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Category: israel

  • Italian journalists put BBC to shame in their remembrance of murdered Palestinian journalists

    With FIFA conspicuously still failing to ban Israel despite its genocide in Palestine, Italy had to end the apartheid state’s chances of entering the 2026 World Cup itself. And as it did, its state broadcaster put its British counterpart to shame by openly honouring the hundreds of journalists Israeli occupation forces have killed in the last two years.

    BBC shamed for ignoring murdered journalists in Palestine

    RAI journalist Alessandro Antinelli explained to viewers why he was wearing a black ribbon, highlighting that more than:

    250 journalists killed in the war in Gaza, in what the United Nations commission of inquiry defined as a genocide. They tried to report, but regrettably, it is a fact that they didn’t return home.

    Another journalist reporting on the match suggested that, despite all of the international impunity Israel has benefited from, “at least we could beat Israel on the pitch”:

    Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza has killed at least 273 journalists and media workers since October 2023. That means it’s taken the life of at least one journalist every three days in the last two years. Scholars say the apartheid state has committed infocide (journocide / mediacide) in Gaza, systematically waging information warfare not only via propaganda efforts but by working to ensure the censorship or murder of Palestinian journalists.

    It’s almost unimaginable that the BBC would highlight Israel’s systematic murder of Palestinian journalists in the same way. Instead, the BBC has consistently echoed Israeli propaganda over the last two years while demonstrating racist double standards in their reporting of Palestinian and Israeli suffering.

    Italians refused to give Israel an easy ride

    Italian coach Gennaro Gattuso had said before the match:

    There is nothing worse than what we have seen in the last two years.

    A national strike showing solidarity with Palestine had previously gone to Italy’s national training centre to call for the cancellation of the match against Israel. But Italy ‘had to play’ to avoid forfeiting the game, Gattuso stressed. And he added:

    it’s very sad to see what’s happening to innocent people, children, it hurts my heart to see all of that.

    More than 10,000 people protested peacefully before yesterday’s match, calling for Israel’s suspension from FIFA. There was a heavy police presence, and officers eventually used “water cannons and tear gas” against protesters. With helicopters flying over the city and a number of restrictions in place, one resident insisted that “such a deployment of forces for a match should never take place”.

    The demonstration included a massive Palestinian flag and banner saying “Show Israel the red card”:

    Show Israel the red card!

    FIFA and UEFA have faced significant criticism for their hypocrisy, having suspended Russia but refused to suspend Israel. And FIFA may even seek to punish Italy now in response to some of its fans booing the apartheid state’s national anthem.

    For now, Israel’s defeat has only been on the field. But the movement to ban the settler-colonial nation from the sport altogether is growing. And the more people join those efforts, the harder the corrupt officials at the top of the sport will find it to ignore the demands.

    Featured image via X

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Breaking: Israeli tanks open fire on civilians in northern Gaza

    Israeli tanks have opened fire on civilians in several places in northern Gaza, including in Gaza City, according to local sources.

    The occupation regime, which murdered at least nine civilians in Gaza yesterday, has violated the supposed ‘ceasefire’ every day since it came into force last week.

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel Violates Ceasefire With Deadly Attacks On Palestinians In Gaza

    The Israeli army killed several Palestinians in Gaza on 14 October despite the new ceasefire agreement which has taken effect across the strip.

    In total, nine Palestinians were killed by Israeli ceasefire violations, Palestinian media reports said. Three bodies arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, while another six arrived at Gaza City’s Baptist hospital. An Israeli quadcopter targeted civilians in Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood while they were inspecting their homes.

    Israeli artillery also shelled areas in Jabalia and Al-Tarans, accompanied by gunfire. There was also gunfire reported in the Al-Tahlia area of Khan Yunis in south Gaza.

    Additionally, a group of young men near Al-Fukhari, east of Khan Yunis, was targeted by Israeli forces, resulting in one death.

    The post Israel Violates Ceasefire With Deadly Attacks On Palestinians In Gaza appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Israel Says It’s Halving Aid Into Gaza After Receiving Last 20 Living Captives

    Israel is going to halve the amount of aid that it will allow into Gaza under the ceasefire agreement, aid groups say — a move Israel has attempted to justify by blaming Hamas for supposedly violating the deal that Palestinians have said Israel is working to sabotage. UN officials said they were notified by the Israeli military that it would only allow 300 aid trucks into the famine-stricken…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • 154 Freed Palestinian Prisoners Reportedly Being Forced Into Exile by Israel

    Israel is reportedly forcing over 150 Palestinians freed from Israeli prisons as part of the ceasefire deal into exile, in a move that experts say is a violation of international law. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office says that at least 154 Palestinians released on Monday will be exiled and deported to an unknown country, per Al Jazeera. Almost all had been residents of the occupied…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Israeli Lawmaker Who Was Expelled for “Recognize Palestine” Sign Speaks Out

    As President Trump addressed the Israeli Knesset on Monday, he was briefly interrupted by two lawmakers who waved signs reading “Recognize Palestine.” The two Knesset members, Ayman Odeh and Ofer Cassif with the Hadash-Ta’al alliance, were expelled from the chamber. “Yesterday, there was a disgusting display of flattery and personality cult by two megalomaniacs who are hungry for power and blood,”…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Israel waged a two-year genocide war to free the prisoners – and still failed spectacularly

    For two full years, Israel waged one of the fiercest wars in modern history, a war described as a ‘slow-burn genocide.’ It used all kinds of prohibited weapons and relied on international intelligence agencies, yet failed to achieve its primary goal: recovering its prisoners from Gaza.

    Since October 7, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu framed his war on Gaza as a battle for “existence and security,” using the liberation of the prisoners as a pretext. However, after 735 days of continuous bombardment, Israel dropped more than 200,000 tons of explosives—the equivalent of approximately 13 Hiroshima bombs—over an area no larger than 365 square kilometres, turning Gaza into a scorched, lifeless wasteland.

    The result, as revealed by the facts, was horrific: more than 67,000 martyrs and missing, 170,000 wounded, and the near-total collapse of civilian infrastructure.

    Israel’s genocide

    The Israeli failure here is multifaceted. First, it was a military failure in converting firepower into tangible political results. Second, it was an intelligence failure in locating the prisoners or securing routes leading to their recovery. Third, it was a moral and political failure, as this process produced bloodshed and destruction, perpetrated by a government that relied on war as the only solution to internal and political pressure.

    On the other hand, what happened reflects the resistance’s tactical and organisational superiority: its ability to withstand a besieged structure, its ability to manage a sensitive issue such as the prisoners, and its ability to intelligently use information as a tool of pressure and dignity. The issue here is not just that the prisoners survived; rather, the resistance was able, in a single hour, to transform years of bombardment into a spectacle announcing the enemy’s failure to achieve its central goal.

    In a moment that seemed to sum up the futility of two years of genocide, the Qassam Brigades announced the handover of living prisoners during the first phase of the ceasefire agreement—a move that effectively ended the war that force had failed to end.

    Israel’s twisted actions

    While Israel needed two years of bombing to fail to free a single prisoner, the resistance was able to hand over the living prisoners within just one hour, in a scene that observers considered:

    a symbolic end to a futile war waged by Netanyahu in the name of electoral deception and political survival.

    This was not merely a symbolic event; it was a stark reflection of the shifting balance of power. The resistance, besieged and cut off from electricity, water, and medicine, maintained its organisational, military, and intelligence capabilities until the very last moment.

    Israeli military analyst Yaron Avraham bitterly remarked on Channel 12:

    They had maps of Israeli army bases, so what’s so strange about them having the family numbers of soldiers?

    This statement reads like an implicit admission of the failure of the Israeli military and intelligence establishment, which had spent two years searching in the dark. While Israel utilised satellites, aircraft, and artificial intelligence, the resistance was able to hide prisoners in a small, besieged territory completely exposed to the world.

    How did Israel have the backing of the world and still fail?

    As the tanks withdrew from the rubble, the most important question within Israel returned: How could a state with its entire military and technological arsenal fail, while the besieged resistance succeeded in preserving its prisoners and managing their situation intelligently and professionally?

    Thus, the short communication from Gaza became something of a final statement of the war. Israel did not win with weapons, but was defeated by sound—a sound coming from under the rubble, carrying messages that did not require missiles to hit their targets.

    Israel wanted to recover its prisoners to prove its strength, but its war ended to prove the opposite: that force does not provide security, that annihilation does not produce victory, and that Gaza, despite the ashes, is still capable of redefining the meaning of survival.

