed from 9 families, including 3 men, 4 women, and 16 children. Gaza’s Ministry of Health and the Gaza Media Office said that 22 people were killed, including 6 women and 13 children.
Human Rights Watch reviewed social media and other open sources and found the full names of four other people who were killed. They include one woman, two boys, and one female of an unknown age.
Human Rights Watch spoke with a man who was in the school at the time of the attack and who said the strike killed eight members of his family, one of them a boy on the Airwars list. The other seven were three women, three children, and one man who were not identified by Airwars.
Human Rights Watch reviewed social media for mentions of the four men listed by Airwars as having been killed in the attack and found no ties to any armed groups.
The Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza said that one of the women who was killed was pregnant and that about 30 people were injured, including 9 children whose limbs had to be amputated. A video posted to social media by the Saudi Arabian news channel Asharq News and analyzed by Human Rights Watch shows a rescue worker standing outside one of the school buildings holding what the channel said was a dead fetus.
The victims were taken to al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza city.
Human Rights Watch analyzed two other videos of the aftermath of the attack uploaded to social media on September 21. Human Rights Watch confirmed geolocations initially determined by two open source researchers, Anno Nemo and Jack Dev.
One video filmed around 11:30 a.m. shows two men carrying two injured and bloodied children across the campus. People are also surrounding two severely injured children, one motionless, and attempting to treat their wounds. A second video shows the school courtyard after the strike, dozens of people at a building entrance on the western side of the campus, and then several dead children.
The man who lost eight family members said that four munitions hit the school without warning. Another witness told a journalist that he saw explosions when two munitions struck the compound. A woman living at the school who was there during the attack told another journalist that “suddenly missiles started raining down on us – there was no warning.”
Three photographs uploaded to X with the logo of Quds News Network show a child holding three identifiable munition remnants in one of the classrooms. Based on these images, Human Rights Watch determined that at least one US produced GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb directly hit at least one of the school buildings.
The witness who lost eight family members said he had not seen any weapons or military material at the school and that no militants were there, “only civilians seeking safety.”
The Human Rights Watch review of online materials relating to the men listed by Airwars as killed in each of the strikes found no evidence that any were combatants. Human Rights Watch reviewed the Telegram channels and associated social media of the armed wings of Hamas, Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and Islamic Jihad, al-Quds Brigade. Neither made mention of the strike.
The videos Human Rights Watch analyzed of the aftermath of the strikes on the school did not indicate any Palestinian armed group’s presence or military equipment in or near the building at the time of the attack.
On the day of the strike, the Israeli military said it had “conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command and control center ... embedded inside a compound that previously served as the Al-Falah School.” According to a person with close knowledge of the schools who spoke with Airwars, al-Falah Elementary Boys B school and Al Falah Preparatory Boys B school is located about 200 meters from al-Zeitoun C school, with al-Zeitoun A/B school separating them. Palestinian media mentioned an Israeli strike on al-Falah school the same day, which reportedly resulted in injuries. The Israeli military did not make a separate statement relating to the strike on al-Zeitoun C school and has presented no information that would demonstrate the existence of a military target there. The military has also not said why it did not provide an effective advance warning to the residents of al-Zeitoun C school, and nearby buildings, to evacuate before the initial attack.
A girl who survived the attack told the BBC, “What have we done as children? We wake up and go to sleep terrified. At least protect the schools; we don’t have schools or homes – where do we go?”
Macao: Ex-Lawmaker Held on National Security Charge
(New York) – Macao authorities should unconditionally release the former lawmaker and veteran pro-democracy activist Au Kam San (區錦新), who was arrested on national security charges, Human Rights Watch said today. This is the first time the draconian Law on Safeguarding National Security has been invoked in China’s Macao Special Administrative Region.
On July 30, 2025, Macao police arrested Au for violating article 13 of the national security law, which carries a maximum 10-year sentence. Au is being held without bail pending investigation.
“The arrest of Au Kam San reflects the broadening repression radiating from China to Hong Kong and Macao under Chinese leader Xi Jinping,” said Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch. “Macao’s authorities should stop suppressing peaceful criticism and immediately and unconditionally free this activist and former legislator.”
The Macao Judicial Police accused Au of “having long-term contacts” with “overseas anti-China entities,” providing them with “false and inflammatory information,” “arousing hatred,” “disrupting Macao’s 2024 chief executive election, and causing foreign countries to take hostile actions against Macao.”
Au, a 68-year-old Portuguese citizen and former primary school teacher, became an activist after the Chinese government’s Tiananmen Massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989. Since then, he and others have played a major role in the city’s small civil society. For 30 years, Au’s group, the Macao Union of Democratic Development (澳門民主發展聯委會), organized annual vigils to commemorate the crackdown, even as Au and fellow organizers endured abuse including physical assaults and loss of jobs.
The group finally disbanded under government pressure in 2023. Between 2001 and 2021, Au was elected to local office five times and became Macao’s longest serving pro-democracy lawmaker.
Macao was a Portuguese colony until 1999, when its sovereignty was transferred to the People’s Republic of China. Macao’s government has long suppressed critical voices. It has arrested opposition figures and journalists, severely restricted protests, and barred Hong Kong pro-democracy activists and journalists from entering the territory.
Macao authorities’ repressive efforts appear to have accelerated in recent years, especially after 2019, when mass protests broke out in Hong Kong, and after 2020, when the Chinese government imposed the draconian National Security Law on Hong Kong.
In 2021, Macao’s Court of Final Appeal upheld the government’s ban on the Tiananmen Massacre annual vigil, ruling that the political slogans used by the organizers violated the Chinese Constitution and Macao’s functional constitution, the Basic Law, by urging the public to “overthrow the existing political system.” The authorities disqualified 21 people in 2021 and 12 in 2025 from running for legislative seats, citing vague reasons such as “disloyalty” to Macao.
Macao’s Law on Safeguarding National Security, enacted in 2009 and amended in 2023, undermines rule of law and human rights guarantees enshrined in Macao’s de facto constitution, the Basic Law, and contravenes the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which applies to Macao via the Basic Law. The revised national security law empowers the authorities to prosecute peaceful activities, which they had previously limited powers to restrict.
