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Category: Palestine

  • Gaza Soup Kitchen provides essential services to a population that now has nothing

    Gaza Soup Kitchen (GSK) is a Palestinian NGO that was set up in early 2024 by brothers Hani and Mahmoud Almadhoun, to provide hot meals and clean water to the people of Gaza. The venture has been a lifeline for many thousands enduring extreme food insecurity and famine.

    What started as a simple Go Fund Me personal campaign, with one kitchen in Beit Lahia feeding 150 families daily, quickly expanded as hunger grew among the population. Multiple kitchens now serve communities across the Strip, providing up to 3000 individual meals every day, depending on supplies, safety and access to ingredients.

    Gaza Soup Kitchen speaks to the Canary

    Abe Ajrami is one of five board members of the organisation. He helps with coordinating GSK’s fundraising and decision making on aspects such as safety and location of GSKs operations. Although Ajrami lives in the US, he has family in Northern Gaza, who have been forcibly displaced and are currently living in tents.

    Ajrami told the Canary:

    We have established ourselves as an honest charity that does good work in Gaza, and people feel that. None of us are paid, even for any of our travel expenses, and we don’t charge the organisation a single penny. People fundraise for us, and individuals and businesses also give us donations.

    And Ajrami is clear that if Israel were to ever allow an adequate food supply into Gaza, there would be no need for GSK:

    If there was enough affordable food in Gaza, we would not exist. We hope to get to that point, where we are not needed. Gazans are people who were doing OK for themselves, who have dignity, and now they are standing in line to use a bathroom, and standing in line to get water and to have a simple meal. It is sad but, judging by our food parcel registration, it tells you how much there is a need for us.

    Unfortunately, there is much, much more to be done:

    We are pretty much a drop in the ocean, despite all the things we do.

    There are currently 10 soup kitchens operating in the South and Central area of the Strip. Depending on the amount of supplies allowed across the border, each kitchen can cost as much as $1000 a day to run, while the type of food entering Gaza dictates the type of meals cooked by GSK chefs.

    Huge demand for GSK

    Ajrami says:

    Gazan people are very creative. Lentil soup has been the hero. It has always been affordable, and is a great source of protein, and doesn’t go bad. So we can buy huge quantities and store it. Lentils are mixed with lots of things, when we can find them. The chefs work with what they have, to create a variety of meals.

    Although GSK stopped their operations in the North over a month ago, due to forced evacuations and safety issues, it has still managed to send food parcels to Gaza City. There, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have remained, with food and water very scarce.

    According to Ajrami, within minutes of the online registration opening for food parcels, the number of applicants far exceeds the number of parcels available:

    We now have a big focus on providing these food parcels to families. The demand is huge, but we do our best to make sure people can get what they need, especially if they are weak or sick.

    ‘We try to help everyone in Gaza, any way we can’

    20 year old Khalid Qadas is one of the more than 60 humanitarian volunteers working with GSK on the ground in Gaza, and is their photographer and spokesperson.

    He told the Canary:

    Although we are happy that we’ve finished the war- the shelling, the guns, the blood, the death, because we are so tired, Palestinians have lost their children, their homes, their money, their work, and their lives have stopped for the past two years. People have lost everything. They also don’t have enough food. So now the people really need our work, and we try to help everyone in Gaza, any way we can.

    Qadas tells me that over 1000 food parcels are made every day for families in need. GSK also cooks and serves food daily for 300-500 families at each of its 10 food points. Medical teams and patients in Gaza’s hospitals are not forgotten, with hot meals delivered by the teams, as well as food parcels- which sometimes even manage to provide baby milk, nappies, fruit, food, and clothes for children. These items are often impossible to find for the population of Gaza but, if available, are usually just too expensive to purchase. GSK tries to buy local, so source their supplies from local farmers wherever possible, and from local markets.

    But the organisation does not only provide food for Palestinians. It also buys clean desalinated water, as water is now contaminated and good quality drinking water is extremely rare. Their 10 water tankers then go out to different areas each day, so people are able to fill up their water containers. There is even a medical point which sees high numbers of patients, despite many challenges and lack of supplies. It offers urgent care, consultations, mental health support, and prescriptions to people who would otherwise not be able to access medical attention.

    Besieged volunteers

    Months after arriving in Gaza, Qadas’ home was bombed, and his father had a stroke. He now lives with the rest of his family in a tent. Although Qadas’ parents are both from Gaza, he was born in the UAE, and had never visited the enclave until three months before the start of this genocide, when he travelled to the Strip to start a medical degree, at Al Aqsa University. This means that unlike other 20 year olds in Gaza, Qadas has been lucky enough not to have experienced any of the six others conflicts with Israel since 2005.

    He told me:

    This is the first war I have experienced in Gaza. I am volunteering at GSK for eight months now, and still studying online, although I have changed to a nursing degree so I could finish quicker. I arrived here three months before the war, with my sister, and my mother and father. We bought a house in the North of Gaza but it was bombed on the fourth day of the war. We then lived in my grandather’s house but he also ended up losing his home, so now we are in a tent in the South. Two months into the war, my father also had a stroke. We have lost everything.

    Qadas’ has volunteered with GSK for the past eight months, and says his work as photographer, moving from site to site and talking with everyone, has taught him so much about Gaza, its people, and about life in general, and he is grateful for this experience.

    Hope for a better tomorrow

    Qadas also told me:

    We are like a family at GSK. I work from 5am until 8pm sometimes, but I love it. To be honest, before this work, I knew nothing about Gaza or its people, but my work as a volunteer with GSK has been so good for me and I’ve learnt so much and now understand much more.

    He explains:

    All the time, I say I am so sad, I need to go to another country, but Gaza’s people have positive energy. They are still smiling and say tomorrow will be better. I don’t know how they are like this. And you know, from nothing they do everything. for example, we don’t have a shower so he makes a shower. We don’t have a lighter, he makes a lighter. How, I don’t know! People in Gaza say that everything that happens in your life is from God, that God knows what is best for you. I am learning so much from them.

    As the ceasefire officially takes effect, a fragile sense of relief has spread across Gaza. But the guarantee of aid is filled with uncertainty. Netanyahu has how announced that only 300 trucks of supplies will be allowed into Gaza, half the number previously agreed upon, because Hamas has, as yet been unable to find all bodies of Israeli prisoners still in Gaza.

    Road to recovery

    Despite the setbacks, Gaza Soup Kitchen (GSK) continues with its tireless work, and will, no doubt, be returning to the North to continue its operations, as conditions allow. The reduced flow of supplies stretches the charity’s resources thin, but volunteers like Qadas remain determined to provide hot meals, water, and essential parcels to thousands of families still struggling to survive.

    The road to recovery will be long for those in Gaza. Homes must be rebuilt, loved ones mourned, and dignity restored. Yet, in the face of hardship, the resilience of Gaza’s population endures, and is sustained by the small but vital support of organizations like GSK and the hope of a better tomorrow.

    The road to recovery for Gaza’s people will be long. They face the challenge of rebuilding their homes, grieving lost family members, and also reclaiming their dignity. Yet the resilience of Gaza’s population endures, and is sustained by the small but vital support of organizations like GSK, and the hope of a better tomorrow.

    Please help Gaza Soup Kitchen with its vital work by donating here.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘We died a thousand times’: Freed Palestinian detainees describe horrific torture

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Romana Rubeo

    Hundreds of Palestinians released from Israeli prisons in recent days have described scenes of systematic torture, starvation, and humiliation.

    Their accounts, gathered by The Guardian, TRT, Al-Mayadeen, Quds News Network, and Palestine Online, among others, offer a rare glimpse into what human rights organisations call a “policy of abuse” targeting Palestinian detainees.

    According to the reports, many of the freed prisoners returned to Gaza emaciated, injured, and traumatised, some learning only after their release that their families had been killed during Israel’s war on the besieged Strip.

    In testimony published by The Guardian, 33-year-old Naseem al-Radee recalled the moment Israeli prison guards “gave him a farewell gift” before his release.

    “They bound his hands, placed him on the ground and beat him without mercy,” the report said, describing how Radee’s first sight of Gaza after nearly two years was “blurry,” the result of a boot to the eye.

    Radee, a government employee from Beit Lahia, was kidnapped by Israeli soldiers at a displacement shelter in Gaza in December 2023. He spent 22 months in detention, including 100 days in an underground cell, before being released alongside 1700 other Palestinians this week under the ceasefire agreement.

    “They used teargas and rubber bullets to intimidate us, in addition to constant verbal abuse and insults,” The Guardian cited Radee as saying regarding his time in Nafha prison in the Naqab desert.

    “They had a strict system of repression; the electronic gate of the section would open when the soldiers entered, and they would come in with their dogs, shouting ‘on your stomach, on your stomach,’ and start beating us mercilessly”, the testimony continued.

    According to the report, cramped and unsanitary cells, fungal infections, starvation, and routine beatings defined his captivity. Upon release, Radee tried to call his wife, only to learn that she and all but one of his children had been killed during his detention.

    “I was very happy to be released because the date coincided with my youngest daughter Saba’s third birthday,” he said.

    “I tried to find some joy in being released on this day, but sadly, Saba went with my family, and my joy went with her.”

    Sound torture
    Also speaking to The Guardian, 22-year-old university student Mohammed al-Asaliya described contracting scabies in prison and being denied treatment.

    “There was no medical care,” he said. “We tried to treat ourselves by using floor disinfectant on our wounds, but it only made them worse. The mattresses were filthy, the environment unhealthy, our immunity weak, and the food contaminated.”

    He recalled an area “they called ‘the disco,’ where they played loud music nonstop for two days straight.”

    The sound torture, he said, was combined with physical abuse: “They also hung us on walls, sprayed us with cold air and water, and sometimes threw chilli powder on detainees.”

    By the time of his release, Asaliya’s weight had dropped from 75 kg to 42 kg.

    ‘We died a thousand times a day’
    In testimony recorded by Palestine Online, journalist and former detainee Shadi Abu Sido described what he called “unimaginable torture”.

    “They used to say: ‘Take, eat.’ But I didn’t want anything for myself. About 1800 of us were released, and thousands are still inside,” Abu Sido recounted.

    “If you die once a day, we have died a thousand times a day, each day. We didn’t know the day, the hour, or even the date.

    “We forgot what sleep feels like, how food tastes. In the middle of the night, they would splash water on us, in our cells.”

    In another video posted by Palestine Online, Abu Sido added:

    “They torture and abuse us in every possible way, physically and psychologically. We don’t sleep; they threaten us about our children. ‘We killed your children, we killed your children. There is no Gaza’.”

    “I entered Gaza and I found a scene from the Day of Judgment,” he said.

    ‘I made this for my daughter’
    In a video published by Al-Mayadeen, another recently freed detainee collapsed in tears as he learned that his entire family had been killed. Holding a handmade toy he crafted in prison, he said:

    “My children are dead. I made this for my daughter. Her birthday was on October 18; my daughter was two years old. Bara is eight years old.

    “My beloved ones have been killed.”

    ‘They amputated my leg’
    Speaking to TRT World, Palestinian prisoner Jibril al-Safadi described the brutality that cost him his leg:

    “My leg was amputated in prison due to severe torture. The situation was tough: relentless suffering. There were savage beatings and horrible torture,” he said. “They transferred me to Sde Teiman.

    “There was no medical care. They amputated my right leg.

    We faced everything you can expect, even the dogs’ raping, torturing of detainees. Killing men is usual, like it’s an ordinary thing.”

    A system of abuse
    The Guardian report cited Palestinian medical officials in Gaza who confirmed that many detainees arrived “in poor physical health,” bearing “bruises, fractures, wounds, and marks from restraints that had bound their hands tightly.”

    Eyad Qaddih, the director of public relations at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, reportedly said many of the released prisoners had to be transferred to the emergency room.

