Burial of newly identified victims marks 30 years since Srebrenica genocide
Some buried bodies, some buried fragments of bone. Al Jazeera's Urooba Jamal visited the village of Potocari as a burial of recently identified victims took place 30 years after the Srebrenica genocide.
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Al Jazeera
15 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Starving Palestinians pepper-sprayed at GHF aid site in Gaza, video shows
Israeli military personnel have pepper-sprayed desperate and starving Palestinian aid seekers at one of the distribution points of the controversial aid agency GHF in Gaza, a video shows. In the 20-second video verified by Al Jazeera's fact-checking agency Sanad, Israeli troops were seen scattering a crowd with pepper spray at Shakoush in Gaza's southern city of Rafah. The mobile phone video, recorded on July 10 and released on social media late on Saturday, shows three armed soldiers using the pepper spray against the Palestinians at the Israeli and United States-backed GHF aid point. The GHF security personnel fired pepper spray at Palestinians who went to receive aid in Al Shakoush area in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. 10/7/2025 — Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) July 19, 2025 Men, women and children could be seen running in all directions away from the soldiers – some covering their mouths with their clothes, others frantically rushing to leave the scene with bags of flour hoisted on their backs. Since the GHF started operating in Gaza in late May, at least 891 people have been killed while trying to get food, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Saturday. A July 15 report by the United Nations found that at least 674 of those people were killed 'in the vicinity of GHF sites'. The highly criticised aid operation has effectively sidelined Gaza's vast UN-led aid delivery network after Israel eased a more than two-month total blockade on the enclave. The video of Palestinians being pepper-sprayed came as Israel's genocidal war in Gaza saw at least 54 more Palestinians killed on Sunday, 51 of them aid seekers, until 10:30 GMT on Sunday. On Saturday, 116 Palestinians were killed across the enclave, including at least 38 aid seekers. Mahmoud Mokeimar, a Palestinian in Gaza, said he was walking with a crowd of people, mostly young men, towards the GHF hub when Israeli troops fired warning shots and soon opened fire. 'The occupation opened fire at us indiscriminately,' he told The Associated Press news agency. Mokeimar said he saw at least three motionless bodies on the ground and many wounded people fleeing. 'Unless Israel allows more food into Gaza, Palestinians have no choice but to risk their lives just for something to eat,' said Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in Gaza. 'Parents go to the GHF distribution sites to risk getting killed or leave their children starving. There is no option in the market. Everything is very expensive.' Meanwhile, Palestinians, including infants and toddlers, continue to die from starvation across Gaza. Four-year-old Razan Abu Zaher died of complications from malnutrition and hunger, a source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza City told Al Jazeera on Sunday. On Saturday, the director of al-Shifa Hospital said two Palestinians had died of starvation, including a 35-day-old infant. On Friday, the Health Ministry said starving Palestinians are arriving in hospital emergency departments across Gaza in 'unprecedented numbers', as Israel continues to severely restrict access to food in Gaza and shoot people seeking aid. Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 58,765 people and wounded 140,485 others. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Al Jazeera
4 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Across 100 kilometres, they walk where Srebrenica's dead once ran
Thirty years later, one man joins thousands on a three-day journey along the once-deadly path of remembrance in Bosnia. More than 7,000 people arrived in a tiny village in Bosnia to commemorate victims [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] More than 7,000 people arrived in a tiny village in Bosnia to commemorate victims [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] Nezuk and Potocari, Bosnia and Herzegovina – Thirty years ago, thousands of Bosniak men and boys emerged emaciated from the forests surrounding the quiet Bosnian village of Nezuk. Their gaunt faces and skeletal frames told only part of the story – visible hints of a far deeper horror that would fully emerge only after the mass graves of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide were found. Today, Sejfudin Dizdarevic, 48, lives a life worlds apart from the desperate men who once fled through these woods. But he and thousands of others have just spent three days walking the same path. 'Knowing this history, it makes you humble,' Dizdarevic said about his participation in the annual remembrance walk called the Peace March. 