While the 2009 law provided punishments for seven crimes, including treason, secession, subversion, and theft of state secrets, the 2023 amendments significantly broadened the scope of national security offenses and the powers of authorities. The amendments introduced an additional 30 articles. They expanded the definitions of “secession” and “subversion” to cover nonviolent acts, introduced a new offense of “instigating or supporting rebellion,” and expanded the law’s extraterritorial jurisdiction from applying only to overseas activities by Macao residents to both residents and nonresidents.
Article 13, which Au is accused of violating, makes it a criminal offense to establish “links with organizations or groups” outside Macao to “conduct activities endangering national security.”
Article 25 stipulates that suspects shall be subject to “preventive detention measures” or pretrial detention, without the option of bail.
In Hong Kong, where the pro-democracy movement attracted mass participation, the authorities have arrested at least 326 people for violating the city’s National Security Law since 2020.
The European Union condemned Au’s arrest in an August 2 statement but did not call for his release. Portuguese media, citing “a diplomatic source,” said the Portuguese government is “following up on the case.”
“The Chinese government, having dismantled Hong Kong’s freedoms, has now turned to Macao, arresting Au Kam San, the backbone of the city’s pro-democracy movement,” Wang said. “Portugal, the European Union, and other concerned governments should forcefully press for his immediate release.”
Vietnam: Free Imprisoned Activists at Medical Risk
(New York) – The Vietnamese government should immediately release two wrongfully imprisoned activists who have developed serious health problems in prison, Human Rights Watch said today.
Can Thi Theu, 63, a land rights activist, was recently hospitalized for abdominal pain and fever. Le Dinh Luong, 59, a pro-democracy campaigner, suffers from spinal degeneration and chronic stomach pain. Neither has received adequate medical care while incarcerated and both need to obtain medical treatment either in Vietnam or abroad.
“Can Thi Theu and Le Dinh Luong are among the many Vietnamese activists imprisoned for their opinions and peaceful advocacy,” said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “By arbitrarily detaining Can Thi Theu and Le Dinh Luong and then denying them necessary medical care, the Vietnamese authorities are putting their health at risk and compounding the violations of their rights.”
Can Thi Theu is serving an eight-year prison sentence at Prison No. 5 in Thanh Hoa province for her participation in protests against land confiscation and environmental degradation, and for publicly voicing support for other human rights activists and political prisoners. In separate arrests on June 24, 2020, police detained Can Thi Theu and her adult sons Trinh Ba Tu and Trinh Ba Phuong. The three were sentenced and imprisoned under article 117 of Vietnam’s penal code, which prohibits “conducting propaganda against the state.”
Can Thi Theu has told her family that she was hospitalized at Ngoc Lac Hospital from July 28 to July 30, 2025, for intense stomach cramps and intermittent fever, treated with antibiotics, and then sent back to prison. Can Thi Theu reportedly asked to see her medical diagnosis record or a copy, but the authorities denied her request. As of August 1, Can Thi Theu has continued to suffer from pain and severe fatigue. The authorities have not responded to her family’s request on Aug 5 date to be granted another visit (beyond the allowed one-per-month prison visit), proper medical treatment, as well as full access to her medical record.
Le Dinh Luong has long campaigned for democracy, human rights, and environmental protections. He had often visited former political prisoners upon their release from prison, as well as the families of people imprisoned for campaigning for democracy and human rights. After one such visit in 2017, he was arrested, charged with carrying out activities “to overthrow the people’s administration” under penal code article 79, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He is currently serving his prison sentence at Nam Ha prison in Ninh Binh province.
Le Dinh Luong’s health has deteriorated in prison. He reportedly requested medical treatment but was denied. In May, he carried out a hunger strike to protest the prison’s maltreatment of his health situation. In June, his family’s visit was reportedly cut short, and prison guards dragged him away in front of his grandchildren. In July, he was reportedly put in solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure.
Under rule 27 of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (also known as the Nelson Mandela Rules), “[a]ll prisons shall ensure prompt access to medical attention in urgent cases. Prisoners who require specialized treatment or surgery shall be transferred to specialized institutions or to civil hospitals.”
“The Vietnamese authorities should immediately release Can Thi Theu and Le Dinh Luong, or at least give them prompt access to the medical care they need,” Gossman said. “Governments seeking improved ties with Vietnam should press for the release of all political prisoners.”
DR Congo: Armed Group Massacres Dozens in Church
(Nairobi) – The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed group killed more than 40 people, including several children, with guns and machetes during a nighttime church gathering on July 26-27, 2025, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights Watch said today. Several other children were abducted and remain missing.
The Ugandan-led ADF pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2019, but current ties between the two armed groups are unclear. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in Komanda, Ituri province, on its Telegram channel, saying 45 people were killed. The massacre heightens concerns about the ability of Congo’s national army, stationed nearby, and the United Nations peacekeeping force to protect civilians.
“The Allied Democratic Forces’ killings of civilians, including worshipers in church, demonstrated incomprehensible brutality,” said Clémentine de Montjoye, senior Great Lakes researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The massacre at Komanda and other mass killings this year highlight the insecurity in eastern Congo and the need for the Congolese government to urgently step up efforts to protect civilians and hold those responsible to account.”
Komanda residents and witnesses told Human Rights Watch that worshipers had gathered for celebrations at the Catholic church on July 26, and many spent the night ahead of Sunday mass. ADF fighters entered the church compound around 1 a.m. on July 27 and began their attack on a building where people were sleeping, witnesses said. Survivors and a witness said fighters attacked people with blunt instrument blows to the head, machetes, and gunfire. According to the parish, at least 33 people died immediately or later from their injuries.
“They told us to sit down, and then started hitting people [with blunt instruments] on the back of the neck. They killed two people I didn’t know, and that’s when I decided to flee with four others,” a survivor told Human Rights Watch. “We managed to run away – they shot at us but didn’t hit us.”
The ADF fighters killed at least five other people in the town and set fire to houses and kiosks, according to a local civil society leader, media reports. Videos on social media that Human Rights Watch geolocated show burned buildings on the town’s main road near the church.
Human Rights Watch received the names of 39 people killed, 9 injured, and 9 children between ages 7 and 14 abducted. According to a list shared by the parish on August 2, more than 30 people were abducted, and 7 injured during the attack on the building next to the church. On July 27, the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) reported at least 43 deaths, including 9 children, as well as people killed in surrounding areas. According to two sources, some of those kidnapped have since escaped.