    “The signs of beating and torture were clearly visible,” he told The Guardian.

    The report cited the Israeli NGO Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), as saying that about 2800 Palestinians from Gaza remain in Israeli prisons without charge.

    Most were detained under emergency laws amended after October 7, 2023, allowing for indefinite administrative detention of anyone deemed an “unlawful combatant”.

    PCATI’s executive director, Tal Steiner, said that “the amount and scale of torture and abuse in Israeli prisons and military camps has skyrocketed since October 7.”

    She described the escalation as “part of a policy led by Israeli decision-makers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and others.”

    Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister, has repeatedly bragged about providing Palestinian prisoners with “the minimum of the minimum” food and supplies.

    The Guardian reports: In total, 88 Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons and sent to the occupied West Bank on Monday – the other nearly 2000, a number that includes about 1700 Palestinians seized from Gaza during the war and held without charge, were sent back to Gaza, where a minority would travel on to neighbouring countries.

    Before Monday’s release, 11,056 Palestinians were held in Israeli prisons, according to statistics from the Israeli NGO HaMoked in October 2025. At least 3500 of those were held in administrative detention without trial. An Israeli military database has indicated that only a quarter of those detained in Gaza were classified as fighters.

    Republished with permission from The Palestine Chronicle

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Ministry of Defence password breaches came from weak security

    New research has revealed that more than 3,000 passwords belonging to UK civil servants have been publicly exposed since the start of 2024. Institutions that were among the most affected are the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Ministry of Justice, Department for Work and Pensions, and the UK Parliament.

    NordPass, in collaboration with the cybersecurity platform NordStellar, published the findings. They show the MoD among the top three government departments with compromised credentials.

    The Ministry of Defence can’t even defend itself

    Researchers discovered 111 passwords linked to the Ministry of Defence in publicly available or dark-web databases. This is the same department that claims to safeguard the nation’s most sensitive military data.

    This is not a hostile foreign power infiltrating Britain. It is Britain’s own bureaucracy shooting itself in the foot.

    Every week, government ministers flock to the despatch box with the same script. Time and time again, these same phrases echo from ministers week after week: “security threats”, “safeguards” and “national defence”. The narrative is clear: there are dangerous outsiders who threaten the safety of the British people, and the state must remain vigilant.

    But these new revelations force a different question. How can a government that can’t secure its own logins claim to secure an entire nation?

    111 leaked passwords might sound minor, but in the world of defence networks, one breach is enough to compromise an entire system.

    Hollow rhetoric

    Karolis Arbačiauskas, head of product at NordPass, said:

    Exposure of sensitive data, including passwords, of civil servants is particularly dangerous. Compromised passwords can affect not only organizations and their employees but also large numbers of citizens.

    Researchers found that many of these passwords were weak, recycled or linked to multiple accounts. Some had been circulating for months. The study warns that such exposures pose a “serious risk to a country’s strategic interests”, especially when tied to official email domains.

    Espionage doesn’t happen, in today’s age, by secret agents stealing briefcases from a secret safe somewhere. It happens through forgotten logins, poor credential management and lazy IT systems.

    What adds insult to injury is that the NordPass study revealed that many of these breaches originated not from sophisticated hacks but from basic user error. Things like officials registering work emails on third-party sites or reusing passwords across platforms.

    Despite all the rhetoric about strength and defiance, the UK’s digital defences look alarmingly hollow. The Ministry of Defence has effectively left 111 doors open online, yet it is ordinary people who face the full force of the law for exposing state failures.

    The state goes after the good Samaritans who dare to expose power instead.

    When Palestine Action breached a Ministry of Defence (MoD) airbase earlier this year to protest Britain’s arms exports to Israel, the government didn’t call it civil disobedience, whistleblowing, or protest. It called it terrorism. Their actions were condemned as a grave security risk, an ‘attack on the nation’.

    And yet, at the very same time, the Ministry itself was caught leaking passwords into the public domain. If trespassing on an airbase makes you a terrorist, what does it make a government department that leaves its virtual front gate unlocked?

    Featured image via British Army/YouTube screenshot

    By Jamal Awar

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Establishment uses ‘de-banking’ to attack anti-genocide activists – again

    It appears that theeEstablishment is again targeting anti-genocide activists with ‘de-banking’ as a form of punishment for standing up for the survival and human rights of the Palestinian people. Again.

    Last July, well-known Jewish anti-genocide campaigner Tony Greenstein came under a ‘financial terrorism’ attack from the British state, which appears to have ordered or intimidated banks to close his accounts one by one for his support of the Palestinian people.

    ‘De-banking’ abound

    Greenstein first had his account with HSBC subsidiary First Direct. He’d banked with them for more than thirty years, but his account was frozen in March without explanation. Then, it was un-frozen a couple of weeks later, equally without explanation. Later, in July, he received an ‘urgent’ email telling him to sign in to his online banking and found a message telling him that – supposedly because of a ‘periodic review’ – the bank had decided it would no longer offer him banking facilities. Appeals to the bank’s senior management made no difference.

    But that wasn’t all. First Direct’s parent bank HSBC also unilaterally withdrew Greenstein’s banking facility, for an account he used to send money to his wife for the care of their autistic son – again without explaining its reasons, and again using the same excuse of ‘periodic review’.

    And the saga still wasn’t over. A completely separate bank, Santander, then also told him he was facing a periodic review, though his banking facility wasn’t withdrawn immediately – a shot across the bows, perhaps.

    But the tactic has apparently been wheeled out again – and against supporters of Palestine. John Nicholson, a retired barrister, and retired nurse Norma Turner, who are members of Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine (GMFP) and signatories to its bank account with Virgin Money, say that their personal account with Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) has been hit in the same way.

    ‘Inexplicable’

    A 27 September letter from YBS informed the couple that their account, which they have held for five years, would be closed three days later and the balance sent to them by cheque. Nicholson said:

    Neither of us have never been in financial difficulties, never been in debt, [other than] mortgages, but paid those off. Never had any criminal record, fraud or anything of that sort of whatsoever.

    This is just inexplicable [but] obviously it’s not inexplicable because it’s to do with Palestine. It’s as simple as that but it’s inexplicable in that this was an amount of money we’ve got from retirement, put into a savings account, rolled it forward in a fixed-term bond, when that finished, rolled it forward in another one.

    They’d accepted it quite happily to be rolled forward (again) as little as a month or two ago, and there were no transactions, no link to any other accounts. This kind of behaviour has just never happened in our lifetime of activism before, and is suddenly happening to activists and to organisations and to people.

    If it isn’t Palestine, then why doesn’t YBS say what reason it is?

    The GMFP account was also hit – frozen without explanation on 10 July and still frozen now. That suspension happened five days after non-violent activist group Palestine Action (PA) was banned as a terrorist organisation, but GMFP is entirely unconnected to PA. Another GMFP banking signatory has also had their personal account withdrawn but did not wish to go public.

    The Starmer government has been waging war on the rights of UK citizens ever since Israel began its genocide in Gaza – rights of free speech, protest and assembly – through an ever-escalating ‘lawfare’ campaign of raids, harassment, arrests, seizure of electronics and in some cases prosecution, for which it has been slammed by the United Nations and European Commission. Events this year strongly suggest that the war is also a financial one.

    Featured image via Unsplash/Joshua Lawrence

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • British sailors may get medals defending the Israeli genocide

    British sailors could be in line for medals for supporting the Israeli genocide of Gaza. In a story that nearly slipped under the radar, a British minister (with links to military and private intelligence) told parliament of the plans.

    On 13 October, Liberal Democrat MP Martin Wrigley asked the Secretary of Defence:

    if he will award medals to the crew of the HMS Diamond for their work during the period of November 2023 and July 2024.

    But that day it was Labour veterans minister Louise Sandher-Jones who answered:

    Medallic recognition for the operational activity undertaken by HMS Diamond during the period November 2023 and July 2024, is under consideration by the Ministry of Defence in accordance with the existing process.

    Yemen attacks

    But what was HMS Diamond doing between November 2023 and 2026?

    Well, readers. HMS Diamond, a type-45 Royal Navy frigate, was taking on Houthi drones.

    The UK Defence Journal says the vessel:

    played a key role in international maritime operations following a series of Houthi attacks on commercial and naval vessels transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

    In fact:

    In December 2023, Diamond shot down a suspected attack drone launched from Houthi-controlled Yemen using its Sea Viper missile system, marking the first time in decades that a Royal Navy ship had engaged an aerial target in combat.

    The Journals said:

    the ship was credited with downing nine hostile drones and an anti-ship ballistic missile while providing protection to international shipping and allied vessels.

    Anti-genocide operations

    But why were Yemen’s Houthis firing at shipping? Well, a better question might be ‘whose shipping were they firing at?’

    As the Canary reported at the time, the Houthis say they were targeting Israeli-owned and genocide-linked shipping in the Red Sea:

    Since October 2023, the Houthis have carried out near-daily attacks against Israeli-linked commercial shipping in the Red Sea, as well as targeting Israeli infrastructure, such as air and sea ports. They have stepped up their campaign against the occupation since Israel broke the ceasefire in March, launching dozens of missiles and drones at it.

    And why were they firing at said shipping? Well, the Houthis would claim they were trying to stop the Israeli genocide of Palestinians:

    These attacks have been successful, with huge impacts on Israel. More than 100 commercial ships in the Red Sea have been targeted, resulting in costly detours and insurance hikes, and Eilat Port has been forced to reduce its operations by 90 percent.

    Now the Canary isn’t in the habit of co-signing anyone’s missile strikes. But this really seems like an important detail. One which is absent from the parliamentary exchange above. And from the little coverage of that exchange in the press.

    And all in all, the Houthis seem determined to keep harassing shipping despite a ceasefire agreement being in force in Gaza.

    Sandher-Jones background

    The story doesn’t stop there. Labour’s Sandher-Jones deserves attention too. She is one of a group of new ex-military MPs Keir Starmer steered into parliament with some fanfare. Starmer likes nothing more than being photographed close to military things and people.

    Before becoming an MP, she served in military intelligence in Afghanistan. And later joined the private intelligence firm Mackenzie Intelligence Services (MIS).

    MIS experts have regularly appeared in the media to discuss military and intelligence issues around Iran, Gaza and Syria.

    The Canary is unaware of any timescale for medal awards for the sailors who engaged Houthi drones aimed at Israel or genocide-linked shipping. Rest assured, we’ll be keeping an eye out for updates.

    Featured image via House of Commons/Roger Harris

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • French Senate endorses postponement of New Caledonia’s provincial elections

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    A controversial piece of legislation to postpone the date for New Caledonia’s crucial provincial elections passed its first hurdle in the French Senate on Wednesday.

    The vote was endorsed in the French Upper House by a large majority of 299-42.

    The day before, another piece of constitutional legislation was also tabled before the Council of Ministers as a matter of emergency just hours after Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s second Cabinet in a week was appointed.

    Earlier this month, the postponement of the polls was approved in principle by New Caledonia’s Congress.

    In the form of an “organic law”, it is part of the implementation process of the Bougival agreement text, which was signed on July 12 near Paris, and initially signed by all of New Caledonia’s parties, both pro-France and pro-independence.

    However, one of the main components of the pro-independence movement, the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), denounced the agreement a few days later, saying it did not meet the party’s demands in terms of quick accession to full sovereignty.

    The FLNKS said their negotiators’ signatures were therefore now considered null and void.

    For the purposes of implementing the text, despite very tight deadlines, one part of its implementation should leave more time for negotiations and it was perceived one way to achieve this was to postpone the elections (which were scheduled to be held not later than November 30) until not later than end of June 2026.

    The move, if it succeeds, has to happen before November 2. It means that before then the same text has to be endorsed by the Lower House, the French National Assembly.

    If it fails, then the provincial elections’ date will have to be maintained at the original date and under the current voting restrictions.

