radiofree.asia

Category: israel

  • 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.

  • Hamas hits out at BBC – saying it is spreading ‘misinformation’ and ‘false narratives’

    On 11 October, BBC News said that according to ‘local sources’:

    Hamas has recalled about 7,000 members of its security forces to reassert control over areas of Gaza recently vacated by Israeli troops.

    BBC gives ‘deliberate misinformation and false narratives’

    The BBC continued:

    The mobilisation order was reportedly issued via phone calls and text messages which said the aim was to “cleanse Gaza of outlaws and collaborators with Israel” and told fighters to report within 24 hours. Reports from Gaza suggest that armed Hamas units have already deployed across several districts, some wearing civilian clothes and others in the blue uniforms of the Gaza police.

    In a statement released on 12 October, Gaza’s Government Media Office has called these claims ‘false and baseless’.

    It said:

    These claims reflect deliberate misinformation and false narratives intended to mislead the public. We strongly condemn the fact that international media outlets resort to publishing such unverified allegations without referring to official authorities in Gaza, which clearly undermines their professionalism and serves the propaganda promoted by the Israeli occupation.

    The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), as a public service broadcaster is meant to hold the government in this country to account, but this genocide has shown that when it comes to Israel and Palestine this is not the case. Multiple recent reports, open letters, and analyses have accused the BBC of bias towards the Israeli regime in its coverage of this genocide.

    Systematic bias against Palestinians

    In a report titled BBC on Gaza–Israel: One Story, Double Standards published in June 2024, which critiqued the BBC’s coverage of the Gaza genocide between October 2023 and October 2024, the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) accused the BBC of operating under a framework of ‘double standards’ when covering the Gaza genocide, of systemic bias against Palestinians, and of applying inconsistent editorial standards when covering Israeli and Palestinian experiences of war.

    It argued that Palestinians are consistently underrepresented, under-humanised, and under-protected by the BBC’s editorial policies, and called on the broadcaster to undertake a major internal review of its editorial processes, to apply its guidelines of impartiality and fairness more rigorously, and to ensure more balanced representation of voices, language, and context in its reporting.

    Over the course of 12 months, the CfMM analysed nearly 3,900 online BBC articles and over 32,000 broadcast segments across BBC television and radio, looking at how language, framing, airtime, interview subjects, and emotional cues differed when reporting on Israeli and Palestinian casualties.

    Prioritisation of Israeli narratives

    To highlight differences in its reporting, the report also examined the BBC coverage of Ukraine, and looked at the differences in tone and framing when reporting on civilian suffering. It found that the broadcaster was much more willing to use humanising language, discuss war crimes, and highlight the deaths of journalists and civilians when covering Ukraine.

    In contrast, the suffering of Palestinian civilians was often framed in more abstract or clinical terms, and accusations of Israeli wrongdoing were treated with more caution or scepticism.

    According to CfMM, the BBC prioritised Israeli narratives, voices, and suffering, while downplaying or marginalising the Palestinian experience.

    One of the main differences was in the amount of coverage given per fatality. According to the report, while approximately 42,000 Palestinians were killed (at the time of writing) compared to about 1,250 Israelis during the covered period, Israeli deaths received approximately 33 times more coverage per death in BBC online articles and 19 times more coverage in broadcast output.

    The report argues that this suggests an editorial decision-making process that privileges certain narratives over others, rather than one based purely on journalistic impartiality.

    BBC has ‘double standards’ on how it portrays violence against civilians, depending on victim’s identity

    Another key finding involved the emotional framing of victims.

    The BBC was found to have used emotive language, such as terms like ‘massacre’, ‘murder’, and ‘slaughter’ far more frequently when referring to Israeli casualties than to Palestinian ones. The word ‘murder’ was used over 220 times in reference to Israeli victims, but just once in reference to Palestinians, while the term ‘massacre’ appeared 18 times more often in relation to Israeli deaths. The CfMM interprets this discrepancy as a ‘double standard’ in how violence against civilians is characterised depending on the identity of the victim.

    The report also details that during the year-long period, the BBC conducted over 2,300 interviews with Israeli voices, compared to just over 1,000 with Palestinians. The presenters themselves, the report claims, also echoed or affirmed Israeli occupation perspectives much more frequently – over 2,300 times-compared to just 217 instances where they reflected Palestinian perspectives.

    In addition, CfMM claims that on more than 100 occasions BBC presenters shut down or dismissed attempts by guests to raise concerns about genocide being committed against Palestinians. At the same time, the BBC allegedly failed to report or contextualise numerous statements made by Israeli officials that human rights experts and UN figures have cited as evidence of incitement or genocidal intent.

    Failure by BBC to report on UK weapons exports to the Israeli occupation, and legal implications

    In December 2024, Guardian columnist Owen Jones also published a report about BBC bias towards Israel. It was titled The BBC’s Civil War Over Gaza, and was based on interviews with about a dozen anonymous BBC staff who spoke to Jones about their concerns. Overall, they said:

    As an organisation we have not offered any significant analysis of the UK government’s involvement in the war on Palestinians. We have failed to report on weapons sales or their legal implications. These stories have instead been broken by the BBC’s competitors.

    His investigation revealed that over 100 BBC employees and 300 other journalists and media professionals had signed a letter to the Director‑General Tim Davie expressing concerns about editorial suppression, lack of impartiality, and opaque decision‑making – claiming the corporation has become ‘a mouthpiece for Israel.’

