Before the war, conditions like scabies and lice were manageable. Treatment required basic medication and hygiene. Now, overcrowding, shared living spaces, and limited hygiene supplies have made containment nearly impossible, the doctor says. Secondary infections, fever, and pneumonia are becoming more frequent.
By mid-2024, recorded cases of scabies and lice surpassed 96,000, mostly among displaced children. Chickenpox cases rose to nearly 9,274. “Amidst the massive numbers of affected people, we suffer a serious deficiency in access to medicines,” a pediatrician in Gaza told Mondoweiss. “We’re forced to treat patients with whatever limited quantities we receive from the Ministry of Health.”
Palestinians clamoured for aid and gunfire rang out in chaotic scenes, as a controversial US-Israeli aid distribution scheme turned to shambles.
Journalists in the besiged Gaza Strip said hungry and beleagured residents forced to stand outside a facility holding aid rushed inside because of delays conducting detailed security checks on recepients.
According to Israeli army sources cited by Israeli media, Americans affiliated with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation had to be rescued once they lost control of the facility.
The Israeli military denied firing on the crowds but gunfire was heard at the scene, possibly as a result of warning shots fired by American mercenaries securing the facility.
military veteran Jake Wood has resigned from his position as executive director of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) just weeks after its launch, amid heavy criticism from organizations that say that the U.S.- and Israel-backed group will hinder, not help, aid delivery in the starvation-stricken enclave. Wood cited concerns over violations of “humanitarian principles” in…
After a two-week trial, a jury at Bradford Crown Court has acquitted members of the Bradford 4 Palestine Action activists of trumped-up burglary charges. However, due to the judge ruling out all legal defences, activists have still left the court with convictions for ‘criminal damage’.
Palestine Action Bradford 4: Teledyne weapons factory shut down on Nakba Day 2024
Activists had occupied the roof of the Teledyne weapons factory at Shipley near Bradford, on 15 May 2024 for several hours. They timed to action to commemorate Nakba Day. The group successfully scaled the roof of the weapons plant, and painted it with anti-Genocide slogans, breaking windows, and causing damage to the structure, including making a hole in the roof. The cost of damage to the factory, which they successfully shut down for the day, was put at £60,000.
The court began the trial a year after the action.
Activists have repeatedly targeted Teledyne because the company manufactures components that the Israeli military have used to genocidal effect against the Palestinian population of Gaza. Teledyne is known to have made shipments to Israel in November and December 2023. The company has received 28 weapons export licenses to Israel since 2021.
Products that Teledyne has manufactured include filters for Israeli-user missiles AGM-Harpoon, AIM 120 AMRAAM, and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. They also produce components for Israel’s killer drone fleet, and for F35 jets. A Teledyne manager testified that it was “probable” the Israeli military were using Teledyne components in Gaza. However, he caveated this, saying that exports to Israel represented only 5% of Teledyne’s total.
Activists acquitted for burglary, but convicted for criminal damage
The jury acquitted three of the Palestine Action Bradford 4 activists of burglary, but convicted them of criminal damage. They convicted a fourth activist named Ricky on both counts.
Describing herself as a “Proud Bradfordian”, Serena Fenton was the first of the activists to give evidence. She told the Jury:
It’s terrifying to think that export licenses are being granted to export these missiles right here in Bradford.
Next to give evidence was Francesca Nadin, who refused to accept that they had broken the law by stopping production at Teledyne. She told the court:
Innocent people are being murdered every day, and that is thanks, in part, to the components made by Teledyne.
The final Defendant was Amareen, who stated in court that:
When the state fails to uphold international law, when the regulatory bodies look away, what are ordinary people supposed to do?
After the jury had heard all the evidence however, Judge Smith ruled out all defences in the case. These included defences like Necessity, Prevention of Intentional Cruelty, Preventing Crime Abroad, and Consent. Because of this, the defendants took a collective decision to discharge three of the four barristers.
Instead, they decided to address the jury themselves. By the time the court reached a verdict on Thursday, Israel had already killed 51 Palestinians in Gaza on that day
alone.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action stated:
The Bradford Four risked their liberties to attempt to prevent the flow of arms and the facilitation of genocide. Despite being stripped of these defences by the judge, they know that those aiding and abetting the massacres in Gaza should have been the ones in the dock. As the government continues to make record arms sales to Israel, direct action remains a necessary tool to resist this complicity.
A massive group of far-right Israelis have marched through a Muslim area in Old Jerusalem in an annual hate march. Sometimes known as Jerusalem Day, Israelis mark the day via state funds as they mark the illegal occupation of East Jerusalem. Traditionally, the fascists march through the Muslim Quarter. Their racism and violence during the marches routinely creates an atmosphere of terror and fear for Palestinians.