The Congolese army was deployed about 3 kilometers south of the church, while MONUSCO was about a kilometer south. Human Rights Watch received information that network issues at the time of the attack impeded efforts to sound the alarm.
“During all this time, neither the FARDC [Congolese army] nor MONUSCO intervened,” said a civil society leader. “The police didn’t come either. They all came eventually, but it was too late. They just saw the damage done.”
The government imposed martial law in North Kivu and Ituri in April 2021 to end insecurity in the two provinces. However, martial law failed to curb abuses against civilians and enabled the military and police to curtail freedom of expression, suppress peaceful demonstrations with lethal force, and arbitrarily detain and prosecute activists, journalists, and political opposition members.
Congo’s influential conference of Catholic bishops stated on July 29 that “[o]ur indignation is all the greater because this latest massacre occurred in one of the provinces that has been under [martial law] for several years, supported by the joint efforts of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and those of Uganda (UPDF), along with the decades-long presence of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission (MONUSCO).”
Congo’s government condemned the killings as “horrific,” and military officials described it as a “large-scale massacre” in response to recent military operations against the ADF. MONUSCO condemned the killings and warned that the attacks would exacerbate “an already extremely concerning humanitarian situation in the province.”
In response to written questions from Human Rights Watch, a public information officer of the rapid deployable battalion at MONUSCO’s Komanda base stated that “The ADF is known to employ silent killer tactics, striking swiftly, organized and unpredictable. In this case, the attack occurred in the early hours of the morning, targeting a religious gathering attended by a large number of civilians” and that MONUSCO had taken steps to “intensify protection efforts in the area.”
A Congolese military source told Human Rights Watch that a military justice investigation had been opened and further troops deployed to the area to ensure the protection of civilians. The Congolese government and MONUSCO should urgently complete the investigation into the July attack and the response of the armed forces and MONUSCO and make its findings public.
Congolese authorities, with MONUSCO’s assistance, should adopt measures to re-establish trust with civilians, including by reinforcing early warning networks and consulting with communities and civic groups about protection needs. The authorities should take all necessary steps to protect civilians, including by promptly responding to reports of armed group activity and movements. Additionally, efforts should be made to hold perpetrators of these killings, which could amount to war crimes, to account, Human Rights Watch said.
In recent years, the ADF armed group has been implicated in scores of killings and abductions in North Kivu province’s Beni and Lubero territories and increasingly in the neighboring Irumu territory of Ituri province. ADF attacks earlier in July killed 82 civilians in Ituri and North Kivu, according to the UN. The UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo reported that, “January 2025 marked the second time in which ADF-attributed fatalities exceeded 200 within a single month – predominantly in the Beni region and Lubero territory.” In 2024, the ADF was the armed group responsible for the highest number of killings in Congo, mainly civilians.
In early 2025, the Ugandan armed forces expanded a joint military campaign, known as “Operation Shujaa,” that began in late 2021. The UN reported, though, that the operation “did not curb ADF violence against civilians in North Kivu and Ituri Provinces.” Some security experts believe that the joint deployment has pushed the ADF from some strongholds near the Ugandan border further into Ituri and North Kivu provinces.
The African Union and UN Security Council should press for a credible strategy to address the deepening security crisis and grave rights abuses in all parts of eastern Congo, Human Rights Watch said.
“President Félix Tshisekedi, with international support, should focus on protecting civilians and providing tighter military oversight in eastern Congo to spare long-suffering communities from further atrocities,” de Montjoye said. “The government has a duty to protect civilians and ensure justice for victims of these repeated atrocities.”
Cameroon Doubles Down on Excluding Opposition Candidate from Elections
On August 5, Cameroon’s Constitutional Council backed the electoral commission’s decision to bar Maurice Kamto, a key opposition leader and challenger to incumbent President Paul Biya, from the country’s upcoming presidential elections. The move threatens the credibility of the electoral process and has triggered yet another crackdown on political opposition.
Cameroon’s electoral commission rejected Kamto’s candidacy last month, claiming that the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy party (Mouvement africain pour la nouvelle indépendance et la démocratie, MANIDEM), which had backed him, had also sponsored a second candidate. However, MANIDEM’s president said his party only supported Kamto and that the electoral commission’s decision was arbitrary.
Kamto appealed the decision to the Constitutional Council, which rejected his appeal as “unfounded.” It also rejected 34 petitions from other prospective challengers and its rulings cannot be appealed.
“The decision of the Constitutional Council is based on political rather than legal grounds,” Hyppolite Meli Tiakouang, a member of Kamto’s legal team, told Human Rights Watch. “Kamto is a victim of fraudulent maneuvers that aim at shutting down any opposition, laying the foundations for unfair elections.”
Kamto’s removal sparked criticism among his supporters and party members who have been holding marches and peaceful protests across the capital, Yaoundé, since July 26. Security forces used tear gas to disperse crowds, including dozens of Kamto’s supporters, who had gathered in front of the Constitutional Council on August 4. They have detained at least 35 of Kamto’s supporters since July 26.
Those detained, including seven women, are being held at various police and gendarmerie stations across Yaoundé on charges including public disorder and rebellion. Their lawyers called the charges politically motivated.
The decision to bar Kamto from the presidential race reflects the government’s long-standing intolerance for any opposition and dissent and comes amid an intensified crackdown on opponents activists, and lawyers ahead of the elections slated for later this year.
Excluding Kamto undermines the rights of Cameroonians to participate in free and fair elections. He should be allowed to run, and people should be able to choose freely. The authorities should stop their crackdown on the opposition and immediately release all those arrested for political reasons, lest the elections be deemed unfair before the campaigning even starts.
Videos Highlight Urgency for Israeli Hostages’ Release
In recent days, two Palestinian armed groups have released videos of hostages that underscore the horrendous conditions they are facing.
On August 1, Hamas’ armed wing published two videos showing an emaciated 24-year-old Evyatar David in a tunnel, first sitting next to a chart that he says tracks his extremely limited food intake and then scraping at the ground with a shovel while he says he is digging his own grave.
