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A6 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 2 July 2022
Russian missiles kill at least 21 in Ukraine’s Odesa region

By FRANCESCA EBEL ing an 11-year-old boy, his
Associated Press mother and the 42-year-old
POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP) coach of a children’s soc-
— A Russian airstrike on resi- cer team were killed, ac-
dential areas killed at least cording to Ukrainian news
21 people early Friday near reports. Thirty-eight others,
the Ukrainian port of Ode- including six children and
sa, authorities reported, a a pregnant woman, were
day after the withdrawal of reported hospitalized. Most
Moscow’s forces from an is- of the victims were in the
land in the Black Sea had apartment building, Ukrai-
seemed to ease the threat nian emergency officials
to the city. said.
Video of the attack be- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
fore daybreak showed the Peskov reiterated that Mos-
charred ruins of buildings cow is not targeting resi-
in the small town of Serhi- dential areas.
ivka, about 50 kilometers Oleh Zhdanov, an inde-
(31 miles) from Odesa. The pendent Ukrainian military
Ukrainian president’s of- analyst, said the Russian
fice said warplanes fired pullback from Snake Island
three missiles that struck an bears “colossal psycho-
apartment building and a logical significance” for
campsite. Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities inter- “Snake Island is key for con-
preted the attack as pay- In this photo provided by the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, a damaged residential building trolling the Black Sea and
back for the withdrawal of is seen in Odesa, Ukraine, early Friday, July 1, 2022, following Russian missile attacks. could help cover the Rus-
Russian troops from Snake Associated Press sian attack if the Kremlin
Island a day earlier, though opted for an amphibious
Moscow portrayed their resort to vile killing of civil- and a train station. Until this least 19 people. landing operation in Odesa
departure as a “goodwill ians,” said Ivan Bakanov, week, mass casualties in- Ukrainian President or elsewhere in the region,”
gesture” to help unblock head of Ukraine’s security volving residents appeared Volodymr Zelenskyy ex- he said. “Now those plans
exports of grain. service, the SBU. to become less frequent as pressed outrage over Fri- are pushed back.”
Russian forces took control “After the enemy was dis- Moscow concentrated on day’s attack. Ukraine’s military claimed a
of the island in the open- lodged from Snake Island, capturing eastern Ukraine’s “These missiles, Kh-22, were barrage of its artillery and
ing days of the war in the he decided to respond Donbas region. designed to destroy aircraft missiles forced the Russians
apparent hope of using it with the cynical shelling of Russian missiles struck the carriers and other large to flee the island in two
as a staging ground for an civilian targets.” Kyiv region last weekend warships, and the Russian small speedboats. The ex-
assault on Odesa, Ukraine’s Large numbers of civilians after weeks of relative calm army used them against an act number of troops with-
biggest port and the head- were killed in Russian bom- around the capital, and an ordinary nine-story building drawn was not disclosed.
quarters of its navy. bardments earlier in the airstrike Monday on a shop- with ordinary civilian peo- Early in the war, the island
“The occupiers cannot win war, including at a hospital, ping mall in the central city ple,” he said. became a symbol of Ukrai-
on the battlefield, so they a theater used as a shelter, of Kremenchuk killed at Twenty-one people includ- nian defiance. q

Rights group: Palestinians torture detainees with impunity

group said Friday. ity, whose family says he Banat, the Palestinian Au-
Human Rights Watch died after security forces thority continues to arrest
called in its report for donor stormed his residence in and torture critics and op-
countries to cut off funding the middle of the night and ponents,” said Omar Shakir,
to Palestinian security forc- beat him with metal batons. Israel and Palestine director
es that commit such crimes His death sparked weeks at Human Rights Watch.
and urged the Internation- of protests against the PA, “Systematic abuse by the
al Criminal Court to inves- which governs parts of the PA and Hamas forms a criti-
tigate. The report alleged Israeli-occupied West Bank. cal part of the repression of
that Palestinian security Palestinian security forces the Palestinian people.”
forces “use solitary confine- violently dispersed some of The group listed Palestin-
ment and beatings, includ- those protests.. ians who it said had been
ing whipping their feet, and Amnesty International said arbitrarily arrested in the af-
force detainees into pain- last week that the Palestin- termath of Banat’s death.
ful stress positions for pro- ian Authority has failed to HRW said security forces
Palestinian riot police and security officers in plainclothes clash longed periods, including hold its security forces ac- are not held to account
with demonstrators following a rally protesting the death of hoisting their arms behind countable for the death. for the alleged torture and
Palestinian Authority outspoken critic Nizar Banat, in the West their backs with cables or Palestinian authorities ar- that given their systematic
Bank city of Ramallah, Saturday, June 26, 2021. rope, to punish and intimi- rested 14 officers last sum- nature over many years,
Associated Press date critics and opponents mer and are trying them in the practice could amount
and elicit confessions.” a military court, but have to crimes against humanity.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Pal- critics in detention, a prac- HRW’s report comes a year taken no action against Palestine is part of the Con-
estinian authorities in the tice that could amount after the death of Nizar top commanders. vention Against Torture,
West Bank and the Gaza to crimes against human- Banat, an outspoken critic “More than a year after which requires members to
Strip systematically torture ity, an international rights of the Palestinian Author- beating to death Nizar work to prevent torture.q