Crooked Bough News Round-up

— UN Official Leaked Classified Documents to Israeli Diplomats for Years – Report

 

at 8/7/26 4:00pm

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   Leaked emails reveal a UN official repeatedly supplied Israeli diplomats with confidential documents and political intelligence during intense scrutiny over Gaza. Key Takeaways Emails show Yahav Lichner repeatedly sent Israeli diplomats confidential UN reports, private meeting summaries and unpublished documents in 2014 and 2015. The material was used to help Israeli officials prepare lobbying and messaging strategies around Gaza, the occupied West Bank and congressional pressure. Lichner later rose through the UN system and now heads UNICEF’s Washington office; there is no evidence the conduct continued after 2015. ‘For Your Eyes Only’ A trove of hacked emails has revealed that a United Nations official repeatedly supplied Israeli diplomats with confidential internal documents, private meeting accounts, unpublished correspondence and political intelligence during a period of intense international scrutiny over Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza. According to an investigation by Drop Site News, Yahav Lichner, then working for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), sent sensitive material to senior Israeli officials over a period spanning 2014 and 2015, often using his personal email account and repeatedly warning recipients not to circulate the information. The correspondence came from the hacked email archive of Ron Prosor, Israel’s permanent representative to the UN from 2011 to 2015. The files were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets after being obtained by Handala, a hacking group believed to be linked to Iranian intelligence. Lichner, who had previously worked for Israel’s diplomatic mission, later rose through the UN system and has served since January 2025 as director of UNICEF’s Washington office. The available emails do not establish that the conduct continued after 2015. ‘Do Not Forward’ One of the most striking exchanges occurred on February 20, 2015, when Lichner sent Prosor and Israeli diplomat Ronny Leshno-Yaar a confidential summary of meetings held in Washington by then-UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein. “For your eyes only. Do not forward,” Lichner wrote. He described the document as a “classified internal summary of Zeid’s meetings in Washington.” The meetings took place as Israel faced an independent UN Human Rights Council inquiry into its conduct during the 2014 assault on Gaza. The document detailed Al-Hussein’s private meetings with White House officials, senators, congressional appropriations staff, AIPAC, J Street and human rights organizations.  It also revealed concern inside the human rights office that congressional anger over the Gaza inquiry could threaten US funding for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Lichner wrote that Al-Hussein had met members of Congress, including “our friend,” the late Senator Lindsey Graham, and said the UN official was “trying to do damage control and distance himself from the report.” Leshno-Yaar replied that he intended to use the intelligence. “Thank you Yahav,” he wrote. “I have no choice and of course without addressing this information I must act with members of Congress to make them understand.” “Absolutely,” Lichner responded. “You are right.” The exchange was not isolated. Drop Site reported that over roughly two years, Lichner repeatedly supplied Israeli diplomats with internal UN material, including documents marked “strictly confidential,” pre-release material and accounts of closed-door discussions. Draft Letters, Gaza Inquiries and Internal Deliberations The leaked archive shows that Lichner also provided Israeli officials with unpublished drafts and internal reports related directly to Gaza and the occupied West Bank. In July 2014, shortly after Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, he sent Israeli diplomats a letter from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to then-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, along with an unpublished draft of Ban’s response. Lichner suggested he was attempting to influence the wording from inside the UN. “I am working with our friend on improvements to the Secretary-General’s letter, as much as possible,” he wrote. After a diplomat said the draft had not arrived, Lichner resent it and added: “We are working to insert a reference to the rocket fire.” The archive also shows that he sent Israeli officials internal accounts of Ban’s meetings with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Iraq’s prime minister and Amnesty International chief Salil Shetty. He forwarded an agenda for a closed meeting of Ban’s Senior Management Group that was expected to discuss a draft Security Council resolution on Palestine and promised to report back afterward. “Information needs to be collected after the meeting,” he wrote. “As always, with sensitivity.” In another exchange, Lichner passed along internal information attributed to “a source in the Secretary-General’s circle,” including speculation about senior UN appointments and Ban Ki-moon’s political future. Prosor responded enthusiastically. “Yahav, as usual, amazing and first-hand information.” Helping Israel Anticipate Scrutiny The emails also show Lichner providing advance warning about UN deliberations concerning Israeli killings in the occupied West Bank. In May 2014, following the fatal shooting of Palestinian teenagers Mahmoud Odeh Salameh, 16, and Nadim Nuwara, 17, Lichner told Israeli diplomats that UN bodies were preparing to discuss the killings and possible concerns over excessive force. “For the past two days, I have been in contact with our friend about the issue,” he wrote. He warned that UN political, humanitarian and human rights bodies would meet the following day and suggested arguments Israel could use in response. “At the advice of our friend,” he wrote, Israel could argue that calling for an independent investigation ignored an existing Israeli military inquiry and that concerns about excessive force should not be expressed before that investigation was complete. “I will update (you) after the meeting tomorrow,” he concluded. According to Drop Site, the information gave Israeli officials time to anticipate and prepare responses to emerging UN criticism. Gaza Accountability The leaked correspondence becomes particularly significant in light of the scrutiny Israel faced following its 2014 military campaign in Gaza. In February 2015, Lichner forwarded Israeli diplomats an internal OHCHR planning email revealing when the UN commission of inquiry intended to release its report. “The information about the publication date of the report — after the elections — is sensitive and was not intended for distribution,” he wrote. “The information was not supposed to pass to the Office’s staff and entered the summary below by mistake, and there is drama now,” he added. A month later, he supplied Prosor and Leshno-Yaar with internal correspondence involving Guardian journalist Harriet Sherwood, who was investigating allegations that Israeli pressure had interfered with a process that could have placed the Israeli military on a UN list of forces implicated in serious violations against children. Lichner explicitly instructed the diplomats not to use or quote the material. “Internal correspondence — please do not use or quote,” he wrote. He also speculated about the source of the leak inside the UN, writing: “My bet is UNRWA/OCHA.” ‘Strictly Confidential’ Some of the material Lichner transmitted carried explicit confidentiality warnings. On November 10, 2014, he received an internal report from the UN Operations and Crisis Centre marked: “UN STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL NOT FOR FURTHER DISSEMINATION.” The document also stated that it was sensitive and had been specifically ordered not to be distributed further. Lichner sent the report to six Israeli diplomats the following morning. “For your eyes only,” he wrote. He highlighted a section on civilian casualties caused by US operations in Iraq and contrasted the UN response with its scrutiny of Israel. “There are no statements of condemnation from the Secretary-General and no commissions of inquiry into harm to innocent people,” he wrote. UN staff rules expressly prohibit officials from communicating confidential information obtained through their positions to governments or outside entities. Charles Petrie, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General, told Drop Site that the conduct documented in the emails would violate those standards. “When you join the UN you are bound to serve the UN rather than the country you came from,” Petrie said. “You sign a piece of paper acknowledging that you have become a UN official and, as a result, are bound to confidentiality and serving the interests of the organization rather than a member state,” he added. Petrie added that the revelations exposed a broader accountability problem. “It is a sign of an institution that does not have internal accountability,” he said. “And the higher you go, the less accountability there is.” From Israeli Diplomat to UN Insider The investigation also documented how Prosor helped Lichner secure his UNFPA position. Before joining the agency, Lichner had worked as Prosor’s political adviser at Israel’s embassy in London and later as a senior official at Israel’s UN mission. In January 2014, Prosor contacted then-US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power to seek support for Lichner’s UNFPA candidacy. Prosor said Lichner had ranked first in the recruitment process and asked Power to lobby UNFPA leadership on his behalf. “Please don’t mention that explicitly as we know it from internal sources,” Prosor wrote regarding Lichner’s ranking. When UNFPA later requested a confidential reference, Prosor described Lichner as someone who had his “absolute trust” and praised his “utmost integrity.” Within months, Lichner was working inside the UN — and, according to the leaked emails, was sending confidential internal information back to his former Israeli colleagues. The archive later shows Lichner preparing talking points for Prosor to use in promoting him for another UN position. One line described Lichner as an “intelligence officer in training,” although the available emails contain no other evidence that he underwent intelligence training. Now at UNICEF Lichner remained within the UN system after the period covered by the leaks.  By 2019, he was publicly identified as a senior UNICEF adviser. He later worked on humanitarian and reconstruction issues related to Gaza and eventually became director of UNICEF’s Washington office. Public records also describe him as having worked closely with the US government and Congress on humanitarian diplomacy and implementation of Security Council Resolution 2720 concerning aid to Gaza. Drop Site stressed that there is no evidence showing the conduct documented in the leaked emails continued after 2015, nor any evidence that UNICEF knew about the correspondence when Lichner was appointed to senior positions. The archive also does not link Prosor or other Israeli officials to Lichner’s later UNICEF appointments. But in April 2015, after Lichner thanked Prosor for the “tailwind” supporting his advancement inside UNFPA, Prosor offered a striking response. “Glad we had an influence.” (PC, Drop Site News) The post UN Official Leaked Classified Documents to Israeli Diplomats for Years – Report appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: Articles, Features, united nations]