The day before, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s armed wing published a video of emaciated 22-year-old hostage Rom Braslavski, in which he says how weak he feels due to a lack of food and water. “It's important that the world sees,” his mother said, “despite my personal pain in publicly showing my Rom in the condition he's in."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the recent videos are evidence that Palestinian armed groups are purposefully starving hostages. Hamas denies this, saying in an August 4 letter to the United Nations Security Council that hostages “are experiencing the same conditions as the people of Gaza." Israeli authorities’ use of starvation as a weapon of war and their intentional deprivation of aid and basic services—amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide—have caused mass starvation across Gaza.
Taking hostages is a war crime, yet Palestinian armed groups have remained impervious to global calls to free them, including at a special session of the Security Council on August 5. David and Braslavski are among the 251 civilians and security force personnel Palestinian armed groups took hostage in Israel on October 7, 2023. Israeli authorities say that 49 hostages remain in Gaza, of whom only 20 are presumed to be alive. Palestinian armed groups should immediately and safely release all civilians they are holding hostage, just as Israeli authorities should immediately and safely release all unlawfully held Palestinians. International law also requires Palestinian armed groups in Gaza to treat those they are holding humanely and ensure adequate food. Publishing videos showing hostages in such a vulnerable state is a form of inhumane treatment and constitutes “outrages upon [their] personal dignity,” also a war crime.
Other countries should use all their leverage to press for an end to this ongoing nightmare.
Lebanon: Israeli Forces Occupied, Vandalized Schools
(Beirut) – Israeli ground forces occupied schools across southern Lebanon during hostilities with Hezbollah between September and November 2024 and in the weeks that followed and, in at least two schools, appear to have intentionally vandalized, pillaged, and destroyed school property, Human Rights Watch said today. Many of their acts amount to war crimes.
With children across Lebanon facing more than six years of significant disruptions to their education since the 2019 economic crisis, Lebanon and donor governments should prioritize rebuilding critical infrastructure, including schools, in a transparent, accountable, and corruption-free manner.
“Many of southern Lebanon’s border villages have been razed to the ground, and where schools were left standing, several had been vandalized, and at least two had been ransacked by Israeli forces,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “By pillaging schools, Israeli forces committed apparent war crimes and put the education of students in Lebanon at risk.”
More than 100 schools across southern Lebanon have been destroyed or “heavily damaged” since the start of hostilities in October 2023, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Human Rights Watch visited seven schools in southern Lebanon between January and March 2025 in the border villages and towns of Aita al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa, Naqoura, Yarine, Ramieh, Aitaroun, and Bani Hayyan, documenting damage and destruction to the schools as well as the surrounding villages.
Human Rights Watch found evidence—including Israeli food items, other trash with Hebrew writing, and Hebrew graffiti on school walls and classroom boards—indicating that Israeli forces occupied five of seven of the schools visited, all except for the schools in Aitaroun and Bani Hayyan, which had also been damaged.
Click to expand Image © 2025 Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch spoke with principals and administrators, who did not wish to be identified by name, about the impacts on children’s access to education. Human Rights Watch also spoke with two international humanitarian organizations that also documented damage and destruction to schools in Lebanon and other impacts on education.
The five schools that were occupied had damage from small arms fire and explosive weapons. All had graffiti and writing in Hebrew and English on walls and classroom boards. In Yarine and Naqoura, the evidence suggested that Israeli forces purposefully destroyed and pillaged the schools, which are war crimes. Withdrawing Israeli forces left behind damaged and ransacked classrooms and administrative offices. Much of the school equipment that remained, including computers and classroom equipment, was destroyed or damaged.
The schools in Aita al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa, and Ramieh were significantly damaged, most likely as a result of ground fighting. The Israeli army said that they struck the school in Tayr Harfa because Hezbollah operatives were using the school building. Israeli forces later occupied it. School principals told Human Rights Watch that school property was missing. However, researchers could not attribute responsibility for the missing school property in light of the fighting that took place at or around the schools, in addition to the fact that these villages and towns had been largely emptied out of residents since the outbreak of hostilities on October 8, 2023.
Dated Hebrew graffiti found in Naqoura Intermediate Public School suggests that the Israeli military continued to occupy some of the schools weeks after the November 2024 ceasefire.
On May 16, Human Rights Watch sent a letter outlining its findings and posing questions to the Israeli military. A military spokesperson responded that the Israeli military “is sometimes required to operate from within civilian buildings for varying periods of time, based on operational needs and the circumstances on the ground.” They said that “vandalism of civilian property does not align with the IDF’s values and constitutes a violation of its regulations,” and that “exceptional incidents raising concerns of deviation from IDF orders and expected conduct will be addressed accordingly.”
Human Rights Watch sent a letter to Hezbollah on June 4, including asking whether they had occupied schools or engaged in ground fighting at or near schools, but did not receive a response.
Serious violations of the laws of war committed by individuals with criminal intent—that is, deliberately or recklessly—are war crimes. War crimes include a wide array of offenses such as deliberate, indiscriminate, and disproportionate attacks on civilian objects and pillage. Schools and other cultural property, even if public property, are specifically protected against “[s]eizure…, destruction or willful damage,” which are war crimes.
In 2015, Lebanon endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, an international political commitment that aims to protect education during times of war by strengthening the prevention of, and response to, attacks on students, teachers, schools, and universities. Under the declaration, governments pledge that their militaries will refrain from using schools and universities for any purpose in support of a military effort.
Israel has not endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration. Israel’s allies should press the Israeli government to immediately cease deliberate, indiscriminate, and disproportionate attacks against civilians and civilian objects, including schools, and avoid using educational facilities for military purposes.
International donors and humanitarian agencies should support the Lebanese government to ensure the timely reconstruction of schools, along with other critical civilian infrastructure. To ensure accountability and justice for grave abuses, the Lebanese government should provide jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and prosecute international crimes committed on Lebanese territory since October 2023.
“Urgent reconstruction efforts are needed so that tens of thousands of displaced residents can begin returning to their homes and villages and children can fully access their right to education,” Kaiss said. “Just as importantly, Lebanon’s government should ensure justice for abuses and crimes, including by granting jurisdiction to the ICC.”
The most recent outbreak of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel began on October 8, 2023. On October 9, the school year for public schools in Lebanon officially began, but many schools in Lebanon’s border villages were forced to close their doors in light of the cross-border attacks. Tens of thousands of people were subsequently displaced from Lebanon’s border villages, which remained largely empty throughout the hostilities.