    Before that, New Caledonia’s provincial elections were already postponed twice — initially scheduled to take place in May 2024, then re-scheduled to no later than December 2024 — mostly because of the civil unrest that shook New Caledonia after the deadly May 2024 riots.

    The riots were themselves the culmination of pro-independence protests and marches that escalated in response to a French government project to modify the conditions of eligibility for local elections and lift previous restrictions on the electoral roll.

    At the time, pro-independence opponents said this would have resulted in indigenous voters becoming a minority because their vote would be diluted.

    During debates in the Senate this week, what was presented as a “bipartisan” Bill also stressed the need to resolve current disagreements on the Bougival agreement and take more time to include FLNKS with the rest of New Caledonian parties.

    Opponents to the text, among others the French Greens (les Ecologistes) and the Communist Party, maintained that FLNKS had rejected the Bougival deal “in block”, because such agreement simply “doesn’t exist”.

    Passage en force
    They are accusing the French government of attempting to pass the text “by force”.

    The same text is scheduled to be tabled before the Lower House (National Assembly) next week on October 22.

    But in the Lower House, debates will be tougher and the final vote will be much more uncertain. The Lower House majority is not clear, MPs being split between the centre right, the far right, the centre left and the far left.

    While reactions from the pro-France politicians in Nouméa yesterday were mostly favourable to the latest Senate vote, the now-dominant component within FLNKS, the Union Calédonienne (UC), held a media conference to once again express its disapproval of postponing the local elections.

    Instead, it wanted the original dates — before November 30 — to be maintained, along with the current voting eligibility restrictions.

    Fresh talks with FLNKS?
    UC President Emmanuel Tjibaou told local media this did not exclude that further negotiations could be held after the local elections.

    But in reference to the May 2024 riots, Tjibaou said he feared that “the same mistakes of the past … The passage en force… are being made again”.

    He said discussions and debates must prevail on the Parliament floor.

    Tjibaou is flying to Paris at the weekend to take part in the National Assembly (of which he is one of the two elected MPs for New Caledonia) vote on 22 October 2025.

    “This is an alert, an appeal to good sense, not a threat,” UC secretary-general Dominique Fochi added.

    “If this passage en force happens, we really don’t know what is going to happen,” Fochi said.

    Another component of the pro-independence chessboard in New Caledonia, the PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party), usually described as more “moderate”, has also reacted on Thursday to the French Senate’s vote.

    “This is rather good news, because it is part of the Bougival timeframe and we support this,” PALIKA leader Charles Washetine said.

    PALIKA and UPM (Progressist Union in Melanesia) both decided to distance themselves from the FLNKS, of which they were both key members, at the end of August 2024.

    Since the Bougival agreement was signed, PALIKA and UPM have sided in support of the deal, which envisions the creation of a “State of New Caledonia”, of a French-New Caledonian dual nationality and the short-term transfer of key powers from France, such as foreign affairs.

    Those notions, amounting to a de facto Constitution for New Caledonia, are to be also later included to translate into appropriate legal terms in the French Constitution.

    This should be submitted to Parliament “by the end of this year”, Lecornu said during his maiden Parliament address on Tuesday, October 14.

    And sometime “this spring (2026)”, qualified citizens of New Caledonia would also have to vote on the text by way of a referendum dedicated to the subject.

    Bougival agreement ‘allows a path to reconciliation’ – Lecornu
    “The Bougival agreement allows a path to reconciliation. It must be transcribed into the Constitution”, Lecornu told the National Assembly.

    Also speaking in Parliament for the first time since she was appointed Minister for Overseas, Naïma Moutchou said that in her new capacity, she would be there “to listen” and “to act”.

    This, she said, included trying to re-engage FLNKS into fresh talks, with the possibility of bringing some amendments to the much-contested Bougival text.

    France's new Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou
    France’s new Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou . . .”We cannot do it without the FLNKS. And we will not do it without the FLNKS,” Image: Assemblée Nationale/RNZ

    “To translate Bougival into facts takes time”.

    She also admitted that a real consensus was needed.

    “We cannot do it without the FLNKS. And we will not do it without the FLNKS,” she said.

    She spoke in defence of the postponement of local elections.

    “To postpone elections does not mean to postpone democracy, it means giving it back solid foundations, it is to choose lucidity rather than precipitation”, she told MPs.

    Meanwhile, yesterday in Paris, PM Lecornu, who formed his cabinet last Sunday, survived his first batch of two simultaneous motions of no-confidence in the National Assembly.

    The first, filed by far-right Rassemblement National (RN), received the support of 271 MPs, not enough to reach the necessary 289 votes.

    The second, filed by far-left La France Insoumise (LFI, France Unbowed), received 144 votes.

    During the pre-censure vote debates, New Caledonian MP pro-France Nicolas Metzdorf took the floor for a few minutes telling MPs that if it could serve as an inspiration, in the French Pacific territory, local laws made it impossible for a government to be toppled less than 18 months after it was formed.

    Lecornu, who is very knowledgeable on New Caledonia’s affairs because of his two-year experience as French Minister for Overseas in 2020-2022, was all smiles.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Israeli Assault Has Left 20,000 Unexploded Bombs Across Gaza, Officials Estimate

    As the ceasefire agreement tentatively holds and Palestinians return to their homes in hopes of rebuilding after Israel’s genocide, Gaza officials estimate that there are massive amounts of rubble and unexploded bombs that stand in the way of their efforts, potentially laying in wait to cause further harm. On Thursday, the Gaza Government Media Office reported that officials estimate that…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • General Strike Kicks Off With Road Cuts And Logistics Sites Blocks

    The first protests and demonstrations of Wednesday’s general strike day saw more than a hundred people block access to the Zona Franca industrial area and Mercabarna market wholesalers in Barcelona.

    Workers at car manufacturer Seat went on strike during the night shift.

    The strike has been called across the country to stand in solidarity with Palestine.

    The atmosphere of the protest is peaceful and festive.

    The demonstrating workers then moved to the entrances of the Port of Barcelona, from where the different groups gathered together and started marching towards the city centre.

    The post General Strike Kicks Off With Road Cuts And Logistics Sites Blocks appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • When Ceasefire Finally Arrived Here in Gaza, What Poured Out of Me Was Grief

    I thought that joy would keep me awake after the ceasefire in Gaza was confirmed in the hours before dawn on October 10, but instead, tears did. I opened my phone to check on my people, only to find sorrow spreading everywhere. After two years of endless war, what poured out of many of us was not joy — it was the grief we had buried too long. There was no true cry of joy around me as there…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Palestinian hostages bodies reveal that Israel turns prisons into graveyards of torture

    With the implementation of the third phase of the ‘Flood of the Free’ deal, a new group of prisoners from the Gaza Strip regained their freedom after many years of detention in Israeli occupation prisons.

    However, the freedom they had eagerly awaited did not come as they had hoped; most of them emerged with exhausted bodies, amputated limbs, chronic illnesses, and deep scars that bear witness to the cruelty of the torture and ill-treatment they were subjected to, especially during the last months prior to their release.

    This report documents the most serious violations committed by the occupation authorities against the released prisoners and analyses them in light of international humanitarian law and international human rights law as war crimes and crimes against humanity that are not subject to a statute of limitations.

    This report reviews the conditions in which prisoners lived in Israeli prisons, as revealed by a number of those who were released from prison a few days ago.

    Occupation practices against Gaza prisoners prior to release

    Based on the testimonies of released prisoners, the Israeli prison administration’s treatment during the period prior to their release was characterised by the following patterns.

    Continuous physical torture:

    • Prisoners were severely beaten for days on end, especially during the last four days before their release, which was described as a ‘farewell gift.’
    • Sharp instruments and rifle butts were used in the assaults, with deliberate focus on old injuries.
    • Torture with electric shocks, prolonged shackling, and forcing prisoners into painful physical positions.

    Psychological humiliation and threats:

    • Threatening prisoners with the killing of their children or the demolition of their homes in Gaza.
    • Spreading false news about the martyrdom of their families in order to break them psychologically.
    • Depriving them of communication with the outside world and the most basic elements of human dignity.

    Inhumane conditions of detention:

    • Prisoners describe the cells as ‘silent graves’: cramped, dark, lacking ventilation and blankets.
    • Severe shortage of food, water and personal hygiene items.
    • Blankets are only allowed for four hours a day, with prisoners sleeping on the cold floor the rest of the time.
    • Skin diseases such as scabies are widespread as a result of deliberate neglect of health.

    Systematic medical neglect

    • A number of prisoners have died due to being denied treatment.
    • Leaving the wounded without medical care and even assaulting their injuries during torture.
    • Amputation of limbs and permanent disabilities among some of those released as a result of this neglect.

    Testimonies from released prisoners

    A number of prisoners detailed their experiences in Israel’s prisons. Naji al-Jaafari said:

    What I experienced in captivity can only be described as a slow death… starvation, torture, isolation, humiliation… every day felt like a whole year.

    Abdul Hamid Alian said:

    We slept on iron beds without mattresses, blindfolded all day long, unable to see the light and hearing nothing but screams.

    Mahmoud Abu Salah said:

    They tied us up at 3 a.m. and threatened to kill my children… Dogs slept on top of us all night long.

    Mansour Atef Rayan said:

    They forced prisoners to beat each other with their shoes, and those who refused were subjected to group beatings and electric shocks.

    Additional testimonies show that some prisoners entered prison on their own two feet and left in wheelchairs as a result of torture and amputation, while others discovered that they had lost their entire families during the war on Gaza, facing a double tragedy of pain and loss.

    Clear signs of torture

    Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director general of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, said that the released prisoners who arrived at the complex clearly showed signs of torture and ill-treatment, noting that some of them had lost limbs, while others suffered from chronic injuries for which they had received no treatment during their detention.

    For its part, the International Solidarity Foundation with Palestinian Prisoners (Tadamon) confirmed that the widespread images of the released prisoners constitute compelling visual evidence of the scale of the grave and systematic violations that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity according to the Geneva Conventions.

    The Prisoners’ Media Office explained that what is happening inside prisons constitutes a slow genocide against Palestinian prisoners, carried out away from the eyes of the media and international organisations, under a systematic blackout aimed at concealing crimes and preventing access by international observers and investigators.

    The office called on the international community to take urgent action to release all prisoners, especially the sick, those who are older, those held in administrative detention and those forcibly disappeared, considering their continued detention a direct threat to their lives and a flagrant violation of all humanitarian rules.

    It also called on the United Nations, the Human Rights Council and the International Committee of the Red Cross to send fact-finding committees to investigate and document these violations as a policy of systematic torture.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • UN, ICC Urged to Investigate Murder of Palestinian Journalist Saleh Aljafarawi

    On Monday, October 13, legal representatives for murdered Palestinian journalist Saleh Aljafarawi filed complaints and demands for investigation with the International Criminal Court and multiple UN committees and special rapporteurs, Sara Segneri, a partner at Confinium Strategies, announced this week on social media. The requests for investigations were sent to UN Special Rapporteur for…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Gaza to become a tax-free ‘billionaire haven’ according to Jared Kushner and Zionist billionaires

    Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, along with Epstein-linked Palantir boss Peter Thiel and pro-Israel Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, plan to turn Gaza into a haven for billionaires. They plan to do so with a city of tax-free startups, with scattered server farms for cloud processing and artificial intelligence. That will supplement factories with cheap labour, and simple regulations will also smooth the way for “normalization with Saudi Arabia”, according to Israeli media outlet N12.

    The article – which, interestingly, does not seem to appear on the site’s English-search version – says that:

    The huge economic project of rebuilding Gaza after the war is already attracting interest from countries, billionaires and former leaders [and] from Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who aspires to establish Al centers in the Strip, to foreign investors looking for enabling regulation.