— Ambulance Attacked, Palestinians Shot and Beaten in West Bank Settler Violence

 

at 8/7/26 3:36pm

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian communities near Bethlehem and Nablus, opening fire on residents, assaulting civilians and targeting an ambulance and its crew. Key Developments Israeli settlers attacked Abu Njeim, southeast of Bethlehem, opening live fire on Palestinian vehicles and injuring a resident. Two Palestinian paramedics were injured when settlers attacked their ambulance, smashed its windows and sprayed the crew with pepper spray. Another Palestinian suffered a broken hand after settlers attacked his truck near Abu Njeim. Three Palestinians were injured in a separate settler attack in Beit Dajan, east of Nablus. Israeli settlers carried out a series of attacks against Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank on Friday, opening live fire on residents, assaulting civilians and targeting Palestinian ambulance crews attempting to reach the wounded. The attacks were reported in the Bethlehem and Nablus governorates, while Israeli occupation forces separately beat and arrested an injured Palestinian in Beit Furik. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said two of its paramedics were among those injured, and an ambulance was put out of service after being attacked by settlers near Bethlehem. Video shows Israeli settler terrorists attacking Palestinians and activists in the Christian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank. CC: @GovMikeHuckabee https://t.co/QiOAbofNdn pic.twitter.com/evuETf31LO — Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) August 6, 2026 Ambulance Attacked near Bethlehem In Abu Njeim, southeast of Bethlehem, Israeli settlers stormed the village and opened live fire toward Palestinian vehicles, according to a security source cited by WAFA. One Palestinian was wounded by live ammunition during the attack. When a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance arrived to reach the injured man, settlers turned their attack on the medical crew. Abdul Halim Jaafreh, director of the PRCS ambulance service in Bethlehem, said two paramedics were injured after settlers attacked their vehicle. The settlers smashed the ambulances windows and sprayed its crew with pepper spray, leaving members of the medical team suffering from suffocation. The damage rendered the ambulance inoperable. Another Palestinian sustained a broken hand after settlers attacked his truck near the university housing area in Abu Njeim. According to WAFA, settlers subsequently blocked the villages main road and also assaulted Palestinian Civil Defense crews. zionist jewish settler kidnaps elderly Palestinian and lynches him in the occupied West Bank pic.twitter.com/A0CAXSGdAj — Motasem A Dalloul (@AbujomaaGaza) August 7, 2026 Palestinians Injured near Nablus Another settler attack was reported in Beit Dajan, east of Nablus. Local sources said Israeli settlers assaulted three Palestinians in the eastern part of the village, leaving them with bruises. In nearby Beit Furik, Israeli occupation forces assaulted a Palestinian before arresting him, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. PRCS crews treated the man before his detention and said they were coordinating with the International Committee of the Red Cross in an effort to gain access to him following his arrest. Settlers also attacked the eastern area of Beit Furik and vandalized a Palestinian-owned vehicle. Fridays attacks come amid a sustained escalation in Israeli military and settler violence throughout the occupied West Bank. Since the beginning of Israels genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 1,182 Palestinians, injured around 13,000 others and carried out nearly 25,000 arrests, according to official Palestinian figures. Palestinian officials have repeatedly warned that the intensification of military raids, settler violence, land seizures, settlement expansion and forced displacement is creating conditions for the formal annexation of large parts of the occupied West Bank. (WAFA, QNN, Anadolu, PC) The post Ambulance Attacked, Palestinians Shot and Beaten in West Bank Settler Violence appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: News, West Bank]

— Missiles Hit Saudi Forces as Yemen Draws a Line for Riyadh’s New Allies

 

at 8/7/26 3:10pm

Yemeni forces struck Saudi military concentrations in Marib with missiles and drones, while Sanaa warned Türkiye, Pakistan and other states against providing political or military cover for Riyadh. Key Developments Yemeni forces said a large number of missiles and drones struck Saudi military concentrations, warehouses, vehicles and equipment at the Sahn al-Jinn camp in Marib. The attack followed another major operation against Saudi-backed forces, which reportedly killed 58 people. Sanaa reiterated that Saudi military movements inside Yemen would be directly targeted under its “siege for siege” and “escalation for escalation” equations. Yemeni forces launched a major missile and drone attack on Saudi military concentrations in Marib on Friday, as Sanaa simultaneously warned that countries joining or providing cover for Riyadh’s renewed campaign against Yemen would be treated as participants in the aggression. The warnings acquire particular significance following the signing of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement between Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan, a new trilateral security arrangement under which an attack on one of the three countries would be treated as an attack on all. Ansarallah officials directly addressed the implications of the new alliance, warning Türkiye and Pakistan against allowing the agreement to draw them into Saudi Arabia’s confrontation with Yemen. Saudi Forces Targeted Yemeni Armed Forces spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced that Saudi military concentrations at the Sahn al-Jinn camp in Marib had been targeted following close surveillance of their movements. “These concentrations were struck, along with their warehouses, vehicles, and military equipment,” Saree said, adding that the operation involved a large number of missiles and drones. He described the strikes as “top-tier and precise.” According to the statement, Saudi Arabia has continued concentrating forces and preparing them for a new military confrontation inside Yemen. Sanaa said it would therefore continue targeting Saudi military movements wherever they appear, reiterating the equations of “escalation for escalation” and “siege for siege.” “We will not allow hostile plans against our country to go unanswered,” the statement said, warning that any new aggression would face “an immediate and forceful response.” Yemeni forces also called on Yemenis serving in Saudi-backed formations to leave their positions before further strikes take place. ‘Attack on One is Attack on All’: Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Pakistan Sign Defense Pact Second Major Strike The Sahn al-Jinn operation came only a day after Yemeni forces announced another large-scale attack on Saudi-backed military concentrations in al-Ruwaik, al-Abr and al-Thaniyah, as well as positions belonging to the First and Third Emergency Brigades. That operation was also carried out with ballistic missiles and drones. According to AFP, the death toll subsequently rose to 58. A senior Yemeni military source told Al Mayadeen that extensive intelligence gathering preceded the attack, allowing Yemeni forces to strike while preparations for a Saudi-backed ground offensive were reportedly reaching their final stages. The source said Sanaa’s emerging military equation means that any Saudi military presence or troop movement toward areas under its control will now become a direct target. The objective, according to the source, is to prevent Saudi-backed forces from moving between provinces and to thwart any new ground campaign before it begins. 30 Government Troops Killed in Yemen as Ansarallah Strikes Second Saudi Oil Tanker From Truce to ‘Siege for Siege’ The renewed confrontation follows Sanaa’s declaration in July that the 2022 truce with Saudi Arabia had collapsed. Tensions escalated after Saudi Arabia struck Sanaa International Airport as an Iranian aircraft carrying a Yemeni delegation, patients, wounded Yemenis and stranded passengers was attempting to land. The aircraft was subsequently diverted to Hodeidah. Yemeni forces responded by targeting Abha airport in Saudi Arabia and formally announcing the “siege for siege” equation. Since then, Sanaa has presented its military operations as a direct response to the blockade and renewed Saudi military activity, insisting that the equation will remain in place until Yemen’s demands are met. Yemens Ansarallah Targets Saudi Oil Tanker, Says 29 Ships Forced to Turn Back Warning to Saudi Arabia’s Partners The military escalation is unfolding alongside a significant change in Saudi Arabia’s regional security architecture. Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement on Friday, establishing a trilateral security bloc in which an attack against one signatory would be regarded as an attack against all three. Against that backdrop, Mahdi al-Mashat, head of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, warned that any government participating with Saudi Arabia in military action or the blockade against Yemen would itself be treated as an aggressor. “Whoever participates with the Saudi aggressor in its aggression and blockade against our country is an aggressor,” al-Mashat said, adding that Yemeni law establishes “how to deal with hostile states.” He warned Riyadh that broadening its international alliances would not force Sanaa to abandon its demands, arguing that reaching a just peace with Yemen would be considerably less costly than continuing the confrontation. Ansarallah political bureau member Mohammed al-Farah went further, specifically addressing Türkiye and Pakistan following the new agreement with Saudi Arabia. “We would not want Türkiye, Pakistan, or any other Islamic country to become a political cover for any aggression, blockade or violation of the sovereignty of a Muslim country,” al-Farah said. He argued that Muslim-majority states should pressure the party imposing the blockade to end its policies rather than establish alliances designed to protect it from their consequences. “What is required of Islamic countries is not to form alliances to protect the aggressor from the consequences of its policies, but to exert pressure on the aggressor to stop the aggression,” he said. (Al Mayadeen, Yemeni Media, PC) The post Missiles Hit Saudi Forces as Yemen Draws a Line for Riyadh’s New Allies appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: News, Yemen]