Between October 2023 and November 2024, the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, displaced nearly 1 million people, and had a devastating impact on children’s access to education.
On September 30, 2024, Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon and subsequently occupied dozens of border villages. Between October 1 and October 7, 2024, the Israeli military called on residents of more than 100 towns and villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate to nearly 60 kilometers north of Lebanon’s border with Israel.
Many border villages were the sites of active fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, in addition to controlled demolitions by Israeli forces. After the November 27, 2024 ceasefire, Israeli forces continued to occupy many border villages, prohibiting residents from returning and carrying out significant destruction before eventually withdrawing.
Israeli ground forces remain at five locations in southern Lebanon, and, as of July 2025, Israeli attacks since the November 2024 ceasefire have reportedly killed at least 260 people in Lebanon, including at least 71 civilians, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). More than 82,000 people remained displaced as of May 2025, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The repair and reconstruction of the over 100 school facilities that sustained sweeping damage and destruction as a result of the fighting, as well as other basic infrastructure, will require significant resources and time, likely leaving many children without access to education in the meantime.
All school principals and administrators interviewed said that their schools contained school supplies and equipment provided by the USAID-funded program, Quality Instruction Toward Access and Basic Education Improvement (QITABI).
Destruction of, or serious damage to, schools can have devastating impacts on children, who often have to travel further, in what may be an insecure environment, to access education, often in an overcrowded school. Some students may not be able to continue their education due to lack of available facilities, difficulties and costs related to transportation, insecurity, trauma, and other factors.
Destruction of schools affects girls disproportionately because they face the greatest harm from difficult access to schools. Parents may be more sensitive to security risks related to further travel, including sexual and gender-based violence, and discriminatory social norms can encourage the deprioritization of girls’ education.
Yarine Intermediate Public SchoolHuman Rights Watch visited Yarine Intermediate Public School on March 6, 2025. The principal said that the school previously served 170 students, from Yarine and other villages, from kindergarten to sixth grade. The outbreak of cross-border fighting forced the school to close on October 9, 2023, and caused staff and students to flee the village, the principal said.
Evidence reviewed by Human Rights Watch, including photographs and videos of damage, indicates that Israeli forces likely purposefully destroyed and pillaged the school’s property, which amounts to war crimes.
Destruction in and around Yarine Intermediate Public School, Lebanon, March 6, 2025. © 2025 Human Rights Watch Damage to Yarine Intermediate Public School, Lebanon, March 6, 2025. © 2025 Human Rights Watch A damaged classroom in Yarine Intermediate Public School, Lebanon, March 6, 2025. © 2025 Human Rights Watch Graffiti, referencing the Israeli military’s Golani Brigade, found on the walls of a classroom at Yarine Intermediate Public School, Lebanon, March 6, 2025. © 2025 Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch found evidence suggesting that Israeli forces occupied the village between October 20, 2024, and January 26, 2025, and also occupied Yarine Intermediate Public School, though researchers could not ascertain the exact dates.
Satellite imagery indicates that after October 20, controlled demolitions expanded, resulting in the near-total destruction of Yarine village in less than 10 days. A video published by the Israeli military on October 25, first publicly geolocated by GeoConfirmed and confirmed by Human Rights Watch, shows Israeli forces operating in Yarine less than 300 meters from the school. Photographs posted on social media between November 19 and 25, two days before the November 27 ceasefire went into effect, showed Israeli soldiers at the school. Researchers also found Hebrew writing on a classroom whiteboard dated November 21, 2024.
Between November 22 and 26, 2024, Hezbollah issued five statements, indicating that it had, on several occasions, conducted drone attacks against Israeli forces and military equipment in the village.
Residents were reportedly only able to return after the partial withdrawal of the Israeli army from some border villages and towns on January 26, 2025.
When Human Rights Watch visited the school in March, researchers found remnants of packaging for food items and other trash in Hebrew script on school grounds as well as a military sleeping cot, indicating Israeli forces had likely encamped at the school.
Empty wooden crates for ammunition—including for recoilless rifle rounds, a weapon not found in the Israeli military’s arsenal but commonly used by Hezbollah and other armed groups—were also apparently left behind on the school grounds. Researchers verified several photographs shared on social media in October and November 2024 showing Israeli soldiers in Yarine with weapons that appear to have been confiscated from Hezbollah. Human Rights Watch could not confirm when and by whom the boxes were discarded at the school.
Human Rights Watch reviewed and geolocated photographs of Israeli soldiers posted on social media by a Palestinian journalist, Younis Tirawi, on November 25, showing two Israeli tanks and a Humvee vehicle parked in the school yard. In the photographs, the southern and western facades of the school appear to be largely undamaged, although windows are broken, and pockmarks from small arms and light weapons fire, including explosive weapons, appear visible on the school’s facade, indicating there might have been ground fighting at the school.
There also appears to be small arms fire damage on some inner hallway walls. Soldiers appear to have tied biology lab material, including a miniature human skeleton model, on the front of one of their vehicles. At least two tanks and one military truck are parked in the school’s entrance. The photographs also show Israeli soldiers sitting in a school classroom, with military equipment laid across classroom tables, while other soldiers write on the school’s whiteboards.
When Human Rights Watch researchers visited the school, it had been significantly damaged and partially burned. When researchers visited the classroom depicted in the photos, they found chairs, tables and walls significantly damaged. Parts of the eastern wall were missing, and broken cinderblocks, files, and other classroom material covered the ground. A poster in the classroom indicated that school material, including chairs, tables, and 10 computers, had been donated by France.
The school’s southern and western outer facades, columns, and hallway, on both the ground floor and the first floor, had been torn down. All sides of the school’s outer facades were damaged. Rooms on the ground floor and second floor on the school’s western side appear to have been burned, and the generator just north of the school, which had supplied the school with electricity, had been burned and turned on its side along with the heavy metal caging that housed it and a nearby electricity pole. The tiled canopy in the school’s yard, which appeared undamaged in photographs shared by soldiers on or before November 25, was also torn down.
Researchers found Hebrew writing on the classroom whiteboard, including a phrase that mentioned the Golani Brigade, an Israeli army unit linked to abuses. The principal said that Israeli forces took mattresses used for nap times in the nursery up to the second floor and had “turned some of the classrooms into bedrooms.”