Unionist Howard Beckett shared footage of the march:
Today is Jerusalem Day. An Israeli national holiday celebrating the annexation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank
Here right wing settlers in their thousand chant “death to Arabs”, “we’ll burn your villages”
large groups chanted racist slogans including “Gaza is ours”, “death to the Arabs” and “may their villages burn”.
Just a day before the march, footage of Palestinian children being burned to death went viral on social media.
Israelis march through Muslim Quarter
Residents in the quarter where the march took place were barricaded in their homes. Aviv Tatarsky, a resident of East Jerusalem, told the Guardian that:
Symbolically it sends a message: ‘You don’t belong here, we are the ones who own this place.’
The Guardian also reported that:
From midday, groups of Jewish men inside the city shouted racist chants including “may their villages burn”, “Mohammed is dead” and “death to Arabs”.
President of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, Dr. Omar Suleiman, contrasted the hate march with Palestinian children being burned alive just a day before:
The day after Israel burned a bunch of children alive and normal human beings watched in horror.
“May your village burn” and “Muhammad is dead” is what thousands of extremist Jewish settlers marching on Al Aqsa illegally in Jerusalem chanted.
Most of the people who died in the attack were children. One particular child can be seen engulfed in flames and trying to escape the building. That child survived, but her mother and siblings died in the flames.
Emergency responders were also seen attempting to put the fire out without any water:
Imagine watching children burn in front of you and there’s no water to put out the fire…!!
With warnings that the situation is heading towards an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, international reports indicate that 93% of the population suffers from food insecurity, while the Gaza Strip is expected to face a severe famine if the closure of crossings continues and the military operations continue.
Cruelty does not cover the mindset of these far-right Israelis in celebrating the colonisation and decimation of Palestinians.
Mindset
Any manner in which Palestinians defend themselves and their homeland is seen as terrorism. It is becoming increasingly clear, if it were ever in doubt, that the world is happy to watch Palestinians burn to death.
The world will barely make a squeak when it comes to thousands of Israelis baying for the death of Arabs, But, people of conscience must see these thousands of Israelis’ barbarism in attempting to stop aid to a starving population.
There are evidently plenty of Israeli settlers who actively want their government and army to continue its genocide on Palestinians. So much so, that a poll conducted by an Israeli channel found that:
A majority of the Israeli public is opposed to allowing humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, a survey carried out by Israel’s Channel 13 has found.
Some 53 per cent of respondents said they believe Israel should not permit aid to enter Gaza, while only 34 per cent supported allowing lifesaving food, medicines and water to enter the enclave.
The fact that 53% of respondents believe a besieged and terrorised population shouldn’t be permitted any food or water is appalling. It does demonstrate, however, that a large proportion of Israeli settlers – replete with hate marches, chants for death to Arabs, physical blocking of aid – are, incredibly, calling for more devastation for Palestine.
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on May 26, 2025. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Video footage of a young girl trying to flee an inferno caused by a Monday Israeli airstrike that killed dozens of Palestinians including her mother and siblings sparked global outrage and calls for an immediate cease-fire in what one former Israeli prime minister called a “war of extermination.”
Medical officials in Gaza said that at least 36 people were killed by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombing of the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in the al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City. The Gaza Government Media Office (GMO) said that 18 children were killed in the “brutal massacre.”
“The school was supposed to be a place of safety. Instead, it was turned into an inferno,” Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told reporters. “We heard desperate cries for help from people trapped alive inside the blaze, but the fire was too intense. We couldn’t get to them.”
From the flames of the massacre committed by the Israeli criminal occupation forces at Fahmi Al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City’s Al-Daraj neighborhood — a school that had become a refuge for displaced families — comes the image of a child: Ward Jalal Al-Sheikh Khalil, the only… pic.twitter.com/FMpXlFOMN9
Video recorded at the scene of the strike showed the silhouette of a young girl—identified as 7-year-old Ward al-Sheikh Khalil—moving against the infernal backdrop as she tried to escape the blaze. According toThe National, paramedic Hussein Muhaysin rushed in to rescue the child, whom he said “was moments away from death.”
“When we pulled her out, she was in shock, silent, trembling, unable to comprehend what had just happened,” Muhaysin said. “We couldn’t bring ourselves to tell her that her entire family was killed in the bombing.”
The child’s mother and at least five siblings were reportedly killed in the bombing.
“Only her father survived, and he is now in critical condition,” said Muhaysin.