— Beyond Victimhood: Romana Rubeo on Palestinian Women, Resistance, Media Bias

 

at 8/7/26 11:31am

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   In Belfast, Romana Rubeo challenged Western media portrayals of Palestinian women, arguing that erasing their agency is itself political violence. Key Takeaways Rubeo argued that Western media frequently portrays Palestinian women as victims while systematically removing their political and historical agency. She traced Palestinian women’s resistance from the 1936–39 Great Revolt and the Nakba through the First Intifada and today’s genocide. Rubeo challenged narrow definitions of resistance, arguing that healing, teaching, documenting, remembering and sustaining communities are themselves political acts. ‘It Strips Them of Political Agency’ Speaking at Palestine Day in Belfast on Thursday, during a lecture entitled “Women and Media Bias: Cutting Through the Lies,” Palestine Chronicle Managing Editor Romana Rubeo argued that the representation of Palestinian women provides a crucial lens through which to understand the workings of Western media during Israel’s genocide in Gaza — and throughout the longer history of Palestinian dispossession. Held on August 6, Palestine Day brought together journalists, writers, activists and supporters of Palestine in Belfast for a series of talks and discussions exploring Palestinian history, resistance, media narratives and international solidarity. The event formed part of a broader program dedicated to amplifying Palestinian voices and challenging dominant narratives surrounding Palestine. Rubeo began by connecting the struggle over Palestine to a broader struggle over language, memory and historical meaning. “Every colonial project seeks to dominate territory. But it also seeks to dominate meaning,” she said, adding: “It seeks to determine who is civilized and who is barbaric; who is a victim and who is a threat; whose suffering deserves empathy and whose suffering becomes ordinary, inevitable, even invisible.” For Rubeo, media bias cannot therefore be understood simply as a matter of incorrect facts or poor reporting. It is also about selection: which aspects of reality are elevated and which are pushed outside the frame. “Media does not simply tell us what happened. It tells us what matters,” she said. “Which deaths deserve front pages. Which lives deserve biographies. Which voices are credible. Even which emotions are legitimate.” This process, she argued, is particularly apparent in representations of Palestinian women. “The issue is not that Palestinian women are completely absent from Western media. They are present. The question is: how are they present?” At one extreme, Palestinian women are viewed through the prism of the colonial power, portrayed as threats or subjected to dehumanizing rhetoric. At the other, Rubeo said, they are reduced to “grieving mothers, anonymous widows, displaced civilians, bodies wrapped in white shrouds,” or presented as helpless victims requiring Western liberation. “What is completely absent is their agency,” she said. “Sure, they cry. They mourn. They bury their children. All this is true. But it is profoundly incomplete.” Rubeo then posed a series of questions that challenged precisely this erasure. “Where are the journalists? Where are the doctors? Where are the professors? Where are the lawyers? Where are the artists? Where are the organizers of community kitchens?” “Where are the women documenting war crimes while simultaneously surviving them?” she continued. “Where are the women preserving the memory of entire families erased from civil registries?” Media bias, she argued, therefore “does not simply misrepresent Palestinian women. It strips them of political agency.” Drawing on Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism, Rubeo said that Palestinians, and Palestinian women in particular, continue to be trapped within a framework in which the West determines what they are permitted to represent. “If Orientalism denies Palestinian women political agency, history restores it,” she said. From the Great Revolt to Gaza: ‘Resistance is Continuity’ One of the great distortions of contemporary media coverage, according to Rubeo, is its tendency to treat Palestinian women as though their history began with the current genocide. “One of the great ironies of contemporary media is that it presents Palestinian women as though they suddenly appeared in history on October 7, carrying children through rubble,” she said. “In reality, Palestinian women have stood at the center of the national struggle for nearly a century.” During the Great Palestinian Revolt of 1936–39, Rubeo noted, women transported weapons, carried messages, sheltered wanted revolutionaries and organized demonstrations. During the Nakba, another role became increasingly important: preserving the collective memory of a society undergoing forced displacement. “They preserved the names of villages erased from the map, safeguarded land deeds and house keys, transmitted oral history to children born in exile, and ensured that Palestine survived not only as geography, but as memory,” she said. During the Palestinian struggle for liberation of the 1960s and 1970s, women once again challenged the image of the passive Palestinian woman. Rubeo cited Leila Khaled as one of the clearest examples, saying: “She challenged one of the central assumptions of Orientalism: that Arab women are passive subjects of history.” The First Intifada, she continued, offered an even broader illustration of women’s role in sustaining Palestinian resistance: “We often remember iconic images of young boys throwing stones at Israeli tanks. But those images tell only part of the story.” Behind those images, Rubeo said, were women organizing underground schools, medical relief committees and food distribution during curfews, establishing agricultural cooperatives, supporting prisoners’ families and sustaining communities under occupation. “The uprising was not sustained by stones alone,” she said. “It was sustained by society. And women were at the very heart of that society.” That history, Rubeo argued, requires a much broader understanding of resistance itself: “Too often, resistance is imagined exclusively through military imagery: a rifle, a fighter, a battlefield.” But resistance can also mean teaching, healing, feeding, documenting and remembering — the preservation of society itself under conditions designed to destroy it. This understanding, she stated, is particularly important during Israel’s genocide in Gaza, where the most ordinary acts of maintaining life have acquired extraordinary political significance. “A mother baking bread inside a refugee camp is not merely preparing a meal. She is refusing starvation as a mechanism of domination; a teacher holding lessons inside a shelter is not merely educating children. She is refusing the destruction of an entire generation.” And, she added, “A doctor continuing surgery without electricity is not merely practicing medicine. She is refusing the collapse of society itself.” Soma, Wafaa and the Refusal to Be Forgotten For Rubeo, however, the argument was not merely historical or theoretical. It was deeply personal. “It has faces, voices, temperament,” she said. She recalled Dr. Soma Baroud, a Palestinian physician whose life embodied a form of resistance rarely acknowledged by conventional political narratives. “Like so many Palestinian doctors throughout this genocide, she has become far more than a clinician. She is simultaneously a healer, a humanitarian, a witness, a chronicler and a moral voice. Because medicine itself has become an act of resistance.” Every surgery conducted under impossible conditions, every child treated despite shortages, and every patient comforted while Gaza’s medical infrastructure was being systematically destroyed, Rubeo argued, represented “acts of refusing the collapse of human dignity.” “Soma reminds us that resistance, in Palestine, is also expressed through care. Through healing. Through insisting that life itself remains sacred, even when everything around you is designed to destroy it.” Rubeo then turned to her friend and Palestine Chronicle contributor Wafaa Aludaini, who was killed in an Israeli attack in Gaza. Wafaa, she noted, also demolished one of the most entrenched Western stereotypes surrounding Palestinian and Muslim women. “To many people in the West, Wafaa would have appeared to fit a familiar stereotype. She wore the niqab, and for far too many audiences that image immediately evokes assumptions of silence, passivity and oppression.” “Nothing could have been further from the truth,” Rubeo said, adding that “Wafaa was one of the strongest, most intelligent and most courageous women I have ever known.” Rubeo recalled first encountering Aludaini’s work during the Great March of Return, when she reported from Gaza as Israeli snipers targeted Palestinian demonstrators along the separation fence. “She documented not only the killings and injuries, but also the hopes, the dignity and the humanity of ordinary Palestinians demanding nothing more than their right to return to the homes from which their families had been expelled.” During the genocide, the editor and journalist remained in contact whenever Gaza’s collapsing communications infrastructure permitted. “Like every editor working with colleagues in Gaza, I found myself living between WhatsApp notifications,” Rubeo recalled. “Sometimes there was no electricity. Sometimes there was no internet. Sometimes entire neighborhoods had been forced to flee once again.” Then, one morning, she opened Facebook and saw Wafaa’s photograph accompanied by two words in Arabic: “Allah yerhamha” — May God have mercy upon her. “There is something profoundly cruel about discovering the death of someone you love through social media,” Rubeo said. “International media recorded another statistic. Another journalist killed. I lost my friend. And that difference matters.” The distinction went directly to the heart of Rubeo’s argument about journalism, memory and power. “Journalism is not simply about recording events. It is about preserving memory.” “Every article we write becomes part of the historical record. Every testimony we preserve becomes evidence against erasure. Every name we refuse to let disappear challenges those who would reduce an entire people to numbers.” Rubeo concluded by returning to the central question of media bias. “Media bias is not simply about inaccurate reporting,” she said. “It is about deciding who enters history. Every colonial project attempts to eliminate a people twice. First physically. Then historically. The first is carried out through bombs. The second through silence.” For nearly a century, she argued, Palestinian women have resisted both forms of erasure — as organizers, fighters, doctors, journalists, teachers, writers and mothers. “The forms of resistance have changed. The purpose has not,” Rubeo said. “To ensure that Palestine survives. Not only as territory. But as memory. As history. As culture. As people.” She ended with the words that encapsulated the central message of the address: “If there is one thing Palestinian women have taught us over nearly a century of struggle, it is this: Resistance is not only the refusal to die. It is the refusal to be forgotten.” (The Palestine Chronicle) The post Beyond Victimhood: Romana Rubeo on Palestinian Women, Resistance, Media Bias appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: Articles, Features, palestine]