A photograph shared online on November 19 and geolocated by Human Rights Watch shows an Israeli reservist identifiable as likely being from the Golani Brigade, Battalion 13, based on photographs from unit events he had posted online, inside the intermediate school along with another solider.
The photo shows the two soldiers posing in front of a white and blue wall showing a logo for the Golani Brigade, Battalion 13, Platoon B, including the names of soldiers from Battalion 13 killed in Israel on October 7, 2023, and later in Gaza, with text reading: “In memory of the Platoon’s fallen.” Researchers saw this same graffiti and list of names on the blue and white wall inside the school on March 6, 2025.
Other whiteboard text, dated November 21, 2024, said a soldier finished his military service there. The name matches an Israeli reservist who says he’s part of an “elite unit of the IDF” and appears to be affiliated with the Duvdevan Unit, an elite Israeli commando unit that has also been linked to abuses, based on a patch on his uniform. On November 21, he posted on Instagram showing himself in uniform, his weapon raised, saying he had finished his “third round.”
The principal said she had visited the school on January 27, 2025, one day after the Israeli army withdrew from the village, and found that the school’s 10 laptops had been stolen. She said that six of them had been donated by the USAID-funded QITABI program and another two by the French battalion of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). She said that desktop computers in the school’s “computer room” had all been destroyed, along with a scanner and printer worth US$5,000. Human Rights Watch could not confirm who was responsible for the missing laptops.
The principal said that the school would need to be “rebuilt from the ground up.”
Satellite imagery collected on January 30, three days after the principal visited, shows large amounts of debris scattered across the school yard. Clusters of buildings in the immediate vicinity appear demolished, and nearly the entire village of Yarine has been reduced to rubble.
Naqoura Intermediate Public SchoolNaqoura Intermediate Public School, less than three kilometers from Lebanon’s border with Israel, served 300 students from kindergarten through ninth grade, according to the school principal. It closed on October 9, 2023. Human Rights Watch visited the school on January 31, 2025, and found clear evidence that Israeli forces had occupied the school, damaged and destroyed school equipment, and damaged the school premises.
Human Rights Watch could not ascertain the exact dates during which the school was occupied. One of the Hebrew phrases found in the school was dated December 22, 2024, suggesting that Israeli forces may have been there several weeks after the November 27 ceasefire.
Between May and November 2024, the Israeli military published several statements on social media saying it had struck Hezbollah targets in Naqoura. One video published May 16 and verified by Human Rights Watch shows an airstrike on a house less than 150 meters from the school. Videos posted on social media between March and June 2024, also geolocated by GeoConfirmed, show at least six airstrikes on buildings within a 300-meter radius of the school.
Human Rights Watch reviewed photographs and videos posted online, as well as statements issued by the Israeli military, Hezbollah, and UNIFIL, that indicate that ground combat took place in the village. In statements on November 6 and 12, 2024, Hezbollah said it attacked Israeli forces in Naqoura.
In a November 26, 2024 statement, the Israeli military said that it struck Hezbollah targets in Naqoura. In a statement on December 27, one month after the ceasefire, the Israeli military said it “identified military equipment and weapons storage facilities embedded inside civilian buildings” in Naqoura and showed photographs of apparently confiscated Hezbollah weapons. The Israeli army reportedly withdrew from Naqoura on January 7, 2025.
The evidence of Israeli forces’ occupation and vandalization of the school, including in the weeks after the ceasefire, suggests that Israeli forces purposefully destroyed school property, a war crime.
At the school, researchers found Israeli food supplies labeled in Hebrew and trash throughout classrooms and on school grounds, as well as military equipment in some classrooms. In one classroom that appeared to have been a sleeping area, researchers found mattresses, food, and military equipment. Messages in Hebrew and English on the whiteboard included one in Hebrew that read: “Good Saturday people of Lebanon. Thank Nasrallah for all the destruction he brought upon you,” a reference to Hassan Nasrallah, the former Hezbollah leader. In another classroom, researchers found destroyed and damaged equipment, including laptops that had been removed from their manufacturer boxes and smashed next to Israeli food packaging. The principal said that the laptops were “brand new” and had been donated recently by QITABI.
The school principal said that the equipment had been destroyed, lab materials had been thrown on the ground and “ruined,” and the school’s storage rooms had been broken into and their contents destroyed. Television screens in several classrooms appeared to have been deliberately punctured. Damaged desks had stickers indicating they were donated by Belgium.
Damage to a classroom in Naqqoura Intermediate Public School, Lebanon, January 31, 2025. © 2025 Human Rights Watch Damaged school equipment strewn across the hallway floor at Naqqoura Intermediate Public School, Lebanon, January 31, 2025. © 2025 Human Rights Watch Damaged school laptops scattered across the floor of a classroom at Naqoura Intermediate Public School, Lebanon, January 31, 2025. © 2025 Human Rights Watch“They seem to have focused on technological equipment in the school,” the principal said. “They destroyed them. Our interactive boards, LCD projectors, they were destroyed. Some they tried to forcefully remove, others they shot. The TVs were destroyed… We also had storage rooms that were locked; those were broken into and destroyed.” Evidence examined by Human Rights Watch researchers confirmed her account.
Human Rights Watch also found evidence that some agricultural land in front of the school had been razed. Trees had been torn down, and bulldozer tracks ran through the schoolyard. Satellite imagery analysis by Human Rights Watch confirmed that the land was razed and nearby houses were destroyed between December 20 and 25, with further destruction observed in multiple areas around Naqoura until at least the beginning of January 2025, before Israeli forces withdrew.
A video shared on Telegram on December 20, 2024, geolocated and verified by Human Rights Watch, shows an Israeli military armored bulldozer razing rows of orange trees in an orchard 450 meters northeast of the school. An explosion can be heard as three Israeli soldiers stand watch. One soldier laughs as smoke billows nearby. The Telegram post thanked “Brigade 226, Battalion 9255” for their service. A soldier in the video wears a patch, identified by researchers as worn by members of the Israeli military’s reserve 226th Paratroop Brigade, Battalion 9255, on his uniform.
Schools in Aita al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa, and RamiehThe three schools researchers visited in Aita al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa, and Ramieh were significantly damaged, most likely as a result of ground fighting at or near the schools. In all three schools, researchers found evidence of Israeli military occupation.