    The letter alleged that reports and documentaries favorable to Palestinian perspectives had been blocked or delayed even after passing standard editorial checks, that staff felt constrained by fear of being accused of having agendas or being biased, and that decisions we not transparent.

    Several staffers also told Jones that they had resigned in recent months, not just from dissatisfaction, but because they believe the BBC’s reporting was not honest or balanced. One of these, was newsreader Karishma Patel.

    The BBC is complicit in genocide, by its selective storytelling, by remaining silent, and by distorting the truth. The corporation is funded by the public in this country, and has a duty to serve the public interest – not the interests of the powerful.

    If it is not fulfilling its mandate, it should be held accountable.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Trump’s Sham Peace Plan

    There is no shortage of failed peace plans in occupied Palestine, all of them incorporating detailed phases and timelines, going back to the presidency of Jimmy Carter. They end the same way. Israel gets what it wants initially — in the latest case the release of the remaining Israeli hostages — while it ignores and violates every other phase until it resumes its attacks on the Palestinian people.

    It is a sadistic game. A merry-go-round of death. This ceasefire, like those of the past, is a commercial break. A moment when the condemned man is allowed to smoke a cigarette before being gunned down in a fusillade of bullets.

    Once Israeli hostages are released, the genocide will continue. I do not know how soon.

    The post Trump’s Sham Peace Plan appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Gazans March North Again, Returning To Homes Made Of Rubble

    It was the moment everyone in southern Gaza had been waiting for: the chance to return to their homes, or what remained of them, in Gaza City and northern Gaza. On October 10, as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas, throngs of people began the march back north, moving up the coastal al-Rashid road in a sight reminiscent of Gazans’ historic return march during the January-March ceasefire earlier this year.

    On Saturday morning, a statement from the Gaza Civil Defense said that over 300,000 people had made the trek to Gaza City over the past two days.

    “No tents or mobile homes are available to house the returnees from the south,” the statement said.

    The post Gazans March North Again, Returning To Homes Made Of Rubble appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Leaked US Files Expose Secret Israeli–Arab Military Pact Targeting Iran

    While Arab states condemned Israel’s war on Palestinians in Gaza as a genocide, they were simultaneously secretly expanding military cooperation with the US and Israel to help defend against a war with Iran, leaked documents revealed by the Washington Post on 11 October show.

    The documents, written between 2022 and 2025, show that officials from six Arab countries joined their Israeli and US counterparts for a series of meetings in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, and Qatar over the past three years.

    The documents described efforts by the US military to create the “Regional Security Construct,” which would include Israel, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

    The documents refer to Kuwait and Oman as “potential partners” in the project.

    The participants met to prepare to protect Israel during a possible war with Iran by integrating their forces with US air defense systems.

    The post Leaked US Files Expose Secret Israeli–Arab Military Pact Targeting Iran appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • British Citizens Serving In The IDF Can Now Be Tried For War Crimes

    The legal landscape around UK citizens serving in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has shifted, lawyers say. Palestinian statehood means that Brits who served in Israel’s genocide can be tried and jailed. Technically, the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870 means Brits who served in foreign armies can be jailed or fined. But the act is very old and poorly enforced. Heron said may not serve as a basis for prosecution.

    In April 2010, Public Law Interest Centre and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights submitted evidence to British police regarding ten individuals who’d served in the Israeli military:

    Our 240-page submission to the Metropolitan police highlights that the UK cannot turn a blind eye.

    The police have the power, the resources and the responsibility to investigate British nationals alleged to have taken part in war crimes, wherever they occur.

    How Many Serve?

    In March 2024, Declassified UK reported that 80 Brits were serving in the Israeli military on 7 October 2023. However, we only know this as Declassified submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the government.

    The post British Citizens Serving In The IDF Can Now Be Tried For War Crimes appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • BREAKING: Gaza journalist Saleh Al-Jafarawi killed by Israel-aligned group

    Well-known Palestinian journalist Saleh Al-Jafarawi has been abducted and shot dead by an Israel-aligned Gaza clan – presumably the al-Shabab clan that previously collaborated with Israel’s so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to attack Palestinians seeking food.

    Saleh Al-Jafarawi: killed by Israel-collaborating faction

    His colleague Ibrahim Nazmii published an update within the last hour that:

    Our colleague Saleh Al-Jafarawi has been missing for hours while covering a media event in Gaza City. There is no reliable information about his fate. Please pray for him and we ask God to keep him safe.

    However, about the same time reports broke that Saleh Al-Jafarawi had been shot dead by the clan’s gunmen in Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City.

    Featured image supplied

    Update: al-Jafarawi’s murder has been confirmed. The article has been amended to reflect his death.

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • All Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Thousand Madleens volunteers freed after Israeli abduction

    All the volunteers participating in the Thousands Madleens and the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s Conscience Mission humanitarian flotilla have been released from detention after their abduction by Israel last week and subsequent abuse and ritual humiliation by Israeli forces.

    Freedom Flotilla and Madleens volunteers released

    The two flotillas were carrying aid to Gaza in attempt to break Israel’s criminal blockade that put hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians into the most serious phase of starvation. They were criminally intercepted in international waters on 8 October around 120 nautical miles from Gaza’s coast. Israel intercepted the much larger Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) earlier this month and abducted its volunteer crews of almost five hundred people.