“We see tragedy every day, but holding a child who has lost everything, who doesn’t even know yet, that’s a kind of pain no one can explain,” he added.
7-year-old Ward Al-Sheikh Khalil, survived the Israeli army attack on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City. Her mother and five siblings were killed in the attack. 📸Dawoud Abo Alkas pic.twitter.com/WEXLPVLRGd
The IDF admitted to the bombing—one of 200 it said it carried out Monday—and claimed it targeted “a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command and control center.” As usual, no evidence was provided to support the claim.
Meanwhile in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia, another predawn IDF strike reportedly killed 19 people—mostly women and children—sheltering in the Abdel Rabbo family home. Medical officials told reporters that recovery operations were still underway on Monday afternoon, with charred and mangled bodies being pulled from the rubble.
Moumen Abdel Rabbo, who rushed to the scene following the attack, told The National: “It was sudden. The house was completely flattened. Ambulances barely made it through to recover the wounded and the dead. Some bodies are still trapped under the rubble.”
Abdel Rabbo said that Israeli bombing continued nearby and drones buzzed overhead as first responders—who are often attacked and killed by Israeli “double-tap” strikes—dug through the ruins in search of survivors and victims.
“How can we search for survivors under fire?” he asked. “These were civilians; mothers, toddlers, elderly people. This wasn’t a military target. It was our home.”
🚨New Massacre
MoH: 19 people most of them children have been KILLED in Israeli bombing of the house of Abed Rabbu family in Jabalia! pic.twitter.com/HquLwTu1lL
The GMO said Monday that more than 2,200 Palestinian families have been entirely wiped out since October 2023.
The U.S.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a statement Monday condemning the school shelter bombing and Sunday’s “barbaric” killing of two Red Cross workers—weapon contamination officer Ibrahim Eid and hospital security guard Ahmad Abu Hilal—in an IDF airstrike on their home in Khan Younis. The weekend bombing followed the March 23 massacre of 15 Palestinian first responders including Red Crescent paramedics by Israeli ground troops in Rafah.
“How many more children, women, the elderly, journalists, healthcare workers, and first responders must [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu slaughter with American weapons before [U.S. President Donald] Trump forces him to accept a permanent cease-fire deal that ends the genocide for good and frees all captives?” asked CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad.
“Every hour that Israel’s genocidal crimes continue with impunity—and with our government’s complicity—adds more dishonor to a shameful period in the history of our nation and the world,” Awad added.
Hamas, which led the October 7, 2023 assault on Israel that left more than 1,100 Israelis and others dead—at least some of whom were killed by so-called ” friendly fire” and under the intentionally fratricidal Hannibal Directive—is believed to still be holding 23 living hostages of the 251 people it kidnapped during the attack.
On Monday, the Trump administration refuted reports that Hamas had agreed to a cease-fire proposal by Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff under which 10 hostages would be released in exchange for a 70-day truce.
Although Witkoff toldCNN Monday that the “deal is on the table” and that “Israel will agree” to it, he subsequently walked back his claims. An unnamed Palestinian official toldThe Times of Israel that Witkoff changed his mind on the proposed deal. The envoy blamed Hamas for an unspecified “unacceptable” response to the proposal, which he also claimed he never proffered.
Hamas told the U.S. it agreed to what the U.S. told Hamas was necessary for a deal. Israel then blew up & furiously denounced the terms the U.S. officials told Hamas were acceptable. Now Witkoff is blaming Hamas to appease Netanyahu who is currently burning children alive in Gaza https://t.co/ROs5rW7Rm5
Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes including extermination and forced starvation in Gaza—said Monday evening that he hopes to be able to announce at least some progress toward a hostage release deal on Tuesday and that his government “will not give up on the release of our hostages, and if we do not achieve this in the coming days, we will achieve it later.”
Amid IDF attacks including a Friday airstrike on the Khan Younis home of Drs. Hamdi and Alaa al-Najjar that killed nine of the couple’s 10 children, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wrote that his country’s relentless obliteration of Gaza amounted to “war crimes.”
Dr. Alaa al-Najjar's children before Isr@el brutally murdered all of them in cold blood.
She was a pediatrician working to save children's lives; she had been working many months without any salary, just to help her people. Allah chose to raise her ranks and taking nine of her… pic.twitter.com/jpP0iUymIj
“What we are doing in Gaza is a war of extermination: indiscriminate, unrestrained, brutal, and criminal killing of civilians,” said Olmert, who led Israel during the 2008-09 Operation Cast Lead war on Gaza. “We are doing this not because of an accidental loss of control in a particular sector, not because of a disproportionate outburst of fighters in some unit—but as a result of a policy dictated by the government, knowingly, intentionally, viciously, maliciously, recklessly.”
