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For Immediate Release
December, 16 2025, 02:02pm EDT
Contact:
Tel: +1-212-216-1832,Email:,hrwpress@hrw.org
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.
LATEST NEWS
As Hegseth Refuses to Release Video of Boat Murder, AOC Calls Briefing a 'Joke'
"Obviously, they have issues with what is in that video, and that’s why they don’t want everybody to see it," Sen. Mark Kelly said of administration officials after the meeting.
Dec 16, 2025
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the Pentagon will not release unedited video footage of a September airstrike that killed two men who survived an initial strike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea, a move that followed a briefing with congressional lawmakers described by one Democrat as an "exercise in futility" and by another as "a joke."
Hegseth said that members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees would be given a chance to view video of the September 2 "double-tap" strike, which experts said was illegal like all the other boat bombings. The secretary did not say whether all congressional lawmakers would be provided access to the footage.
“Of course we’re not going to release a top secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public,” Hegseth told reporters following a closed-door briefing during which he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio fielded questions from lawmakers.
As with a similar briefing earlier this month, Tuesday's meeting left some Democrat attendees with more questions than answers.
“The administration came to this briefing empty-handed,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told reporters. “If they can’t be transparent on this, how can you trust their transparency on all the other issues swirling about in the Caribbean?”
That includes preparations for a possible attack on oil-rich Venezuela, which include the deployment of US warships and thousands of troops to the region and the authorization of covert action aimed at toppling the government of longtime Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Tuesday's briefing came as House lawmakers prepare to vote this week on a pair of war powers resolutions aimed at preventing President Donald Trump from waging war on Venezuela. A similar bipartisan resolution recently failed in the Senate.
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and co-author of one of the new war powers resolution, said in a statement: “Today’s briefing from Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth was an exercise in futility. It did nothing to address the serious legal, strategic, and moral concerns surrounding the administration’s unprecedented use of US military force in the Caribbean and Pacific."
"As of today, the administration has already carried out 25 such strikes over three months, extrajudicially killing 95 people," Meeks noted. "That this briefing to members of Congress only occurred more than three months since the strikes began—despite numerous requests for classified and public briefings—further proves these operations are unable to withstand scrutiny and lack a defensible legal rationale."
Briefing attendee Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.)—who is in the administration's crosshairs for reminding US troops that military rules and international law require them to disobey illegal orders—said of Trump officials, "Obviously, they have issues with what is in that video, and that’s why they don’t want everybody to see it."
Defending Hegseth's decision to not make the boat strike video public, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) argued that “there’s a lot of members that’s gonna walk out there and that’s gonna leak classified information and there’s gonna be certain ones that you hold accountable."
Mullin singled out Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who, along with the Somalian American community at large, has been the target of mounting Islamophobic and racist abuse by Trump and his supporters.
“Not everybody can go through the same background checks that need to be cleared on this,” he said. “Do you think Omar needs all this information? I will say no.”
Rejecting GOP arguments against releasing the video, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said after attending Tuesday's briefing: “I found the legal explanations and the strategic explanations incoherent, but I think the American people should see this video. And all members of Congress should have that opportunity. I certainly want it for myself.”
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'A White Nationalist List': Trump Expands Travel Ban to 39 Nations, Palestinian Authority
"This administration's racist cruelty knows no limits, expanding their travel ban to include even more African and Muslim-majority countries, even Palestinians fleeing a genocide," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
Dec 16, 2025
President Donald Trump faced sharp criticism on Tuesday after further expanding his travel ban—an effort the US leader launched during his first term, reinstated upon returning to office in January, and previously ramped up in June.
The Republican's new proclamation maintains full restrictions for people from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, and introduces them for travelers from Laos and Sierra Leone, who previously faced partial limitations.
Trump also added Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria to that list, just days after he vowed to "retaliate" for an Islamic State gunman killing three Americans, including two service members, and wounding three others in Syria. Journalist James Stout warned that "expanding the travel ban to Syria leaves few options for the people who fought and defeated the Islamic State and are being increasingly threatened by the Syrian state."
While the US government does not recognize Palestine as a state—and has backed Israel's genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip—the president also imposed full restrictions on individuals holding travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority.
"The harm isn't theoretical," stressed Etan Nechin, a New York-based reporter for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Pointing to Palestinian peace activist Awdah Hathaleen, who earlier this year was denied entry at San Francisco International Airport, deported, and then murdered by an Israeli settler in the West Bank, the journalist suggested that Trump and his allies know the consequences of the travel ban, and "they don't care."
As Common Dreams reported earlier Tuesday, Sudan, Palestine, and South Sudan topped the International Rescue Committee's annual humanitarian crisis forecast.
Trump's latest proclamation continues partial restrictions for Burundi, Cuba, Togo, and Venezuela, and adds such limitations for Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
It also lifts a ban on nonimmigrant visas for people from Turkmenistan but maintains the suspension of entry for them as immigrants, with a White House fact sheet stating the country "has engaged productively with the United States and demonstrated significant progress."