— ‘Attack on One is Attack on All’: Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Pakistan Sign Defense Pact

 

at 8/7/26 10:11am

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan signed a collective defense agreement stipulating that an armed attack against one constitutes an attack against all. Key Developments Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, establishing collective deterrence based on the principle that an attack on one is an attack on all. The three countries said the pact strengthens defense cooperation and interoperability, while Türkiye stressed that it targets no particular country and remains open to others. Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei responded that a “paper agreement” would not provide Saudi Arabia security, urging Riyadh to change its regional policies. ‘Attack on One is Attack on All’ Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement on Friday, establishing a trilateral collective-defense framework amid mounting regional tensions and months of military escalation. The agreement was signed in Mecca following talks involving Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Under the pact, an armed attack against any one of the three countries will be considered an attack against all three, according to a joint statement. The three governments said the agreement aims to strengthen collective deterrence, joint security and defense cooperation while contributing to regional security and stability. According to Saudi officials, the agreement establishes a long-term framework intended to increase military coordination, readiness and integration among the three countries. WATCH: Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan sign Mecca trilateral Defense Agreement. pic.twitter.com/ffL2jIpXC5 — Clash Report (@clashreport) August 7, 2026 Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan described the agreement as an important milestone in coordinating efforts to confront threats to regional security. Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman said it establishes a framework for a long-term defense partnership and strengthens “deterrence, coordination and integration” among Riyadh, Ankara and Islamabad. Reuters reported that negotiations leading to the agreement had been underway for roughly a year, while Saudi sources cited by Al-Jazeera said technical and political discussions had continued for around two years. The agreement builds upon longstanding bilateral military relations among the three states. Pakistan has trained Saudi forces for decades, while Türkiye and Saudi Arabia have significantly expanded their defense-industrial cooperation in recent years. Erdogan: Pact Targets No Country Erdogan said the agreement is based on the principle of “collective deterrence” and covers security and defense cooperation, joint defense-industry projects and counterterrorism. The Turkish president said the framework rests on the right to self-defense established under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. Footage posted by the Pakistani PMs office from todays landmark Mecca Summit, in which Pakistan, along with Saudi and Turkey, signed a MAJOR NATO-style pact "Guided by the longstanding historical ties among the three States, based on the enduring bonds of brotherhood… — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 7, 2026 He stressed that the pact is not directed against any particular country and does not constitute the creation of a military axis. According to Erdogan, the framework will also remain open to other countries seeking to contribute to regional peace, stability and prosperity. A Turkish official similarly told Reuters that the agreement is purely defensive and does not supersede existing bilateral or multilateral security arrangements involving the three countries. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said the agreement encompasses three principal areas: collective deterrence, collective security and joint defense cooperation. The signing also highlights the different capabilities each country brings to the arrangement. Türkiye possesses a rapidly expanding defense industry, Pakistan has extensive military capabilities and operational experience, while Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in military procurement and the localization of defense production. Pakistan also possesses nuclear weapons, although analysts cited by Reuters said they did not expect the Mecca agreement to include a nuclear dimension. The agreement comes amid a rapidly changing regional security environment following the US-Israeli war against Iran that began on February 28 and subsequent escalation across several regional fronts. It was also signed amid renewed confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, including Yemeni Armed Forces operations against Saudi-backed forces and Saudi maritime traffic under Sanaa’s declared “blockade for blockade” strategy. Turk President Erdogan reached Saudi Arabia to meet Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salmaan and Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif pic.twitter.com/teqtWgQPf0 — Azaz Syed (@AzazSyed) August 7, 2026 Iran: ‘Paper Agreement Will Not Bring Security’ The agreement drew a sharp response from Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesperson for the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee. “The Saudis should know that a paper agreement will not bring them security, just as years of unilateral subservience to the United States did not provide it,” Rezaei wrote on X. He urged Riyadh to reconsider its policies rather than seek security guarantees from other states. “Correct your policies so that you do not have to beg for security from others,” Rezaei said. (PC, Reuters, Al Mayadeen, AJA) The post ‘Attack on One is Attack on All’: Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Pakistan Sign Defense Pact appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: News, Saudi Arabia]

— Lebanese Soldier Injured as Israel Targets Army, Water Crews in South Lebanon

 

at 8/7/26 8:22am

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   Israeli occupation forces continued attacks across southern Lebanon, injuring a Lebanese soldier and targeting water crews while bombarding several towns and villages. Key Developments A Lebanese army soldier was injured when an Israeli helicopter dropped a sound bomb targeting an army bulldozer in al-Mansouri. Israeli forces opened fire on South Lebanon Water Establishment workers repairing infrastructure in Aita al-Jabal and shelled several southern communities. The attacks coincided with the seventh round of Lebanon-Israel negotiations in Rome, described as the most difficult round of talks yet. Lebanese Soldier Injured in Israeli Attack Israeli occupation forces continued their attacks across southern Lebanon, targeting Lebanese army personnel, public-service workers and several villages and towns. According to Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese army soldier was injured after an Israeli helicopter dropped a sound bomb targeting an army bulldozer in the town of al-Mansouri, in the Tyre district. The attack came as the Lebanese army attempted to carry out work in the area, with the correspondent reporting that Israeli forces were seeking to obstruct the army’s activities and prevent its entry into the town. Elsewhere, Israeli occupation forces set fire to several homes in Houla and carried out an explosion in Qounin, in the Bint Jbeil district. Israeli artillery also targeted Al-Mansouri and Mays al-Jabal, while Wadi Zibqin came under artillery fire at dawn. The IOF attacked a Lebanese Army bulldozer on Friday in Al-Mansouri, southern Lebanon as it was clearing rubble from a recent Israeli airstrike, injuring a soldier. Despite the US-Israel-Lebanon "trilateral framework" for the Lebanese Army to deploy in the south, Israeli attacks… pic.twitter.com/lzfw3xSSdn — VPol (@VocalPolitics1) August 7, 2026 Israeli Forces Open Fire on Water Crews Israeli occupation forces also targeted workers from the South Lebanon Water Establishment while they were carrying out repairs in Aita al-Jabal. The establishment said the head of the Bint Jbeil Water Department and several workers came under Israeli gunfire while repairing faults in the local water network. The crews were working to restore water supplies to residents and maintain essential services in southern communities. The establishment condemned the attack, stressing that targeting public-service workers while carrying out their duties constitutes an attack on civilians and on residents’ right to access water. Despite the continuing danger, it said its teams would continue working in southern villages and towns to maintain water supplies. Attacks Continue amid Difficult Rome Talks The Israeli attacks come as Lebanese and Israeli officials participate in a seventh round of negotiations in Rome over the implementation of the ceasefire agreement. Al Mayadeen’s correspondent described the latest discussions as the “most difficult round” since the negotiations began. According to the report, Lebanon has proposed designating either Khiam or Bint Jbeil as a “pilot zone” from which Israeli forces would withdraw. Sources in the Lebanese presidency, however, reportedly considered it unlikely that Israel would accept another such arrangement. Two Israeli Soldiers Killed, Seven Wounded in South Lebanon Explosion The Lebanese army has also categorically rejected any mechanism that would allow the Israeli military to verify its activities in southern Lebanon. The negotiations are proceeding while Israeli occupation forces continue military operations across the south, including artillery shelling, demolitions and attacks affecting Lebanese military personnel and civilian service workers. (PC, Al Mayadeen) The post Lebanese Soldier Injured as Israel Targets Army, Water Crews in South Lebanon appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: News, lebanon]