'Knowing that you are going [on] the path [where] not only people were killed, but also [that those] who survived ... were hiding exactly in the spot [in] which you are marching now.' A banner flies in the village of Nezuk, where the march began on July 8 [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] In July 1995, the town of Srebrenica and surrounding villages fell to Bosnian Serb forces, whose nationalist and territorial ambitions were emboldened by the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. Bosniak males, who were being hunted, fled the area, crossing the thickly forested slopes of eastern Bosnia for days and even weeks on end in a journey now referred to as 'the death march'. During their trek, they evaded deceptive calls by Bosnian Serb forces, who tried to lure them to surrender with false promises of safety. Many of the Bosniak men and boys saw their counterparts slaughtered en masse and were forced to wade through the pungent odour of their corpses stiffening under the blazing July heat. Since 2005, Bosnians and people from around the world have been embarking on the three-day, 100-kilometre (62-mile) walk from Nezuk to the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in Potocari, where newly identified victims are still laid to rest each year. Dizdarevic, a Bosnian war refugee who fled to Germany in 1992, has been returning to take part in the march for the last four years and organising groups of nationals from other countries to join him. While Dizdarevic, who is Bosniak, was not personally affected by the Srebrenica genocide, some of his family members were killed during Bosnia's three-year war from 1992 to 1995. 'My intention is to show respect for those who were killed in the genocide,' he explained. The marchers walked along rolling green hills and stony slopes [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] The marchers walked along rolling green hills and stony slopes [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] The first day of the march this year, July 8, was unbearably hot, the sun beating down on the nearly 7,000 people beginning their days-long journey. Spectators lined the march's path, stepping out into their front yards to offer quiet acts of solidarity – holding signs commemorating the genocide, handing out food, and passing bottles of water to the participants. People wore coordinated outfits, many featuring slogans in remembrance of the genocide. Dizdarevic's group of 40 included Bosniaks, Germans, Turks, Americans and a Dutch nurse who had first come to Srebrenica during the war with Doctors Without Borders. Dizdarevic, centre, and his group during the march [Courtesy of Sejfudin Dizdarevic] As a veteran of the march, Dizdarevic advised his group to begin physically training as early as February, but he struggled to prepare them emotionally. 'When you talk to some people who survived genocide and they tell you your story ... there is no way to prepare for that,' he explained. The scars of his country's past still resonate deeply with Dizdarevic, and he feels a duty to raise awareness about it. It's what drives him to organise others to take part. On that first day, Dizdarevic heard a swirl of languages being spoken around him, which underscored just how far people had come to show their solidarity. 'It's very important to me that the people will learn the lessons of this genocide because if we don't draw the right lessons from this genocide, [the victims] were killed in vain,' he said. As the day stretched into late afternoon, and the marchers continued across rolling green hills and stony slopes, the sweltering heat suddenly gave way to unexpected showers and powerful gusts of wind. But Dizdarevic and his team were prepared for all weather conditions. Eventually, night fell, and the group arrived in the village of Josanica, where they camped for their first overnight stop. As is common among marchers, Dizdarevic arranged for his group to stay at the home of Srebrenica genocide survivors – some slept inside, while others pitched tents in a yard wet from the rain. Their bellies full from food handed out by strangers and charities supporting the marchers, they had only one resolve: to complete the walk. Dizdarevic met two survivors who had hidden from Bosnian Serb forces in the forests [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] Dizdarevic met two survivors who had hidden from Bosnian Serb forces in the forests [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] After a night of rain, the trail was slick with mud. As the group traversed the mountain of Udrc in the Dinaric Alps, Dizdarevic explained, through shallow breaths, that the muddy conditions were slowing them down. It was there, on the mountain, that he met two survivors of the genocide - men who had hidden in the forests from Bosnian Serb forces in the summer of 1995. Hasan Hasanovic and Mevludin Hrnjic, both young men at the time, spent 80 days in hiding. Hasanovic was just 19 and lost his father and twin brother in the killings. Years later, they were found in mass graves. Hrnjic, then 24, lost his father and four of his brothers. He was the only male in his family to emerge from the woods to safety and to his mother. He later told his story in a book he authored, Witness to the Srebrenica Genocide. 