    Israel deported dozens of Freedom Flotilla Coalition/Thousands Madleens participants earlier on Sunday 12 October. With them were Huwaida Arraf and Zohar Regev, both dual nationals holding Israeli citizenship, the last to be released. Earlier this week Palestinian legal support group Adalah represented one hundred and forty-five volunteers from the two flotillas in court, along with some of those who had been aboard the GSF.

    Adalah received dozens of testimonies from participants describing degrading and often violent abuse inflicted by Israeli forces during the attack on their fleet and subsequent detention.

    Israeli abuse rife

    The abuse included physical and verbal assaults, being forced to remain in the sun for prolonged periods, the confiscation of personal belongings and harsh detention conditions in Ketziot prison, including denial of adequate food and drinking water, denial of access to legal counsel, hearings conducted without prior notice or proper legal representation and in one case a Muslim woman doctor being paraded naked while guards mocked her mastectomy scars, whose abuse has been ignored by western so-called ‘mainstream’ media.

    Adalah has again underlined that Israel’s attack on unarmed civilians in international waters, seizure of humanitarian vessels and detention of crews are grave and blatant breaches of international law. UK PM Keir Starmer, despite the presence of British citizens among those abducted, said that the attacks – which constitute piracy and war crimes – are “a matter for the Israeli government”.  The government has been threatened with legal action for abandoning its duty to protect UK citizens under attack.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • EXCLUSIVE: UNRWA tells the Canary Israel is still mounting a ‘strangling siege’ on Gaza

    Adnan Abu Hasna, media advisor to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), warned in exclusive comments to the Canary of an unprecedented educational and humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, stressing that an entire generation of children is threatened with illiteracy while Israel blocks basic humanitarian aid.

    Israel is still laying siege to Gaza

    Abu Hasna said that restoring the educational process is a top priority for UNRWA, noting that more than 660,000 students have been deprived of education for two consecutive years due to Israel’s genocide, aggression, and siege, which he described as “the illiteracy of an entire generation”.

    He explained that the agency, in cooperation with its partners, will work to resume the educational process even inside temporary shelters, after ensuring that they are free of mines and explosives, and even in new areas:

    as was the case in 1950 when UNRWA began its work in Palestine.

    With regard to health services, Abu Hasna pointed out that UNRWA’s 22 health centres in Gaza are in urgent need of rehabilitation, stressing that the massive destruction – which affected about 80% of Gaza City’s housing – has forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to live in non-residential areas, requiring the continued operation of mobile medical points.

    Despite the agency’s comprehensive relief plan and decades of experience, Abu Hasna said that 6,000 of its trucks loaded with aid, including food, tents and medicines, remain stuck at the Gaza border, waiting to be allowed in. This is despite the so-called ceasefire.

    He stressed that this aid is sufficient for the population of Gaza for three months, but Israeli restrictions on the crossings prevent its arrival amid what he described as a:

    strangling siege.

    UNRWA is the last line of defence

    Abu Hasna told the Canary:

    UNRWA is the only UN agency that remains intact in the Gaza Strip, and there is no alternative but to enable it to play its true role.

    He also called for the opening of safe and sustainable corridors for the entry of aid, warning that the continuation of the current situation will lead to the complete collapse of what remains of the basic necessities of life in the Strip.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • In Gaza, the war of death may have ended – but the war for life has begun

    The war of death has ended, but it has not taken its tools with it. The drones have mostly fallen silent, but the silence they have left behind is louder than the bombing. In Gaza today, no one fears death, because everyone has experienced it up close. What people truly fear is life itself: a life without homes, hospitals, schools, electricity, water, or security.

    After two years of genocide, when the Israeli army withdrew and people began to return to their cities, they did not return to their homes, but to piles of rubble. Entire neighbourhoods have disappeared, and street landmarks no longer mean anything.

    Gaza, once bustling with life, had become a faceless city, as if it had just emerged from the heart of a never-ending earthquake.

    The siege on Gaza may have ended, but the battle for survival continues

    Those who survived the bombing have found themselves in a new battle: the battle for survival.

    Men sleep in the streets because Israel has reduced their homes to ashes, and mothers try to protect their children from the cold and darkness in torn tents.

    The nights in Gaza are long, without electricity or peace of mind. They are interrupted only by the sound of a child crying because they are hungry or afraid, or because the light had completely disappeared and only darkness remained in their view.

    In some hospitals that are still functioning, patients crowd together on the floor, waiting their turn in rooms without medicine or light. Doctors are working under pressure beyond their capacity, performing operations by the light of mobile phones or without anaesthesia. They face an impossible equation: who to save first? The wounded or the children? Those they can save or those who are about to die? Yet, in the midst of this devastation, life is being reborn.

    In every destroyed street, there are those who are trying to build something, stone by stone, or a tent that can withstand the wind. Because the war that ended militarily has not ended humanely. Now, a war of a different kind has begun, a war to redefine the meaning of life in a city destroyed to its very foundations, a war without truce, fought by an unarmed people with all their remaining determination.

    To live is an act of resistance

    Gaza today 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.

    The war of death ended when the rockets stopped, but the war of life began, a daily war against poverty, against darkness, against oblivion, against the injustice and silence of the world.

    The war of death ended, but the war of life began: a war that is not fought by an army or managed by political decisions, but led by a defenceless people who only want to live.

    This war is the most difficult, because it is not measured by the number of martyrs, but by the number of those who continue to try to survive every day. In Gaza, life is not just a stolen right, it is resistance.

    Feature image via BBC News/Youtube.