    The conclusion is harsh: bombs do not restore spirit or build confidence. Massive firepower may destroy cities, but it does not guarantee political or intelligence results. More importantly, it does not deter a people built from its ashes with the capacity to endure and manage critical issues. Thus, after two years of annihilation, which Israel intended as a final resolution, the war did not empty its adversary; rather, it revealed that victory in the age of media and intelligence is not measured by destruction, but by the ability to protect people, narrate their stories, and capture them—a capacity the resistance succeeded in preserving when the state machinery failed.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Instagram accused of killing Saleh Al-Jafarawi for a second time by removing his reporting

    Israel-aligned extremists reportedly killed Palestinian journalist Saleh Al-Jafarawi in recent days. And now, Instagram faces accusations of ‘killing him for a second time’ after his popular account on the platform disappeared.

    Saleh Al-Jafarawi: another crime of Israel’s infocide in Gaza

    Saleh Al-Jafarawi warned just weeks ago that Israeli occupation forces had been threatening him, just as they had with many other journalists covering the genocide in Gaza. Al Jazeera says Israel’s genocidal campaign has killed 273 journalists and media workers since October 2023. That means it’s taken the life of at least one journalist every three days in the last two years. As International Federation of Journalists general secretary Anthony Bellanger wrote recently:

    silence is a victory for the executioners. It allows them to say that nothing happened.

    Scholars say the apartheid state has committed infocide (journocide / mediacide) in Gaza, systematically waging information warfare not only via propaganda efforts but by working to ensure the censorship or murder of Palestinian journalists. And in Al-Jafarawi’s case, it seems both have happened.

    Palestinian-American writer Susan Abulhawa suggested that Instagram removing Al-Jafarawi’s account may be about efforts from Israeli occupation forces (and their supporters) to “try to scrub the internet as much as possible of evidence of their crimes”.

    Reports have previously exposed the ways in which billionaire corporation Meta – the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – has helped to manufacture consent for Israel’s genocide in Gaza by systematically targeting and silencing Palestinian voices.

    UN expert Francesca Albanese, who has been documenting Israel’s crimes meticulously, has called large corporations out for their participation in Israel’s “economy of genocide”. And responding to the news of Al-Jafarawi’s murder and censorship, she called for a future Genocide Museum to honour voices like his, insisting that:

    Deleting a killed journalist’s account is to kill them twice.

    Hold the war criminals to account for infocide and genocide

    Saleh Al-Jafarawi enjoyed singing, but committed much of his time to showing the world the decimation of Gaza:

    Censorship, however, was not new. Instagram had already removed his account just months before:

    Days before his murder, he expressed hope for the future and posted a message with some of Gaza’s children:

    As the Quds News Network noted regarding the apparent wiping of his reporting:

    Observers warn that these developments may signal “a new phase in efforts to erase evidence of Israeli war crimes from the internet.”

    Researchers, however, have been diligently collecting and documenting evidence over the last two years. So it’s unlikely Israel will be able to hide all the proof of its crimes. And the apartheid state will find it hard to change the overwhelming consensus among genocide experts, legal scholars, and human rights organisations that it has committed genocide in Gaza. But the international community must also take steps to hold Israeli war criminals to account for their infocide too. We must not allow it to forget or ignore the bravery of Saleh Al-Jafarawi and his colleagues.

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Trump makes shocking string of confessions in Israeli parliament

    Donald Trump has once again said the quiet part out loud – this time on his support for Israel:


    Has there ever been a conman this honest?

    The most bought man in history

    In this latest shocker of a video, Trump says:

    every president for decades said, “We’re going to do it.” The difference is I kept my promise and officially recognised the capital of Israel and moved the American embassy to Jerusalem. Isn’t that right, Miriam?

    Look at Miriam. She’s back there. Stand up, Miriam. Stand up.

    Who is Miriam Adelson, you might ask, and who was her husband Sheldon Adelson? According to Al Jazeera:

    The Adelsons have long had significant influence among US conservatives.

    As committed Zionists and with links to right-wing figures and issues in the US, the Adelsons became Republican mega-donors in the 2010s, giving more than $600m to support Trump’s three presidential campaigns and to back other Republican candidates since 2015.

    They added:

    At a September campaign event, Adelson told Jewish voters they have a “sacred duty” to support Trump, “in gratitude for everything he has done and trust in everything he will yet do”.

    She also backed last year’s harsh crackdown on pro-Palestine student demonstrators, dismissing the protests in Forbes Israel as “ghastly gatherings of radical Muslim and Black Lives Matter activists, ultra-progressives, and career agitators — nothing short of street parties”.

    In the video, Trump continued:

    Miriam and Sheldon would come into the office. They’d call me. I think they had more trips to the White House than anybody else I can think of. Look at her sitting there so innocently. She’s got $60 billion in the bank. $60 billion. And she loves, and she loves – I think she’s saying no more.

    It’s understandable why she’d say this; usually the guy you pay to do your bidding is smart enough to understand you’re also paying him to never admit that.

    Trump continued:

    And she loves Israel… and they would come in, and her husband was a very aggressive man, but I loved him. He was very aggressive, very supportive of me. And he’d call up, “Can I come over and see you?” I’d say, “Sheldon, I’m the President of the United States. It doesn’t work that way.”

    It certainly shouldn’t work that way, but then Trump says:

    He’d come in.

    He follows this with the sort of unintelligible noise president Joe Biden used to make.

    Getting back to the English language, he went on to say:

    I’m going to get her in trouble with this, but I actually asked her once, I said, “So Miriam, I know you love Israel. What do you love more, the United States or Israel?” She refused to answer. That means, that might mean Israel, I must say.

    In response, the sound of nervous clapping.

    And this was all in the Israeli parliament by the way.

    Response

    As you can imagine, people had some interesting reactions to all this:

    Aaron Maté said:

    When ever I hear Trump flaunt how much he does the bidding of the Israel First oligarchs who fund his campaign, I think of all the time and energy wasted by Democratic Party leaders and media stenographers on their pet conspiracy theory that Trump is secretly compromised/funded by the Kremlin and Russian oligarchs.

    Why did every Russiagate cult member chase that mythical “foreign influence” over Trump and ignore this real one?

    Asa Winstanley suggested Adelson looked “uncomfortable” (she certainly looked like something):


    As many pointed out, Trump’s statement showed he’s basically just openly anti-Semitic, and his Zionist donors simply do not care:


    Unprecedented

    Responding to another recent video of Trump, Ryan Grim said “there’s never been anybody like this guy“. Unfortunately, having the personality of a sitcom alien who’s pretending to be human isn’t a positive when it comes to leading a country.

    On the plus side, he is making it impossible for the establishment to pretend it’s anything other than a front for oligarchy.

    Featured image via the Knesset

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Tommy Robinson heading to Israel following Elon Musk-backed ‘terrorism’ trial

    On 13 October, Tommy Robinson and his entourage of far-right, racist meatheads descended on London for his trial. The event has turned into something of a circus, with Robinson getting into heated rows with journalists and revealing that Elon Musk bank rolled his defence.

    With the verdict delayed until 4 November, Robinson has now said he’s heading to Israel to meet members of the Israeli government:


    Tommy Robinson on trial

    As reported by the BBC, Tommy Robinson was stopped by the police at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel. It was there that he was asked to give his phone Pin, and it was there that he refused because he had “journalist material” on his phone. As he was detained under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act, police had the right to demand that he unlock his phone, but the alleged journalist refused them.

    Now, we here at the Canary don’t consider Robinson to be a journalist because he isn’t one; he’s a political activist who uses the veneer or journalism to push a far-right agenda.  At the same time, we are very much opposed to the Terrorism Act and the inevitable overreach which results from it.

    Demonstrating how farcical the so-called Terrorism Act is, the BBC reported:

    If found guilty, [Robinson] could be jailed for up to three months and/or receive a £2,500 fine.

    How are we supposed to take this legislation seriously when you can find yourself in legal trouble because of suspected terrorism but then walk out after a three month stretch? He might not even do time if he’s guilty; if that’s the case, he’s literally paying a terrorism tax.

    Ridiculous.

    At the same time, much of the guff put out by Robinson was also ridiculous:


    People highlighted that Robinson was acting like he was being uniquely persecuted whereas he’s actually being persecuted in the normal way (again, which we’re against):

    Another point of interest is that Elon Musk paid for Robinson’s defence:


    People suspect this is why they’re now seeing more posts from Robinson on their Twitter timelines:


    Musk may want to take a look at his algorithms, because Grok AI is depicting the famously diminutive Robinson as being a foot taller than him:

    (Jail?) birds of a feather

    In his post at the top, Robinson said:

    Now that my trial is behind me, I will have my verdict handed down on November 4th in London . I’m leaving soon for a trip to Israel — a proud patriot coming tomorrow to stand with the Jewish state and deepen my understanding of the fight against jihad.