'That was a very emotional moment for me,' Dizdarevic said, about walking with the two survivors where they had run for their lives three decades earlier. As they walked together, he tried to put himself in their shoes, but Dizdarevic was sure it was just a glimpse of the hardships they went through. 'Look, we have all [the] logistical support. There are people from the Red Cross helping us to get up the mountain [with ropes],' he said. It's already 'very, very hard', without having to worry about being killed, or having no food or shelter, he added. The marchers walked mostly in silence, their heads bowed. Then, Dizdarevic encountered his most difficult moment of the day: walking through the so-called 'death valley' in Kamenica, where smaller mass graves had been found along the Drina River basin. 'You cannot comprehend how massive this was and what destruction [it caused] not only for the people killed, but also for their families,' he reflected. The gravesites there were found near the homes of Bosniaks, in their yards or in nearby meadows. Now, memorial plaques honour the Srebrenica victims at several of the sepulchres. At the end of the second day, Dizdarevic and his group once again camped at a genocide survivor's home, this time in the village of Pubode. People pray among the gravestones of Srebrenica victims [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] People pray among the gravestones of Srebrenica victims [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] On the third and final day, Dizdarevic and most of those around him could not contain their emotions as they reached Potocari, the site of the memorial to Srebrenica victims. In the grassy valley dotted with row upon row of white marble tombstones, are the remnants of the gray slab concrete buildings where the UN Dutch battalion had been stationed to protect Bosniaks during the war. But in July 1995, the battalion was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces, leading to the bloodshed that ensued. Reaching the site where thousands were brutally killed brought 'overwhelming sadness' to Dizdarevic. 'It was very emotional,' he said. But Dizdarevic was also awash with relief – not only from the physical toll of the march being over, but also from the emotional weight of having walked in the footsteps of victims who never made it to safety. 'It was very important for every one of us to finish this march,' he said. 'This remembrance should lead to a prevention of potential future genocide.' As he and his companions set up one final camp in Potocari, before the memorial event there the next day on the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, Dizdarevic pondered what justice for its victims looks like. 'The search for justice ... is a very difficult process ... Even more difficult is that the Serbian society ... [is] very in favour of this genocide,' he said. 'I am afraid that Serbian society – they did not undergo this catharsis [of] saying, 'Yes, we did this and we are guilty, sorry.' [On the] contrary, they are very proud of it ... or they deny it.' In the years since, the International Court of Justice and courts in the Balkans have sentenced almost 50 Bosnian Serb wartime officials collectively to more than 700 years in prison for the genocide. But many of the accused remain unpunished, and genocide denial is rampant, especially among political leaders in Serbia and the Serb-majority entity of Republika Srpska. Milorad Dodik, the entity's current leader, whose image appears on billboards flashing the three-finger salute, a symbol of Serb nationalism, has dismissed the Srebrenica genocide as a 'fabricated myth'. The group arrived in Potocari a day before the 30th anniversary event [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] Still, Dizdarevic has held on to hope, a feeling renewed during the march as he watched countless young people take part, many of them born after the Bosnian war. 'What is, for me, very important, [is] that the young men and women who participate in this march understand ... they should play an active role in the prevention of future genocide by creating a positive environment in their societies,' he said. On July 11, the day after the march ended, Dizdarevic and his group joined thousands in Potocari to mark the sombre anniversary, where the remains of seven newly identified victims were laid to rest. There, they stood in solemn silence as the coffins were lowered into freshly dug graves, soon to be marked with new marble headstones, joining the more than 6,000 others already laid to rest. Reporting for this article was made possible by the NGO Islamic Relief. A woman sits next to the gravestone of a relative at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in Potocari [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera] A woman sits next to the gravestone of a relative at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in Potocari [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera]
Al Jazeera
6 days ago
- Al Jazeera
What will 17 Patriot air defence systems change for Ukraine?