    Experts predict [that] the development initiatives could serve as leverage to promote normalization with Saudi Arabia, also through Kushner’s involvement, but the road there is still fraught with political and security obstacles.

    It notes that Ellison is ready to put $350 million into the plan, which is in line with Trump’s notorious and unlawful ‘Gaza riviera‘ ethnic cleansing plan and fascist Israeli ministers’ Gaza ‘real estate bonanza’.

    Featured image via Forbes Breaking News/Youtube screenshot

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Far-right former Reform candidate targets Muslim journalist with despicable threats

    Far-right hate groups, including a former Reform UK candidate, have targeted a Muslim journalist in a two-year-long “alarming and sustained campaign” of physical harassment, intimidation, and digital violence.

    Mariam Elsayeh has faced physical assaults at pro-Palestine protests, along with a vicious online defamation campaign. This has put her in grave danger and directly attacks press freedom in the UK.

    Mariam works for a number of outlets, including Al Jazeera Arabic and ITN. She is also an elected member of the UK’s Ethics Council of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

    Physical intimidation of Muslim journalist

    The intimidation began back in October 2023. She recalls being punched in the face and kicked while covering a protest outside the Israeli embassy. Following that incident, her primary alleged stalker, a Reform UK politician and 2024 parliamentary candidate, attempted to intimidate her by photographing her press badge.

    Mariam told the Canary:

    Initially, I didn’t perceive it as part of an organised campaign; I thought each incident was isolated. It was only later—when the harassment was cynically referred to as a “birthday gift”—that I realised the scale and coordination behind it. That moment made me feel naïve for having underestimated the situation and confirmed that this was not an isolated case.

    Since then, the Reform UK politician has allegedly appeared at numerous events she has attended. He also reportedly showed up at a family Eid celebration, which was deeply threatening.

    On September 6, 2025, the situation reportedly escalated. According to her account, the Reform UK politician verbally threatened her, saying,

    You’re done.

    At one point, a Tommy Robinson supporter attempted to pull off her hijab during an NUJ vigil while accusing her of supporting Hamas.

    Co-ordinated online attacks have systematically amplified the physical intimidation. After she spoke at two recent NUJ vigils against the murder of Palestinian journalists, she was then attacked on social media, including being called a “terrorist supporter.”

    Pro-Israel lobby

    On September 2, 2025, the pro-Israel media watchdog Honest Reporting published an article containing defamatory allegations against Elsayeh. They falsely characterised her as a “rabid anti-Israel social media personality” and an “apologist for terrorism.”

    The far-right circulated the article widely, which triggered a further wave of coordinated online hate speech.

    Replies on these social networks included direct threats such as:

    Don’t worry, we will deal with her in due course.

    And calls to:

    Deport her and air drop her into one of the 57 barbaric Islamic countries.

    Mariam said:

    At first, I didn’t even know the individual was linked to the Reform movement. It became clear only after the article was published, when his behaviour escalated to the point of intimidation. My legal team grew concerned that this might involve a diplomatic or political dimension and suggested seeking FCDO guidance, given the potential cross-border nature of the harassment. When colleagues in journalism later helped identify his name and role, it came as a complete shock. Until then, I had assumed it was a personal dispute, not a coordinated act. Still, I am naive again, cause this person’s first show-up to me was with an Israeli influencer.

    Shockingly, despite the explicit threats to her safety, none of the implicated tech platforms, including Meta’s Facebook and Threads or X, took action to remove the content. This meant the content remained public and put her in more danger.

    On September 6, 2025, a far-right protester shouted that “she should be beheaded”.

    Other online attacks include xenophobic and Islamophobic incitement, with calls for her deportation and defamatory accusations labelling her an “odious rat” and “Islamist.”

    A “critically insufficient response”

    The police advised that Mariam and her family leave her home due to the extreme threat level. However, this wasn’t possible due to personal circumstances. This meant they inadvertently exposed her family to further abuse.

    Mariam told Skyline International for Human Rights:

    What truly breaks me is seeing my children pulled into these threats without mercy — growing up between police visits and social care checks. That is not a normal life, and it must never be normalised.

    Recently, the situation has escalated. Mariam and her family are now under the protection of the Police Victim and Witness Protection Unit, in coordination with Social Services. Yet, she emphasises that her case is not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern of suppression.

    My story should never distract from the real story.

    But it is also part of it: the silencing of voices that challenge the Israeli narrative. That is the real issue.

    A threat to democracy

    Mariam told the Canary that, whilst it’s important to recognise how seriously the situation became, focusing on the broader issues is more significant. That is, of course, the intimidation of journalists and trade unionists, which poses a threat to the very foundations of a democratic society.

    She continued:

    Such experiences can challenge our commitment to public roles and vital journalistic work. I am immensely thankful for the solidarity and support that have enabled me to continue, but it is crucial to recognise how easily others might be discouraged. This understanding underscores the necessity of collective protection and solidarity.

    No one working in journalism or representing others through their union should face intimidation while serving the public interest. When one of us is targeted, it impacts the freedom and safety of us all.

    She added that it is vital that we address the concerning trends of fascist language and tactics, which are creeping into democratic societies across Europe.

    Finally, she said:

    This rising hostility often targets Muslims, immigrants, and those who advocate for Palestine or challenge dominant narratives. Recognising these issues is the first step in safeguarding not only individuals but also the democratic values and pluralism that Europe aspires to protect. Together, we can foster understanding and resilience, creating a more inclusive and secure society for everyone.

    Feature image via Abdullah Bailey

    By HG

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • LSE staff pen searing open letter against controversial sexual violence project

    Staff at the London School of Economics (LSE) have come out against the instrumentalisation of sexual violence in support of genocide.

    The group of highly-regarded experts on the Middle East and gender issues are on a collision course with senior management. Meanwhile, bosses insist an event platforming the controversial Dinah Project will go ahead.

    LSE staff speak out

    Staff weren’t pulling any punches in their open letter:

    LSE senior management has been insisting on the Middle East Centre hosting the event. Centre staff pointed out that the report lacks academic rigor and presents several flawed assertions, and the Centre will now not host or endorse the event

    They say the Dinah Project’s claims draws on racist tropes about Arab and Muslim men. And also ignores sexual violence carried out by Israel against Palestinians.

    Undoubtedly, the Dinah Project has positioned itself as a champion of alleged sexual violence victims on 7 October. However it’s website says:

    While acknowledging the circumstantial nature of this evidence,
the team concluded it indicates deliberate sexual violence, including sexually motivated torture and cruel treatment. The team was also convinced that this violence persists against the remaining hostages.

    However, entire LSE academic departments have refused to attend the meeting, scheduled for 16 October:

    With the unsubstantiated nature of the claims put forward, the severe methodological shortcomings, and the propagandist tone of the report, the Gender department, the Centre for Women, Peace and Security alongside other scholars of sexual and gender-based violence at LSE have also refused to be involved in this event.

    The letter continues:

    Overall, multiple parties have expressed concerns with the academic inadequacy of the report, and its instrumentalization of sexual violence to manufacture consent for the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.

    Manufacturing consent for genocide

    Electronic Intifada journalist Asa Winstanley was among the first to raise the alarm:

    He warned LSE that it was being used to launder a factually questionable report:

    And, Winstanley is not alone in his criticism.

    In February 2024, the allegations carried in a notorious New York Times article were questioned by the Intercept.

    Investigative reporters Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim spoke to Democracy Now on the issue in March 2024:

    Israeli use of sexual violence

    In March, the United Nations (UN) called out Israel’s “systematic” use of sexual violence against Palestinians.

    The UN said:

    Israel has increasingly employed sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinians as part of a broader effort to undermine their right to self-determination and carried out genocidal acts through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities.

    Navi Pillay, chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said:

    There is no escape from the conclusion that Israel has employed sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians to terrorise them and perpetuate a system of oppression that undermines their right to self-determination.

    At this stage in the Israeli genocide against Palestinians the words “every accusation, a confession” are getting a little tired. But once again we find ourselves having to deploy them.

    LSE staff have made their strength of feeling known. And, their expert analysis of the situation makes one thing clear. The claims of sexual violence against Israeli hostages are unsubstantiated, methodologically flawed, and, might we add, politically expedient. However, the sexual abuse and torture of Palestinian hostages has been recorded by independent and verifiable sources. And, it is plainly a central facet of the Zionist attacks on Palestine to use sexual violence as a weapon of war.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • 2,000 face terrorism charges as Palestine Action supporters’ hearings begin

    Yesterday, 15 October, court hearings began for the roughly 2,000 people who stand accused of showing support for Palestine Action. The government proscribed the campaign group as a terrorist organisation back in July. The move came after Palestine Action sprayed paint at two military planes in RAF Brize Norton, among other similar demonstrations.

    Under UK law, displaying an item showing support for a proscribed organisation is considered a low-level terrorism offence, which can be tried in a Magistrates Court. It carries a sentence of up to six months in prison. So far, 170 people have been charged.

    Police have arrested over 2,100 people for their support of Palestine Action since July. Most of them held simple placards reading “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”. Many of the protesters arrested were pensioners.

    ‘Limitations on fundamental rights’

    The Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, Michael O’Flaherty, has already urged the UK to review its protest laws. He criticised both the Palestine Action ban (and subsequent mass arrests) and other recent draconian anti-protest measures.

    In September, O’Flaherty wrote in a letter to the home secretary:

    I observe that large numbers of arrests have reportedly been made for displaying placards or banners expressing solidarity with the organisation or disagreement with the government’s decision to proscribe it.

    I am aware that ‘support’ for a proscribed group is an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000. In this regard I recall that domestic legislation designed to counter ‘terrorism’ or ‘violent extremism’ must not impose any limitations on fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, that are not strictly necessary for the protection of national security and the rights and freedoms of others.

    He went on:

    Changes following the adoption of the Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 continue to allow authorities to impose excessive limits on freedom of assembly and expression, and risk overpolicing.

    Following recent court findings that regulations defining serious disruption as ‘more than minor’ disruption are unlawful, I encourage your government to ensure that any arrests or convictions based on these regulations are subject to review.

    Furthermore, I would recommend that a comprehensive review of the compliance of the current legislation on the policing of protests with the United Kingdom’s human rights obligations be undertaken.

    Rushed trials, wasted time

    O’Flaherty wasn’t alone among official critics of the proscription, either. Police Scotland found that Palestine Action’s activities fell far below the level necessary to be considered terrorism. Green Party leader Zack Polanski has called on the government to reverse the proscription. Hell, even MI6 insiders have said that senior figures within the organisation consider it a “distraction from the battle against real terrorist threat”.

    Now, UK courts are seeing the sheer extent of the prescription’s folly playing out in real time. Currently, magistrates are planning to try the 2,000 defendants en-masse, across 400 trials. This will use up at least 200 days of the court’s time.

    The court’s plan to try five people at a time, at a rate of two trials a day, raises serious questions of fairness. A lawyer for the defence stated that this timetable wouldn’t allow each defendant adequate time to present their case.

    72-year-old defendant Deborah Wilde called out the rushed nature of the trials in court:

    I don’t think I can get a fair trial on the [time] limit that you have allocated to me. I would like to seek leave to appeal.

    District judge Michael Snow rebuffed her:

    I’m satisfied that the time is sufficient. I’m not allowing more time for the trial. Your only remedy is the High Court.

    As of yesterday, 28 of the defendants had plead ‘not guilty’. Most of them didn’t have a lawyer, and lacked clarity about what was happening to them. Many spoke about their duty to protest genocide, and their objections to the Palestine Action ban.

    Coercing silence

    However, this deplorable situation gets worse still. Prosecutors acknowledged that it would be difficult to set actual trial dates because of the ongoing court case challenging the proscription of Palestine Action.

    Magistrates have set the provisional trial dates for March 2026. However, the unknown length and outcome of the legal challenge could push that back much later in the year.