— ‘Hamas Must Be Erased’: Israeli Ministers Demand Renewed Gaza Offensive

 

at 8/7/26 5:59am

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   Israeli ministers demanded a renewed military offensive in Gaza and pressed Netanyahu to formally reject the second phase of Trump’s ceasefire roadmap. Key Developments Several Israeli ministers called for renewed offensive operations in Gaza during Thursday’s Security Cabinet meeting, according to Israel Hayom. Bezalel Smotrich, Ze’ev Elkin, Orit Strock and Avi Dichter pressed Netanyahu to formally reject the roadmap for the ceasefire’s second phase. Smotrich demanded that Hamas be “erased,” while Elkin argued that two weeks without renewed offensive operations would signal Israeli acceptance. Ministers Demand Renewed Gaza Offensive Several Israeli ministers called for the resumption of a military offensive in the Gaza Strip and demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally reject the roadmap for implementing the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan, Israeli media reported. The demands were made during a meeting of Israel’s Security Cabinet on Thursday evening, according to the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom. Ministers Ze’ev Elkin, Bezalel Smotrich, Orit Strock and Avi Dichter were among those who pushed for renewed military operations in Gaza. “If Israel does not launch offensive operations for two weeks, it would mean that it has accepted the plan,” Elkin reportedly told the meeting, calling for Israel to formally reject provisions contained in the roadmap. Smotrich, Strock and Dichter similarly demanded that Netanyahu publicly declare Israel’s opposition to implementing the second phase. Displacement or Death: Moshe Feiglin Calls for Gazas Complete Depopulation Smotrich directly challenged Netanyahu over what he described as attempts to maneuver around the proposal. “You are good at maneuvering, but after the issuance of an official document, we must delegitimize it. We cannot continue maneuvering,” Smotrich reportedly said. “Hamas must not remain. It must be erased,” he added. Pressure over Second Phase The dispute comes after the Trump-chaired Board of Peace released a draft agreement last Friday setting out principles and implementation mechanisms for the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan. The document includes security, administrative and transitional arrangements for Gaza, alongside a proposed political track. The Board of Peace announced that Hamas had approved the roadmap, while Israel had yet to formally announce its position. Israel Committed Over 4,000 Ceasefire Violations in 300 Days Gaza Media Office The issue of the second phase has become particularly contentious because its implementation would involve further steps concerning Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and future security arrangements in the Strip. The Israeli ministers’ intervention effectively pressures Netanyahu to reject the framework outright rather than continue delaying a formal decision while maintaining Israel’s current military posture. Elkin’s remarks were particularly explicit, suggesting that continued Israeli restraint from launching a new offensive could itself be interpreted as acceptance of the roadmap. I Am Determined: Netanyahu Declares Readiness to Strike Iran Alone Ceasefire Violations Continue The demands for a renewed offensive come despite continuing Israeli attacks on Gaza since the ceasefire formally took effect on October 10, 2025. According to official Palestinian figures, Israeli violations of the agreement have killed 1,252 Palestinians and wounded another 4,120, most of them women and children. Israeli occupation forces also continue to occupy approximately 70 percent of the Gaza Strip, even as negotiations focus on implementing the next phase of the agreement. Since October 2023, Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and wounded over 174,000 others, while devastating much of the besieged enclave. The latest Security Cabinet discussions therefore come as Israeli ministers openly push not merely to reject the next phase of the ceasefire framework, but to return to a broader military offensive in Gaza. (PC, AA, Israeli media) The post ‘Hamas Must Be Erased’: Israeli Ministers Demand Renewed Gaza Offensive appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: Uncategorized, israel]

— Israeli Forces Withdraw from Qalandiya after Two-Day Assault, Over 70 Detained

 

at 8/7/26 5:38am

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   Israeli occupation forces and illegal settlers intensified attacks across the occupied West Bank, demolishing homes, injuring dozens and carrying out mass detentions overnight. Key Developments Israeli occupation forces withdrew from Qalandiya after a two-day assault that demolished seven homes, damaged others and saw over 70 Palestinians detained. The Palestine Red Crescent Society treated 51 people during the Qalandiya raid, as Israeli forces heavily fired tear gas and stun grenades. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said West Bank detentions have now surpassed 25,600 since the beginning of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Qalandiya: Demolitions, Injuries and Mass Detentions Israeli occupation forces, backed by settler groups, carried out widespread attacks across the occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem overnight Thursday into Friday, raiding towns and refugee camps, storming homes and demolishing Palestinian property. One of the most intense operations took place in the Qalandiya refugee camp, between occupied Jerusalem and Ramallah, where Israeli occupation forces withdrew following a two-day assault. During the operation, Israeli occupation forces demolished seven Palestinian homes and several other structures, while dozens of additional properties sustained damage. Troops searched the refugee camp house by house, detaining more than 70 Palestinians and subjecting many residents to field interrogations. Footage documenting the moments when Israeli forces raided residents homes in the Qalandiya Refugee Camp, north of occupied Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/BRs0FQkKIj — Abdullah Omar (@Abdullah_Om3r03) August 6, 2026 The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its medical crews treated 51 Palestinians for injuries sustained during the Israeli assault. Israeli occupation forces fired heavy barrages of tear gas and stun grenades around the entrance to Qalandia and in the neighboring town of Kafr Aqab, north of occupied al-Quds. According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), the detention campaign was accompanied by severe beatings, threats and the binding and restraining of Palestinians during interrogations. Israeli occupation forces also converted several Palestinian homes into makeshift interrogation centers while damaging and destroying residents’ belongings. Raids and Settler Attacks The assault extended across numerous areas of the occupied West Bank. In Jenin, Israeli occupation forces stormed Deir Abu Daif, east of the city, raided a home in the al-Hadaf neighborhood near Jenin refugee camp and entered the Jabal Abu Dhahir area. In Tubas, occupation forces raided areas surrounding al-Faraa refugee camp and stormed Palestinian homes in Tammun. Illegal Israeli settlers meanwhile continued their incursions into Khirbet Samra in the northern Jordan Valley. Israeli occupation forces also expanded their operations in the Tulkarm governorate, searching homes in Kafr Abbush and storming residences in Kafr Jammal, southwest of the city. In Nablus, illegal Israeli Jewish settlers stormed the eastern part of Rujeib, while another group entered a cemetery in Awarta and installed surveillance cameras. Illegal settlers also stormed the Burak Sulayman site in Artas, south of Bethlehem. The Israeli army has launched a large-scale raid on the Qalandiya refugee camp, located north of Jerusalem. اقتحام واسع لمخيم قلنديا شمال القدس pic.twitter.com/59kMVyZPl1 — Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) August 5, 2026 Further south, Israeli occupation forces raided al-Arroub refugee camp, north of al-Khalil, as well as the city of Yatta. In Masafer Yatta, illegal settlers cut through a fence surrounding the home of Salem al-Hathaleen in Umm al-Khair, amid an ongoing campaign targeting the family. The latest incident follows repeated settler attempts to occupy part of the al-Hathaleen family home, alongside attacks carried out under Israeli military protection. More than 25,600 Palestinians Detained The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society described the ongoing Israeli offensive as the broadest military assault on the occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada, warning that Palestinian refugee camps have become central targets. According to the organization, Israeli operations have increasingly involved mass detentions, field interrogations, torture and extrajudicial killings, affecting Palestinians across all sections of society, including women, children, elderly people, the wounded and the sick. The PPS said these practices amount to a policy of collective punishment against Palestinian communities. It further revealed that the number of Palestinians detained across the occupied West Bank since the beginning of Israel’s genocide in Gaza has now surpassed 25,600. The organization warned that the scale of arrests, torture, demolitions and killings reflects an increasingly dangerous phase in Israel’s systematic targeting of Palestinians across the occupied West Bank. (PC, QNN, Al Mayadeen) The post Israeli Forces Withdraw from Qalandiya after Two-Day Assault, Over 70 Detained appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: News, qalandiya]

— Israel Continues Gaza Attacks as 300 Children Killed since Ceasefire

 