While school principals and officials said that school material and equipment were missing, Human Rights Watch could not determine who was responsible because of the fighting and the fact that that these villages and towns have been largely empty since the outbreak of hostilities.
At the Aita al-Shaab Secondary Public School, Human Rights Watch researchers found significant amounts of trash, including food items and water bottles, labeled with Hebrew writing, as well as boxes that appear to have previously contained belted 7.62x51mm rifle cartridges. They also found items used in demolition systems, including a “shock tube” and an igniter, which may have been used in the controlled demolition of buildings surrounding the school.
Click to expand Image A shock tube typically used in controlled demolitions found at Atia al Shaab Secondary Public School, Lebanon, January 30, 2025. © 2025 Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch found one used, partially intact demolition initiation system bearing a lot number showing that it was of US origin and produced in early 2023, in addition to Hebrew graffiti on the school walls. The principal said that the equipment for the chemistry and biology lab, which had been funded by USAID, had also been destroyed. Human Rights Watch also verified photographs sent by the principal showing dozens of padded chairs in an auditorium, which he said had also been donated by UNIFIL, that appear to have been deliberately damaged. He said they looked like they had been “slashed with a knife.” Human Rights Watch could not verify who was responsible.
At Tayr Harfa Intermediate Public School, researchers found evidence that the land and road surrounding the school were razed by a bulldozer, damaging the road, agricultural land, and underground water infrastructure surrounding the school. Broken water pipes, dug-up gravel, and trash left by the military were strewn outside the school. Researchers found Israeli wine boxes, food material, empty wooden ammunition crates—including for 800 US-produced linked 7.62x51mm cartridges for use by a machine gun—and metal ammunition cans.
Inside the school, researchers found water bottles, food material, and trash with Hebrew labels. Graffiti in Hebrew on classroom walls had names of people—possibly soldiers—who had been in the school, timetables, drone schedules, and observation logs. Other graffiti included song lyrics, expletives in English, and Hebrew writing memorializing fallen soldiers from the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion who were killed in Lebanon in November, saying “May God avenge” them.
Click to expand Image Hebrew writing found on a whiteboard at Tayr Harfa Intermediate Public School, January 31, 2025. © 2025 Human Rights WatchThe principal, who said he was one of the last people to leave the school on October 9, 2023, and one of the first to re-enter the school after the Israeli military’s withdrawal from the village in January 2025, said that 12 LCD projectors donated by USAID were missing. He said that more than 20 computer desktops, 18 laptops, and all printing machines had been destroyed. Some of the destroyed equipment had stickers indicating that they were donated by USAID. Human Rights Watch, however, could not verify who was responsible for the destruction of equipment or looting.
At Ramieh Public School, researchers found Israeli food material, water bottles, trash, and Hebrew graffiti, in addition to Israeli military pamphlets with instructions on how to heat prepackaged food. Hebrew writing on walls and whiteboards also noted Hebrew names apparently of Israeli individuals—possibly soldiers—but with no rank or unit names. Other graffiti referenced the Golani Brigade.
All three schools were significantly damaged as a result of ground fighting and airstrikes at or near the schools. Researchers were unable to verify if Hezbollah fighters were inside or immediately surrounding the school during this time.
Afghanistan: Relentless Repression 4 Years into Taliban Rule
(New York) – The Taliban have deepened their repression since taking over Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, by intensifying restrictions on the rights of women and girls, detaining journalists, and silencing all dissent, Human Rights Watch said today. Afghanistan now faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, exacerbated by donor governments’ aid cuts and the return of 1.9 million refugees expelled from Iran and Pakistan.
The Taliban have continued to bar girls from education beyond the sixth grade and women from universities. Women also face severe restrictions on employment, freedom of movement, and access to public spaces and services. These rights violations have limited their access to humanitarian aid and health care. On July 8, 2025, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the Taliban leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the chief justice, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, on a charge of the crime against humanity of gender persecution.
“The fourth anniversary of the Taliban takeover is a grim reminder of the gravity of the Taliban’s abuses, particularly against women and girls,” said Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Taliban’s abhorrent acts should compel governments to support efforts to hold the Taliban leadership and all those responsible for serious crimes in Afghanistan to account.”
The Taliban have harshly enforced a draconian 2024 law on the “propagation of virtue and prevention of vice” that stipulates rules on dress and behavior. Enforcement committees at the local level have carried out raids on workplaces, monitored public spaces, and established checkpoints to inspect mobile phones and question vehicle occupants and pedestrians.
Taliban officials have detained people for alleged infractions of the law, such as playing music, wearing inappropriate hijabs, or failing to separate women from men in work environments. Strict enforcement of the requirement for women to be accompanied by a male relative has added to women’s daily hardships and restrictions, while further impeding their access to humanitarian assistance and public services like health care.
A coalition of Afghan and international human rights organizations renewed their appeal in September 2024. They urged the United Nations Human Rights Council to establish an independent international accountability mechanism for Afghanistan, with a mandate to investigate and collect, preserve, and analyze evidence of grave violations and abuses in Afghanistan.
UN member countries have for four years failed to take effective action to end the egregious rights violations occurring in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said. The European Union should propose the creation of a comprehensive accountability mechanism for Afghanistan in the annual resolution it will present to the UN Human Rights Council for adoption in September.
Iran and Pakistan have expelled nearly two million Afghans as part of government crackdowns on immigrants and refugees. Among those being forced back are Afghans who fled to Iran and Pakistan out of fear of persecution after the Taliban takeover. Many of those deported or forced to leave had lived outside Afghanistan for decades, or in some cases their entire lives. The numbers have added to the millions who have been internally displaced in Afghanistan and have severely strained humanitarian support.
In addition, on July 18, Germany deported 81 Afghans to Kabul, the first deportations to Afghanistan under the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, in what the government said would be continuing deportations. In the United States, the Trump administration has terminated temporary protected status for Afghan nationals, severely restricted the humanitarian parole program for Afghans, indefinitely suspended all refugee admissions, and included Afghanistan on the list of travel ban countries, making thousands of Afghan nationals deportable, including their removal to third countries.
Domestic media outlets have had to comply with strict regulations limiting content, including prohibitions on images of people and vague requirements against publishing anything against Islam. Journalists have said they increasingly self-censor to avoid retaliation by the authorities.