While Israel has nominally allowed a trickle of aid to enter Gaza—where officials say hundreds of people, mostly children and elderly, have starved to death in recent days—officials said Sunday that only around 100 of the 46,200 trucks scheduled to enter Gaza over the past 84 days have actually made it into the besieged enclave.
Hamas said Sunday that “the occupation orchestrates the crime of starvation in Gaza and uses it as a tool to establish a political and field reality, under the cover of misleading relief projects that have been rejected by the United Nations and international organizations, due to lack of transparency and minimal humanitarian standards.”
On Sunday, Jake Wood, who led the controversial U.S.- and Israel-backed organization established to distribute aid in Gaza, resigned, citing concerns that the mission would violate basic “humanitarian principles.”
The U.N.’s International Court of Justice is currently weighing a genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel that cites the “complete siege” among evidence of genocidal intent.
More than 190,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded by Israel’s 598-day annihilation of Gaza, including at least 14,000 people who are missing and feared dead and buried beneath rubble, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. However, a peer-reviewed study published in January by the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet found Gaza fatalities were likely undercounted by 41%.
The Spanish wire service EFE reports that delegations from 20 countries met Sunday in Madrid in a push to pressure Israel to halt its total war on Gaza and to establish a Palestinian state. Convened by Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, the conference sought to move to concrete actions.
Israel had blocked all humanitarian aid for two months beginning in March, provoking a crisis of malnutrition in Gaza, almost all of whose people have been made internal refugees several times over by the Israeli military. Israel began letting a small amount of aid in last week, apparently under the pressure of the Trump administration, but United Nations officials decried it as “a drop in the ocean” compared to the urgent needs of 2.2 million Palestinians.
Jake Wood, the executive director of the controversial Israeli-led aid distribution plan for Gaza, announced his resignation on 26 May due to the impossibility of implementing the initiative without violating “humanitarian principles of humanity.” Wood stressed that upon assuming his role, the plan was still a “loose constellation of various ideas and concepts” which he sought to establish “as a truly independent humanitarian entity.”
“I am proud of the work I oversaw, including developing a pragmatic plan that could feed hungry people, address security concerns about diversion, and complement the work of longstanding NGOs in Gaza,” the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) director added.
16 months of brutal genocide and siege have done all but break the Palestinian resistance, which has steadfastly – if not miraculously – fended off and broken the ruthless siege of the Zionist entity. As an official death toll stands at 61,700 – with much more accurate estimates tallying the martyrs at over 300,000, “Israel” has yet again turned to slaughtering civilians.
The Palestinian resistance has recruited at least 30,000 new fighters in Gaza, according to conservative estimates earlier this year. Three-quarters of the Resistance’s tunnels remain and the ambushing and fighting both Al-Qassam and Saraya al-Quds continue against an occupation that has mostly withdrawn its ground occupying troops in Gaza while mulling over sending robots into Gaza.
Tokyo, Japan – DSEI Japan 2025 (Defense and Security Equipment International) is currently being held just outside Tokyo, featuring 450 exhibitors from military companies worldwide that manufacture weapons. However, not everyone in Japan is happy about hosting a weapons exhibition.
On Wednesday, the first day of the weapons exhibition, approximately 350 demonstrators gathered around the Makuhari Messe venue to protest weapons manufacturing and trade. They argued that such activities violate principles of international justice, support Israeli genocide in Gaza, and contribute to the military expansion of the Japanese government.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted that Israel’s goal is to colonize Gaza.
“We will take control of all the territory of the [Gaza] Strip”, Netanyahu pledged on 19 May.
Israel had agreed to a ceasefire in January, but unilaterally violated the agreement in March and restarted its brutal war on Gaza.
Donald Trump personally gave Israel the green light to break the truce, according to Israeli officials. Israel’s extreme-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of the Israeli security cabinet and Netanyahu ally, boasted that the IDF is “destroying everything left in the Gaza Strip”, and that “the army is leaving no stone unturned”, reported the top Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
On May 15, 2025, the European Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, the last facility there capable of providing cancer treatment, ceased operations. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, “Israel’s targeting of the hospital has made it impossible to provide medical care due to the danger posed to medical staff and patients.” The following day, May 16, Joseph R. Biden, 46th President of the United States, was diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.
Joe Biden is the person most responsible for the destruction of Gaza’s last cancer treatment center. His decision to give Israel a free hand in the ethnic cleansing of Gaza beginning in October 2023 led to the destruction of hospitals, homes, schools, and even the tent camps where victims had fled.