at 8/7/26 4:27am

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   Israeli occupation forces continued attacking Gaza as figures revealed 4,091 ceasefire violations and at least 300 children killed over 300 days. Key Developments Israeli tanks, artillery, warships and drones attacked areas across Rafah, Gaza City, Jabalia and Khan Yunis on Thursday and Friday. Gaza’s Government Media Office recorded 4,091 Israeli violations in 300 days, killing 1,254 Palestinians, wounding 4,121 and detaining 159. UNICEF said at least 300 children have been killed since the ceasefire, an average of approximately one Palestinian child every day. Israeli Attacks Continue across Gaza Israeli occupation forces continued their attacks across the Gaza Strip on Friday, with tank shelling, artillery strikes and fire from Israeli warships reported in several areas. According to Al Mayadeen, Israeli tanks heavily shelled areas north of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, while Israeli artillery targeted northeastern Gaza City. Israeli warships also opened fire toward Gaza City’s coastline. The attacks followed further Israeli violations on Thursday. Two Palestinians were wounded when Israeli forces opened fire inside the Halawa displacement camp in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Israel has bombed and devastated Gaza’s sewage and sanitation infrastructure, and now deliberately blocks Palestinians from the landfills, machinery and essential supplies needed to contain the resulting public health catastrophe. One consequence is a massive rat and pest… https://t.co/QBrsIF8XV9 — Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) August 7, 2026 In the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, northeast of Gaza City, an Israeli quadcopter opened fire near al-Mahatta Mosque, wounding a Palestinian child. Israeli artillery also struck the Jabaliya refugee camp. In Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, a Palestinian was killed after succumbing to wounds sustained in an earlier Israeli attack on the al-Buraq area, west of the city. The attacks come as new figures document the scale of Israeli violations during the ceasefire that took effect last October. 4,091 Violations in 300 Days Gaza’s Government Media Office said Thursday that Israel had committed 4,091 violations of the ceasefire agreement over 300 days, resulting in the killing of at least 1,254 Palestinians and the injury of another 4,121. Another 159 Palestinians were detained by Israeli forces during the same period. The Media Office also accused Israel of continuing to obstruct the entry of food and humanitarian assistance into Gaza while imposing severe restrictions on Palestinian movement into and out of the besieged Strip. According to figures released by the office, Israel allowed only 63,094 of the 180,000 aid trucks that were supposed to enter Gaza during the period covered by the agreement — a compliance rate of approximately 35 percent. Restrictions have also remained in place at the Rafah crossing. Only 10,703 Palestinians were permitted to leave Gaza out of the 27,400 who were supposed to be allowed to travel under the agreement, amounting to a compliance rate of 39 percent. The office condemned what it described as Israel’s systematic policy of targeting and exterminating the Palestinian people and called on mediators and guarantors of the ceasefire to compel Israel to implement its obligations. How many times has this scene repeated? A nurse or doctor goes to work at a Gaza hospital, only to discover the victims are their own family—the loved ones they left behind, hoping to see them alive again. This is Gaza, enduring a genocide of unimaginable horror. pic.twitter.com/bvGmUUKi4u — Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) August 7, 2026 300 Palestinian Children Killed UNICEF separately revealed that at least 300 Palestinian children have been killed during the 300 days since the ceasefire was announced, meaning that Israeli attacks have killed approximately one child every day during the supposed truce. “A ceasefire that leaves an average of one child dead each and every day is failing children,” UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder said. Hundreds more children have been wounded, many severely, according to the UN agency. UNICEF warned that Gaza’s children continue to face acute malnutrition, outbreaks of disease, shortages of clean water and severely damaged sanitation infrastructure. Many Palestinian families have meanwhile been forced into approximately one-third of Gaza’s territory, where they are living among destroyed buildings, rubble and accumulated waste. Against this backdrop, the first construction project reportedly connected to US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” reconstruction framework is expected to be a military outpost rather than civilian infrastructure. According to The Guardian, the planned facility would accommodate approximately 150 Moroccan troops belonging to the proposed International Stabilization Force. The development comes as Gaza continues to endure Israeli attacks, severe humanitarian restrictions and widespread destruction despite nearly ten months under a formally declared ceasefire. (PC, Al Mayadeen) The post Israel Continues Gaza Attacks as 300 Children Killed since Ceasefire appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: News, Gaza]

— No Room for Genocide: Italian Hospitality against Apartheid and Israeli Crimes

 

at 8/7/26 1:00am

By Michael Leonardi The campaign of harassment directed against them is an attempt to reimpose silence and complicity. It will not succeed for as long as people of conscience continue to answer. In the summer of 2026, a quiet act of conscience in a Naples hotel room triggered a familiar storm. An Israeli tourist booked a stay at the Decumani Hotel De Charme through Booking.com. She received the standard automated confirmation email. It contained a short paragraph: the property endorsed the “No Room for Genocide” campaign, respected the freedom and human rights of communities suffering racist, ethnic, and social harm, and warmly welcomed Palestinians, refugees, and all those peacefully resisting oppression in pursuit of their internationally recognized rights. The tourist canceled. She told Israeli media she no longer felt safe. Within hours, the hotel was under attack. Fake bookings flooded the system. Fake negative reviews appeared from people who had never stayed there. Attempts were made to damage the business. The owners were forced to issue public statements clarifying that the message went to every guest regardless of nationality, that they had never refused an Israeli client on the basis of passport or identity, and that they had in fact hosted Israeli guests throughout the previous year. BDS Italia issued a solidarity statement. The campaign of defamation continued. This is what happens when small Italian hospitality businesses refuse complicity. “No Room for Genocide” was launched in July 2025 by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition of Palestinian civil society and the leadership of the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. It was quickly taken up with force by BDS Italia and solidarity groups worldwide. The campaign is a direct response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Israel’s entrenched system of settler-colonial apartheid, and the illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian land. It also responds to what the BNC describes as the wilful negligence of third states that continue to offer visa-free entry and safe passage to those implicated in atrocity crimes while failing to uphold their clear obligations under international law. International law requires states to end all forms of complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity (including apartheid), and genocide. That includes the duty to deny war criminals passage or haven and, where possible, to prosecute them. With governments largely refusing to act, the BDS movement turned to civil society and to the hospitality sector itself. The campaign’s organizing toolkit invites hotels, B&Bs, agriturismi, restaurants, tour operators, and cultural spaces to take concrete steps: publicly endorse the principle that there is no room for genocide; discourage those credibly linked to war crimes from booking; challenge the complicity of platforms such as Booking.com and Airbnb that list properties in illegal settlements; and demand that states terminate visa-waiver agreements with Israel and institute effective border screenings. Participating businesses can also join the related “Sanctuaries of Peace” initiative, declaring their spaces places of ethical hospitality grounded in human rights rather than neutrality in the face of mass atrocity. The campaign does not call for the exclusion of Jews or Israelis as such. It targets participation in and support for a regime of systematic violence. That distinction is repeatedly erased by those who respond with accusations of antisemitism, the oldest and most effective weapon used to shield Israel from accountability. In Naples, the same refusal has strong local roots. Nives Monda, owner of Taverna a Santa Chiara and now a recognized local leader within the BDS movement, has become a reference point for the city’s hospitality sector. After her restaurant was targeted in a high-profile confrontation over its public adherence to Spazi Liberi dall’Apartheid Israeliana, she continued to organize and speak out. In a message inviting other businesses and cultural associations to join the campaigns, she stated clearly: “It is our duty to take a stance and do what we can to end all chains of complicity that enable Israel’s genocide in Gaza.” That sense of duty — practical, public, and grounded in everyday work — runs through the Italian network of spaces that have chosen not to remain neutral. In Tuscany the pattern repeated. In May 2026, an Israeli woman booked an agriturismo, “Le Cantine,” in Poggibonsi. The owner, Pietro Del Zanna, wrote to her before arrival. He stated he was not antisemitic, but he could no longer pretend that nothing was happening in Gaza. He asked her position on the policies of the Netanyahu government. If she disagreed with those policies she was welcome. If she supported them, she knew his view, and he would cancel without penalty. She canceled, publicized the exchange, and filed a complaint. Del Zanna faced online attacks and calls to boycott his business. He also received many messages of solidarity, including from Israelis sickened by their government’s actions. Nearby, in the Chianti hills, the owner of Villa Moris, a B&B, displayed a Palestinian flag and materials linked to the related campaign of Spazi Liberi dall’Apartheid Israeliana (SPLAI — Spaces Free from Israeli Apartheid). A Swedish couple left a one-star review attacking her as a left-wing pro-Palestinian activist. She replied with a powerful public rebuttal: her Jewish grandfather had lived through the Shoah and descendants of hers had been killed in the holocaust; the values of her household were freedom, democracy, equality, and antifascism; she had joined SPLAI out of those same principles; and she reserved the right to refuse potential war criminals. The review was an attempt to punish political speech and to weaponize Jewish identity against solidarity with Palestine. Her response refused that blackmail and reclaimed the moral ground. These are not isolated incidents. SPLAI — Spaces Free from Israeli Apartheid — is the Italian expression of the international Apartheid Free Zones campaign, itself inspired by the global movement that helped isolate South African apartheid. Promoted by BDS Italia, it invites commercial, cultural, social, and sporting spaces to declare themselves free of complicity with Israel’s regime of occupation, colonization, and apartheid. Members commit not to purchase or sell products and services of companies, Israeli or international, implicated in violations of Palestinian rights, and not to host or participate in cultural, academic, or sporting events financed or sponsored by Israel or involving its official representatives. By mid-2025 the network had surpassed five hundred adherents across Italy — bars, restaurants, bookshops, ARCI clubs (with national ARCI endorsement), cultural centers, unions, and lodging houses — forming a grassroots infrastructure of everyday refusal. “No Room for Genocide” extends that principle into the intimate space of hospitality. It asks a simple question: must a bed be offered to those who have participated in or actively supported the destruction of Gaza and the ongoing project of Greater Israel? The tourism industry is not neutral. Platforms that list settlement villas and hotels profit from the dispossession of Palestinians. Airlines and cruise lines that bring settlers and soldiers on leave help sustain the occupation. When Italian owners of modest hotels and farmhouses refuse that economy of complicity, they are attacked with the full force of organized Zionist pressure: coordinated negative reviews, false accusations of discrimination, social-media storms, and economic sabotage. The goal is intimidation. The method is the deliberate conflation of criticism of a state and its military with hatred of a people. Italy’s government under Giorgia Meloni has offered no protection. On the contrary, it has deepened military and political ties with Israel while criminalizing forms of solidarity at home. In that climate, the courage of small proprietors in Naples, Tuscany, and elsewhere becomes a form of resistance. They are not powerful. They do not control ministries or media. They simply refuse to pretend that genocide is a private matter or that hospitality requires moral blindness. The broader BDS movement has always insisted that ordinary people and institutions have both the right and the responsibility to withdraw support from systems of oppression. “No Room for Genocide” is that principle applied to the bedroom and the breakfast table. It is non-violent. It is precise. It is grounded in the legal obligation of third parties not to aid or assist in the commission of international crimes. That it provokes such fury is evidence of its effectiveness. The hotels, bnbs, and agriturismi that have joined are not closing their doors to Jews or to Israelis who reject the policies of their government. They are declaring that there is no room — in their houses, in their businesses, in their ethics, in their understanding of human dignity — for the perpetrators and enablers of genocide and apartheid. The campaign of harassment directed against them is an attempt to reimpose silence and complicity. It will not succeed for as long as people of conscience continue to answer, quietly and firmly: not here. Michael Leonardi is an Italy-based journalist. Leonardi is the vice president of the Treewater Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to building sustainability in a Free Palestine for over a decade. He contributed this article to the Palestine Chronicle. The post No Room for Genocide: Italian Hospitality against Apartheid and Israeli Crimes appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: Articles, Commentary, Italy]