    If the prescription is overturned, the charges against Palestine Action’s supporters will most likely be dropped. However, if the ban remains, the cases of the 2,000 in court still promise to be fraught.

    As such, three lead cases which began back in September are being used as a testing ground of sorts to answer these legal quandaries. If any of these cases wind up going to the Supreme Court, the trials could be pushed back as far as 2027.

    Setting dates for 400 trials and thousands of defendants is already a logistical nightmare. Having to reschedule them, potentially multiple times, would be a colossal waste of the court’s time, the defendants’ time, and public money.

    An International Federation for Human Rights study showed that Western governments have “weaponised” counter-terrorism legislation to silence support for Palestine. Coupled with the UK’s vicious anti-protest laws, you have a recipe for the exact kind of farce we’re now seeing.

    We get it, if we were complicit in genocide, we wouldn’t want anybody talking about it either. The UK government seems to think it can just arrest its opponents into silence. This is a cowardly intimidation tactic, and what’s more, it isn’t working – the 2,000 people standing up in court over the coming years are testament to that fact.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alex/Rose Cocker

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Top EU human rights tells Starmer to back off anti-genocide protesters

    Michael O’Flaherty, the most senior human rights official in the EU, has called for changes to Keir Starmer’s ‘lawfare’ war on anti-genocide protest and those opposing Starmer’s decision to proscribe the non-violent direct action protest group Palestine Action. In a letter to Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, O’Flaherty accused his regime of imposing “excessive limits on freedom of assembly and expression” and demanded a “comprehensive” review of all arrests and the laws used against them.

    Anti-genocide protest is a human right

    O’Flaherty said:

    I observe that large numbers of arrests have reportedly been made for displaying placards or banners expressing solidarity with the organisation or disagreement with the government’s decision to proscribe it.

    I am aware that ‘support’ for a proscribed group is an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000. In this regard I recall that domestic legislation designed to counter ‘terrorism’ or ‘violent extremism’ must not impose any limitations on fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, that are not strictly necessary for the protection of national security and the rights and freedoms of others.

    Changes following the adoption of the Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 continue to allow authorities to impose excessive limits on freedom of assembly and expression, and risk over-policing.

    He continued:

    Following recent court findings that regulations defining serious disruption as ‘more than minor’ disruption are unlawful, I encourage your government to ensure that any arrests or convictions based on these regulations are subject to review.

    Furthermore, I would recommend that a comprehensive review of the compliance of the current legislation on the policing of protests with the United Kingdom’s human rights obligations be undertaken.

    Starmer’s burgeoning police state has already arrested thousands of peaceful anti-genocide and anti-proscription demonstrators, most of them older and/or disabled and often with force, while ignoring outright violence and hate from far-right mobs. Unhappy that the principled anti-genocide protesters have been undeterred, Starmer and Mahmood are preparing increased police powers specifically targeted at those protesting against Israel’s mass murder of 700,000 Palestinian civilians — two thirds of them children. This has been part of their war on UK citizens’ rights to protect Israel despite the prominence of Jewish humanitarians in the protests.

    Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Arno Mikkor, Aron Urb

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • They’re at it again: UK Lawyers for Israel is now going after Netflix and the BBC

    Genocide-denying Israel lobby group ‘UK Lawyers for Israel’ has been described by human rights group CAGE as a key UK “apartheid apologist” and caused widespread outrage recently when its chief executive criticised medical experts for not concluding that Israel’s blockade of food into Gaza was helping reduce Palestinian obesity.

    The group is also notorious for using its ‘lawfare’ approach to intimidate a hospital into taking down art by Palestinian children and trying unsuccessfully to have a Palestinian doctor struck off from the UK General Medical Council, while its chief spokeswoman was slammed by a Jewish interlocutor for claiming that discussing Israel’s genocide and starvation blockade are “blood libels” and “propaganda”.

    UK Lawyers for Israel is currently under investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for alleged “vexatious and baseless” legal threats to silence support for Palestine. Incidentally Natasha Hausdorff, one of its main spokespeople, reportedly screamed at far-right US podcaster Charlie Kirk at an ‘intervention’ about his plan to abandon his support for Israel and for ‘platforming’ right-wing critics of Israel.

    Now UK Lawyers for Israel is at it again, this time with a letter to broadcasters Netflix and the BBC that tries to intimidate them out of any participation in an ongoing industry boycott – because of Israel’s genocide in Gaza – of Israeli films and shows.

    UK Lawyers for Israel: at it again

    The boycott has been publicly supported by thousands of Hollywood figures, including ‘A-listers’ like Olivia Colman, Tilda Swinton, Emma Stone, and Joaquin Phoenix.

    The letter follows UK Lawyers for Israel’s typical pattern of threatening that the recipients might be breaking equality laws without ever quite saying that they are, since the intention is to intimidate and deter with propositions unlikely to stand up if actually tested in court, for example (emphases added):

    [The Equality Act 2010] is the key legislation in the U.K. protecting against racism and discriminatory treatment. If the U.K. television and film industry colludes with acts contrary to this legislation, organisations are themselves likely to be in breach. It also creates a dangerous precedent: one that condones the exclusion of individuals and/or organizations based solely on their nationality, ethnicity, and/or religion.

    It also claims that the boycott – which of course is not meant to apply to Palestinians in Israel – is:

    selective application — exempting some institutions based on the ethnicity or religion of their members — [which] strongly indicates that [its] operation is based not only on nationality but also on religion and ethnicity.

    UK Lawyers for Israel also claim that if that word again] the boycott is found to be in breach of the Equality Act, it might lead to funding and insurance being pulled from productions and therefore:

    render a film ineligible for government funding, or trigger clawback of finance already granted [and be] highly likely to be a litigation risk and a notifiable event.

    None of the organisations receiving the threatening letter appear to have responded publicly.

    ‘Unimpressed’

    Film Workers for Palestine (FWP), the group behind the boycott, described the UK Lawyers for Israel letter as “desperate” and “pitiful” and said nothing would prevent FWP continuing its campaign to “end complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid” in Gaza and the West Bank:

    We are unimpressed by pro-Israel lobby group UK Lawyers for Israel’s desperate attempt to curtail our signatories’ freedom of expression through its pitiful letter. This kind of intimidation tactic is used so commonly and unethically by UKLFI that a formal complaint was filed with the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority in Britain over ‘a seeming pattern of vexatious and legally baseless correspondence aimed at silencing and intimidating Palestine solidarity efforts.

    We will never be deterred from our work to end complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid and will continue contributing to a global movement aimed at Palestinians achieving their UN-stipulated rights. It is a legal and moral imperative all should uphold, and we thank our community of artists who stand resolutely for humanity.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel hands over Palestinian bodies showing signs of brutal torture

    Israel has handed over 45 bodies of Palestinian hostages following their detention, and later death. The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that its medical teams received the bodies from the International Committee of the Red Cross at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis.

    The ministry explained that the bodies bore clear signs of torture, abuse, and field executions. Many of the dead were found with traces of handcuffs and blindfolds, indicating that their owners had been subjected to serious violations before their martyrdom.

    Israel suspected of grave violations

    In this context, the Palestinian Centre for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared issued a statement calling for the completion of the handover of all detained bodies and the complete closure of this painful humanitarian file.

    The centre indicated that it is following up on the process of handing over the 45 bodies through the Red Cross to the Nasser complex. They also praised the efforts of the International Committee in facilitating the process. Importantly, they also urged it to continue verifying the identities of the bodies through DNA testing and to ensure that the dignity of the martyrs is preserved and that they are quickly handed over to their families.

    The statement added that some of the bodies were delivered intact, while others arrived in the form of remains that raise serious concerns about the circumstances of their death and detention. They wrote:

    The Center warned that Israel’s failure to provide an official list of names deepens suspicions of enforced disappearance and manipulation of victims’ records. It called for immediate pressure on Israel to disclose the identities of all victims and the circumstances that led to their deaths.

    The statement further urged full transparency regarding all transferred bodies, including the publication of all available information as soon as it is received — such as the victims’ names, details of their deaths, and prompt notification of their families, in respect of their right to truth and dignity.

    Calls on international community

    The Centre also called on the international community, the United Nations, and the International Committee of the Red Cross to pressure Israel to allow the entry of the equipment and machinery necessary to recover the bodies and identify the missing in the destroyed areas.

    It stressed that the continued detention of bodies and the denial of families the right to bid farewell to their children is a crime against humanity and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

    It emphasised that the human right to a dignified burial does not lapse with the passage of time, and that revealing the truth is part of the justice that the victims and their families deserve.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Al Jazeera English

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Belfast Palestine activists take over conference of F-35 jet funder

    Campaigners opposed to ongoing government funding of murderous F-35 fighter jets have burst through security to raid a major conference of Invest NI, the body responsible for pissing away public money on weapons of death for the likes of so-called Israel.

    Invest NI had had kept the conference under the radar, with no public advertising of the event. However, activists were able to uncover its existence and protests occurred outside the International Convention Centre venue on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Campaigners distributed leaflets to staff, some of whom were unaware that their employer was participating in a genocide by funnelling money to the likes of Moyola Precision Engineering and Survitec, companies known to make parts for F-35s.

    Invest NI backing modern day holocaust

    Organisers might have hoped that was the extent of it, but on Wednesday afternoon, when the so-called ‘Regional Economic Development Agency’ was meeting with clients, activists entered the plush Laganside venue. A video posted on the BDS Belfast page shows the interlopers entering the main hall, shouting:

    We’re here today to speak on behalf of the people of Palestine. Invest NI are complicit in the genocide in Palestine. The reason they’re complicit is they’re funding companies who are sending parts over to make the F35 jets.

    BDS Belfast member Martin Rafferty declared:

    When you see the historical pictures of the holocaust and people of that time, you ask yourself: “what would I have done if I was living in that time?” Well, you are living in that time now because there’s a holocaust going on now!

    Stoney-faced Invest NI executives are pictured communicating with the demonstrators, as the former admit their awareness of what their funds have been used for. A Judicial Review into the potentially unlawful funding was brought against Invest NI and the Department of the Economy (DoE) by Madden & Finucane solicitors, with a hearing due next week on October 22. The legal team, operating in concert with local activist group Cairde Palestine, hope to compel the government to “claw back” any monies paid out to companies involved in breaking international law, and terminate any ongoing payments.

    Invest NI has rendered all Six Counties citizens complicit in genocide by giving around £20 million pounds to four companies involved in the F-35 programme – Electronic Automation Engineers (EAE), Moyola Precision Engineering, RLC (UK), and Survitec. Only last week, new evidence was brought to light by local campaign group Act Now, who uncovered a document from 2021 headed “BAE Systems-Air (Aircraft Business Units) Supplier Quality Approval Letter”. It is addressed to Moyola and outlines that:

    …supply of product shall be in accordance with the BAE Systems F-35 Lightning II supplementary quality requirements…

    It states the limitation of approval shall be for the “F-35 Lightning II programme only”. Martin Butcher, who is a policy adviser on arms and conflict for Oxfam, has said it is certain parts from the North of Ireland are ending up in Zionist jets used for the pseudo-state’s barbarism in Gaza.

    Report lays out contortions of Invest NI and ministers

    Act Now have previously published a comprehensive report on Invest NI’s support for local development of F-35 parts. In it, there are contradictory statements, as a DoE spokesperson says they have been told by Invest NI that it:

    …does not support projects that supply arms to Israel.

    However, Invest NI was unable to refute claims from Act Now that it in fact was involved in such matters. The report contrasted the above denial with a statement from Invest NI in which they said:

    Invest NI does not hold the information as to whether these companies provide parts for F35s.