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel-US so-called ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’ ‘vanishes into thin air’

    Palestinian photojournalist Walid Mahmoud has reported that the so-called ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’ – the US/Israel-run ‘aid’ stations that shot thousands of desperate Palestinians seeking food during Israel’s starvation blockade – has simply disappeared from Gaza with the beginning of the supposed ‘ceasefire’ that Israel has violated every day since it started last week.

    Where is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?

    Mahmoud wrote:

    GHF is over! Israel’s mercenary proxy group vanished into thin air this morning.

    Every single person that’s ever worked there must face trial for the sadistic murder of more than 2,500 starving civilians; they lured them with a promise of food then gunned them down, daily!

    The organisation and Israeli troops fired almost daily on aid-seekers during the blockade, killing more than two and a half thousand people and wounding many more – and reportedly collaborated with ISIS-linked criminal gangs in Gaza to steal food and attack those who managed to secure a sack of flour.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Bridget Phillipson just accidentally justified blocking Israel from peace talks

    On 12 October, deputy leadership contender Bridget Phillipson appeared on the Sunday talk shows. Talking to Trevor Phillips, she discussed why Hamas should have no place in future negotiations. In arguing this, however, she actually made a case for freezing out the Israeli government:


    Bridget Phillipson

    Host Phillips asked Phillipson:

    All right, looking forward, the government keeps saying there can be no role for Hamas. How do you get to decide for the Gazans who governs them?

    This isn’t an unfair question, but there is some context you should be aware of.

    Firstly, Hamas itself already offered to step down from government in previous peace talks (talks which Israel rejected).

    Secondly, Palestinians have actually been clear on who they want to lead them, but Israel are holding him captive (or ‘hostage’, if you will):

    Claiming to want peace while doing everything in its power to ensure conflict is nothing new for Israel. As we reported, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu supported the rise and continuation of Hamas – all because it’s easier for him to justify repressing a Palestinian government which supports armed resistance.

    Atrocities

    Back to the interview, Bridget Phillipson responded:

    Well, this has also been an agreement that’s been reached with the Arab League, who have recognised there can be no role for Hamas. We are clear that a terrorist organisation like Hamas that was responsible for the most deadly atrocity, the largest killing of Jews since the Holocaust, can have no part in the reconstruction of Gaza or in a future Palestinian state.

    When the US bombs the Middle East, our politicians and journalists don’t usually describe it as a the ‘killing of Muslims’. While there’s no doubt Hamas killed civilians on the 7 October attack (in addition to those killed as a result of the ‘Hannibal Directive‘), this wasn’t a dominant state oppressing a minority group. At the point when Hamas launched its 2023 attack, Israel had lain siege to Gaza since 2005. Israel had also violently repressed peaceful protests against the siege, as Amnesty wrote in 2018:

    More than six months have passed since the “Great March of Return” protests started in the Gaza Strip on 30 March.
    Their calls for Israeli authorities to lift their 11-year illegal blockade on Gaza and to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their villages and towns have not been met.

    According to the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, since the start of the protests, over 150 Palestinians have been killed in the demonstrations. At least 10,000 others have been injured, including 1,849 children, 424 women, 115 paramedics and 115 journalists. Of those injured, 5,814 were hit by live ammunition.

    The assaults described above are clearly ‘atrocities’, but you don’t see British politicians or journalists describing them as such; you also don’t see them describing it as an ‘attack on Muslims’, or claiming it gives justification for genocide.

    Israel killed far more than those who protested in the Great March of Return too:

    Palestinian and Israeli deaths 2008 - 2020 - graph shows 5,590 Palestinian deaths compared to 251 Israeli deaths

    The case against Israel – inadvertently made by Bridget Phillipson

    Continuing her argument, Bridget Phillipson said:

    They may decide they want Hamas. I’m afraid when you look at the appalling atrocities of the 7th of October, there can be absolutely no place for a vile terrorist group like Hamas, who killed countless innocent civilians, took hostages into Gaza, and are responsible also alongside this for significant suffering and inflicting significant violence, even on their own people.

    Let’s go through this, shall we?

    As noted above, the Israeli government has committed “appalling atrocities”; it’s even committed them since the most recent ceasefire announcement:


    And let’s not forget Israel bombed the location of peace talks with Hamas in the sovereign nation of Qatar:


    Phillipson added “there can be absolutely no place for a vile terrorist group like Hamas”. Hamas is a terrorist group while the Israeli government is not because we proscribed one and not the other. The Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are clearly “vile”, though, as we’ve demonstrated above and will continue to demonstrate.

    Phillipson highlighted that Hamas “killed countless innocent civilians”. You can probably guess what we’re going to say here, because you’ve watched Israel butcher innocent civilians for two years straight.

    “Took hostages into Gaza” – took hostages, is it? You may not realise this if you only follow the mainstream news, but Israel has close to 10,000 Palestinian ‘hostages’ – the difference is they call them ‘prisoners’, and the Western media repeats this framing.

    Finishing up, Phillipson said Hamas is ‘responsible for significant suffering and inflicting significant violence, even on their own people’. Again, nothing Hamas did comes close to what Israel did before or after October 7. Additionally, Israel has ‘inflicted significant violence’ on its own people too. One key instance of IDF-on-Israeli violence was using the so-called ‘Hannibal Directive’, which authorises soldiers to massacre Israeli citizens to prevent their capture (a directive they activated on October 7). Israel also killed many of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza through its campaign of indiscriminate bombing.

    Terror

    There’s one more thing we shouldn’t forget, and that’s this:


    Did you think the war was about saving the hostages?