— Israel is Concerned of a Crisis in Its Global Standing, Especially with the US

 

at 8/1/25 4:42pm

By Robert Inlakesh Those who have been exposed fully to the live-streamed genocide in Gaza are overwhelmingly the young people of the United States. It is no secret that Israel’s stock amongst the global public has been plummeting since October 7, 2023. A top Israeli think-tank has now identified the trend as a “brewing crisis in bilateral relations”. However, reversing the damage done to Israel’s reputation is now impossible. The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), an influential Israeli think tank, has expressed great concern over the growing partisan gap in the United States on the issue of Israel. It took note of polling data and the growing gap between Democratic versus Republican Party support for Israel. Support for Israel has long been a bipartisan stance in the United States. Back in 2018, according to a Gallup Poll conducted that year, some 64% of Americans supported Israel and only 21% said they leant towards Palestine.  The next year, while support for Palestine remained the same, only 59% of respondents said they supported Israel, which sparked major concerns for the Israel Lobby. Israel Faces Diplomatic Collapse as Pressure Mounts over Gaza Crisis Report Fast forward to 2025 and the latest Gallup poll shows that only 32% of the US public back Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, most of whom are Republicans, with only 8% of Democrats supporting the Israeli assault. Perhaps the most notable takeaway from the Gallup Poll however, were the opinions of young Americans, which appear to cut across Party lines in opposition to Israel. Overall, only 9% of respondents aged 18 to 34, said they supported Israel’s military actions in Gaza, while only 6% said they had a favorable view of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Recently, the right-wing Zionist Anti-Defamation League (ADL) conducted a survey and claimed to have found that 46% of the global adult population had entrenched anti-Semitic beliefs, up from 26% of adults harboring those same attitudes in 2014.  It should be noted that the ADL has been shown to include pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel views as “anti-Semitism”, which is what led to recent reports in which it concluded exponential spikes in “anti-semitic incidents”. The ADL’s reports indicate that the Zionist movement is certainly in a state of crisis. The key takeaways here are that Americans who are women, young people, Democrats or people of color are overwhelmingly opposed to Israel. This was, just years ago, unimaginable to be speaking about the majority of the US population now standing in opposition to Israel. A recent Pew Poll from a few months back also indicated that despite the continued Republican Party voter support for Israel, when you look specifically at Republicans aged between 18 to 49, half of them viewed Israel unfavorably.  Worst Ratings: Israel, Netanyahu Face Record Low US Support amid Gaza Genocide Although the Pew data didn’t reveal the Gallup age range of 18 to 34, the evidence supports the notion that this demographic holds the most unfavorable views of Israel. In response however, the Israeli government appears to be only bothering to focus its efforts on winning over young Republicans, not caring so much for Democrats that appear as a lost cause. This indicates an admission that in the future, Palestine-Israel is going to be a partisan issue in the United States. When we also put into consideration that younger Americans get their news from social media, new media and independent commentators/journalists, more so than they do the major news outlets, it indicates that what they have already seen will have made up their mind as to where they stand on the issue.  Those who have been exposed fully to the live-streamed genocide in Gaza are overwhelmingly the young people of the United States. For them, Palestine has become the issue of a generation.  The big fear now for the Israel Lobby is that they are fully exposed and the younger generations will eventually grow up, making the population overwhelmingly pro-Palestine if no seismic shift occurs. (The Palestine Chronicle) Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. The post Israel is Concerned of a Crisis in Its Global Standing, Especially with the US appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: Articles, Features, gaza genocide, International Community, israel, palestine, United States]

— The Milk that Never Came: How Famine in Gaza Shatters the First Bond and the Soul of a Nation

 

at 8/1/25 4:02pm

By Dr. Mark Brauner It is one thing to die of hunger. It is another to die never having been held with the fullness of safety and warmth that nature intended. In Gaza, famine is not a threat. It is a reality measured not only in calories and corpses but in something far more intimate: the silence between a mother and her child when the milk never comes. This is not only a humanitarian crisis. It is a biological and spiritual desecration. A mother brings new life into the world, and in the sacred order of things, that life turns to her breast, seeking warmth, safety, nourishment. The first drops of colostrum are thick with antibodies, hormones, and history. They are the first sacrament of care, of belonging. But in Gaza, under siege, the breast is often dry. The baby suckles and finds nothing. And in that moment, a bond older than civilization begins to unravel. I saw this with my own eyes, while practicing medicine in Gaza. Infants limp with hunger, too weak to cry. Mothers gaunt, ashamed, desperate, their own bodies wasting as they tried to offer comfort with arms that shook. They looked at me not for medicine but for mercy. And all I could think was: this is not how the world is supposed to be. The biology is brutal. Starvation halts lactation. Cortisol floods the body under extreme stress, shutting down prolactin, suppressing oxytocin. No oxytocin, no milk. No milk, no immunity, no warmth, no hope. The baby’s gut becomes inflamed and porous. Infections race in. Muscles waste. The brain, lacking fat and glucose, slows. A child who does not breastfeed is not only hungry, they are unmoored from the biological cradle that teaches trust, rhythm, and connection. Many children die. If they survive, they live in a body and mind etched with trauma. This is more than a tragedy between one mother and one child. This bond is the first social contract. It is the first act of giving and receiving, the first heartbeat of civilization. When that contract is broken, when thousands of mothers cannot feed thousands of babies, what is torn is not just flesh. It is culture. It is continuity. It is the future. We rarely speak aloud just how holy this feedback loop is. When a baby suckles, it is not simply extracting milk. It is sending a biochemical signal through the nipple to the mother’s brain, which responds by releasing prolactin to make more milk, and oxytocin to let it down. This is not one body giving to another. It is two bodies singing in a shared language of love, an intimate duet of breath, pressure, scent, and warmth. The baby regulates the mother’s physiology. The mother’s milk regulates the baby’s immune system and brain development. This mutual regulation, this exquisite reciprocity, is the biological ground zero of empathy. When that feedback is severed, it is not only nutrition that vanishes. It is emotional safety. The baby’s nervous system, without the soothing rhythms of the maternal body, becomes chaotic. The stress hormones flood in. Synapses prune. Future personality, future attachment, future capacity to love, all of it is altered. On a molecular level, love has been interrupted. And that is what makes this moment in Gaza so unspeakably unnatural. This is not a slow tragedy of drought or crop failure. This is not the hardship of poverty. This is an engineered scission. This is the active dismantling of the most sacred interaction life has to offer. This is starvation imposed by policy, a blockade that strangles not just goods but human relationships. It is one thing to die of hunger. It is another to die never having been held with the fullness of safety and warmth that nature intended. That is a different kind of annihilation. The broken bond becomes metaphor. The starvation of the child mirrors the starvation of the people. The collapse of lactation echoes the collapse of infrastructure. The mother’s dry breast is the dried-up aquifer, the burned olive tree, the shuttered bakery, the desperate and violent waiting line for aid that never arrives. As the infant’s body falters, so does the society that might have nurtured them. When babies die in their mothers’ arms for lack of milk, it is not just a personal grief. It is a national hemorrhage and an international failure of morality. And the damage will echo for generations. Children raised in hunger grow into adults with stunted brains, dysregulated hormones, and shattered trust. Their wounds will not remain private. They will spread through relationships, institutions, and memory. A traumatized generation is being forged in Gaza, one hungry cell at a time. To sever a mother from her child’s need is a violation of both biology and soul. It is the collapse of continuity, the smashing of the first mirror a baby looks into and learns, I am loved. When that mirror is cracked by siege and starvation, it becomes harder to believe in anything—peace, justice, biology and even God. This is not just famine. This is the theft of tenderness. It is the sabotage of one of nature’s most beautiful expressions of mutual need and mutual care. It is a moral catastrophe. When a mother cannot nurse her child, something ancient dies. And when this happens not by accident, but by the hands of men and policies, it is not just famine. It is a campaign against the very idea of tenderness, of care, of inheritance. It is the erasure of the future, one hungry infant at a time. Dr. Mark Brauner is a board-certified emergency physician with over 20 years of experience, most recently volunteering at Nasser Hospital in Gaza during the siege in June 2025. He contributed this article to the Palestine Chronicle. The post The Milk that Never Came: How Famine in Gaza Shatters the First Bond and the Soul of a Nation appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: Articles, Commentary, Famine, gaza genocide, israel, Israeli war crimes, Palestinian children]