    The document outlines the tortuous process of email campaigns, Assembly questions and petitions that have been required to get to a point where the authorities concerned have still not admitted wrongdoing. It also highlights the linguistic contortions used by many governments to wriggle away from scrutiny on weapons dealing, as “arms” are only classed here as “finished weapons or munitions”. Likewise, the fact that parts end up in a global pool rather than going directly to ‘Israel’ has been a common method of evasion, allowing governments to claim they don’t send anything directly to the apartheid regime.

    A simple way to solve this matter is outlined by BDS Belfast on their statement accompanying the video of Wednesday’s action – cease entirely the production of all weaponry in Ireland. The group said:

    Funding of atrocities on the island of Ireland will not be tolerated, and no manufacturing of weapons of mass murder can be allowed to take place here. That counts double for the likes of Invest NI, who are using money that should go to schools and hospitals here, to destroy those facilities in Gaza.

    The Belfast Palestine solidarity movement will continue to hold them to account until this ceases.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Robert Freeman

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel has taken everything from Palestinian journalist Motasem Ahmed Dalloul – yet he will not be silenced

    CONTENT WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES SOME READERS MAY FIND DISTRESSING

    Palestinian journalist Motasem Ahmed Dalloul is from Gaza City. He studied International Journalism in London, and works as a Staff Writer for Middle East Monitor. He has lived and worked in Gaza City throughout this genocide, and has paid a heavy price for speaking the truth. But he remains determined to continue reporting about his people’s suffering and the Israeli occupation’s crimes against them:

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul risked his life to find food – but his wife and baby were killed instead

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul has not left Gaza City in the past two years, although be has been forcibly displaced 13 times. Since his family home was attacked and destroyed in November 2023, he and his family have stayed many places, moving from place to place and fleeing the Israeli ground incursions. They are currently living in a tent.

    Near the end of February 2024, an Israeli occupation airstrike targeted his neighbour’s house. Dalloul’s three year old son who was named Abu Baker, and his beloved wife Riham, who was pregnant, were buried under the rubble and killed. Dalloul was heartbroken.

    He says:

    I lived with her a very nice life, very nice years, full of love and affection. I loved her so much, and she loved me so much. She was very beautiful. My wife was killed while she was very hungry.

    According to Dalloul, their dinner consisted of a can of corn, which did nothing to satisfy his wife’s hunger. So at dawn he went to an area in the West of Gaza City where aid organisations sometimes delivered food, to try and find something for his starving wife:

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul

    It was difficult for someone like me – I am 45 years old – to go through the crowds of young people and get any kind of aid, but I found the flour bag with someone, and he gave it to me, and I sent this flour back home with my son, Ibrahim.

    Ibrahim returned an hour later with the news that an Israeli strike had targeted their neighbour’s house. Dalloul’s wife and three year old son had been killed:

    Another son and daughter were wounded.

    I rushed to near my wife’s family’s house, and bid farewell to her and my two year old son, Abu Baker. And then I carried the body of my son, and relatives carried her body, and we buried them in a makeshift cemetery, because we couldn’t reach the cemetery where we used to bury our dead.

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul

    A day before his wife and son were killed, Dalloul posted this on X:

    Hunger has been a daily occurrence for Motasem Ahmed Dalloul and his family

    According to Motasem Ahmed Dalloul, him and his family have constantly suffered from a lack of food, experiencing starvation three times during this genocide. He recalls the first time, when his wife was killed and he was unable to provide for his family, as being especially difficult.

    He confides:

    One of my children asked me to give him some food one day, and I couldn’t find any, any, anything. I left the house and around an hour later, he followed me and came to the place where I was with my friends, not far from the house, and appealed for something to eat, and I couldn’t find anything.

    I started weeping, and hugged him, as I couldn’t afford anything for him to eat. We were hungry.

    I myself lost 40 kilogrammes, and went from 158 to 118kg. Even if I was a billionaire, it has been very difficult for me to live because – and it is continuous until now – there is a shortage of food, and I have to pay extremely high prices to get a very little amount of food.

    In May, three months after his wife and young son were killed, Dalloul and his other sons returned to the rubble of what once was their home to look for some winter clothes, as there were none available to buy in the markets. Many of his neighbours were also there, witnessing the destruction, and searching through the rubble. Then, all of a sudden, with no warning, shots were fired, and Dalloul’s 21 year old son was killed.

    He says:

    Suddenly, a sniper or a tank shot at us, and immediately I found my son, Yahya, shot in the head and he fell down. We ran very quickly. Me and the other children and neighbours. We left him on the ground because there was heavy gunfire and we couldn’t return back to that place until after one week. Then we saw his body. The tank had run over it.

    His children pray they are killed by the Israeli occupation forces, so they can see their mother again

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul says the young children he had with Riham, his second wife, have been highly affected by the deaths of their mother and siblings:

    They were very sad, and every time when they asked me, what happened, I tell them they went to paradise. They asked me, where is their mother. I told them, she is in heaven. And they told me they want to go and join her, and see her or meet her. But I tell them we can’t, until the Israeli occupation forces kill us.

    So they pray that the Israeli occupation shoots them, so they can go and meet their mother. When my sons were killed, they also asked me if they had gone to the place where their mother exists.

    Dalloul says he was feeling happy during the days leading up to the ceasefire, and was celebrating with friends and family, including his son Ibrahim, thinking about what they would do when the ceasefire took effect.

    But on the day it was announced by Trump, Ibrahim was not there, and there were no celebrations.

    Ibrahim used to help run the family’s supermarket in Gaza City, until it was bombed – just two months after it opened in November 2023, then he then became a street vendor. The Israeli occupation launched an intentional starvation campaign against the people of Gaza City, with the aim of forcibly displacing them Southwards. Both the Zikim crossing and Al Rashid Street in the West of the City were closed, which meant no food was getting into the North of the Strip.

    So, according to Dalloul, Ibrahim and his friends insisted on going to the south to bring back some food. But Ibrahim never returned.

    Israel killed him the day before the ceasefire:

    Dalloul says:

    On the first day of the ceasefire, someone told my friends that my son was killed near Al Nabulsi Roundabout, on Al Rashid Street. The next day, we went to bring his body, along with the volunteers and civil defense, and we found him, likely killed two days before. He was engaged and his fiancé was very close to him and loved him very much. She collapsed when she knew that he was dead and killed by the Israeli occupation forces. And it was very, very difficult for all of us, and the killing of all of them has affected me. This is the third son of mine to be killed during the genocide, along with my wife.

    The Israeli occupation has repeatedly targeted not only Palestinian journalists but also their families in Gaza, attempting to control the narrative and limit the flow of information to the rest of the world about its many war crimes and crimes against humanity.

    Journalists have been threatened, detained, tortured, and killed, while media facilities have been destroyed, and access by foreign journalists to the Strip has been forbidden.

    Israel’s systematic targeting of the press is a deliberate strategy to not only silence witnesses, but also to stop criticism of Israeli military actions in Gaza and maintain international support by imposing its untruthful version of events. But this strategy has not only been limited to the genocide in Gaza.

    The occupation’s army threatened to ‘hunt’ Dalloul. They then seriously wounded him

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul has been threatened and told several times by ‘Israeli agents’ to stop reporting during the genocide, and many of these agents and activists have been posting false information online about him. But he says these incidents also occurred before October 2023:

    In 2018, when I was covering the Great March of Return, the Israeli occupation army directly threatened me and told me, ‘we will hunt you’. The march was organized every Friday, and the next Friday, I was shot in the chest with an exploding bullet. There was a lot of shrapnel inside my body that affected my lungs, liver, intestines and other organs, and I remained in a coma for several days. This threat was repeated several times during this genocide, and I feel that I might be intentionally targeted.

    But Dalloul is not listening to the occupation’s threats, and he does not intend to stop reporting on the crimes inflicted on the population of Gaza. Instead, he believes the first commitment of a journalist is not to their life and safety, but to the truth:

    As a journalist, I have a duty towards my family, towards my people, towards my land, towards my country.

    I have to expose the lies and the crimes of the Israeli occupation against them, to let the world know that they are liars, they are thieves. They aren’t the real owners of this land, but because they are growing up on the propaganda and lies, the people around the world take them for granted as facts.

    If I remain silent, the people will not know that they are liars and thieves, and they are committing massacres against us. So this is the duty of me as a Palestinian, and the duty for me as a journalist. I am obliged to disclose the Israeli lies and Israeli deception and Israeli massacres, and tell the world the truth about our country, about the Palestinians who are the Indigenous inhabitants and residents of this land.

    The international community is supporting this rogue state – the state of lies, the state of criminals, the state which was established on the skulls and bones of my grandfathers.

    No hope for justice because world leaders provide the occupation with money, weapons, and troops

    Motasem Ahmed Dalloul has lost a total of 59 family members, including a brother and a sister, nephews, nieces, and cousins who lived in Gaza, but is not waiting for any justice because:

    The current world, international community, and the leaders of the great powers are not fair, and they support the Israeli genocide. We’ve not only been attacked, destroyed and massacred by Israeli arms and the Israeli army, but also by American, German, British, French, and other Western arms and weapons, money and also soldiers.

    Dalloul says although he is happy there is a ceasefire, the loss of his family and the destruction of Gaza leaves him feeling very sad.

    He has lost everything.

    He has no home, and he cannot even set up his tent where his house once stood, because of all the rubble, and his neighbourhood is now unrecognisable to him:

    I think the Israelis will not return to Gaza, because there is nothing left for them to destroy and attack. Only one street remains undestroyed in Gaza City, everything else is destroyed, so why would the Israeli rogue state come back to the genocide and resume the international isolation and attacks against it, and let the people resume marching and protesting against it. I don’t trust the mediators, or the international community, or Trump, but there is nothing left for Israel to destroy here in Gaza.

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • FIDH Report: The Repression Of The Solidarity Movement With Palestine

    Behind the fight against hate, a trend of repressing dissenting voices is emerging. Titled Criminalisation and Narrative Control: Solidarity with Palestine in the Crosshairs, the report documents how across all the countries studied, the dynamics observed since 7 October 2023 have intensified pre-existing structural trends: the continued shrinking of civic space, the weakening of democratic safeguards, the normalisation of Islamophobia, and the institutionalisation of racial profiling.

    Under the guise of maintaining public order, fighting antisemitism, or protecting national security, authorities have resorted to exceptional measures such as bans on demonstrations, arbitrary arrests, repression within academic institutions, media censorship, and legislative threats.

    The post FIDH Report: The Repression Of The Solidarity Movement With Palestine appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Gaza’s Post-War Future And The Collapse Of Foreign Illusions

    In the aftermath of the devastating war on Gaza, the most pressing question is no longer about a ceasefire or reconstruction, but about who will govern the enclave.

    This is a struggle over meaning, legitimacy, and sovereignty. Will the future of Gaza be shaped by its people, or by the same foreign powers that helped destroy it under the banner of “salvation”?

    Every time the gates of ‘reconstruction’ and ‘aid’ are opened, the windows of sovereignty are slammed shut. What unfolds is a recurring colonial spectacle: a Palestinian political order remade under foreign supervision, where ‘political realism’ is promoted as a substitute for justice, and ‘technocracy’ is marketed as a sterile alternative to resistance.

    The post Gaza’s Post-War Future And The Collapse Of Foreign Illusions appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Gaza’s Post-War Future And The Collapse Of Foreign Illusions

    In the aftermath of the devastating war on Gaza, the most pressing question is no longer about a ceasefire or reconstruction, but about who will govern the enclave.

    This is a struggle over meaning, legitimacy, and sovereignty. Will the future of Gaza be shaped by its people, or by the same foreign powers that helped destroy it under the banner of “salvation”?

    Every time the gates of ‘reconstruction’ and ‘aid’ are opened, the windows of sovereignty are slammed shut. What unfolds is a recurring colonial spectacle: a Palestinian political order remade under foreign supervision, where ‘political realism’ is promoted as a substitute for justice, and ‘technocracy’ is marketed as a sterile alternative to resistance.