Malta – The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) announces two significant developments in the aftermath of the May 2 Israeli drone attack on the Conscience in international waters.
Firstly, we are relieved to confirm that the remaining 12 crew members who remained stranded at sea have now safely returned to their home countries. After over two weeks of unjustifiable delay and denial of safe harbor, Maltese authorities finally permitted them to disembark and depart. These volunteers faced not only the trauma of unprovoked Israeli military strikes, but also the risk of further attacks while stranded. Their safe return is a testament to their courage, perseverance and steadfast commitment to challenging Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza.
The last few days have witnessed a dangerous escalation of violence, theft, and vandalism against Palestinians by illegal Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Settlers attacked Palestinians in the Al-Auja Waterfall area in Jericho on 25 May for the third time in one day, as part of ongoing efforts to displace families who have lived in the area for decades and establish a new illegal settlement outpost.This came a day after settlers, under the protection of the Israeli army, cut off the water supply to the area.
In the Salim plain east of the occupied city of Nablus, settlers also continued to set fire to wheat fields on Sunday, coinciding with separate attacks on Palestinian livestock herders in the northern Jordan Valley area.
“Sumūd, the process of steadfastness, of survivance, is not just a project of survival, but also one of remembrance, record-keeping, and revitalization,” write Malu Halasa and Jordan Elgrably in the introduction to Sumūd: A New Palestinian Reader (Seven Stories Press). The world has now witnessed sumūd at its most tenacious, as Palestinians hold on to life, dignity and a centuries-old culture…
On Wednesday, Israeli forces in the West Bank opened fire in the direction of a delegation of European, Arab, and Asian diplomats. In yet another mark of Israeli hubris, the Israeli military said it “regrets the inconvenience.”
The timing of this incident is not coincidental. Earlier this week, the European Union, many of its member states, and other Western countries issued statements and took steps that appeared to finally represent concrete actions to pressure Israel to change its behavior in Gaza and the West Bank.
The question is whether that is really what happened.
It started with a letter from a coalition of states that fund international humanitarian efforts.
Days after the deed, we can only but wonder what are the thoughts now occupying the mind of 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago.
As he languishes in his jail cell contemplating life and fate, is he still satisfied that he did the right thing? Or has he awoken to the totality of what he now faces in consequence, up to and including a possible death sentence?
With the murder of Israeli embassy staff members Yaron Lischinksy and Sarah Milgrim as they emerged from an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, what Rodriguez has done in truth is hand Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters across America and beyond a most prized gift.
On Tuesday, May 20, a majority of representatives in the Spanish Parliament voted in favor of a motion calling for an arms embargo on Israel. Spearheaded by the progressive blocs Podemos, Sumar, and the Republican Left of Catalonia, everyone but the right-wing supported the motion – including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE).
While the news undoubtedly marks an important achievement for the months-long grassroots Palestine solidarity mobilizations in Europe and beyond, many activists caution against interpreting it as a decisive sign of Spain’s concrete commitment to halting the genocide in Gaza.
Most of Mohammed Mohsen’s neighbors live in a state of deprivation and hunger, reliant on the World Food Programme for daily survival. When he is able to get donations from individuals abroad, Mohsen delivers food baskets to his community in the Al-Jawf governorate in northeastern Yemen. In pictures he sent me from his most recent distribution two months ago, thin children — one wearing a flower print dress, another a yellow beanie — stand next to large white sacks of flour, sugar and rice and yellow jugs of cooking oil.
When he makes these deliveries to families, he says, “they feel happy and joyful, especially the children, and they hope it will continue.”
Residents of northern Gaza began fleeing en masse on the morning of Saturday, May 17, as the Israeli military launched a wave of indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes on Beit Lahia and its surrounding areas. The bombardment marked the onset of Israel’s expanded ground invasion to “conquer” the Gaza Strip. That same night, as residents sensed the imminent threat posed by the indiscriminate…
When Dr. Mimi Syed returned from her first volunteer trip to Gaza in the summer of 2024, she started flipping through her notes and came to a shocking conclusion: In one month, the ER physician had treated at least 18 children with gunshots to the head or chest. And that’s only the patients she had time to make a note of.
“They were children under the age of 12,” she says. “That’s something I saw every single day, multiple times a day, for the whole four weeks that I was there.”
Syed’s not the only one. Other physicians who’ve worked in Gaza report seeing similar cases on a regular basis, suggesting a disturbing pattern. The doctors allege that members of the Israeli military may be deliberately targeting children.
