Wartime sexual violence

A recent investigation by "Politico" reveals that rocket-propelled grenades manufactured in Bulgaria have found their way into the weaponry of Hamas, the Palestinian group operating in the Gaza Strip. The Associated Press conducted an analysis of over 150 videos and photos spanning three months since Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israel has announced that it has resumed fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after a ceasefire was violated and the Palestinian Islamist group opened fire on Israeli territory.

Earlier this morning, explosions and gunfire were reported in Gaza and an air alert in areas surrounding the enclave. The sirens were activated for the first time since the ceasefire began on November 24.

"If Israel has a serious intention to release its soldiers who are captured, then we are ready to conclude a comprehensive agreement," Hamad told Al Jazeera, RIA reports.
About 200 Israelis captured during the October 7 attack on Israel are still in the Gaza Strip.

The Bosnian state prosecution announced on Monday that Borislav Gligorevic was arrested on May 26 while attempting to enter Bosnia and Herzegovina from Serbia at the Karakaj border crossing.

The move comes amid concern about what is seen by some activists in Kosovo as a low number of applications by survivors to be officially registered as victims and therefore become eligible for welfare benefits.

Congressman Colin Allred said on Tuesday that he has introduced a resolution urging justice for wartime rape survivor Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman and calling for "all those responsible for sexual violence during the Kosovo war" to be investigated and prosecuted.

Tahiri-Sylejmani is one of the few Kosovo Albanian survivors of wartime sexual violence to have spoken out publicly about her ordeal. She followed the example of Vasfije Krasniqi-Goodman, who gave a televised interview in 2018 about how she was raped by Serbian policemen when she was 16 years old.

After the rape, the police sent him to the capital Pristina, where his ordeal continued. "Then I was seriously abused again, beaten up… I was praying to be killed rather than endure what was happening to me."

Pristina Basic Court of Pristina handed down its first-ever conviction for wartime sexual violence, sentencing former Serb policeman Zoran Vukotic to ten years in prison - a verdict that was hailed as a landmark by campaigners.

Vukotic was convicted of committing rape and participating in the expulsions of ethnic Albanian civilians from the town of Vushtrri/Vucitrn on May 22, 1999.

"There were 11 or 12 other women in the two houses but I did not recognise them," she said. The fact that she did not know the other female victims' names turned out to be crucial many years later when she was trying to prove what happened to her.

Sadije said she was detained for three days and systematically raped by two soldiers and one police officer.