    The post Gaza’s Post-War Future And The Collapse Of Foreign Illusions appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • From the Knesset to Sharm el-Sheikh: How the US president offered Netanyahu a way out

    ANALYSIS: By Elijah J Magnier

    Benjamin Netanyahu insisted, until just hours before Donald Trump’s arrival, that the war in Gaza would not stop. Then, standing in the Knesset before Israel’s hardline ministers, Trump announced that it had — and whisked a delegation of world leaders to Egypt to formalise the ceasefire before a global audience.

    The message was unmistakable: Israel’s prime minister could no longer block peace without suffering public humiliation. Facing ministers who, only a day earlier, had vowed to press on with the war, Trump imposed an abrupt reversal — one that only he could engineer.

    He came to Jerusalem not merely to speak, but to enforce the deal already reached and leave Netanyahu no choice but to comply or lose face.

    He then carried that spectacle to Sharm el-Sheikh, gathering heads of state and government from the Middle East, Asia, and Europe to witness and sign the cessation of war.

    The first phase — halting hostilities and exchanging prisoners — represented the sole ground on which both sides could agree. But the phases that follow are riddled with complications: a path of shifting sands, vague clauses, and undefined timelines, where the devil hides in every single point.

    Trump’s declaration, messages and summit
    Trump’s arrival in Israel was theatrical. He entered the Knesset, addressed lawmakers and ministers, praised Netanyahu’s wartime leadership, and then made a sweeping proclamation: the war was over.

    That was a bold reversal from the very ministers he faced only hours earlier, who had publicly affirmed their intention to continue the conflict.

    The symbolism mattered more than the logic. By announcing the end of the war in Israel’s Parliament, Trump cornered Netanyahu in front of his hardline allies and the world.

    If the Israeli leader dared to resume hostilities, he would be defying not only his own coalition but a global consensus. Trump also asked President Isaac Herzog — then present — to pardon Netanyahu from his ongoing corruption charges, invoking the president’s constitutional prerogative.

    The gesture fused diplomacy, domestic politics, and Israeli justice in a single, calculated act of theatre.

    From Israel, Trump flew to Egypt, where on 13 October 2025 many of the world’s leaders convened at the Sharm el-Sheikh Peace Summit to formalise the Gaza ceasefire.

    The event was co-chaired by Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The summit hosted delegations from approximately 27 countries, representing leaders from the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and international organisations.

    The guest list included Emmanuel Macron, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Keir Starmer, Friedrich Merz, Pedro Sánchez, Mahmoud Abbas, António Guterres, António Costa, and the Arab League’s Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

    Notably absent were formal representatives of Hamas and Israel itself. Netanyahu had accepted the invitation initially but later declined, citing a conflict with a Jewish holiday and diplomatic pressure from certain participants.

    Many leaders refused to meet with him and declined the invitation for that very reason.

    At the summit, Trump, Sisi, the Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Erdoğan signed what was called the Trump Declaration for Enduring Peace and Prosperity — a symbolic document laying out commitments to maintain the ceasefire, support reconstruction, and discourage future conflict.

    By bringing so many leaders together in one place, Trump embedded the ceasefire into a global diplomatic architecture, making it harder for Netanyahu and his extremist ministers to reverse course without triggering international backlash.

    Israel’s unfulfilled objectives
    Despite the scale of destruction, Israel failed to achieve any of its declared military or political objectives in Gaza. The circumstances of this devastating war were unprecedented — and yet, even with such intensity, Israel failed to ethnically cleanse Gaza or alter its demographic reality.

    It did not eliminate Hamas or its leadership; it could not rescue its captives through force; it failed to dismantle the movement’s military infrastructure or install a new governing authority in the enclave.

    After months of bombardment, Israel still controlled only half of Gaza and faced renewed armed resistance in areas it claimed to have “cleared”. The campaign, designed to restore deterrence, instead exposed Israel’s limitations: overwhelming firepower, backed fully by the United States, but diminishing strategic capacity.

    Internationally, the assault deepened Israel’s isolation, eroded its moral legitimacy, and unified global opinion against it. What Netanyahu had promised as a decisive victory ended in a political and military stalemate — the very failure that forced Trump’s intervention.

    Many Arab leaders refused to meet with Netanyahu, and Trump himself failed to bring him to Sharm el-Sheikh.

    Why Trump intervened
    Netanyahu had long survived politically by delaying agreements, shifting blame, and keeping his options open. But this time, the war had devastated Gaza to such an extent that global public opinion — and even international institutions, including the United Nations — began to describe Israel’s actions as genocide.

    Israel’s reputation, and Netanyahu’s with it, lay in ruins.

    Trump’s intervention offered a lifeline. By casting himself as the architect of peace, he provided Netanyahu with an escape route — a political rescue disguised as diplomacy.

    Netanyahu’s coalition, under pressure from its far-right partners, had no credible argument left against a deal once it was validated by world leaders. Trump’s carefully staged ceasefire left Netanyahu with only two choices: resist and face international isolation and sanctions, or comply and survive politically.

    Trump also reminded Netanyahu, both publicly and privately, that Israel’s campaign had depended entirely on American weapons.

    “He called for different kinds of weapons all the time,” Trump said — a remark that exposed the scale of US complicity. The message was unmistakable: if Israel defied the ceasefire, the stream of arms that had sustained its war could be cut off.

    It was an implicit acknowledgment from Trump himself of Washington’s partnership in the devastation of Gaza — a conflict that killed and wounded more than 10 percent of the enclave’s population.

    The bombs that rained down on civilians had been supplied on a fast track, lavishly and without restraint, enabling the destruction that Trump now sought to end.

    The fragile structure of the deal
    The agreement Trump brokered was only the first stage. It prioritised the release of hostages and prisoners — a symbolic and political victory — but left withdrawal, reconstruction, governance, and disarmament undefined.

    Netanyahu accepted phase one, but the path ahead is laced with traps. He intends to resume operations against Hamas, undermine clauses he dislikes, and prevent the formation of a Palestinian authority capable of governing Gaza.

    Resistance groups are unlikely to lay down all arms; they may surrender heavy weapons like missiles while keeping small arms, ensuring that Israel remains vulnerable to renewed attacks.

    The result is de facto partition: Palestinians control parts of Gaza while Israel holds the rest. Each side asserts authority over its zone, and both will use pressure to influence the other.

    Netanyahu’s political calculus
    Domestically, Netanyahu faces a precarious balancing act. If President Herzog pardons him, it removes the legal threat but not the political cost of the failures of October 7.

    Critics will question why Israel did not negotiate a prisoner exchange earlier, when more hostages might have survived.

    Should his popularity fall, Netanyahu may dissolve his government and call snap elections — likely before October 2026 — to regain legitimacy. The far-right ministers in his coalition, such as Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, are unlikely to respect the ceasefire.

    Nevertheless, they, along with Netanyahu who shares the same objective, have no intention of conceding Palestinian statehood or allowing lasting peace. Trump’s deal restricts Netanyahu’s room for manoeuvre, but whether he abides by it or quietly undermines it remains to be seen.

    Trump positioned himself as the guarantor of the ceasefire. For the remaining three years of his mandate, Netanyahu will be constrained: he cannot break the agreement without triggering diplomatic consequences.

    But ending the Gaza campaign is not the same as resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, which remains untouched. Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, remain in Israel to monitor Netanyahu and ensure he does not quietly restart hostilities.

    Their presence keeps pressure alive, but it cannot be permanent. Netanyahu, long known for exploiting ambiguities in past agreements, will test every margin.

    Public trust in him is weak — among Israelis, world leaders, and his own ministers. If he obstructs the deal, he risks splitting from Washington’s agenda and losing what remains of Israel’s legitimacy.

    Trump’s broader aim is to rehabilitate Israel’s global image. He believes halting the war helps Israel recover its reputation while giving Netanyahu a way to maintain power. But his gamble is that Netanyahu will accept limits; if he goes rogue, Trump may face the dilemma of confronting the ally he once defended.

    The absent West Bank and the end of the two-state illusion
    The West Bank was conspicuously absent from Trump’s discourse. The United States no longer recognises the two-state solution — the very framework established under the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, which Washington itself once sponsored to guarantee Palestinians the right to self-determination and statehood.

    By omitting any reference to it, Trump effectively buried what little remained of that diplomatic vision.

    This omission ensures that the conflict in Palestine will not end; it will only be renewed, sooner or later, and wherever resistance resurfaces.

    In the two years of war, Israel has constructed 22 new settlements on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, further erasing the territorial basis for a viable Palestinian state and dismantling the last vestiges of Oslo.

    What now remains is not peace but a state of permanent instability — a no-peace condition that guarantees the cycle of violence will continue.

    The unresolved core
    Trump’s ceasefire is a political theatre of control. It publicly enshrined a truce, placed Netanyahu under scrutiny, and allowed Trump to claim a diplomatic victory. But it did not resolve the Palestinian question.

    The ceasefire applies to Gaza, not to the broader occupation, the blockade, or the issue of self-determination. The two sides now operate within a precarious arrangement: Israel controls roughly half of Gaza, the Palestinian resistance remains armed in the other half, and both test the boundaries daily.

    Trump cannot hold his envoys indefinitely, and Netanyahu cannot be trusted to restrain himself. The US–Israeli alliance remains solid, but Trump’s personal intervention underscored a fundamental shift: unconditional support has limits when the costs to America’s reputation become too high.

    Trump’s strategy was to save Netanyahu and Israel from total isolation — to stop a war that had already killed more than 76,000 people, 82 percent of them civilians, including more than 20,000 children. He halted the destruction at the price of ambiguity: a ceasefire without a settlement, peace without reconciliation.

    The world leaders who gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh signed the end of a war, not the beginning of a solution.

    Elijah J Magnier is a veteran war zone correspondent and political analyst with over 35 years of experience covering the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). He specialises in real-time reporting of politics, strategic and military planning, terrorism and counter-terrorism; his strong analytical skills complement his reporting. His in-depth experience, extensive contacts and thorough political knowledge of complex political situations in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Syria provide his writings with insights balancing the routine misreporting and propaganda in the Western press. He also comments on Al Jazeera.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Israel is lying over Hamas breaching the ceasefire agreement by not returning dead hostages

    In a shock to nobody, Israel is trying to blow up it’s own ceasefire on the most tenuous basic imaginable – by, as usual, lying. Renowned investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill has warned that Israel is reneging on the peace terms it agreed.

    Israel is lying again

    Scahill said despite a clear understanding that it would take time to recover bodies from Gaza, Israeli is pretending there was no such agreement.

    This all the more important because Israeli is using this lie to justify limiting aid to Gazans:

    Tweeting Wednesday, Scahill reported on the shocking state of Palestinian bodies Israel was returning:

    And he commented on Israel’s habit of keeping Palestinian bodies – sometimes for decades:

    Independent journalist Jonathan Cook made a similar point:

    According to Scahill’s Drop Site News colleague Ryan Grim, mediators were very clear that finding bodies would take time. Israel knows this. After all, it has spent two years intensively bombing the area to rubble.

    Grim tweeted:

    Stopping aid to Gaza

    Grim cited an official communication by COGAT, the Israeli authority which regulates aid:

    Yesterday, Hamas violated the agreement regarding the release of the bodies of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

    As a result, the political leadership has decided to impose a number of sanctions related to the humanitarian agreement that was reached.

    Starting tomorrow, only half of the agreed number of trucks — 300 trucks — will be allowed to enter, and all of them will belong to the UN and humanitarian NGOs, with no private sector involvement.

    No fuel or gas will be allowed into the Strip, except for specific needs related to humanitarian infrastructure.