This week on Reveal, in partnership with Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines, we follow Syed from Gaza to the halls of Congress and the United Nations, as she joins a movement of doctors appealing to US and international policymakers to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Dozens of City University of New York (CUNY) law graduates walked out of their graduation ceremony on Thursday, May 22, in solidarity with Palestine and in protest of their administration’s repression of pro-Palestine protest activity. Students donning keffiyehs and sporting Palestinian flags walked out of the ceremony which took place in the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and rallied together a few blocks away at the monument to Adam Clayton Powell.
“We’re walking out of our own commencement ceremony today in protest of CUNY law’s suppression of free speech, and the CUNY system’s investments in Israeli settler colonialism and genocide,” said CUNY law graduate Parima Kadikar at the Adam Clayton Powell monument.
With nuclear negotiations between the Trump administration and Iran’s Reformist government at a standstill, I held two separate, lengthy background conversations in Tehran this past week with a pair of seasoned Iranian diplomats with detailed knowledge of the talks in Muscat, Oman.
Like most Iranians, the diplomats were eager for a durable deal that would provide sanctions relief. But they said their side could not seem to break through to a Trump team they described as dithering, divided, distracted by other conflicts, and incapable of holding to a consistent position. Worse, as the negotiations drag on, the Trump administration is defaulting toward the hardline Israeli position which rejects all uranium enrichment, even for civilian purposes, violating a right Tehran considers sacrosanct.
As threats of an Israeli strike on Iran grow louder, the United States is making quiet but unmistakable moves of its own. Over the past month, Washington has quietly repositioned strategic bombers and fighter squadrons to Diego Garcia, a remote U.S. military outpost in the Indian Ocean, squarely within striking distance of Tehran.
The official rationale is force protection. But the scale and nature of the deployments have sparked speculation that Washington is laying the groundwork for potential military involvement in an Israeli-led operation, or, at the very least, sending a message to Tehran that it won’t stand in the way.
Microsoft has implemented a policy blocking employee emails containing the words “Palestine,” “Gaza,” or “genocide” on its internal Exchange servers, Drop Site News reported on 22 May.
According to No Azure for Apartheid, a group of pro-Palestine Microsoft employees, an automated filter silently prevents such emails from reaching recipients.
The filter became effective on Wednesday following Microsoft’s Build developer conference, which faced repeated disruptions by the activist group, Drop Site added.
Microsoft has faced internal dissent from employees upset over the company’s collaboration with the Israeli military in its ongoing war on Palestinians in Gaza, which scholars widely consider genocide.
Ms Rachel, an American children’s entertainer, is facing attacks from pro-Israel groups. Otherwise known as Rachel Accurso, the performer has used her massive following to call for the famine and murder of Palestinian children to be stopped. Incredibly, this has led to a number of Zionist lobbyists and mainstream media outlets to question if Ms Rachel is funded by Hamas.
When it’s controversial to advocate for children that have been killed in the thousands, are blocked from food and medical care, and have become the largest cohort of amputees in modern history, we have lost our way.
It’s my unwavering belief that children aren’t less valuable or less equal because of where they were born, the color of their skin, or the religion they practice.
Ms Rachel defends all kids
StopAntisemitism, a pro-Israel lobbying group breathlessly accused Ms Rachel of being a mouthpiece for Hamas:
Rachel Griffin-Accurso, known by her stage name Ms. Rachel, became a household name with her hit show engaging babies and toddlers. However, since her rise to fame, she appears to have transformed into a mouthpiece for Hamas. Now, she spreads vile propaganda against the Jewish state to over 20 million followers across multiple accounts – outnumbering the entire global population of Israelis and Jews.
Let’s take a look at the “vile propaganda” Ms Rachel has been spreading.
At the beginning of March she shared a picture of murdered Hind Rajab along with the caption:
Hind Rajab is her name.
Listen to her voice. Tell her story. Change the world for her and all the innocent children that deserved to live.
“I’m so scared, please come. Come take me. Please, will you come?”
Hind Rajab was a 5 year old Palestinian child who was trapped in a car when Israeli forces massacred her family. They used a tank to shoot at the ambulance coming to her aid. Whilst surrounded by her dead family members, and bleeding from her own injuries she infamously pleaded for help:
I’m so scared, please come.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society released audio recordings of the three hours that Hind spent on the phone to them. In the heartbreaking footage, she pleads for her life and asks for help. Her death is now being considered an Israeli war crime. There is no doubt over what happened to Hind. And yet, Ms Rachel responding to Hind’s brutal murder with compassion is a problem because Hind was a Palestinian child.