    Last night I spoke with
    @AmichaiChikli
    , Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs. I’m grateful for his invitation and friendship. This will be a meaningful visit.

    I’ll arrive tomorrow and will:
    •Visit the Gaza Envelope, including the Nova Festival massacre site, meet IDF soldiers, and speak with those affected by Oct. 7.
    •Visit the Knesset and meet Speaker Amir Ohana and other leaders.
    •Tour Judea and Samaria with Yossi Dagan to learn about life, resilience, and security there.
    •Explore south Tel Aviv with community leaders confronting illegal migration.
    •Visit Yad Vashem and the Jabotinsky Institute to better understand Israel’s story and Zionist thought.

    I’ll also deliver my first public address in Israel, organized by supporters who’ve welcomed me warmly.

    Thank you to
    @elonmusk
    for standing by me and covering my legal costs. I go to Israel as a guest of government leaders — and as a proud friend of the Jewish people.

    This visit is about truth, courage, unity — and patriotism. Now that I’m free, I’ll fight louder and stronger than ever.

    🇬🇧🇮🇱

    This isn’t some recent development by the way; Robinson supported Israel even before they began committing a genocide:


    Israel was subjecting the Palestinians to apartheid before the genocide, and the British far right have always had fond feelings for that – even if they do like to dabble in a bit of antisemitism. Talking of which, the Israeli politician Robinson is set to meet is Amichai Chikli – Israel’s minister of diaspora and combating antisemitism. His plan to court Robinson has gone down poorly:

    It’s even gone down poorly with British Zionists:


    Mukhtar, meanwhile, ridiculed Robinson for referring to it as a ‘state visit’:

    The only ‘state’ in this visit is going to be the ‘absolute fucking state’ of Robinson, but that’s true no matter where he goes:

    Good riddance

    While it’s impossible to support terror legislation which impinges civil liberties, it’s also impossible to feel sorry for a man who’s using his trial to foreground the feelings of a terrorist state.

    There’s one thing we can say with confidence, however, and it’s that Israel and Robinson deserve one another.

    Featured image via YouTube

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israeli quadcopter murders six in Gaza City in blatant ceasefire breach

    Israel has murdered at least six people by shooting them from quadcopters in the Shuja’iyya district of Gaza City today, as they inspected the ruins of their homes, despite the supposed ‘ceasefire’ in force. Several others were shot and wounded in Khan Younis. Israel continues to control almost two thirds of Gaza and to shoot civilians who try to reach their homes close to the occupied zones:

    Despite the blatant criminality of these Israeli attacks during an agreed ceasefire, western ‘mainstream’ media continue to whitewash Israel’s crimes through dishonest framing, as these graphics by Newscord exemplify:

    UK ‘MSM’ are no better, headlining Israeli narratives to gloss over the war crimes:

    Israel has murdered dozens of Palestinians since the supposed ‘ceasefire’ began, with new drone bombings and tank shootings every day. Every damned day. Israel will not stop being a terror state until it is forced to do so through sanctions and armed international intervention. Its perpetrators and the western media and political figures who collude and collaborate belong on trial in the Hague.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Gaza’s students triumph in education from under the rubble

    In an extraordinary scene that sums up the resilience of Palestinians in the face of one of the harshest contemporary wars, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in the Gaza Strip announced the results of the 2026 general secondary school exams on Tuesday afternoon. Of course, this comes at a time when the Strip is experiencing the most difficult humanitarian and educational conditions in decades.

    Amidst the destruction and rubble, between displacement tents and the constant sounds of bombing, Gaza’s students insisted on turning darkness into opportunity and suffering into achievement, writing a new chapter in the story of their indomitable will.

    Gaza education under fire

    Despite the occupation’s destruction of more than 670 schools and 165 universities and educational institutions, and the killing of more than 13,500 students, 830 teachers and 193 academics since the outbreak of the war, tens of thousands of students have managed to complete their academic year in almost impossible conditions.

    High school exams were conducted electronically between 6 and 15 September, despite frequent power cuts, a shortage of equipment, and the lack of a safe learning environment.

    In temporary tents and crowded shelters, students sat in front of simple phone screens, surrounded by the sounds of aircraft and sirens, confirming that the pursuit of knowledge in Gaza is no longer a luxury, but an act of resistance and survival.

    Joy from under the rubble

    During a press conference held at the ministry’s headquarters, the names of the top students in various fields — science, literature, law, entrepreneurship and business, industry, and home economics — were announced in an atmosphere of joy mixed with tears.

    Success here is not measured by numbers, but by the amount of suffering these students have endured to reach this moment.

    The ministry spokesperson said that this announcement represents:

    a symbolic victory of knowledge over war

    He also said that the students efforts were a message to the world that:

    awareness cannot be bombed, and will cannot be destroyed, no matter how severe the siege or how long the oppression.

    Gaza’s message to the world

    The educational experience in Gaza over the past two years is one of the rarest in the history of global education. Students and teachers have continued their journey amid destruction, without electricity, infrastructure or adequate educational materials.

    But, as the ministry says, they have chosen to:

    write with hope what the occupation could not erase with fire.

    While reports speak of impending famine and a near-total collapse of services, Gaza’s students prove that knowledge does not die even in the darkest of circumstances.

    A lesson for the whole world

    The people of Gaza have done it again, triumphing over hunger with knowledge, over siege with determination, and over darkness with the light of a small candle.

    They have shown the world that education in Palestine is not just an academic pursuit, but an act of dignity and existence.

    From the rubble, joy was born. From the heart of hunger, the flower of knowledge blossomed.

    In Gaza, dreams are not bombed, but shine brighter after every war.

    Featured image supplied via the author

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Cost of rebuilding Gaza estimated at $70 billion

    The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has revealed that the estimated cost of rebuilding the Gaza Strip is around $70 billion, given the widespread destruction caused by the recent war, which the programme described as unprecedented in the history of modern conflicts.

    In a statement issued on Tuesday, the programme explained that the scale of destruction in the Strip requires unprecedented international efforts in terms of both funding and technical capabilities. They also noted that the reconstruction process will be long and complex given the massive destruction that has affected almost all buildings in various areas of the Strip.

    The UNDP official noted that there are currently ‘very good indicators’ regarding the financing of the reconstruction process. Several Arab countries, along with European partners and the United States, have expressed their willingness to provide support and contribute to international efforts to rebuild Gaza.

    Rebuilding Gaza means shifting 55 million tonnes of rubble

    The report indicated that the volume of rubble in the Strip is estimated at no less than 55 million tonnes, which represents a huge challenge for removal and reconstruction teams and requires enormous human and technical resources to deal with this amount of debris before new construction can begin.

    Regarding the expected timeframe, the programme explained that the reconstruction of Gaza could take a decade or more, and possibly extend to several decades given the extent of the destruction. They also stressed that the success of the process depends on stable security and political conditions, the availability of sustainable funding and continued international support.

    The programme concluded its statement by emphasising that Gaza is facing one of the greatest humanitarian and urban disasters in the modern world, calling on the international community to shoulder its historic responsibility to support the Palestinian people and help them rebuild their lives after long months of destruction and suffering.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Online ghouls spread disinformation about female Israeli hostages

    Since Hamas released the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, the following rumour has spread online:


    Disinformation regarding Israeli hostages

    As can be seen above, Olympian Sharron Davies is one of those spreading the lie:

    Davies is also an anti-trans rights activist or ‘terf’. For whatever reason, there is a strong cross over between people who oppose trans rights and people who oppose the Palestinian freedom movement:

    Another person spearheading the current disinformation campaign is Laura Loomer:

    Loomer is a key confidant of Donald Trump, and has exerted influence over who he hires and fires:

    GB News panelist Adam Brooks also got involved:


    Never ending

    This latest campaign is a key example of how toxic the online space has become. Every day is a battle against waves of misinformation, with every event turned into a wedge issue by hateful weirdoes with a Twitter addiction.

    While it’s exhausting, we all need to keep pushing back against those who wage war and those who provide cover for the war mongers.