    Well it wasn’t; it was always a war of extermination, and those exterminated include innocent Palestinians and hostages.

    You don’t see Labour talking about this because they’re complicit in Israel’s actions.

    And the reason Labour ghouls like Phillipson look dead behind the eyes is because they know that one day they might have to justify their choices at the Hague.

    Featured image via Sky News

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • For the third day running, Israel violates Gaza ‘ceasefire’ to maim and murder Palestinians

    Israel has violated the ‘ceasefire’ it agreed with Palestinian militia to bomb, murder and maim Palestinians for the third consecutive day – the first three days of the supposed ceasefire period.

    Israel: horrific violations of the ceasefire

    On Saturday 11 October, an occupation drone targeted a group of civilians in the Jabalia refugee camp, killing one civilian and seriously injuring several others, including one man left with both lower legs shredded or gone:

    Israel thinks – correctly, because of the collaboration of the UK and other western governments – that it can get away with mass the mass slaughter of civilians and daily breaches of its supposed commitments.

    It is a rogue and terror state.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel is still holding the bodies of 67 martyred Palestinian children – leaving them in numbered graves

    The Palestinian National Campaign to Retrieve the Bodies of Martyrs and Disclose the Fate of the Missing said on Friday 10 October that Israel continues to hold the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. It confirmed that among the bodies held are children, women, and detainees.

    Israel holding the bodies of Palestinian martyrs, including children

    The campaign explained in a press statement, seen by the Canary, that Israel is holding the bodies of 735 martyrs, including 67 children and 10 women. Moreover, it noted that 256 of these bodies are located in what are known as ‘cemeteries of numbers‘. These are simple, secret graves where the occupation places numbered metal plates instead of names. Israeli authorities surround each grave with stones without headstones, and assigns each number a security file.

    The statement added that since the beginning of 2025, the occupation has held the bodies of 479 Palestinians. This included 86 detainees it martyred in prisons, or shortly after their release.

    In the same context, the campaign referred to a report published by the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz on 16 July. This revealed that Israel is holding about 1,500 bodies of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip inside the Sde Teiman military camp, which the campaign described as:

    an unprecedented moral and humanitarian crime that represents another form of collective punishment.

    Violating international law amid the ceasefire agreement

    This comes at a time when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have begun returning to northern Gaza after the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces. This is as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. However, Palestinians returning have been shocked by the extent of Israel’s widespread destruction of residential neighbourhoods, hospitals, schools, and infrastructure.

    Since October 2023, Israel has committed unprecedented genocide, leaving, according to official Palestinian figures, more than 67,200 martyrs and 169,900 wounded. Most of these martyrs are women and children. This is in addition to severe famine and a complete collapse of humanitarian services Israel has engineered in the Strip.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Mainstream smears mean the system fears your ideas

    A rightist columnist just labeled me “repellent,” while a left establishment commentator publicly proclaimed, “fuck Yves Engler”. Canada’s ideological apparatus is whipped into a frenzy over my multilayered challenge of Canadian foreign policy and my NDP leadership campaign’s activist anti-capitalism.

    On Friday, the ever-reliable Israel-no-matter-what supporter Rosie Dimanno labeled me “the repellent Yves Engler”. The longtime Toronto Star columnist complained that in August, I wrote, “Over the past century, Canada’s ties to the US and British empires, its interest in geopolitical control of the region, Protestant Zionism, anti-Muslim sentiment, and settler-colonial solidarity have all shaped Canadian policy [towards Israel] to varying degrees. On top of this, there is a well-organized, wealthy, and highly motivated Jewish Canadian-Israel lobby, which has been increasingly powerful in recent decades. No other internationally focused Canadian ethnic/religious lobby is nearly as well-resourced or organized. And CIJA, B’nai Brith and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, etc. wield a uniquely powerful tool to silence critics: accusations of antisemitism.”

    While failing to include the initial sentence of my commentary in her genocidal apologia, Dimanno claimed I was “invoking just about every antisemitic trope there.”

    Justin Ling took a different line of attack in the Star. Last week, he opined, “Yves Engler, the choice of the party’s socialist caucus, is a conspiracy-minded author who is quite at home on Russian propaganda networks and who has written bizarre ahistorical blogs questioning the facts of the Rwandan genocide.”

    On Tuesday, both the Star and the National Post published articles suggesting that my leadership campaign, which has raised far more money than many anticipated, was engaged in questionable financial dealings.

    In the National Post on Thursday, Terry Newman noted, “Anti-capitalist, anti-Zionist NDP leadership hopeful Yves Engler made an appearance, handing out flyers to students.” The article was headlined “Inside Montreal’s dark and twisted celebration of dead Jews.”

    In a sign of the depths of status quo ideological rigidity, Paris Marx told Rachel Gilmore, “fuck Yves Engler,” to which the ‘leftist’ laughed heartily, replying, “I feel like he’s not a very serious candidate”. During a segment on the NDP leadership race on Gilmore’s program Thursday, Marx then added, “let’s be real, he’s just chasing clout”. Apparently, the others vying to lead the NDP aren’t “chasing clout”. Neither Marx nor Gilmore said a word about my campaign’s comprehensive new policy platform, drawn up by 45 activists and researchers, titled “Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed – Onward to a Socialist Future”.

    Since I launched my bid to lead the NDP, Gilmore, who spent a decade working for Global, IPolitics, and CTV in Ottawa, has repeatedly taken shots at me while ignoring the substance of my thirteen books and 1000+ articles.