Basic humanity
The entertainer has also shared her heartfelt pleas for Palestinian children to be saved. In one post, she shared a video of children huddled together and waving at the camera:
They just want to stay alive, eat food and drink water, learn and play. It’s not controversial to want them to have these basic rights and it is a crime not to let them.
Unfortunately for Ms Rachel, a post of such basic human decency is apparently enough for Zionists to call into question her morals and values. In another of her posts, she shares footage of two Palestinian children, Celine and Sila, as they sit with their father on top of debris and rubble as they watch Ms Rachel’s videos:
My friends Celine and Sila in what used to be their home in Gaza. They deserve to live in a warm, safe home again. They deserve to be children.
Vile, right?
She repeatedly shares stories and footage of Palestinian children she has been in touch with. On one occasion, she shares a picture of Palestinian children and writes:
Food and water are blocked from them. Why don’t they have human rights like other children? Why are many leaders and people silent about their suffering? Either we take care of all children in this world or we don’t. All children’s futures depend on us doing the right thing.
Along with her husband, the entertainer has pledged $1 million to the World Food Programme to feed hungry children around the world. Zionists may be unfamiliar with this Hamas tactic of backing talk with actions. Or, perhaps it’s the feeding of hungry children rather than starving and bombing them which is confusing.
Humanisation
Continuing her rampage of “vile propaganda” Ms Rachel then did what most Zionists would consider to the ultimate crime: she made it seem like Palestinians are humans just like anyone else.
She shared footage of a Palestinian baby, like babies all over the world, watching her YouTube channel:
This is precious baby Amal in Gaza. She deserves everything my baby has. They are no different. Her mom and I are no different. Our love for our babies is no different.
Zionism is built on the abhorrent lie that Palestinians are “human animals” who do not deserve to live. Ms Rachel’s humanisation of Palestinian children is, heartbreakingly, a rarity particularly for Americans. Her caption continued:
I pray that Amal and all children have healthy food, clean water, medical care and a safe place to live. So many children don’t, but they could. That’s the part that hurts so much. We stand by.
In making it clear that it is a political choice to allow famine in Palestine, Ms. Rachel is doing more than many elected politicians have managed to do.
Propaganda against Ms Rachel
Even so, StopAntisemitism have written to the US Attorney General to demand an investigation into whether Ms Rachel is:
being remunerated to disseminate Hamas-aligned propaganda to her millions of followers.
DropSite News journalist Ryan Grim, among many others, objected to the New York Times’ coverage of the, frankly, fucking deranged, request:
The Times choosing to publish these ridiculous smears against Ms Rachel is stunning even by NYT standards https://t.co/SZCdg9JfuK
Even by the standards of mainstream media’s bizarre relationship with bias, Ms Rachel has advocated for Palestinian children as well as Israeli children, children from Sudan, and as she often says, all children. Even then, that’s not enough for Zionist lobby groups. Their fury at Ms Rachel is purely from being threatened by anyone behaving as though Palestinian children are humans that have a right to survive.
Arsenal face legal trouble from a former kit man who is suing the club for unfair dismissal. Mark Bonnick alleges that he was dismissed for his views on Palestine and his “philosophical anti-Zionist belief.”
According to Bonnick’s submission Arsenal’s investigation into the posts did not accuse him of antisemitism but said they could be “perceived as inflammatory or offensive” and had “brought the club into disrepute”. Bonnick is seeking damages and reinstatement.
Now, in an interview with Middle East Eye, Bonnick has vowed to keep supporting Palestine:
I regret nothing. Despite losing my job this close to retirement, I would still encourage people to speak up. We owe it to Palestinians, and to ourselves as humans, to oppose racism, colonialism and genocide, just like Arsenal did for Black Lives Matter and in solidarity with Ukrainians.
Questions for Arsenal
One of the tweets that Arsenal identified as potentially causing offence, according to Bonnick’s legal submission read as follows:
Yes it is all about Jewish supremacy & not wanting to share the land Ethnic cleansing.
Bonnick’s lawyer, Franck Magennis, said:
Mark’s reference to ‘Jewish supremacy’ is a mainstream political critique of Israel’s self-definition as a Jewish state, which prioritises rights and privileges for Jewish citizens over others.
The European Legal Support Center (ELSC) is supporting Bonnick’s case. The ELSC routinely support those advocating for Palestinian rights in European courts. Advocacy officer at ELSC, Tasnima Uddin, said:
Mark’s case is not isolated. Workers across sectors are being targeted for showing solidarity with Palestine. We must defend our right to speak up – and push back against anti-Palestinian repression.
You can’t claim neutrality while silencing dissent.