    Featured image via Daily Express (YouTube) / Laura Loomer (YouTube)

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • For Gazans, ‘there is no optimism’ the war will actually end

    After two years of Israel’s genocidal destruction of Gaza, Palestinians have welcomed the tenuous ceasefire that began last week. However, there is little hope that the ceasefire will lead to lasting peace or an end to the occupation. “There is no optimism,” one Gaza resident, Nusfat Modin, says. “You can’t negotiate with these people. A deal, no deal—we have no hope. No one—ask anyone.”

    TRNN asked Gazans what they thought about the latest ceasefire deal. This is what they told us…

    • Credits:
    • Producers: Belal Awad, Leo Erhardt
    • Videographers: Ruwaida Amer, Mahmoud Al Mashharawi
    • Video Editor: Leo Erhardt
    Transcript

    NUSFAT MODIN: 

    The Sumud Flotilla is a very beautiful thing: to break the siege and to show the world who the Zionist occupiers are. They detained them, and people have seen what Ben Gvir did to them. These people are not terrorists. It’s not terrorism; it’s about breaking the siege. These are heroes of humanity and heroes of freedom. 

    ADAM KHIDR HAMMOUDEH: 

    These are the ones who embodied dignity and who responded to the call for help and the call of humanity. They brought this message of love, peace, and security to the people of Gaza. 

    ABU MUSTAFA AL ABID: 

    Free people—you are free people—you began something good, and you should continue on your path, steadfast. The whole world is with you, all free people are with you, and all nations are with you. 

    MAZEN ABBAS ABU JABAL: 

    This is not the first flotilla; there were many attempts before by peace-loving activists and supporters of the Palestinian cause around the world. Every time, they are faced with brute military force, with the support, approval and blessing of the U.S., through the Israeli navy, which abducted and threatened them. 

    ADAM KHIDR HAMMOUDEH: 

    When the Israeli occupation army arrested those who were on board the Sumud Flotilla, there was great sadness on the streets in Gaza. We send our message to those who were on board the Sumud Flotilla, which is a flotilla of dignity and a flotilla of hope. They wanted to bring happiness to the hearts of the people of Gaza, but the Israeli occupation army arrested them to stop the supplies of aid and relief that they wanted to bring to Gaza. 

    NUSFAT MODIN: 

    Let the world see what is really happening here, and know that the Zionist occupation is the biggest problem. [The flotilla activists] didn’t come for politics or anything else; they came to break the siege. They came as humanitarians; everyone knows they came for human rights. They were bringing food and medicine—and [the Israeli forces] confiscated their ships? It’s a big problem. 

    MAZEN ABBAS ABU JABAL: 

    International law is very clear with regards to international waters. By hijacking these ships and taking them to the port of Ashdod, Israel is committing a crime against humanity—an organized crime committed by a state that claims to be democratic.

    ABU MUSTAFA AL ABID: 

    This is the height of terrorism. Detention—you are detaining people outside your borders, not within your borders. How can you do this? It’s terrorism. It’s piracy. 

    MAZEN ABBAS ABU JABAL: 

    I say to them: I wish I could welcome you into my home, but unfortunately, my home has been destroyed by the occupation twice, once by bombing and once by bulldozer. 

    NUSFAT MODIN: 

    The siege is beyond comprehension. It’s very difficult. Very, very difficult. Famine and displacement, lack of water and electricity… Even electricity—I don’t think about it. All I think about is food and water. And if you think the siege has finished—it hasn’t. It’s hard. 

    ABU MUSTAFA AL ABID: 

    Occupation, killing, destruction: trees, rocks, people, children, women, buildings—everything. No accountability, because no one is holding them back. 

    NUSFAT MODIN: 

    There is no optimism. You can’t negotiate with these people. A deal, no deal—we have no hope. No one—ask anyone. 

    ABU MUSTAFA AL ABID: 

    There’s no optimism. Impossible. Are you optimistic? Optimistic? Are you optimistic the war will end? No. See! There isn’t any. There’s no optimism. No optimism. Why? Because, you know, Trump is a child—a crazy person—him and Netanyahu. They play with the whole world. He might end it today, then the next day they’ll say “we found the Qassam rockets” and then start the war again. There is no faith in them. 

    MAZEN ABBAS ABU JABAL: 

    I’m not optimistic that Israel, which is imposing an unjust siege on the Gaza Strip for more than 23 years—since 2000—Israel has imposed a blockade and refused to allow anything into the Gaza Strip without its consent and the consent of its civil administration. So the idea that there would be a port for Palestine and that there should be international recognition of the Palestinian cause and of a Palestinian state is what Netanyahu and those around him don’t want. Netanyahu sees himself as nothing less than a god, and everyone must obey him. Therefore, obedience to his wishes means that we must leave Gaza, and this is in his delusional dreams—him and Trump, who is his partner. There is no citizen in the world who has endured a month of war and is sad when it ends, let alone a person who has been displaced since October 10 [2023], approximately 23 times, and every time we go out under heavy fire and death. Where are you, world leaders? Leaders of the democratic world, from this country that you call democratic, but in practice does not implement democracy except

    in name? If they, inside their own land and among their own people who share the same Jewish religion, treat them according to their origins—where they came from—then how about us? 

    MOHAMED AL GHOULA: 

    Trump’s plan in the Gaza Strip that is being forced on us—this is not a plan. This is complete occupation. Today, the project that they are working on, for us, is the displacement project. The project that Trump says Hamas must agree to—what is this called? This is called collaboration with the occupation. It’s a joint venture with the occupation. 

    MAZEN ABBAS ABU JABAL: 

    It’s basically Netanyahu’s plan, not Trump’s plan. The American administration, or successive American administrations, that say yes to Israel unconditionally, ignoring its crimes and covering them up with American money and supporting it with weapons. I am not being killed by Israeli weapons; I am being killed by American weapons paid for with American taxes. The Americans are killing me, so the American people are unwittingly participating in this crime. They say a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces. Where will they withdraw to? Secondly, how long will the withdrawal take? What is required of the Middle East, Kushner, Witkoff, and the entire American administration is to give me, as a Palestinian citizen, a plan and timetable for the withdrawal so that I know when I will return to my home and when I will be able to live a normal life. And most importantly, when the siege will be lifted and the crossings opened so that I can go out and come in as I wish and bring in goods as I wish, so that I can eat in peace. 

    MOHAMED AL GHOULA: 

    If the war ends and lasts a year, two years, three, four, five, ten, twenty… If this project is implemented, it will be implemented next on the rest of the Muslims and Arabs who are asleep. We say to them, you are asleep; wake up, because our people are here to wake you. 

    ADAM KHIDR HAMMOUDEH: 

    Our message from inside the Gaza Strip to those who were on the Steadfastness [Sumud] Flotilla and who want to sail again and come to the Gaza Strip is: We love you. We love this humanity and this freedom that you came for, to relieve the suffering people inside the Gaza Strip.

    This post was originally published on The Real News Network.

  • NHS doctor targeted by Israel lobby says “the death threats are worse than ever”

    Rahmeh Aladwan is a British-Palestinian doctor in the NHS. She has been “withstanding a two-year long coordinated assault campaign by the UK ‘Israel’ lobby for standing against the Holocaust in Palestine”. And on 13 October, she said:

    The death threats are worse than ever. I have had to call the police for the second time this year to protect my family.

    She added that the lobby’s campaign, which pro-Israel health secretary Wes Streeting has backed, “is political violence”. And she stressed:

    You have painted a target on an innocent NHS doctor’s back.

    Also on 13 October, activist and independent journalist Ani Says issued a worrying video about the situation on Instagram:

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by Ani Says (@ani.says2)

    Aladwan has also insisted that her harassment represents something much bigger – the state’s crackdown on free speech and the idea of “innocent until proven guilty”:

    Persecution in service of genocidal colonialism

    We don’t need to agree with all the opinions someone holds, or the way they express them, to support their right to free speech. Rahmeh Aladwan, for example, has been very outspoken in ways that some supporters of Palestinian liberation may disagree with. But as her crowdfunder says, Palestinian people have just experienced two years:

    of genocide, of heartbreak, of constantly losing loved ones

    Anyone who is not full of indignation at this point has not been paying attention.

    But for Aladwan, these two years have also been a period of:

    doxxing, smears, defamation, threats, and harassment from the UK ‘israel’ lobby and jewish supremacists (zionists).

    She has defended herself against the claims of the lobbyists targeting her livelihood by stressing that the main issue is her opposition to:

    genocide caused by jewish supremacy, extremism, and unadulterated terrorism.

    Who we should be condemning: Rahmeh Aladwan is right

    Rahmeh Aladwan has consistently refused to condemn Hamas or its actions, insisting that Israeli colonialism is the root cause of Palestinians’ resistance.