    Anytime I publish an article on Rabble.ca or Canadian Dimension, long-time CBC producer David Gutnick smears me and attacks the publication. Two weeks ago, Gutnick wrote another unhinged comment when Rabble published my “Back to the future — NDP must debate capitalism again”. He noted, “Yves Engler is not anti-capitalist nor anti-war, he fully supports Russian capitalism and one consequence: Putin’s war on Ukrainian civilians.” To the best of my knowledge, I have never written about, let alone “supported”, Russian capitalism.

    Gutnick continued with what someone recently described as “Engler derangement syndrome”, claiming “Engler’s strange insistence that he always be referred to as Canada’s Chomsky and I.F. Stone rolled into one is but one indication in a long list that he is in no way the person to lead the NDP. One wonders why the editor of Rabble publishes such puffed-up nonsense.”

    I have never, let alone “always”, insisted I “be referred to as Canada’s Chomsky and I.F. Stone rolled into one.”

    The unhinged reactions highlight what I document in A Propaganda System: How Canada’s Government, Corporations, Media and Academia Sell War and Exploitation and Left, Right: Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada. The rot runs deep in Canada’s ideological apparatus, especially regarding foreign policy.

    The smears are growing because there’s significant support for my campaign’s call for Canada to withdraw from NATO and move beyond capitalism. Genocide advocates fear an NDP candidate who has spent over two decades unapologetically challenging Canadian support for Israeli crimes.

    If they aren’t smearing you, then you probably aren’t seriously challenging our corrupt, genocidal, and wealth-concentrating system.

    To assist, donate, or learn more about my bid to lead the NDP, check out yvesforndpleader.ca

    The post Mainstream smears mean the system fears your ideas first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Beware Trump’s Ceasefire Without United Nations Action

    As President Donald Trump surely intended, his “20-point Gaza plan” succeeded in upstaging calls by many other world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly for concrete, coordinated U.N.-led measures to force Israel to end its criminal genocide in Gaza and the illegal occupation of Palestine.

    Trump’s White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sept. 29 coincided with the last day of the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, where Trump had met with eight Arab and Muslim leaders at the U.N. and won their support for a proposed plan for Gaza.

    In a textbook bait-and-switch, Trump then allowed the Israelis to significantly alter his plan before he unveiled it to the world at his meeting with Netanyahu, but pretended it was the same plan that the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and other countries had endorsed.

    The post Beware Trump’s Ceasefire Without United Nations Action appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Yemen’s Houthis To ‘Monitor’ Israel Compliance With Gaza Ceasefire Deal

    Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Ansar Allah, said on Thursday that Yemen will be “monitoring” Israel’s compliance with the Gaza ceasefire deal, warning Yemeni support for the Palestinians in Gaza would continue if the deal isn’t implemented.

    “We must be at the highest levels of caution and readiness, and continue the massive popular momentum with the Palestinian people, until we determine whether the agreement will be achieved, or whether we will continue our path of support and assistance to the Palestinian people,” al-Houthi said, according to Yemen’s SABA news agency.

    “We will remain vigilant, prepared, and monitor the progress of the agreement. Will it lead to an end to the aggression on the Gaza Strip and the entry of aid, food, medicine, and humanitarian needs to the Palestinian people?”

    The post Yemen’s Houthis To ‘Monitor’ Israel Compliance With Gaza Ceasefire Deal appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Lebanon Under Siege: Inside Israel’s Plan To Disarm Hezbollah

    Fresh from its success in overthrowing the government of Syria and the assassination of the prime minister of Yemen, the U.S.-Israeli alliance has its sights set on a new target: Hezbollah.

    Last week, the United States government sent $230 million in military aid to the Lebanese Army. This enormous weapons package was green lit with one objective: to dismantle Hezbollah as a force capable of resisting Israeli attacks.

    In September, the Lebanese government rubber-stamped the Trump administration’s plan to disarm the civilian-military organization, which holds 15 seats in the Lebanese parliament.

    Returning to the MintCast to discuss the tense political situation in her native Lebanon is Ghadi Francis. Ghadi Francis is an author, journalist, and war correspondent who has covered the political situation across West Asia in great detail.

    The post Lebanon Under Siege: Inside Israel’s Plan To Disarm Hezbollah appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • VIDEO: first meeting of Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos and Nakba survivor Antoine Raffoul

    Kapos (L) and Raffoul.

    Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos and Nakba survivor Antoine Raffoul met in person for the first time on Saturday 11 October, after decades of activism for the Palestinian people and against Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide.

    When Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos and Nakba survivor Antoine Raffoul met in person for the first time

    Both men survived appalling horrors and cruelty – Stephen Kapos as a child escaping the Nazis in Hungary and Antoine Raffoul the Nakba, or catastrophe, in which almost 800,000 Palestinians were driven at gunpoint from their homes, with massacres and atrocities, as the west created the state of ‘Israel’.

    Both men, by coincidence, became architects – and both, not by coincidence, have dedicated themselves to ending the injustice of the apartheid occupation and Israel’s campaign of extermination against the Palestinian people. Kapos was arrested by police in London earlier this year for protesting against the genocide and subjected to a lengthy interrogation under caution.

