December, 16 2025, 02:02pm EDT
US: Military Boat Strikes Constitute Extrajudicial Killings
Human Rights Watch today published a detailed question-and-answer document analyzing the Trump administration’s boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific. To date, 26 reported strikes have unlawfully killed at least 95 people, none of whom the US government has identified.
The Question-and-Answer document is intended as a resource for understanding the legal and human rights implications of the United States military campaign. The document explains why the strikes constitute extrajudicial killings under international human rights law and addresses the administration’s claims that the US is embroiled in an armed conflict with “narco-terrorists.”
It further lays out the United States’ obligations to investigate unlawful killings, hold accountable those responsible, and provide effective remedies. It identifies concrete steps Congress should take, including holding public hearings, mandating independent investigations, and creating a select committee investigate legal and operational decisions behind the strikes.
Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
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New Bill Aims to Stop GOP From Funding Trump's Iran War Through 'Backdoor Budget Process'
"Trump and Republicans may try to pass a bill to fund the costly and unpopular war on Iran using procedural tricks, because they know it’d be hard to pass one via usual means," said one supporter of the legislation.
May 01, 2026
Legislation introduced Thursday in the US House of Representatives would preemptively outlaw congressional Republicans' emerging plan to approve funding for President Donald Trump's illegal and historically unpopular Iran war through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process.
Led by Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), the No War Appropriations through Reconciliation (WAR) Act would prohibit any bill or amendment that "appropriates or otherwise provides budget authority for hostilities, including hostilities conducted by a proxy force, against the Islamic Republic of Iran unless Congress has authorized such hostilities through a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force."
“If Congress is going to spend money to put American boots on the ground in another foreign war for oil, we need to have a transparent process and an up or down vote in Congress,” Hoyle said in a statement, warning against use of the "backdoor budget process."
“This is the very least the American people should expect from Congress: For us to stand up for We the People and exercise our constitutional duty to either declare war or ensure that we end this expensive, immoral, and unconstitutional military action in Iran," said the Oregon Democrat.
Hoyle attempted to attach her legislation to a forthcoming budget reconciliation package that Republicans are using to pump around $70 billion into Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection without Democratic support. House Republicans blocked Hoyle's amendment.
While the immigration-related reconciliation bill has not yet been completed, Republicans are already discussing the possibility of crafting yet another package that would include funds for the Iran war. Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), chairman of the House Budget Committee, has suggested the package could include at least $100 billion in Iran war funding.
Dylan Williams, executive vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, expressed support for Hoyle's legislation in a social media post on Friday, warning that "Trump and Republicans may try to pass a bill to fund the costly and unpopular war on Iran using procedural tricks, because they know it’d be hard to pass one via usual means."
"All Democratic lawmakers should back [Congressional Progressive Caucus] member Val Hoyle’s effort to block such an attempt," Williams added.
Hoyle introduced her legislation with the backing of a number of prominent advocacy organizations, including MoveOn, the Center for International Policy, J Street, and the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL).
"Congress must not approve another penny for a war of choice that risks mass casualties and regional destabilization," said Hassan El-Tayyab, FCNL's legislative director for Middle East policy. "This is about reclaiming Congress' constitutional authority over war powers and preventing another unauthorized conflict. Members should support this bill and make clear that diplomacy, not war, must guide US policy toward Iran."
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Varoufakis Decries Western Complicity as Gaza Flotilla Leaders Abducted by Israel
"This is a double violation of international law: First, Israel abducted them illegally at sea. Second, Israel is now transporting them, violently, illegally, to one of its notorious prisons."
May 01, 2026
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis on Friday slammed European leaders—and the West at large—for what he said is their complicity in Israel's abduction of two leaders of the Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla seized off the coast of Greece.
In what numerous critics called an act of piracy, Israeli authorities intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla on Thursday in international waters 45 nautical miles west of the Greek island Kythira and 600 nautical miles from Gaza, according to Greenpeace, whose MY Arctic Sunrise was the aid convoy's most prominent vessel.
Around 175 activists aboard 22 vessels were seized by Israeli forces. The BBC reported Friday that most of them have been released in Greece.
Some of the flotilla members said they were beaten and dragged while handcuffed. The Washington Post reported 34 people—including citizens of Australia, Colombia, Italy, Ukraine, and the United States—required medical attention for broken ribs, noses, and other injuries. Detained activists also said they were denied food and water and were forced to sleep on deliberately flooded floors.
Flotilla organizers said 31 of the remaining vessels will continue heading toward Palestine in a bid to "break the illegal siege of Gaza."
Two members of the flotilla steering committee—Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Ávila—were taken to Israel for interrogation.
Abu Keshek is a Spanish-Swedish citizen of Palestinian origin. Ávila is Brazilian. Israel's Foreign Ministry claimed that Abu Keshek is "suspected of affiliation with a terrorist organization" and Ávila is "suspected of illegal activity."
As is very often the case with Palestinians it has killed, Israel provided no evidence to support its claims against the accused.
Spain and Brazil have been outspoken critics of Israeli human rights crimes, and both countries have formally joined the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel currently before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Varoufakis noted on X that Ávila "has distinguished himself with repeated attempts to break the illegal, genocidal, Israeli blockage of Gaza."
"Unlike the remaining abducted members of the Sumud Flotilla crew, which the Israeli navy disembarked in Crete, Saif and Thiago are detained and bound for an Israeli prison," the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 co-founder continued. "This is a double violation of international law: First, Israel abducted them illegally at sea. Second, Israel is now transporting them, violently, illegally, to one of its notorious prisons."