    And it’s true that Hamas is not the organisation behind a brutal, decades-long colonial occupation. Nor has it murdered over 20,000 children in the last two years. Palestinian people, meanwhile, very much have the legal right to resist occupation, but Israel does not have the legal right to decimate a territory it occupies. For these reasons and more, the UK’s illogical stance on Israel’s colonial regime in Palestine has sparked challenges to the UK’s proscription of Hamas.

    Pointing this out, however, doesn’t mean Hamas is a progressive champion. Because it’s not. But its crimes pale in comparison to those of the genocidal apartheid state it’s resisting. And the groups going after Aladwan are attacking free speech in Britain because of their support for that state.

    On Wednesday 15 October, there will be a protest in London against British state censorship on behalf of Israeli war criminals. And anyone who truly cares about free speech should support it.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Trump humiliates Starmer and Blair in bad day for centrist dads

    In 2006, George W. Bush infamously embarrassed Tony Blair by yelling “Yo, Blair” at him. It wasn’t the informality which made this incident humiliating; it was the fact it perfectly encapsulated the so-called ‘special relationship’ between the UK and US. This wasn’t a relationship of equals, and it hadn’t been for some time. When America hollered, the UK came running. Donald Trump and Keir Starmer have had ‘Yo Blair’ moments of their own, with the latest being this:


    For good measure, Trump also humiliated Tony Blair in a separate incident.

    Yo, Starmer

    In the video above, Trump asks:

    Where’s United Kingdom?

    Starmer responds as if he’s in a pantomime, chirping:

    I’m behind you.

    He was literally right there too. It’s unclear if this is further evidence that Trump has dementia or an instance of Starmer’s forgettableness; either way, Trump sounds incredibly tired as he says “come here”, before asking “everything going good?” Starmer responds “very good”, with Trump telling him “it’s very nice that you’re here”.

    While this exchange sounds pleasant enough, Trump proceeds to drop a hydrogen bomb of awkwardness by turning away from Starmer and continuing his train of thought, leaving Starmer just standing there like a lemon.

    What does he do next?

    He slowly shuffles around and limply walk backs into position while Giorgia Meloni and Mark Carney strain to look neutral.

    This is what the scene looks like after he returns to his position – Starmer seemingly crestfallen while his peers looks like they’re trying not to laugh:

    Picture as described above

    This is how things looked beforehand:

    In this picture Starmer and the other PMs are laughing

    Of course, you can definitely read too much into these things.

    Maybe Meloni and Carney were remembering a funny joke, while Starmer was thinking about how he provided military support to an ongoing genocide and may end up in the Hague.

    Regardless of the truth, it’s definitely a ‘Yo, Blair’ moment in that it perfectly encapsulates the special relationship in 2025. The US barely remembers that we’re there even when we’re obviously and painfully right there.

    In response to these harrowing scenes, people noted the following:

    No Blair

    As promised, Trump also managed to embarrass Blair after embarrassing Starmer with the following exchange:


    Translation: ‘the war-monger/criminal Tony Blair is absolutely not popular enough in the Middle East, and we need to back away from our plan to make him the viceroy of Palestine‘.

    This was at least less embarrassing than what he subjected Starmer to, but only because Blair wasn’t lurking in the background when he said it.

    Trump, Starmer, and repetition

    The saying goes that ‘history repeats itself, first as tragedy and second as farce’. We were well into the farce stage with Bush and Blair; as such, it makes sense that what we’re seeing now is so far beyond farcical.

    Schadenfreude aside, it’s important to remember that the bufoonish actions of these grotesque clowns have real-life consequences. The ceasefire is a welcome end to the genocide, but it’s also just the beginning:


    Featured image via Clash Report 

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Sacked eight years ago for secret ‘Israel’ meetings, Priti Patel is still shilling for Zionism

    Former government minister and permanent sociopath Priti Patel has been on the BBC repeating standard Zionist fictions about Palestine marches.

    Priti Patel: shilling for Zionism

    Speaking to a sympathetic audience in the form of Laura Kuenssberg, Priti Patel’s claims of hate marches went unchallenged by the programme’s host. The former home secretary fulminated:

    Look what happened on the streets of London yesterday. I mean, you know, look at the level of hatred that was demonstrated on the streets of London to Britain’s Jewish community.

    You would think after two years of these apparent hate orgies riddled with antisemitism, there might be extensive footage of the bile in question. Yet, in an era where everyone walks around with a recording device in their pocket, there is a mysterious lack of evidence to support the outlandish claims of Patel and others.

    As pointed out by Dilly Hussain on X, Patel’s view on the matter should carry very little weight, given her historic association with the Zionist pseudo-state:

    Breaching MP rules used to get you sacked, now you can assist a genocide scot-free

    Priti Patel resigned from her role as Secretary of State for International Development in 2017 after she was caught having secret meetings with Israeli officials while on holiday on the soil stolen from Palestinians. She even travelled to some of its most stolen-est land, visiting the Golan Heights robbed from Syria in 1967, and then went so far as to suggest international aid money should end up there. She had failed to inform anyone in government about what she had been up to while in the apartheid regime. That, along with the mixing of her private affairs on holiday and public duties as a minister, constituted a breach of the ministerial code.

    Oh for the good old days of 2017, when you could get sacked for such comparatively minor transgressions with Zionists. These days, you can have your entire government enthusiastically participate in a genocide with them, and it’s anyone who stands against you that gets punished. The resignation didn’t stop Patel taking the standard trajectory of the British ruling class, however, as she failed upwards to become Home Secretary in 2019.

    Others pointed out the contradiction between Patel’s confection about copies of the Torah being burnt on Palestine marches (again, zero evidence of this), while failing to condemn the actual burning of a Quran.

    BBC hierarchy of racism on show yet again

    Interestingly, this was the extent of the pushback from Kuenssberg, who made vague references to a “holy book” being torched. This follows the national broadcaster’s standard hierarchy of racism, where fictional antisemitism at Palestine marches must be tackled head-on and incessantly, but real, blatant Islamophobia can only be referred to in veiled terms. Another X user asked why Patel is the person brought on by the BBC in the first place:

    Priti Patel’s support for mass murderers isn’t anything new – she previously worked as a lobbyist for the killers at British American Tobacco, who were having issues due to working with another pack of thugs in the form of the Burmese dictatorship. Fiona in Hamilton provided perhaps the most succinct description of Patel, so we’ll give her the final word:

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Robert Freeman

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Eurovision cowards cancel vote on ‘Israel’ ban

    The 1800s-style land theft project often referred to as ‘Israel’ has received a reprieve on potential banishment from the annual Eurovision song contest. Organisers the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have called off a November vote that was due to take place on the continued involvement of the fake state. In a statement, the craven body said:

    In the light of recent developments in the Middle East, the EBU’s executive board (meeting on October 13) agreed there was a clear need to organise an open and in-person discussion among its members on the issue of participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026.

    Consequently, the board agreed to put the issue on the agenda of its ordinary winter general assembly, which will be taking place in December, rather than organising an extraordinary session in advance.

    So, vague pledges to “put the issue on the agenda” replace a specifically arranged vote that could have seen the Zionist entity expelled. Due to it being an apartheid, ethnic cleansing, occupying, genocidal terror project, the entity is heavily dependent on events like Eurovision to whitewash its horrifying crimes. It is therefore extremely concerning that the EBU seems keen to quietly sweep the issue under the carpet now that the most acute phase of Zionist genocide in Palestine may (may) have passed.

    Eurovision organiser EBU passing the buck and dodging the question

    The Eurovision coordinator has already tiptoed around the issue, holding a consultation process on the matter that started in July. It said:

    We understand the concerns and deeply held views around the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. It is up to each member to decide if they want to take part in the contest, and we would respect any decision broadcasters make.

    Then, rather than make a decision itself, it passed the buck by organising a vote. This would have been a simple majority, meaning that 35 of the 68 EBU members would have needed to signal their approval to trigger ejection of ‘Israel’. Member states include countries from West Asia and North Africa such as Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, at least some of whom would have likely voted for removal. Now even the ballot has been abandoned. The shitshow mirrors the feeble FIFA’s failure to kick the settler-colony out of the World Cup, another crucial reputation laundering point for Zionism.

    The EBU had been pressured into the potential vote by a number of countries threatening to withdraw if the pseudo-state squatting on Palestine was granted continued participation. RTÉ, Ireland’s national broadcaster, had said:

    RTÉ feels that Ireland’s participation would be unconscionable given the ongoing and appalling loss of lives in Gaza. RTÉ is also deeply concerned by the targeted killing of journalists in Gaza, and the denial of access to international journalists to the territory, and the plight of the remaining hostages.