Writer Mark Chadbourn said, "It's a white nationalist list—mainly Africa, some Middle East, plus Haiti and Cuba."
Here is a map of the affected countries (excluding Tonga), to give you a sense of how much this new ban restricts immigration from Africa in particular.Of the newly-added country, Nigeria faces the largest impact, with tens of thousands of visas issued every year to Nigerians.
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— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) December 16, 2025 at 3:58 PM
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American in Congress, said that "this administration's racist cruelty knows no limits, expanding their travel ban to include even more African and Muslim-majority countries, even Palestinians fleeing a genocide."
Tlaib also accused the president, along with his deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser, of wanting the United States to resemble a Ku Klux Klan event, declaring that "Trump and Stephen Miller won't be satisfied until our country has the demographics of a klan rally."
As the Associated Press noted:
The administration suggested it would expand the restrictions after the arrest of an Afghan national suspect in the shooting of two National Guard troops over Thanksgiving weekend...
The Afghan man accused of shooting the two National Guard troops near the White House has pleaded not guilty to murder and assault charges. In the aftermath of that incident, the administration announced a flurry of immigration restrictions, including further restrictions on people from those initial 19 countries who were already in the US.
Laurie Ball Cooper, vice president of US Legal Programs at the International Refugee Assistance Project, said in a statement that "IRAP condemns the Trump administration's escalating crackdown on immigrants from Muslim-majority and nonwhite countries. This expanded ban is not about national security but instead is another shameful attempt to demonize people simply for where they are from."
"Subjecting more people to this policy is especially harmful given the administration's recent invocation of the travel ban to prevent immigrants already living in the United States from accessing basic immigration benefits, including pulling them out of line at citizenship ceremonies," she continued.
"The expanded proclamation notably includes Palestinians and eliminates some exceptions to the original ban," she added. "This racist and xenophobic ban will keep families apart, but we are prepared to defend our clients, their communities, and the American values of welcome, justice, and dignity for all."
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Gaza Newborn Dies of Hypothermia as Israel Continues to Block Lifesaving Aid
"This must stop," the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said in response to the ongoing Israeli blockade. "Aid must be allowed in at scale, now."
Dec 16, 2025
Yet another infant has died from hypothermia in Gaza as winter rain and wind continued to lash the embattled Palestinian exclave on Tuesday amid Israel's blockage of tents and other essential goods from the coastal strip.
Gaza's Health Ministry announced the death of 2-week-old Mohammed Khalil Abu al-Khair, who died Monday after his body temperature plummeted due to exposure as cold, heavy rains, and fierce winds continued to batter the strip. Storm conditions have exacerbated the suffering of residents already weakened by more than two years of Israeli bombardment, invasion, and siege.
The ministry said that al-Khair was one of at least 13 Palestinian children who have died in recent days due to Storm Byron and subsequent rains. Confirmed victims include Rahaf Abu Jazar, age 8 months; Hadeel al-Masri, age 9; and Taim al-Khawaja, an infant whose precise age is unclear.
The renewed hypothermia deaths follow those of more than a dozen Palestinians—most of them infants and children—who died from exposure during the first two winters of the Gaza genocide. While the strip does not experience severe winters, experts have noted that hypothermia can be deadly at temperatures over 60°F (15°C) in overexposed conditions such as those in Gaza.
Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza since 2007, which it tightened even further following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack. This "complete siege" remains in place despite some loosening during the current tenuous truce, and has contributed to widespread starvation and sickness in the strip.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 70,667 Palestinians in Gaza, although experts contend the actual toll is likely far higher. More than 170,000 Palestinians have been wounded and approximately 9,500 others are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Meanwhile, the overwhelmingly majority of Gaza's more than 2 million people have been forcibly displaced, usually more than once.
Noting the official death toll, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said Tuesday that "94% of Gaza’s hospitals have been damaged or destroyed, leaving pregnant women and newborns without essential care."
“The Israeli blockade has also prevented the entry of objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, including medical supplies and nutrients required to sustain pregnancies and ensure safe childbirth,” the agency added.
Storm Byron is worsening the already dire living conditions of thousands of people living in tents or damaged shelters.While #UNRWAworks to support displaced families, the Israeli Authorities have been blocking UNRWA from directly bringing aid into #Gaza for months.Aid must be allowed in at scale.
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— UNRWA (@unrwa.org) December 16, 2025 at 9:02 AM
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) communications chief Jonathan Crickx on Tuesday described a visit to one displaced persons camp in Gaza.
“Everything was completely damp... The mattresses were wet; the children’s clothes were wet," he recounted. "It’s extremely difficult to live in those conditions.”
“With the very poor hygiene conditions and very limited sanitation system available, we are extremely concerned to see the spreading of waterborne diseases," Crickx added.
Hunger remains a serious issue as well, with OHCHR citing the at least 463 Palestinians—including 157 children—who have died from malnutrition since October 2023 in what experts say is a deliberately planned Israeli starvation campaign.
The arrest warrants issued last year by the International Criminal Court accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including forced starvation and murder.
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