A new United Nations report determined that executions surged in Iran during the month of August, leading experts to urge the country’s government to stop the unlawful spree. 

“We are deeply concerned by this sharp rise in executions,” U.N. experts, including special rapporteurs on human rights, said in a press release from the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights. 

“According to information received, of the 93 executions in August, only a fraction is officially reported by the Islamic Republic of Iran, highlighting the urgent need for transparency,” the experts added. 

The U.N. reported that nearly half of all executions carried out last month occurred in response to alleged drug offenses, which the experts stressed went against “international standards.” 

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“Countries that retain the death penalty must ensure that individuals are not subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment throughout the criminal justice process,” the experts said. 

“Wrongful executions are irreversible. The current implementation of the death penalty in the Islamic Republic of Iran leaves us extremely concerned that innocent individuals may have been executed,” the experts added. “We renew our appeal to Iranian authorities to halt executions of all individuals sentenced to death,” 

Drug offenses have become a leading rationale for the Iranian government to carry out executions, which have hit an eight-year high, according to Amnesty International. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which counts Iran among its members, limits the death penalty to only the “most serious crimes,” which does not include drug offenses. 

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The non-profit alleges in a report released earlier this year that Iran’s executions started to increase following the 2022 unrest that resulted from the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died under suspicious circumstances after a clash with Iran’s morality police due to allegedly not correctly wearing her hijab headscarf. 

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei attends a ceremony at Imam Khomeini Husseinya to commemorate Arbaeen in Tehran, Iran on Aug. 25, 2024. (Iran’s Supreme Leader Press Office / HANDOUT/Anadolu via Getty Images)

In the report, Amnesty International characterizes Iran’s use of executions not as a tool of punishment but of intimidation, seeking to “instill fear among the population and tighten their grip on power.” 

Iran this year has executed over 400 people, including over a dozen women – putting the country on track to match the roughly 850 executions in 2023, most of which punished political dissidents. 

People take part in a demonstration organized by the “Women’s Life Freedom” movement to mark the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death on Sept. 16, 2023 in Paris. (Ameer Alhalbi/Getty Images)

“Never-mind the change at the top: Musical chairs between Iranian presidents has had zero bearing on the plight of the Iranian people to include rights violations and executions at home,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital. 

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“Tehran’s true face is on display here,” Taleblu argued. “A rise in executions including for alleged drug-related offenses is a feature, not a bug, of the vision the Islamic Republic has for order at home.”

“Show trials, forced confessions, and violations of due process feature all too prominently in these death sentence cases,” he added. 

Iranian members of the diaspora, activists, gathered in front of the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin during the “United Against Executions in Iran” protest on Jan. 27, 2024. (Echo Iran/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

The U.N. highlighted the case of Reza Rasaei, an Iranina-Kurdish protester whom authorities punished based on a “confession reportedly obtained through torture.” 

The government alleged that Rasaei was involved in the death of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member, and it pursued execution even after co-defendants retracted their testimonies about his involvement and a forensic medical examiner challenging Rasaei’s involvement. 

The special rapporteurs serve as part of the Special Procedures group on the Human Rights Council, pursuing fact-finding missions and monitoring “mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world.” 

A narrow strip of scrubland and sand dunes on the Gaza side of the border with Egypt has emerged as a major obstacle in talks aimed at halting the Israel-Hamas war and freeing scores of hostages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel must maintain control over the so-called Philadelphi corridor to prevent Hamas from replenishing its arsenal through a network of smuggling tunnels in the area. He says that’s necessary to ensure the group can never again launch an attack into Israel like the one on Oct. 7 that ignited the war.

But many Israelis, including the defense minister, say Israel should relinquish the corridor, at least for a short period of time, in order to secure an agreement to bring back around 100 hostages still held in Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

The debate reached a fever pitch this weekend after Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages that the military says Hamas killed as troops closed in. Critics say they could have been returned alive in a cease-fire deal and accuse Netanyahu of sabotaging the talks for his own political interests.

Hamas has demanded a full withdrawal from Gaza and says Netanyahu only raised the demand for the Philadelphi corridor in recent weeks to derail the talks.

Netanyahu blames Hamas for the lack of a deal and says the demand is not new.