    Iceland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain had also expressed an intention to leave the 2026 Eurovision contest. Spain’s Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun stated:

    What I can say is that if Israel takes part, and if we don’t manage to get it thrown out, then we’ll have to take steps [such as withdrawing]. I don’t think we can normalise Israel’s participation in international forums as if nothing’s happened.

    Even if the genocide has slowed, the Zionist entity still must be boycotted

    The last few words from Urtasun elucidate a key point that is even more relevant in the wake of the recent developments in Palestine. Simply because there’s now a ceasefire, ‘Israel’ cannot be allowed to escape without consequence for its recent crimes, which are perhaps unparalleled in cruelty. Furthermore, its system of apartheid persists, and it must be ostracised just as apartheid South Africa was.

    Letting the Zionist abomination compete in events like Eurovision is a breach of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) anti-normalisation guidelines. The Palestinian Campaign For The Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) arm of the BDS movement calls for a “boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions” for their role in an:

    …Israeli system of oppression that has denied Palestinians their basic rights guaranteed by international law, or has hampered their exercise of these rights, including freedom of movement and freedom of expression.

    Whether or not it has ended its annihilation of Gaza, the above still applies. The EBU must either expel ‘Israel’ or let its members vote to do so.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Robert Freeman

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Nobel Peace Prize Winner Supports Israel’s Genocide

    The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to María Corina Machado, a far-right coup leader in Venezuela who has been funded by the US government for decades.

    Machado has openly called for the US military to invade Venezuela, in order to overthrow the revolutionary Chavista government of President Nicolás Maduro.

    She is at the heart of the war that Donald Trump has waged on Venezuela. Machado has endorsed the US military’s extrajudicial executions of Venezuelans in boats in international waters, echoing the Trump administration’s unsubstantiated, evidence-free claims that it is supposedly killing “drug traffickers”.

    Machado also supports the illegal, unilateral US sanctions that have killed hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.

    The post Nobel Peace Prize Winner Supports Israel’s Genocide appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Hamas Hands Over All Living Israeli Captives

    All living Israeli captives were released by Hamas on 13 October and have returned to Israel as part of the ceasefire agreement’s exchange formula.

    The 20 living captives were handed over to the Red Cross before being returned to Israel by the Israeli military. 

    The Israeli army confirmed the final 13 captives were handed over, after initially receiving seven. The captives have been taken to hospitals for checkups and to meet their family members.

    The coming hours will also see the resistance release the bodies of deceased Israeli captives.

    Meanwhile, Israel is releasing a total of 1,966 Palestinian prisoners. Buses carrying prisoners have already begun departing from Israel’s Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank, with some having arrived in Ramallah – one of the drop-off points. 

    The post Hamas Hands Over All Living Israeli Captives appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • A Canary journalist needs your help to get his five children safely out of Gaza

    Canary journalist Alaa Shamali is trying to get his family – of five children – safely out of Gaza, but needs your help to make it happen.

    Palestinian journalist Alaa Shamali has written unflinchingly on the countless heinous atrocities Israel has perpetrated in Gaza. A little more than a week before the colonial settler state broke the first 2025 supposed ceasefire in March, Alaa started penning his heart-rending prose for the Canary. Now, seven months on, and at the fragile precipice of another so-called ceasefire, his haunting words continue to echo out in the vacuum of a Western mainstream media still clamouring to cover for genocidal war criminals.

    Everything he writes, he does with the harrowing clarity and poignancy that can only come from experience and truly knowing the gut-wrenching reality of life under Israeli bombardment and occupation. Because as he has recounted the horrifying details of Israel’s “strangling siege” leaving three-quarters of children in Gaza malnourished, eating sand and drinking contaminated water, and living displaced in “torn tents”, he has told these stories as a record too of his own family’s devastating reality.

    Canary journalist Alaa Shamali: an urgent fundraiser for his family in Gaza

    As his family’s GoFundMe details, they have been:

    living in a small tent, barely 3 meters in size.

    It compels readers to try to imagine the utter heartbreak and struggle of:

    spending every day, every night, and every moment in such cramped conditions. They need urgent support to rebuild their home and regain a sense of normalcy.

    However, it also caveats this with the unfaltering fact that what Alaa’s family has lived through amounts to “unimaginable hardship and loss”.

    Because, as for many families in Gaza, this current genocide was not the first time Israel destructively uprooted their lives. The GoFundMe relays how Israel has demolished their home, not once, not twice, but three times in little over the last decade:

    Their home in Gaza has been destroyed three times by the wars on Gaza in 2014, 2021, and now again in 2024. Each time they have painstakingly rebuilt their lives and their home, but this time, they have lost not only their home but also any source of income. The compensation for their 2021 home destruction is still pending, and now they face the devastating reality of losing their home once more.

    Dima and Ibada: stolen childhoods

    Alaa has previously written heartbreakingly as a father:

    deprived of the most basic right of fatherhood: to see his five children walk to school in Gaza with peace of mind.

    He has recounted the hopes and dreams of his five children – currently living in a displacement camp in Gaza. There’s 15-year-old Dima, his eldest who waits in the displacement tent wondering if she will get the chance to return to school. Alaa penned a particularly painful exchange, where Dima has asked her father:

    Dad… will I be able to continue my studies?

    And he wrote with palpable grief:

    I hear her question echoing inside me at night like an absent school bell. I try to smile and tell her, “You will continue,” but my voice betrays me. How can I reassure her when all I have is my pen, while all the roads to school are blocked by rubble?

    The crowdfunder adds another tinge of utter anguish over Dima’s desire for the most basic things a young teenager might hope for, simply:

    decorating her room with the best furniture and devices, to build a future alongside her four younger siblings.

    Israel has forced next eldest 13-year-old Ibada to grow up “before his time”, stealing his childhood so:

    His voice, which used to be full of enthusiasm, has become hoarse with waiting.

    Alaa wrote that it’s as if he carries:

    the burdens of adults while still a child.

    Salah, Abdullah, and Lina: playing in the corridors of displacement

    Alaa’s 12-year-old son Salah has a “deep love for football” and he:

    admires stars like Messi, Ronaldo, and Mohamed Salah.

    When the fundraiser started in June 2024, Salah hadn’t watched “a match in nine months”. He had already missed an entire school year. Well over a year on, Alaa wrote how Salah and ten-year-old son Abdullah:

    were the mirror of childhood in my home. Their laughter on the way to school and their running on the way back gave me the feeling that life was still possible despite the war.

    Today, he says:

    that innocence has been stolen from them, and they play in the corridors of displacement instead of schoolyards.

    However, what “breaks” Alaa’s heart “the most” is his “little girl”, his youngest, 6-year-old Lina:

    When I look at her, I feel that her entire childhood is being silently assassinated. She is growing up outside of school, like a flower without water, and her pain alone is enough to fill a thousand news reports. But all I can do is carry her silence and broadcast it to the world.

    In her own words, Lina has captured the plaintive tragedy of a child growing up under constant genocidal siege:

    Bombing over our heads and such. Nothing but missiles above us. We get hit a lot. Leave behind our childhood. I’m still a little girl.

    And Lina has expressed the most simple hope of all children in Gaza:

    End the war – we are children – we want to live.

    Support Alaa’s family to seek safety and rebuild their lives

    Now, Gaza has entered another ceasefire – but Lina’s wish still goes unanswered. Predictably, and as last time, Israel continues to violate it with impunity. It’s still bombing, still murdering, and still maiming Palestinians in refugee camps.

    And all the while, it is maintaining the key ingredients of its engineered famine, namely, its blockades severing access to sorely-needed aid. The UNRWA has detailed that 6,000 trucks loaded with food, tents, and medicines enough for the entire population of Gaza for three months:

    remain stuck at the Gaza border, waiting to be allowed in.

    It’s why Alaa’s family needs your help to move to Egypt, where:

    they can find safety and begin to rebuild their lives. Every donation, no matter the amount, can make a significant difference. Please donate to help this family escape the horrors of war and start anew.

    As Alaa himself has written, Gaza:

    does not ask for pity, but for justice. It does not ask only for aid, but for the right to live like others. It asks to sleep without fear, to open a school, or to light a small lamp at night without it being considered a luxury.

    For his family and others from Gaza to live safe, secure, fulfilling lives once more, is a powerful act of resistance after two years of genocide. In the spirit of mutual aid and solidarity, the Canary implores readers, wherever they can, to continue supporting Palestinians’ crowdfunders.