    The meeting of the two triggered many tears among those watching:

    The men now campaign alongside their daughters, Andrea Kapos and my dear friend Yasmine Say.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Palestinians in Gaza March North Again, Returning to Homes Turned to Rubble

    It was the moment everyone in southern Gaza had been waiting for: the chance to return to their homes, or what remained of them, in Gaza City and northern Gaza. On October 10, as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas, throngs of people began the march back north, moving up the coastal al-Rashid road in a sight reminiscent of Gazans’ historic return…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • From AI to TikTok to TV, This Pro-Israel Billionaire Is Expanding Power in US

    Larry Ellison’s name isn’t always mentioned alongside more public-facing megabillionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Mark Zuckerberg. But as he vaults to the top of the U.S. power elite after a string of high-profile corporate deals, that’s about to change. Ellison, the founder of the tech giant Oracle, is quickly emerging as the new face of oligarchic power in the U.S.

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • We Must Reject Normalization Of A Genocidal Regime And Impunity For War Crimes

    Israel is a rogue regime, deeply violent, fundamentally racist and unconstrained. It has developed a kind of arrogance that comes out of absolute impunity guaranteed by the West. That’s why they not only deployed a murderous attack in a sovereign country against people who were there to negotiate with them, but they also carried out acts of aggression against Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and in the territorial Waters of Tunisia and Malta.

    This is a rogue regime that is posing a threat across Western Asia and beyond to the broader world. It’s a regime that has launched a transnational terror attack in Lebanon with booby-trapped pagers. It is a regime that occupies territory in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. It is a regime that has attacked the UN itself.

    The post We Must Reject Normalization Of A Genocidal Regime And Impunity For War Crimes appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Gaza’s Ministry of Health tells the Canary ‘we do not seek pity, but justice’

    Dr Munir Al-Barsh, director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, warned that the health system in the Strip is facing its “most dangerous moment” after two years of Israel’s genocide, stressing that what is happening:

    is not just a humanitarian crisis, but a total collapse of the human right to life.

    Dr Munir Al-Barsh: Gaza in a ‘race against time’ as people die ‘in the streets’

    Dr Munir Al-Barsh told the Canary:

    The health sector has been completely destroyed and is suffering greatly after two years of genocide.

    He stressed that what is required from the international community is “justice, not pity”.

    Al-Barsh added:

    The world must now stand by our wounded and our collapsed hospitals, not just issue statements of sympathy.

    He explained that the Ministry of Health has developed a comprehensive plan to revive the sector in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), noting that:

    medical personnel in Gaza are ready to implement it as soon as basic support and resources arrive.

    According to Al-Barsh, Israel has completely destroyed 38 hospitals, leaving only 12 partially functioning amid shortages of fuel, electricity, water and vital medical supplies. He said:

    We are in a race against time. People are dying in the streets, and operating rooms are at a standstill due to a lack of electricity and equipment.

    Watching patients ‘slowly die before our eyes’

    He called for the opening of direct supply corridors and the dispatch of urgent medical missions including surgeons, paediatricians, psychiatrists and physiotherapists. Significantly, he highlighted that there are more than 17,000 patients in urgent need of medical treatment who the WHO has approved for travel.

    Dr Munir Al-Barsh also called for the rapid establishment of field hospitals in the north, centre, and south of the Strip to ease the pressure on the remaining medical facilities. Alongside this, he urged for the repair of water and sewage networks:

    to prevent the spread of epidemics such as cholera, skin diseases and diarrhoea.

    He pointed out that thousands of children suffer from chronic diseases, cancer and congenital malformations. Meanwhile women face deteriorating health conditions in the absence of medical care.

    Al-Barsh concluded with an urgent call to support prosthetic limb and wheelchair programmes, and to provide urgent operational resources for health graduates and technicians:

    to ensure the continuation of the remaining medical services.

    He added in an emotional tone:

    Gaza is not asking for the impossible… We just want to live, and not see our patients slowly die before our eyes.

    Feature image via Al Jazeera English/Youtube.

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • BREAKING: activist and content creator Ani Says arrested AGAIN by Met

    Activist and content creator Ani Says has been arrested yet again by the Met Police while out protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its apartheid in the Occupied Territories.

    Ani Says: arrested again

    On Saturday 11 October, Ani Says was attending the national Palestine protest in central London – kind of. After a previous unwarranted and racially-motivated arrest and subsequent bailing, cops banned her from Westminster. So, Ani Says was going to Southwark instead  – where she can go.

    However, cops once again targeted her after she claims Zionists doxxed her. The reason for the arrest? Reportedly this time, for using the phrase ‘coconut’:

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by Shabs (@sunisgonnakeeponshining_xo)

    Cops took her to Charing Cross police station (again). BBC Panorama recently released undercover reporting detailing racist and misogynistic attitudes within the Met Police.

    Rory Bibb, the Panorama reporter, spent seven months in the custody suite of Charing Cross police station as a designated detention officer. In that time, Bibb recorded a vast array of truly heinous and discriminatory remarks and actions from the officers around him. His sterling work resulted in the suspensions of eight bigot cops and one other staff member.

    So, cops dragging Ani Says there for the second time is not without fucking irony. However, the fact the Met reportedly nicked her for using the term ‘coconut’ is even more problematic.

    Yes. Yes you are coconuts.

    Remember teacher Marieha Hussain being charged – and then acquitted – with a racially aggravated public order offence? What did she do to warrant the cops paying attention to so-called racism? Well, she was the person who held up a sign calling Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman coconuts.

    Yep, that’s all.

    For the uninitiated, calling someone a “coconut” is a casual way to suggest that someone who is brown on the outside, is white on the inside. In other words, whilst being brown they are committed to whiteness above all else.

