US Says Disagrees with Amnesty International's Genocide Accusation Against Israel

Displaced Palestinians sit next to a makeshift oven in a tent set up on an area in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Displaced Palestinians sit next to a makeshift oven in a tent set up on an area in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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US Says Disagrees with Amnesty International's Genocide Accusation Against Israel

Displaced Palestinians sit next to a makeshift oven in a tent set up on an area in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Displaced Palestinians sit next to a makeshift oven in a tent set up on an area in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The United States disagrees with Amnesty International's conclusion that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war, the State Department said on Thursday.

State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters at a regular news briefing that the US continues to find allegations of genocide in Gaza unfounded, after the London-based Amnesty International human rights group in a report on Thursday said Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
Israel has consistently rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the cross-border Hamas attack from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 that precipitated the war.

Israel launched its air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border 14 months ago, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Gaza's Health Ministry says that Israel's military campaign since then has killed more than 44,400 Palestinians and injured many others.
Palestinian and UN officials say there are no safe areas left in Gaza, a tiny, densely populated and heavily built-up coastal territory. Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been internally displaced, some as many as 10 times.



Iraqi Oil Minister: Kurdistan Region's Oil Exports to Resume Next Week

A view shows the al-Shuaiba oil refinery in southwest Basra, Iraq April 20, 2017. Reuters
A view shows the al-Shuaiba oil refinery in southwest Basra, Iraq April 20, 2017. Reuters
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Iraqi Oil Minister: Kurdistan Region's Oil Exports to Resume Next Week

A view shows the al-Shuaiba oil refinery in southwest Basra, Iraq April 20, 2017. Reuters
A view shows the al-Shuaiba oil refinery in southwest Basra, Iraq April 20, 2017. Reuters

Oil exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region will resume next week, Iraq's oil minister said on Monday, resolving a near two-year dispute as ties between Baghdad and Erbil improve.
The oil flows were halted by Türkiye in March 2023 after the International Chamber of Commerce ordered Ankara to pay Baghdad damages of $1.5 billion for unauthorized pipeline exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government between 2014 and 2018.

"Tomorrow, a delegation from the Ministry of Oil... will visit the Kurdish region to negotiate the mechanism for receiving oil from the region and exporting it. The export process will resume within a week," Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani told reporters.

According to Reuters, he added that Baghdad would receive 300,000 barrels per day from the region.

Erbil-based Rudaw TV earlier cited Kurdistan's natural resources minister, Kamal Mohammed, as saying oil exports could resume before March as all legal procedures have been completed.

The Iraqi parliament approved a budget amendment this month to subsidize production costs for international oil companies operating in Kurdistan, a move aimed at unblocking northern oil exports.

The resumption is expected to ease economic pressure in the Kurdistan region, where the halt has led to salary delays for public sector workers and cuts to essential services.