    However, as Middle East expert Professor Marc Owen Jones point out: A) the return of dead hostages is NOT a condition of aid delivery and B) not allowing aid in was always illegal anyway:

    Palestinian body accidentally returned

    Legacy media is currently reporting that one of a group of four recovered bodies is not Israeli:

    AFP reported the same:

    As usual, the legacy press seemed to be following the Israeli line:

    Though there was at least some acknowledgment by reporters that this had likely been an error made in the fog of war:

     

    The Irish News correctly reported the nuances of the peace deal which have been lost in some reporting:

    The US-proposed ceasefire plan had called for all hostages – living and dead – to be handed over by a deadline that expired on Monday.

    But under the deal if that did not happen, Hamas was to share information about deceased hostages and try to hand over all as soon as possible.

    For its parts, Israel has already killed a number of Gazans since the ceasefire started. It is widely recognised that Hamas have taken a gamble on Trump imposing his will on the genocidal Israeli government.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel is still punishing Gaza, with only half of aid going in

    The United Nations confirmed that it had received a letter stating that Israel would cut in half the number of aid trucks scheduled to enter Gaza, numbering about 600, which it had promised to allow to pass after the ceasefire. As of Wednesday 15 October, Israel had only allowed 300 aid trucks in.

    Israel is still restricting aid to Gaza

    Deputy Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Farhan Haq said at a press conference on Tuesday 14 October that the Israeli Government Coordination Unit in the Palestinian Territories had informed the UN in a letter received today that it would halve the number of humanitarian aid trucks going to Gaza, on the pretext that Hamas had not returned the bodies of Israeli prisoners.

    He added:

    We are aware of the contents of the letter from the Israeli Civil Administration.

    Haq explained that they want as much aid as possible to reach Gaza, saying:

    We call on all parties to abide by their agreements, including the return of the bodies of dead prisoners and the implementation of the remaining terms of the ceasefire, including the delivery of humanitarian aid.

    US media reported that Israel had sent a letter to the United Nations stating that it would reduce the number of daily aid trucks agreed under the terms of the ceasefire in Gaza from 600 to 300, on the grounds that Hamas had not immediately returned the bodies of Israeli prisoners trapped under the rubble.

    However, as of 15 October Hamas had been handing over Israeli bodies – yet the Zionist entity had still not opened all the crossings into Gaza. As of 10pm BST, reports stated only the 300 aid trucks had gone in. This was specifically due to Israel not opening the Rafah crossing.

    The ‘ceasefire’

    On Monday, Hamas released 20 living Israeli prisoners and handed over the bodies of four others, saying it needed time to recover the bodies of 24 others. On Tuesday evening, the Israeli army received the bodies of four additional prisoners in the Gaza Strip from the Red Cross, according to official Hebrew media, bringing the total to eight. Then, on Wednesday Hamas handed over several more bodies – saying that was all the ones it could locate.

    The Sharm El Sheikh summit was held on Monday, chaired by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Trump, at the conference centre in Sharm El Sheikh, with the participation of leaders from more than 20 countries.

    The Egyptian presidency said that the ‘Sharm El Sheikh Peace Summit’ stressed the need to begin ‘consultations on ways and mechanisms to implement the next stages’ of US President Donald Trump’s plan.

    The summit comes after a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel came into effect on Friday afternoon Jerusalem time, after being approved by the Tel Aviv government early that same day.
    On 9 October, Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had reached an agreement on the first phase of his plan for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange, following indirect negotiations between the two sides in Sharm El Sheikh, with the participation of Turkey, Egypt and Qatar, and under US supervision.

    With US support, Israel has committed genocide in Gaza since 8 October 2023, leaving 67,913 dead and 170,134 wounded, most of them children and women, and a famine that has claimed the lives of 463 Palestinians, including 157 children.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel kills two Palestinians, abducts at least 24 others in Gaza today alone

    Israel has again blatantly violated the supposed Gaza ‘ceasefire’ today.

    Israel violating the ceasefire again

    It killed two civilians in Gaza City, while abducting at least fifteen Palestinians in Al-Nasr, northeast Rafah, and another nine in the town of Al-Fakhari, east of Khan Younis. The fate of the victims and where they have been taken is not yet clear. a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement.

    At the same time, according to local reporters, the colonisers fired heavy artillery at civilians in eastern Gaza City in the areas between al-Shujaiyya and al-Tufah.

    These crimes come after Israeli tank attacks on civilians killed several and wounded more in northern Gaza this morning. Israel has murdered Palestinians every day during the ‘ceasefire’, almost entirely ignored by UK and other western ‘mainstream’ media obsessed with covering supposedly missing bodies of long-dead Israelis almost certainly killed by their own side’s fire during the genocide.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel Is Still Holding at Least 115 Health Care Workers Hostage, Org Says

    More than two dozen Palestinian healthcare workers held hostage in Israel’s torture camps were supposed to be released on Monday, October 13, according to Healthcare Workers Watch-Palestine (HWW), an organization that tracks Israel’s attacks on Palestine’s healthcare system. “While not all releases are confirmed yet, the list includes 24 nurses, 7 doctors, and 2 paramedics,” the group said in…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Jewish woman has faced “hate campaign” of violent attacks over pro-Gaza protest

    Nadia Yahlom is a Palestinian-Jewish woman. In a peaceful protest, she cut yellow ribbons off the railings of a public park near her home. As a result, she has faced a “targeted hate campaign” from pro-Israel agitators.

    Nadia Yahlom

    As she explained to the BBC:

    I have been the subject of physical attacks, of a doxing campaign, threats of assault and rape and violence that have been threatened against me and my family on the basis that the people behind that campaign want to silence me.

    She insisted:

    I am a Palestinian-Jewish woman living in that community who has every right to take a stance against genocide – a genocide that is being conducted in my name

    She responded to critics of her action by saying:

    I think it’s antisemitic to imply that a Jewish person who is standing in principled opposition to a genocide is driven by hatred.

    Pro-Israel extremists cry over ribbons, but not over the murder of 20,000 children

    Israeli occupation forces have killed over 20,000 children in Gaza since October 2023. The ribbons, meanwhile, represented the remaining 20 Israeli prisoners of war in Gaza. As Nadia Yahlom stressed:

    To me, it’s astonishing that there can be moral repugnance about a handful of ribbons being cut and not generations and generations and generations of bloodlines [in Gaza] being cut.

    And she noted the difference between the response to her action and her own response to the destruction of Palestinian symbols in public. Pro-Israel agitators routinely rip down such symbols (whether flags or stickers), and she said:

    I myself once encountered a woman in Muswell Hill taking down a sticker with a Palestinian flag, I engaged her in discussion about it… What didn’t happen is that I called a mob to attack her, intimidate her, threaten her, film her without her consent, and subject her to a ceaseless campaign of physical attacks, threats against her life and threats against her family…

    Nadia Yahlom described how she considered the yellow ribbons to be ‘offensive, intimidating and threatening’ because they suggest that “the only lives worth commemorating, the only lives that have any value, are Jewish lives”. And this is what the mainstream media has done consistently throughout Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and amid this week’s exchange of hostages. It emphasises the humanity of 20 Israelis leaving captivity, while failing to do the same for 2,000 Palestinian hostages leaving captivity, the thousands that remain in Israeli torture centres, or the many thousands of civilians Israel has killed in the last two years and beyond.

    Consider the coverage of Israeli soldier Matan Angrest‘s release:

    And then consider the many scenes of Palestinian hostages that social media has shown us but mainstream media outlets haven’t:

    And remember, Israel has no problem taking children hostage:

    Nadia Yahlom is absolutely right. The implicit racism of the yellow ribbons, and the thugs who come after you if you touch them, is offensive. The ribbons have become a symbol of selective sympathy from ethnic supremacists who defend genocide. And in the interests of humanity, we must challenge that. Because neither Palestinians nor Israelis will be truly safe until Israel’s decades-long colonial oppression ends.

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Meet Jacki Karsh: training young journalists to be explicitly pro-Israel

    Last week, Drop Site News reported on a new fellowship set up by prominent US journalist Jacki Karsh, along with her husband Jeff. The fellowship’s website states that:

    The Jacki and Jeff Karsh Journalism Fellowship equips journalists to report with depth, rigor, and clarity on Jewish issues in the United States and around the world. Fellows participate in three intensive retreats — in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. — engaging with leading journalists, scholars, policymakers, and innovators across the arts, media, and business.

    As the world’s only journalism fellowship solely dedicated to Jewish topics, the program is resolutely nonpartisan and grounded in the principles of accuracy, independence, transparency, and accountability. Up to ten fellows are selected annually to advance public understanding through uncompromising, high-impact reporting.

    During the year-long course, up to ten fellows will participate in three 3-day retreats. All travel and accommodation expenses are covered by the fellowship. The expert-led sessions will cover topics like ‘How to cover antisemitism’, ‘Jews in the American mosaic’ and ‘Middle-East misinformation’.

    Jacki Karsh and her fellowship: ‘countering media bias’, apparently

    However, Drop Site highlighted the contrast between the fellowship’s professed neutrality and Karsh’s distinct pro-Israel stance.

    Jacki Karsh’s webpage describes her as a “six time Emmy-nominated multimedia journalist”. She’s reported for LA36’s LA County Channel, CityTV Santa Monica, Young Hollywood, Business Rockstars and Westside TV. She wrote about her reasons for starting the fellowship in an article for the Jerusalem Post, published under the headline “Countering media bias against Jews” on 20 August.
    Part of the introduction reads:

    The casual slanders, the subtle omissions, the reflexive framing of Israel as aggressor and Jews as suspect – these are not rare mistakes. They are patterns. And patterns, left unchallenged, become the record of history.

    On the contrary, mainstream US media has shown a historic bias towards Israel, both before and after 7 October. Analysis of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times’ coverage of the war showed a distinct bias against Palestine. Articles focused disproportionately on Israeli deaths, showed biased use of language, and focused on antisemitism in the US over and above Islamophobia.

    Likewise, “casual slanders” links out to another Jerusalem Post article, titled “Gaza starvation claims: Blood libel revisited”. It frames the claim that Israel is starving the people of people of Gaza as reheated medieval blood libel. The UN has confirmed the famine in Gaza. Over 100 humanitarian organisations signed an open letter criticising Israel for blocking supplies into Gaza.

    ‘Resolutely nonpartisan’

    Given that Jacki Karsh stated that she created the fellowship to help Israel win an “information war”, the description of the program as “resolutely nonpartisan” seems deeply questionable. Drop Site News submitted an inquiry on the matter, and fellowship director Rob Eshmen responded:

    The Karsh Journalism Fellowship trains and supports journalists committed to fairness and accuracy on Israel and Jewish issues. Jacki Karsh’s guiding principle is simple: the best response to misinformation and disinformation on these issues is excellent journalism grounded in evidence, integrity, and independence… Our mentors and fellows will represent a wide range of political and cultural perspectives, and we encourage open, nuanced dialogue on complex issues.

    Unfortunately, Jacki Karsh’s bias also seems to have been mirrored in the choice of expert journalists to lead the sessions. Drop Site reported that:

    Other fellowship mentors include CNN’s Van Jones, who recently issued an apology after drawing intense criticism for comments he made on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher on Friday making light of images of dead Palestinian children and saying they were part of an Iran and Qatar disinformation campaign; and Michael Powell, a staff writer at the Atlantic and a former national reporter at The New York Times, whose recent articles include “The Double Standard in the Human-Rights World,” that criticizes groups like Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders for becoming “stridently critical of Israel.”

    At best, the thinking behind the Jacki and Jeff Karsh Journalism Fellowship illustrates a stark problem with legacy media. If journalists view only one side of the Israel-Palestine war as being capable of accessing truth, then they will inevitably interpret even a neutral report of Israel’s actions as bias against it.

    The UN has officially recognised that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. It joins a long line of other humanitarian agencies in doing so. At this point, if legacy media even begins to appear critical of Israel, well – it’s about damned time.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alex/Rose Cocker

    This post was originally published on Canary.