Egypt, which has served as a key mediator, is also opposed to any Israeli presence along the Gaza side of its border and says it would threaten the decades-old peace treaty between the two countries, a cornerstone of regional stability.

What is the Philadelphi corridor and why does Israel want it?

The Philadelphi corridor is a strip — only 100 meters (yards) wide in some places— that runs the 14-kilometer (8.6-mile) length of the Gaza side of the border with Egypt. It includes the Rafah crossing, which was Gaza’s only outlet to the outside world not controlled by Israel until the army captured the entire corridor in May.

Israel says Hamas used a vast network of tunnels beneath the border to import arms, allowing it to build up the military machine it deployed on Oct. 7. The military says it has found and destroyed dozens of tunnels since seizing the corridor.

At a news conference on Monday, Netanyahu pointed to a map of the region depicting weapons flowing into Gaza from across the border, saying the corridor provided “oxygen” for Hamas.

Egypt released a statement Tuesday rejecting Netanyahu’s allegations, saying they misled the Israeli public and obstructed cease-fire efforts. Egypt says it destroyed hundreds of tunnels on its side of the border years ago and set up a military buffer zone of its own that prevents smuggling.

What do Netanyahu’s critics say about the corridor?

For weeks, Israeli media have quoted unnamed security officials lambasting Netanyahu, saying the corridor is not essential to Israel’s security and should not hold up a deal to return hostages. Some have suggested an international force could patrol the border, perhaps with remote Israeli sensors.

The dispute sparked a shouting match at a security Cabinet meeting last week, in which Defense Minister Yoav Gallant accused Netanyahu of favoring border arrangements over the lives of the hostages, according to an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting. Gallant was the lone dissenting voice in a subsequent vote in favor of maintaining control over the Philadelphi corridor and has since called on the government to reverse it.

Families of hostages have led months of mass protests calling on Netanyahu to make a deal with Hamas to return their loved ones. The biggest demonstrations yet erupted over the weekend after the killing of the six hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the best-known captives.

Netanyahu’s supporters say that conceding the Philadelphi corridor now would reward Hamas for killing the captives. They maintain that only relentless military pressure can defeat Hamas, return the hostages and bring about a deal that ensures Israel’s long-term security.

What do Palestinians say about the corridor?

Any Israeli presence inside Gaza would be widely seen as a military occupation, likely prolonging the conflict.

It could also extend, perhaps indefinitely, the closure of the Rafah crossing, which has been a lifeline for Gaza since Egypt and Israel began imposing various degrees of a blockade on the territory after Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

For 16 years, it was the only way for most Palestinians to exit or enter Gaza. During the first seven months of the war, it was also the only route available for medical evacuations and the main entry point for desperately needed humanitarian aid.

Israel captured Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for their own state. It withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but continued to control the territory’s airspace, coastline, and all of its border crossings except Rafah.

Hamas has adamantly rejected any Israeli presence in Gaza, including in the Philadelphi corridor and the Netzarim corridor, a buffer zone carved out by Israel separating northern from southern Gaza. Israel says it needs that corridor to search Palestinians returning to their homes in the north to keep militants from slipping in.

Israel denies its demands regarding the two corridors are new, referring to them as “clarifications” of an earlier proposal endorsed by President Joe Biden in a May 31 speech and by the U.N. Security Council.

Israel also accuses Hamas of making unacceptable demands since then, and says the militant group is hindering a deal, including by killing hostages who would be part of it.

What is the position of the mediators?

Biden’s speech and the Security Council resolution referred to a complete Israeli withdrawal. Egyptian officials and Hamas say the demands regarding the corridors were not included in subsequent versions of the U.S.-backed proposal, including one that Hamas said it accepted in early July.

Egypt is deeply opposed to any Israeli military presence along the Gaza border and has refused to reopen its side of the Rafah crossing unless the Gaza side is returned to Palestinian control.

It has accused Israel of violating annexes to the landmark 1979 peace treaty pertaining to Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza that regulate the deployment of forces along the border. Israeli officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The United States, which is providing crucial military support to Israel while also serving as a mediator, has not taken a position on the corridors, at least publicly, while Hamas has accused it of trying to impose Israel’s demands on the militant group.

Biden said Monday that Netanyahu was not doing enough to bring about a cease-fire, without elaborating.

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Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, Samy Magdy in Cairo, and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed.

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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war