    Alaa has been supporting his family as he writes full-time for the Canary. But amid the immense costs of essentials in Gaza, and the enormous expenses of them leaving the Strip for a new life, his wages can only go so far. You can donate to Alaa’s family’s fundraiser here.

    Feature image supplied. 

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Starmer decides Gaza will be rebuilt according to the arms firms that helped destroy it

    Gaza will be rebuilt according to the whims of global arms firms that helped destroy, it seems. UK PM Keir Starmer, whose government has actively supported the genocide, announced plans for the future of the ruined enclave Sunday.

    Starmer said that the UK would contribute £20mn. He claims this will:

    ensure water, sanitation and hygiene services reach tens of thousands of civilians across Gaza.

    The UK government press release said:

    reconstruction will be Palestinian-led, with absolutely no role for Hamas in its future governance.

    So who will have a role?

    Starmer’s rogues gallery for Gaza

    Starmer also announced a three-day summit was underway in the UK. It includes a real rogue’s gallery of who WILL be involved.

    And that list doesn’t look all that Palestinian. Excepting the Israeli-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) which functions as a sort of prison guard service on behalf of Israel.

    The government said:

    The UK Wilton Park summit will bring together a coalition of representatives from businesses, civil society and governments, to convene crucial planning and coordination efforts for postwar Gaza.

    Discussions will also cover efforts to support the Palestinian Authority’s own transformation and reform programme to ensure it can support Gaza’s recovery.

    But what kind of businesses?

    Wilton Park summit

    The Wilton Park organisation describes itself as:

    an Executive Agency of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

    A deeper look reveals Wilton park is deeply entangled with the same global arms firms which helped destroy Gaza.

    Wilton Park has what it called a Global Impact Group which it describes as a:

    …unique, cross-sector, membership initiative designed to provide opportunities for input into international policy discussions.

    The Impact Group brings “together policy leads” from across sectors “to share best practice, explore common approaches and to make policy recommendations”.

    Among the Impact Group membership you’ll find friendly local arms firms like Lockheed, BAE Systems, Airbus and Rolls Royce. It also includes Meta (formerly Facebook) and British Petroleum (BP). Adam Smith International, the global wing of the neoliberal Adam Smith Institute, is also a member.

    Genocide complicity

    There are numerous examples of the ways in which these firms support the Israeli military.

    Meta has been heavily criticised for blocking Palestinian news sources during the genocide. BAE supplies artillery and missile launch kits. Lockheed supplies Hellfire Missiles. Airbus has previously signed deals with the Israeli military to lease drones to Germany. Rolls Royce is involved in F-35 fighter jet production.

    In 2024, Palestinians launched a legal action against BP for supplying oil to Israel. The International Centre for Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) said that BP had demonstrated:

    …a clear failure to adhere to its own human rights policies and international law.

    By facilitating the transport of oil that fuels military operations in Gaza, BP has contributed to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the region. Our clients seek justice for the profound suffering and loss they have endured and call on BP to act responsibly by immediately halting its involvement.

    The truth is Gaza lays in ruins as a result of Israeli military violence. But that level of violence which was only politically and materially possible because of the UK and others.

    There have to be serious questions about whether arms firms, an oil giant, a big tech firm and a neoliberal thinktank should get a say in what comes next.

    In another age, this kind of activity would be captured in a single word: colonialism.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘Hidden bullets in your pocket’ – Lebanese TV station exposes Israeli phone apps

    Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen English has published a short video identifying some of the apps likely to be on your phone that are created by Israeli firms run by former Unit 8200 cyber-spies and other military units.

    Skwawkbox recently covered the ‘unremovable’ Israeli spyware installed on mid-range Samsung smart phones, identified by digital human rights group SMEX – and Lebanon has strong reason to be wary of anything touched by Israel after Israel’s terrorist ‘pager’ attacks last year killed and maimed thousands of Lebanese people, including many children.

    And an occupation software firm was responsible for one of the most notorious spyware scandals after its ‘Pegasus’ programme spied on politicians, journalists and human rights activists – and was linked to the murder of at least one, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

    But Israel’s potential influence in your pocket goes considerably further. Watch to find out more:

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Al Mayadeen English

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • VIDEO: Israeli hidden explosives kill Palestinian children during ‘ceasefire’

    Israeli hidden explosives continue to kill Palestinian children in Gaza, despite the supposed ‘ceasefire’. In one incident this morning, a ‘suspicious device’ went off, killing one child and wounding several:

    Palestinian journalist Wissam Nassar said:

    They called it a ceasefire, yet death still hides beneath the rubble. Before withdrawing, Israeli forces planted explosives and mines across Gaza silent killers waiting for innocent hands to touch. Today, another child paid the price. Even in “peace,” Israel’s war on Gaza’s children never ends.

    Hidden explosives

    Local journalists and civil defence have accused Israel of leaving cans of ‘food’ and even toys packed with explosives, with numerous reports of children killed or maimed after picking them up. In what appears to have been a concerted counter-information campaign, Western media and US  government-funded ‘fact checkers’ quoted US military experts dismissing the idea and claiming that the food cans are mine detonators, without questioning why ‘mine detonators’ were being left behind in bombed civilian homes for families to find.

    The United Nations and human rights groups have condemned the extent of Israel’s booby-trap campaign in Gaza – a practice that the organisation says pre-dates the post-October 2023 genocide – during the genocide and which was mirrored in Israel’s terrorist ‘pager’ attack in Lebanon.

    Even without the toys and food cans, the United Nations says that Israel’s genocidal campaign has left a ‘dark legacy’ of thousands of tons of unexploded ordnance that continues to endanger Palestinian civilians, even more so as they begin to return to the rubble of their homes.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Advocates Call for Israel to Release Palestinian Doctor Abu Safiya

    As families on Monday celebrated the return of about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and 20 living Israeli hostages after the two-year Israeli bombardment that has killed more than 67,000 people and left rubble across Gaza, advocates demanded the return of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who was captured nearly a year ago and has reportedly been imprisoned in a detention center known for torturing detainees.

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • The Israeli-backed Palestinian militia being positioned to run Gaza

    Israeli-backed Palestinian looting gangs have lived in luxury while Gaza burned. A Sky News investigation shows how local militia leader Yasser Abu Shabab has positioned himself and his allies to rule Gaza after the ceasefire. Abu Shabab’s forces have benefited massively from Israeli support and aid passed through the the deeply dodgy Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

    Sky News mapped the areas under the militias control, saying one:

    …small neighbourhood is the headquarters of the Popular Forces, Yasser Abu Shabab’s former looting gang which now, with Israel’s backing, hopes to wrest control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas.

    Palestinian militia product of their environment

    Sources inside the Popular Forces and IDF told the Murdoch-owned channel details of the plans.

    Hassan Abu Shabab, an ally and relative if the militia leader, told Sky recent recruitment had “swelled the group’s forces across Gaza to around 3,000”.

    One senior aid worker said cigarettes were one way the militia cashed in:

    Abu Shabab was empowered by cigarette smuggling.

    In that kind of curtailed environment, you’re going to get Abu Shababs.

    Images and video published by Sky News show bags of cash in the hands of the militia. The leader admits his gang has targeted truck going into Gaza, but said they had hit specific commercial targets and not aid trucks:

    Hamas accused us of stealing the shipments, while in reality, we were bringing them for our families and distributing them.

    Yes, there were some breaches, with a few people who sold things off – fine. But things escalated. Hamas’s men came in and they killed my cousins. […] Fifty-four people were lost in that massacre.

    Israeli-backed forces

    After the clashes with Hamas, which Sky News could not verify, Israel:

    began coordinating with Yasser Abu Shabab to smuggle in cash, food, guns and vehicles for use in his battles against Hamas.

    The equipment is brought in in coordination with the Palestinian Authority (PA), Israeli military, and neighbouring countries like Egypt. Reportedly the food comes directly from GHF, whose armed aid distribution points proved to be deadly for many Palestinians.

    The Norwegian Refugee Council told Sky News that having militias in the aid supply chain broke with core humanitarian principles:

    Once channelled through an armed group, aid no longer meets that definition.

    It becomes indistinguishable from support to one side in the fighting and may expose agencies to accusations of complicity or liability under counter-terrorism and sanctions frameworks.

    IDF links

    Sky News also spoke to a serving IDF soldier who confirmed Israeli is directly backing the Popular Forces:

    The cooperation [with Yasser Abu Shabab] mainly goes through [Israel’s security service] Shin Bet, or some official state mechanism.