It is outrageous that Arsenal Football Club has chosen to treat a lifelong fan and loyal worker of 22 years with such contempt, firing him on Christmas Eve simply for expressing solidarity with Palestine.
Bonnick has now found employment as a labourer on a construction site. And, the difference between a club of Arsenal’s stature and someone like Bonnick was not lost on Uddin:
This is not only a personal injustice; it is a stain on football and a betrayal of the values fans hold dear. While the global football industry rakes in billions, working-class staff like Mark are punished for speaking out against injustice.
Defence of Palestine
A number of people on social media have spoken out to defend Bonnick. Sports journalist Leyla Hamed shared a banner outsides the Emirates stadium in support of Bonnick:
Banner outside the Emirates stadium today in support of Mark Bonnick.
The 61-year-old was kitman for Arsenal for over 20 years when he was fired on Christmas Eve last year for posts opposing Israel’s genocide against Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/LmP9P9qPFU
Hamed also defended Bonnick and asked for Arsenal to reinstate him:
After more than 20 years of service, Arsenal fired former kit man Mark Bonnick. Not for any wrongdoing but simply for standing with Palestine. There was no misconduct. No hate. Just solidarity.@Arsenal must apologise, reinstate Mark, and stop silencing support for Palestine. pic.twitter.com/zpRFJvTBR3
Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project said Bonnick’s dismissal was part of a “disturbing pattern”:
Mark Bonnick's dismissal is part of a disturbing pattern where football clubs and employers, under political pressure, have targeted and punished individuals for standing up for fundamental human rights.
— Peace & Justice Project (@corbyn_project) May 22, 2025
Host of Palestine Declassified, Chris Williamson, urged for people to keep resisting Zionism:
When high profile figures from Jeremy Corbyn to Gary Lineker capitulate to the Zionist lobby, it enables these racist monsters to target even more people like Mark Bonnick. NEVER apologise to Zionists. Fight them, expose them, and destroy their vile ideology. https://t.co/0oGEx7MLGw
Author Julian Sayarer called out the racism endemic in UK football:
Disgraceful behaviour from @Arsenal to fire kit man Mark Bonnick for his solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide. Contrary to claims of Kick It Out and others, UK football seems more riddled with racism than ever and it's obscene one can lose their job for opposing genocide. https://t.co/4YNjBByRiA
As the Guardian reported in 2024, activists have long been calling for Arsenal to divest from their longtime sponsors Emirates. The airline are based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who are accused by Sudanese activists of arming the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF themselves accused of war crimes by the Sudan Doctors Network.
Activists, including football fans, have repeatedly protested outside Arsenal’s stadium pleading:
Don’t let the UAE sportswash genocide in Sudan.
Genocide in Sudan is not unconnected to genocide in Palestine. It is entirely possible for global powers to intervene and halt the mounting accounts of death, torture, and famine. However, political will is not on the side of Palestinian or Sudanese people and therefore their deaths are seen as acceptable to Western powers.
Arsenal have bowed to potential public pressure to sack Bonnick. If only they could bow to public pressure and divest from UAE companies to demonstrate what they really think about genocide. Instead, they’ve chosen to target a longtime worker defending Palestinians at a time when no one in power cares to do so.
Every university in Gaza has been reduced to rubble. Thousands of students and hundreds of educators have been killed. The genocide is nearing its final, most brutal phase. Meanwhile, Israeli universities continue to develop the weapons and ideologies that made all of it possible. And the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) still refuses to sever ties, 8 months after being confronted with the undeniable proof.
The call for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions is not merely symbolic. These institutions have never been neutral bystanders to state violence. They are engineers of it, embedded in the military-industrial complex, drafting demographic warfare strategies, justifying settler expansion, and persecuting Palestinian students and faculty.
Two employees of the Israeli embassy in the US were killed in a shooting attack in Washington DC early on 22 May, causing an uproar and accusations about “antisemitism” being the motive behind the killings.
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, the two Israeli diplomats, were shot while leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in the US capital. The two were reportedly set to be engaged, as Lischinsky had planned to propose to Milgrim in occupied Jerusalem next week.
The shooter has been identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, who chanted “Free, free Palestine” as he was being detained by Metropolitan Police shortly after the attack.
A House Republican has called for Gaza to be “nuked” akin to the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and said that “Palestinianism” is “evil” in genocidal remarks on Fox News following the shooting of two Israeli embassy workers on Wednesday. When asked about the killing of the two embassy workers in Washington, D.C., Rep. Randy Fine (Florida) launched into a tirade…
national holiday celebrating the annexation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank 
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