    It’s hardly a new term, and documents a social reality that doesn’t often make it into the mainstream.

    It’s a complex articulation of racial dynamics and hierarchies. Yet now, it appears cops have weaponised it again, this time against Ani Says.

    The usual characters who love to defend freedom of speech should be up in arms about this. But, they’re not – perhaps because they’re contrarian fuckwits with no real understanding of race, class, and white supremacy.

    But, we digress.

    It’s an absolute outrage that Ani Says has been arrested.

    And, for what it’s worth, whatever the context her message was and whoever it was aimed at, Ani Says would not have said it lightly. It will have been one that accurately characterised the complex racial dynamics of coconuts, who happily use their skin colour to leverage whatever tokenistic support they can before making decisions that make the lives of Black and Brown people much, much worse.

    Solidarity with Ani Says. The Canary will continue to monitor the situation.

    Featured image via screengrab

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Italy’s Second General Strike for Gaza Brought 2M Workers Into the Streets

    It seemed impossible for Italy to strike for Palestine more successfully than it did the first time, yet it happened: 2 million people returned to the streets on October 3, blocking everything again. The second general strike was called by Si Cobas labor union on September 18, and circulated broadly after September 22, the date of the first strike. After Israel attacked the Global Sumud…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • VIDEO: Israel raids Al Jazeera West Bank offices – again – despite ‘ceasefire’

    Israeli troops have used the faux-‘ceasefire’ in Gaza to increase their violence and oppression in the occupied West Bank, mounting a night raid on the offices of broadcaster Al Jazeera in Ramallah:

    Israel raids Al Jazeera West Bank offices

    The attack comes just over a year after occupation forces stormed the same office and banned the broadcaster from operating at all for forty-five days before mounting a series of attacks on West Bank towns and refugee camps.

    The latest also mirrors Israel’s escalation of its violence in the West Bank during the brief and equally-violated Gaza ‘ceasefire’ in January this year as Netanyahu fulfilled his promise to self-described fascist Bezalel Smotrich in return for Smotrich agreeing not to quit Netanyahu’s cabinet in retaliation for agreeing the pause in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

    Israel has murdered more than three hundred and fifty journalists in Gaza as it tried to stop the flow of information to the world about its genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The new attack on Al Jazeera – already banned from operating inside ‘Israel’ – raises fresh fears of what renewed atrocities it is now planning for its victims in the West Bank.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Jeanine Hourani: ‘genocide abroad and austerity at home’ have sparked Labour’s demise

    Jeanine Hourani from the Palestinian Youth Movement spoke at a Your Party rally in Leeds on 8 October, and she insisted that:

    Palestine has well and truly been the final nail in the coffin of the Labour Party of this country.

    She added:

    Whether it’s supporting genocide abroad or austerity at home, the political elite of this country will never act in the interest of the people. This is what Palestine has illuminated over the last two years.

    On top of the horrors of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, she pointed out that:

    Every day in this country nearly half of parents skip a meal so that their children have enough to eat. This winter it’s estimated that over two million households will not be able to heat their homes.

    A survey in early 2025 revealed that “48% of parents [say] they have skipped a meal to ensure their children are fed”, with 32% doing this on multiple occasions. And another report from last month stated that “more than two million households plan to avoid turning on their central heating this winter – a 22% increase on last year – for fear of soaring energy bills”.

    In organising the resistance to this system, Hourani believes we can learn important lessons from the movement for Palestinian liberation.

     

    Jeanine Hourani: grassroots pressure matters

    Jeanine Hourani’s media visibility has attracted attention from the Israeli settler-colonial project. And as she argued, the activism of the Palestinian Youth Movement has absolutely made an impact in Britain.

    In May, she noted, the group co-released a report that exposed UK arms sales to Israel. This revealed the shocking extent of Britain’s support for Israel as it committed genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip. And it revealed that Keir Starmer’s Labour Party had continued to send munitions despite the September 2024 suspension of some export licences. As Hourani stressed:

    In the weeks that followed, we saw the mounting pressure materialise.

    This included dozens of MPs calling on Labour to respond to the report’s findings.

    The government began to threaten more symbolic action in response to Israel’s war crimes. But after many months of insufficient action, Hourani said:

    we continued to take matters into our own hands. We shut down 17 Labour offices around the country and successfully disrupted this year’s Labour Party conference.

    The ongoing resistance on the ground against Labour’s complicity in genocide, meanwhile, has kept pressure on media outlets to do their job too. For example, a recent Channel 4 News investigation revealed that the value of UK arms going to Israel actually reached a record high of around £400,000 this June. And last month was the second highest on record, at £316,000:

    Building on these lessons in a new left party

    The struggle against Labour’s support for Israel’s crimes is not over. But as Jeanine Hourani insisted:

    If the research produced by a group of young, unpaid volunteers who are fighting to end the genocide of our people can expose the lies of the Labour Party of this country, make its way into parliament, catalyse shutdowns at Labour Party offices and events, and strike at the political establishment of this country, what can a new socialist party achieve if we get organised?

    The shocking establishment support for Israel’s genocide has undoubtedly been a turning point. People have witnessed the horrors in Gaza for two years now. We’ve seen politicians drop their masks of civility and throw all morals in the bin. And at the same time, we’ve faced ongoing attacks on our own rights and wellbeing.

    This genocide hasn’t just woken us up. It has shown us the power of grassroots resistance. And the lessons we’ve learned can help us to reshape our country and world into places of compassion, peace, and justice.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.