    We just bring in the food, make sure it arrives in Gaza.

    The soldier, who is a Bedouin serving in the Israeli military, said:

    Israel helps him, it gives him grenades, it gives him money, it gives him vehicles, it gives him food, it gives him all types of things.

    A new political battle is being waged to see who administrates Gaza after the latest ceasefire. It seems Israel is positioning its well-fed, well-funded collaborators for the job. Their support, along with the Palestinian Authority’s, of rogue racketeers is a strategic choice to further entrench unrest and instability for Palestinians surviving genocidal horror after genocidal horror.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Simultaneous release of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners begins in earnest

    Hamas announced on Monday the release of 20 living Israeli prisoners as part of the first phase of the prisoner exchange deal reached with Israel, dubbed the “Al-Aqsa Flood Deal.”

    The movement said in an official statement monitored by the Canary:

    As part of the Al-Aqsa Flood prisoner exchange deal, we have decided to release 20 living Israeli prisoners.

    This comes within the context of the temporary ceasefire agreement between the two sides, which includes a prisoner exchange and a humanitarian truce. According to Israel’s Channel 12, the International Red Cross has so far received seven Israeli prisoners held in the Gaza Strip. They are: Matan Angrist, Gali Berman, Zeev Berman, Alon Ohl, Eitan Horn, Guy Gilboa Dalal, and Omri Miran.

    Reuters reported that the majority of the Israeli prisoners to be released by the Qassam Brigades were captured during the October 7, 2023, attack, while attending a Nova concert near the settlement of Re’im in southern Israel. Meanwhile, the newspaper Israel Hayom reported, citing a security source, that the Israeli army began preparations this morning to transfer Palestinian prisoners from the northern Gaza Strip. Channel 24 reported that the Israeli Prison Service had completed final preparations for the release of the prisoners, in accordance with the agreement.

    Israeli prisoners make calls to families

    And, in a remarkable and unprecedented development in the history of prisoner exchanges between the Palestinians and Israel, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, allowed Israeli prisoners held in the Gaza Strip to make direct phone calls to their families prior to their release.

    The newspaper reported that a number of families received phone calls from their captive relatives, in coordination with the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, which oversaw the handover process.

    These phone calls represent an unprecedented humanitarian step in such deals, which are usually carried out in complete secrecy and without any direct contact between the prisoners and their families until the moment of handover.

    Commenting on this move, Israeli military analyst Yaron Avraham said:

    Hamas had detailed maps of Israeli army bases and positions, so what’s so strange about it also having the phone numbers of soldiers’ families?

    He added that this reflects:

    the advanced intelligence capabilities possessed by the resistance inside Gaza.

    List for Palestinian prisoners set for release expanded

    In a notable development, the Israeli government approved, during an emergency telephone vote, an amendment to the list of Palestinian prisoners to be included in the release. The official Kan Broadcasting Corporation reported that the amendment included the addition of five Palestinian prisoners to the list, to be released if there is any shortage in the number of released Gazan prisoners. Among the prominent names on the reserve list is Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, who was arrested by Israeli forces from inside the hospital last December.

    Reuters reported, citing an official source, that 1,966 Palestinian prisoners included in the agreement had boarded buses in preparation for their release. They are distributed as follows:

    • 1,716 prisoners from the Gaza Strip will be released at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis.
    • 250 prisoners from the West Bank and Jerusalem, including several who were serving life sentences, will be transported to their destinations, either within the Palestinian territories or abroad.

    Future of the deal

    The deal is viewed as a political and moral victory for the Palestinian resistance, following the failure of Israel’s military attempts to recover its prisoners through months of intensive ground and air operations, which claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians, including a large number of civilians.

    Meanwhile, international efforts continue to complete the next phases of the truce agreement, which includes additional field and humanitarian arrangements, amid warnings of the agreement’s collapse if Israel does not adhere to all of its terms, most notably halting its aggression against the Gaza Strip and improving the humanitarian conditions of its residents.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Human rights group urges international journalists be given unrestricted access to Gaza

    The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has called for international journalists and media outlets, along with fact-finding committees and international investigators, to be granted unrestricted access to the Gaza Strip. The organisation have called for the urgent need to document what it described as ‘crimes of genocide’ committed by Israel and to ensure accountability and legal responsibility for serious violations against civilians.

    In a statement, the group said:

    There is an urgent need to open Gaza to international journalists and media teams for unrestricted field access to cover the humanitarian catastrophe left by this genocide. Israel has systematically sought to erase truth by targeting Palestinian press, killing at least 254 journalists, destroying most media institutions, and continuing to bar international journalists from entering the enclave.

    Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor calls on International media outlets to immediately dispatch their teams to Gaza to document the scale of destruction, the extent of civilian suffering, and to monitor compliance with the ceasefire. Covering developments in Gaza is not merely a professional mission but a moral and humanitarian duty toward victims of one of the most brutal crimes of modern times.

    They emphasised:

    Any restriction on press freedom or denial of entry to media and international investigation mechanisms perpetuates efforts to conceal facts and withhold evidence from the global public, obstructing independent documentation of genocide and widespread destruction inflicted upon civilians and infrastructure.

    Human rights group says Gaza must be opened to observers

    The group also explained that the success of the ceasefire agreement that came into effect on Friday under the auspices of Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United States depends on respect for international humanitarian law, an end to the ongoing violations against Palestinians, and addressing the root causes of the conflict, namely the occupation and the blockade imposed on the Strip for years.

    The statement noted that Israel has prevented foreign journalists from entering Gaza, while systematically targeting the Palestinian press, killing more than 250 journalists and destroying most media institutions in an attempt to obscure the facts and prevent the documentation of crimes.

    The group also stressed that opening Gaza to the international media is an urgent necessity to cover the catastrophic humanitarian situation and ensure that the true picture is conveyed to the world. It also emphasised that preventing the press and international commissions from working reinforces a policy of impunity and undermines the chances of justice.

    They concluded their call by urging the international community to take immediate action to ensure that journalists and investigators have access to Gaza, stressing that freedom of the press is a prerequisite for achieving justice and uncovering the truth:

    Ignoring human rights or the ongoing occupation in any political initiative perpetuates impunity and enables Israel to repeatedly commit atrocities without accountability. Rigorous monitoring of Israeli practices in Gaza is vital to prevent the recurrence of genocide. Preventing genocide is not a political choice or negotiable matter but an absolute legal and moral duty requiring decisive international action.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel leaves unexploded bombs behind to turn Gazans’ homes into deadly traps

    Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defence in the Gaza Strip, warned that Palestinians returning to their neighbourhoods and homes in Gaza City face a double security and humanitarian disaster. He explained that remnants of war, in the form of unexploded ordnance, are scattered among the rubble and crumbling homes are thus turned into death traps.

    In exclusive comments to the Canary, Basal said that Gaza City is suffering the effects of a systematic policy of destruction adopted by the Israeli occupation during its aggression, adding:

    Palestinians are not returning to their homes, but to ruins, to enormous rubble, and to areas unfit for habitation or life.

    On Friday, the ceasefire agreement in Gaza came into effect and the occupation forces began a gradual withdrawal from some residential areas. That has allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the centre of the Gaza Strip to return to their neighbourhoods, more than 80% of which have been destroyed.

    Urgent demands for Gaza

    The Civil Defence spokesperson also confirmed that field teams had found quantities of rockets, shells, and explosive materials that had not exploded during the attacks. This is especially the case in densely populated residential areas. He pointed out that these materials posed an imminent danger to the lives of residents, especially children and families who had been forced to return to the remains of their homes due to lack of shelter.

    He said:

    Residential neighbourhoods have been turned into abandoned battlefields, and every stone in them may conceal a deadly danger. These materials are still active and could explode at any moment.

    Basal called for the international community to intervene and exert immediate pressure on the occupying authorities to hand over maps and accurate information on the locations of unexploded ordnance used in the bombing. He pointed out that civil defence teams are working with very limited resources, without specialised tools or adequate technical support, which increases the difficulty and danger of the task for the crews.

    Basal described the scene in Gaza City as ‘unprecedented in terms of the scale of destruction,’ noting that hundreds of residential buildings had been reduced to rubble and the entire infrastructure had been damaged, including water and electricity networks, roads and health facilities. He said that civil defence faces a double burden, not limited to recovering bodies or extinguishing fires, but extending to securing areas, dealing with explosive materials, and providing a minimum level of safety for residents who are forcibly returning to their destroyed homes.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.