It is not known where Israel will send the two men. Ávila was previously held at Ayalon Prison in Ramla, along with other activists seized from the Madleen last summer. Ávila reportedly refused deportation papers and launched a hunger strike, prompting prison authorities to place him in solitary confinement.
While it is not as notorious as the Sde Teiman military prison—where former inmates and Israeli staff have described torture, rape, murder, and other abuse of Palestinians—Ayalon Prison's alleged human rights violations include torture, medical neglect, and deliberately degrading conditions.
"Meanwhile," Varoufakis said Friday, "the Greek government is cooperating fully in Israel’s criminal behavior, effectively surrendering its search and rescue obligations and conniving with Israel to victimize the brave crews of the Sumud Flotilla who are steadfastly, through their activism, defending international law as well as the verdict of the International Court of Justice, which has clearly and unequivocally declared Israel’s continued naval blockade of Gaza and its occupation of the Palestinian territories illegal."
"Through their complicity and their silence, the Greek government, the European Union, the mainstream media, the West more generally, are flouting, indeed they are trashing, their supposed, much publicized, ‘Western values,'" he added.
Varoufakis is calling on the world to demand:
- The immediate release of Saif and Thiago;
- An end to Israel’s criminal behavior in international waters;
- The termination of Israel’s illegal Gaza blockade; and
- That the Greek government and the European Union cease and desist from lending logistical and moral support to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its ethnic cleansing campaigns in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Varoufakis' call was echoed by the Global Sumud Flotilla, which demanded that "all governments do all they can to pressure the Israeli regime to release all the illegal abductees."
Spanish officials including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also decried Thursday's raid and demanded the release of the flotilla activists while calling for an end to EU-Israel Association Agreement, a bilateral trade and economic policy framework.
"Israel is once again violating international law by assaulting a civilian flotilla in waters that do not belong to it," Sánchez said on X. "Our government is doing everything necessary to protect and assist the detained Spaniards. But that is not enough. The EU must suspend the association agreement NOW and demand that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu comply with the law of our seas."
On the other hand, US State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggott condemned the flotilla as a "pro-Hamas initiative" and called on allied countries "to take decisive action against this meaningless political stunt."
The United States provides Israel with tens of billions of dollars in armed aid and diplomatic support including repeated vetoes of United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolutions for Gaza.
Israel maintains that its actions were legal. Its officials have repeatedly invoked the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea—often shortened to the San Remo Manual—to justify the interception and seizure of flotilla vessels attempting to reach Gaza on the high seas.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of cities including Athens, Barcelona, Gaza City, Istanbul, Madrid, Milan, Naples, Paris, and Rome on Thursday as protesters showed solidarity with the flotilla members and condemned Israel's actions.
"We will block everything". Mass protest in Rome after the seizure of the Global Sumud Flotilla
[image or embed]
— stefano portelli (@stafe.bsky.social) April 30, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Meanwhile, Gazans continue to suffer from Israel's bombing and blockade, which have killed or wounded more than 250,000 Palestinians and forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened around 2 million others.
Earlier this week, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari said that despite "some improvements in access and aid delivery... food security remains a challenge, while essential services, particularly water, sanitation, and health, are again on the brink of collapse."
Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, including murder and forced starvation.
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‘Complete Bullshit’: Expert Torches Hegseth Claim That War Was Necessary to Prevent Iranian Nuke
“It feels insane to have to keep repeating this," said Matt Duss, pointing to US intelligence assessing that "Iran ended nuclear weapons-related work in 2003."
May 01, 2026
President Donald Trump and his administration have continued to claim that their historically unpopular war with Iran was necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon despite ample evidence to the contrary.
During testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, Hegseth insisted that the US military had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear capabilities with strikes carried out in 2025, while maintaining that a full-scale war was necessary because the country hadn't given up its "nuclear ambitions."
HEGSETH: Their nuclear facilities have been obliterated
SMITH: Whoa whoa whoa whoa. We had to start this war, you just said, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat. Now you're saying it was completely obliterated?
HEGSETH: They had not given up their *ambitions*… pic.twitter.com/T8c1vTfC0T
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 29, 2026
Merely having the "ambition" to create a nuclear weapon would not make Iran an imminent threat, and US intelligence found no evidence that Iran was anywhere close to developing such a weapon.
US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified under oath before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee last month that Iran’s nuclear weapons program had been “obliterated” by US-led airstrikes that were launched last year, and that there “has been no effort since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability."
Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, pointed out in a social media post that US intelligence showing that Iran lacks the capacity to build nuclear weapons goes back decades.
"It feels insane to have to keep repeating this: The 2007 [National Intelligence Estimate] assessed that Iran ended nuclear weapons-related work in 2003," Duss explained. "That assessment has not changed. The claim that this war was necessary to prevent an Iranian nuke is just complete bullshit."
Despite multiple US intelligence reports indicating that Iran is not an imminent threat to the US, Trump has continued to hype its supposed nuclear ambitions to justify his war, which he launched illegally without any congressional authorization in late February.
In a Thursday interview with Newsmax, Trump baselessly claimed that Iran would immediately launch a nuclear weapon after acquiring one, even though doing so would risk massive retaliation by the US, which has more than 5,000 nuclear warheads at its disposal.
"I will tell you that Iran would use the nuclear weapon if they had it," Trump said. "I deal with these people. I know people. They will use their nuclear weapons, and we're not going to give them a chance to do it."
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