Trump administration cuts to US aid programs – which had made up more than 40 percent of Afghanistan’s humanitarian assistance until January 2025 – have devastated food assistance efforts that were essential for ensuring access to food, disproportionately harming women and girls. Half of Afghanistan’s population or about 23 million require food aid. As of July, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that more than 400 health facilities have closed due to lack of funds, much of which had come from donor governments’ official development assistance.
The loss of foreign assistance has exacerbated malnutrition, particularly among children. Cuts to aid have also jeopardized critical online education programs for girls and women.
“The global implications of the Taliban’s takeover have become increasingly clear over the past four years,” Abbasi said. “Governments need to press the Taliban to end their abuses while also alleviating Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis. No country should be forcibly returning any Afghans.”
For Plastics Treaty, End Pollution at its Source
Countries will resume negotiations in Geneva on August 5, 2025, on a global plastics treaty. Previous talks have stalled amid deep divisions over key issues. To make the treaty meaningful, countries need to tackle plastic pollution at its source by limiting production, including by phasing out fossil fuels and subsidies.
Each year, more than 400 million tonnes of plastics are produced globally, nearly all made of fossil fuels, a major contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change. Petrochemicals, including plastics, are projected to drive more than one-third of the increase in global oil demand by 2030 and nearly half of it by 2050.
Plastics begin with oil and gas extraction, and throughout their use and disposal have significant impacts on human rights and health. In 2024, Human Rights Watch documented that communities living alongside fossil fuel operations in the United States – including those producing the raw chemical materials for plastics – suffer elevated risks and rates of cancer, harm to reproductive and newborn health, and respiratory ailments. These harms disproportionally affect fenceline communities – those close to polluting operations – including communities of color.
Recycling is often framed as the solution, but it too has human rights and health costs. Human Rights Watch found that in Türkiye, residents living near plastic recycling facilities suffer respiratory and skin ailments from pollution and toxins released during recycling. The current draft of the treaty includes language promoting higher recycling rates without accounting for the harm associated with recycling.
Governments have an international legal obligation to protect the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. The treaty should include safeguards to protect human rights and health from production through disposal, and recognize that waste management alone will not solve plastic pollution.
Countries have an opportunity to deliver a meaningful treaty that can effectively end plastic pollution. Rights-respecting measures, including production caps and fossil fuel phase-out, are essential to any lasting solution.
Lebanon: Five Years Without Justice for Port Explosion Victims
(Beirut) – Lebanese authorities have yet to deliver truth and justice for the victims and their families five years after the devastating Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. It is imperative to conduct a comprehensive and unobstructed investigation that establishes the full chain of responsibility. The blast, which killed at least 236 people, injured over 7,000, and devastated vast swathes of the capital, was one of the largest nonnuclear explosions in history.
Despite repeated domestic and international calls for accountability over the past five years, Lebanese authorities have failed to complete an effective, independent, and impartial investigation into the explosion. The resumption of the domestic investigation in 2025 after a two-year suspension has yet to yield conclusive results. The investigation has been marred by persistent obstruction and interference by political leaders and state officials determined to evade justice. For the victims’ families, this prolonged denial of accountability is an unbearable burden.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” said Reina Wehbi, Amnesty International’s Lebanon Campaigner. “The families of those killed and injured in the Beirut explosion have waited an intolerable five years. They must not be forced to endure another year of impunity. The time for justice, accountability, and truth is now.”
Rather than facilitating the investigation, several politicians and senior officials summoned by lead investigative judge, Tarek Bitar, including generals, judges, members of parliament, and former ministers, have consistently sought to derail it. They have refused to attend questioning sessions, invoking various forms of immunity, and opened a barrage of legal challenges against Judge Bitar that have repeatedly suspended the inquiry.
In January 2023, when Judge Bitar attempted to revive the stalled investigation after a two-year suspension, Lebanon’s then-public prosecutor, Ghassan Oueidat – who had been charged by Bitar – responded by filing a lawsuit against him, effectively suspending the investigation once again. Oueidat also ordered the release of the suspects who had been held in pretrial detention since the explosion and instructed security forces and the Public Prosecution Office to cease all cooperation with the judge.
In February 2025, following yet another two-year hiatus, Judge Bitar resumed the investigation by summoning additional employees and officials implicated in the explosion. The move came amid renewed political pledges by newly elected President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to uphold the rule of law and ensure justice for the port explosion victims.
The move was enabled in March, when the interim top prosecutor, Jamal Hajjar, overturned the measures imposed by his predecessor that had effectively frozen the investigation. Some of those summoned, such as former Prime Minister Hassan Diab, Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, and Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba, complied and appeared for questioning for the first time in years. However, other officials, including two members of parliament, Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zaiter, and Oueidat, the former prosecutor, have continued to obstruct the investigation by refusing to submit to questioning.
The Lebanese authorities should ensure a comprehensive and unobstructed investigation, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said. It is imperative for this inquiry to thoroughly establish the facts and circumstances surrounding the explosion, encompassing the full chain of responsibility – whether domestic or international – and determining whether any criminal acts or human rights violations occurred due to the state’s failure to protect lives.
The authorities also need to take all necessary measures to guarantee that the investigation can be completed without undue interference or obstruction from political leaders, state officials, or suspects in the case. This includes guaranteeing the independence of the judiciary and adopting essential amendments to Lebanon’s civil and criminal procedures codes to address provisions that have been exploited to obstruct criminal and civil investigations.
Despite the resumption of the investigation, the road to justice remains littered with political and legal challenges, Amnesty International and Human Right Watch said. The Lebanese authorities should swiftly remove the barriers that have repeatedly blocked the investigation and ensure that it proceeds without political interference.
A 2021 investigation by Human Rights Watch concluded that the explosion was a direct result of the Lebanese authorities’ failure to uphold their human rights obligations, particularly the right to life, and pointed to the possible involvement of senior officials.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other rights groups have consistently documented a range of procedural and systemic flaws within the domestic investigation. These flaws include pervasive political interference, granting immunity to high-level politicians, and failure to respect due process and fair trial standards. Other countries have also repeatedly condemned the authorities’ blatant political interference in the domestic investigation, notably in a joint statement at the United Nations Human Rights Council in March 2023.
“Justice for the Beirut port explosion is not only about accountability for a single event,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon Researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It is a test of Lebanon’s promised commitment to the rule of law and human rights.”
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