Kyiv, Ukraine – Heavy thuds that resemble fast hip-hop beats fill the night air when MIM-104 Patriots, air defence systems made in the United States, get to work. Each Patriot surface-to-air launcher can shoot up to 32 missiles within seconds – and hit Russian ballistic missiles closing in on their targets. The missiles fly at supersonic speeds, and the collision triggers a bright, split-second blast followed by a thunderous shock-wave. 'That's the kind of explosion that makes me feel safe,' Ihor Lysenko, a 17-year-old in the capital Kyiv told Al Jazeera. He believes that the 'technology is pretty reliable'. The Patriots were developed in the 1970s to down Soviet missiles. Kyiv first received them in April 2023 from Washington and several of its Western European allies. Within weeks, they had intercepted Russia's Kinzhal (Dagger) intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are launched from fighter jets at more than 12km (7.5 miles) above the ground. The Kinzhals mostly fly in the Earth's stratosphere to maintain their speed, which, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is 10 times faster than the speed of sound, which he said makes any Western air defence system 'useless'. But in the past two years, about 10 Patriot systems in Ukraine – the exact number is a state secret – stationed in Kyiv and the southern port of Odesa have downed dozens more Kinzhals – along with other cruise and ballistic missiles, including North Korean ones; fighter jets; helicopters; and attack drones. The latter is similar to hammering a nail with an electronic microscope – a Patriot missile is priced at several million dollars while Russian drones cost 100 times less. The Patriots are, however, not 100 percent efficient. During a late April attack on Kyiv, a Russian missile razed a two-storey apartment building, killing 12 people and wounding 87, gouging out windows and damaging roofs in dozens of buildings nearby. On Sunday, US President Donald Trump announced that he would supply Kyiv with more Patriots – by selling them to Washington's NATO allies who would pass them on to Ukraine. 'We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need,' Trump told reporters. 'Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice, and then he bombs everybody in the evening.' On Monday, Trump specified the number of systems – 17 – during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. 'It's everything. It's Patriots. It's all of them. It's a full complement with the batteries,' Trump said. He referred to an unnamed Western nation that had the '17 Patriots ready to be shipped'. Days earlier, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Berlin was ready to acquire additional Patriot systems. 'We need hundreds of interceptors' The new Patriots that will be deployed to large Ukrainian cities will definitely lower the lethality of Russian air raids, but won't cross any 'red lines' for Putin, a Kyiv-based analyst said. 'Russia occasionally cried about red lines when it came to long-range weaponry for strikes on Russia,' Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta think tank, told Al Jazeera. 'There are no red lines with Patriots.' However, the new Patriots won't solve Ukraine's problems with Russian air raids. 'The problem is not just about the Patriots,' Fesenko said. 'We don't just need the Patriots to fight ballistic missiles. Now Russia's main strike weapon is drones. They cause most of the damage.' Most damage and deaths are caused by attack drones that fly in swarms of hundreds at heights of up to 5km (3 miles) and cannot be hit by Ukraine's own air defence systems or mobile air defence teams armed with machineguns. Ukraine needs up to 25 more Patriot systems to cover its key urban areas, according to Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of the Ukrainian military's General Staff. While the details about the new Patriots' arrival are unknown, some observers said the purpose of Trump's pledge is clear. 'He does that to support his image that has been tarnished domestically and internationally,' Romanenko told Al Jazeera. And what Ukraine needs the most is drone interceptors that can fly up to 500 kilometres per hour (310 miles per hour) as Moscow equips new generations of its unmanned vehicles with jet engines, he said. 'The quantity is what matters. If they launch more than 700 [drones per attack], if they are capable of upping it to 1,000, then we need hundreds of interceptors,' Romanenko said. Moscow scrupulously analyses the routes of its drone swarms and frequently changes them to avoid interception, so Kyiv needs light planes with electronic jamming, helicopters and air defence systems that can down aerodynamic targets, he said. On Saturday, the Ukrainian air force said the newly supplied, German-made Skynex air defence system shot down six Russian-made Geran drones. The Skynex has a 35mm automatic cannon that fires up to 1,000 rounds per minute and uses programmable ammunition that detonates near its targets, releasing a cloud of projectiles. However, there are only two Skynex systems in Ukraine, and there are no details about further supplies. Ukraine's Ministry of Defence has been slow to develop drone interceptors so far, an expert said. 'Everything is on an amateur level,' Andrey Pronin, one of the pioneers of Ukrainian drone warfare who runs a school for drone pilots in Kyiv, told Al Jazeera. He said he was part of a team that developed an interceptor drone capable of catching up to Russian loitering munitions. But even though the interceptor was battle-tested, Ukraine's Defence Ministry didn't show any interest, he said. 'The ministry is such a hole. Things haven't moved at all,' he said.
