Rights abuse: Lee clashes with Israel

Seoul: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Saturday accused Israel of failing to adequately address allegations of human rights abuses by its forces, escalating a diplomatic dispute triggered by his social media comments.

The exchange comes after Israel condemned Lee for amplifying what it described as disinformation regarding an incident in West Bank. The dispute centres on a social media post shared by Lee referencing a video he said appeared to show Israeli soldiers abusing a Palestinian child. Lee later said he needed to verify its authenticity.

The video could not be independently verified. However, it appears to show a different angle of an incident filmed in the West Bank in 2022, where a soldier was seen pushing the body of a dead man off a roof. In 2024, the White House described the original footage as “deeply disturbing”. Israel’s foreign ministry rejected Lee’s remarks, saying the incident had been investigated and addressed. —AFP