— EU Leaders ‘Complicit’ in Gaza Genocide, Says Josep Borrell – Urges Israel Sanctions

 

at 8/1/25 1:22pm

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   “Those who do not act to stop this genocide and these violations of international law, even though they have the power to do so, are complicit in them.” Former EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell has said there can be “little doubt” that the Israeli government “is committing genocide in Gaza” and that those who do not act to stop it “are complicit,” including the EU. “There can be little doubt that the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza, slaughtering and starving civilians after systematically destroying all the infrastructure in the territory,” Borrel wrote in an opinion piece for The Guardian on Friday. Those who do not act to stop the genocide in Gaza are complicit in it. The @EUCouncil must finally decide to sanction Israel without further delay. This is the only thing that can bring Israeli leaders to stop committing crimes against humanity: https://t.co/TREz8CrUp5 — Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) August 1, 2025 “In the meantime, settlers and the Israeli army are every day guilty of serious, massive and repeated violations of international law and international humanitarian law in the West Bank and East Jerusalem,” he continued. Staggering Death Toll Over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing military assault launched in October 2023 and the death toll continues to mount, in part due to Israel’s crippling humanitarian aid blockade that has led to starvation and malnutrition. US-Backed Israeli Forces Turn Gaza Aid Sites into Regular Bloodbaths HRW Borrel wrote that “Those who do not act to stop this genocide and these violations of international law, even though they have the power to do so, are complicit in them.” He added, “This is unfortunately the case with the leaders of the European Union and those of its member states, who refuse to sanction Israel even though the EU has a legal obligation to do so.” Biggest Trading Partner He said the EU “has many levers it could pull to exert significant influence on the Israeli government.” The EU, Borrell emphasized, is Israel’s biggest trading partner and its main partner in investment and people-to-people exchange, in addition to being one of its major arms suppliers. The EU and the Ethics of Trading with Israel: What Has Changed? He said the association agreement between the EU and Israel, established in 2000 after the Oslo accords, “is the most favourable of all those concluded by the bloc with third countries.” In addition to zero customs duties on its exports of goods and services and visa-free travel for its citizens, “the agreement gives Israel access to several major European funding and exchange programmes such as Horizon and Erasmus.” Legal Obligation He underlined that Article 2 of the agreement “makes it conditional on Israel’s respect for international law and fundamental human rights,” meaning that EU leaders have a legal obligation to suspend the deal. Lack of Political Will in EU’s Failure to Address Ongoing Gaza Genocide     “Whether or not to suspend it is therefore not a choice that the EU can make at will,” Borrell stated, and considering that the EU foreign ministers found that Israel “was not respecting these rights, EU leaders now have a legal obligation to suspend the agreement.” He warned that Failure to do so would also be a serious violation of the association agreement with Israel. Geopolitical Standing Borrell, who served as the EUs high representative for foreign affairs and security policy until 2024, said he had pushed for stronger measures during his tenure but received little support from member states. Albanese Slams EU for Consciously Supporting Israels Genocide “The EU has for more than a year and a half been unable to assert its commitment to fundamental human rights, its defence of international law and multilateralism, or its longstanding position in favour of the two-state solution,” he stated, adding that this inaction has “already seriously damaged its geopolitical standing, not only in the Muslim world but across the globe.” Crimes Against Humanity The former EU official said that by “persisting” in not taking the necessary action, including not blocking arms deliveries to Israel or sanctioning Israeli political leaders who “make genocidal statements,” the EU and its member states “are discrediting themselves in the eyes of the world and undermining the international law and multilateral order they are supposed to defend.” US-Backed Israeli Forces Turn Gaza Aid Sites into Regular Bloodbaths HRW   He said, The leaders of the EU and its member states will probably be called to account in the future for their complicity in the crimes against humanity committed by Netanyahus government.” The EU must finally decide to sanction Israel without further delay. This is the only language that can bring Israeli leaders to stop committing crimes against humanity,” Borrell concluded. (PC, Anadolu) The post EU Leaders Complicit in Gaza Genocide, Says Josep Borrell  Urges Israel Sanctions appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: News, European Union, gaza genocide, Israeli war crimes, Josep Borrell, Netanyahu]

— Israel Faces Diplomatic Collapse as Pressure Mounts over Gaza Crisis – Report

 

at 8/1/25 1:15pm

Due to the Israeli blockade, more than 100 Palestinians, including children, have died due to starvation and malnutrition in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. Israel is heading toward a major diplomatic breakdown as famine spreads in Gaza, the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Friday. The Anadolu news agency cited the newspaper as having revealed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government ignored mounting international warnings about an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged Palestinian enclave. US-Backed Israeli Forces Turn Gaza Aid Sites into Regular Bloodbaths HRW The report states that on March 2, Israel’s Security Cabinet made a decision to halt the entry of food aid into Gaza. This move came despite clear assessments from Israel’s own security establishment about the worsening famine, as well as urgent warnings from Gen. Ghassan Alian, the coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, and several international relief organizations. Unnamed political and security sources told the Yedioth Ahronoth that the decision “was not rooted in strategic considerations but was driven by political pressure from National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich,” both known for their far-right policies. The daily noted that the Israeli government was fully aware Gaza was “on the brink of famine,” yet continued to block aid entry endangering the lives of countless Palestinian civilians. Over 1,000 Aid Seekers Killed According to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 1,330 Palestinians seeking aid have been killed and over 8,818 injured, since the end of May when the controversial US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was launched. The EU reportedly issued a stern warning to Israel regarding the consequences of the deepening crisis, even hinting at suspending its partnership agreement with Tel Aviv. After months of a complete blockade and forced starvation, Israeli forces have allowed limited international aid to enter #Gaza, but not without further attacks on aid seekers. Survivors of a recent attack in Rafah recall how Israeli soldiers targeted civilians waiting for aid.… pic.twitter.com/ls3R86c3pR — Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) July 31, 2025 This came after a similar warning from the administration of US President Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel, urging Netanyahu to act, while the prime minister wasted time and hesitated to make decisions, the report added. Yedioth Ahronoth reported that “Israel has steered itself into both a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and an impending diplomatic collapse on the global stage.” France Urges ‘Full’ Aid Access French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called for full humanitarian access to Gaza and said that the airdrops are not enough. France starts air-drop of 40 tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza Israel must grant full humanitarian access to address risk of famine — Macron Earlier, Palestinian media reported aid dropped over north Gaza landed in IDF-controlled areas Fate of Paris airdrops also uncertain https://t.co/HdlGicmRNS pic.twitter.com/ZoR3xxVi3L — RT (@RT_com) August 1, 2025 Airdrops are not enough. Israel must allow full humanitarian access to address the risk of famine, Macron wrote on X about carrying out a food airdrop operation in Gaza. Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney reportedly said in a video posted on social media that “There has to be a ceasefire in the Middle East. There has to be a ceasefire delivered to the starving people of Gaza, and Israel has got to remove the roadblocks to everything now.” Germany Pressures Israel German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has emphasized that intensive work is underway to rebuild the humanitarian land route with experienced UN organizations. Wadephul noted that airdrops cannot replace land deliveries in ensuring that aid reaches the people adequately, Anadolu reported. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called on Israel to provide sufficient security guarantees to allow the UN to deliver aid in Gaza, where aid agencies have warned of starvation and a worsening hunger crisis. pic.twitter.com/DewuGnlspz — DW News (@dwnews) August 1, 2025 That is why, in our discussions, we are urgently calling on the Israeli government to allow the UN and international aid organizations safe access and, above all, safe distribution. Last week, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his government is considering stepping up pressure on Israel over the dire humanitarian situation in the enclave. The German government “reserves the right” to take concrete measures to increase pressure on Israel to improve “the catastrophic situation” in the Gaza Strip, he said. Belgian Groups Urge Action Around 50 Belgian organizations on Friday called on the leaders of political parties Vooruit, the CD&V, and Les Engages to take immediate action in response to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, according to a joint statement reported by the Belga news agency, cited by Anadolu. Lack of Political Will in EU’s Failure to Address Ongoing Gaza Genocide In the open letter co-signed by prominent figures from the cultural, scientific, social, sports, and religious sectors, as well as hundreds of citizens, the signatories warned that sterile words are worse than complicit silence and urged the parties to act today. The organizations strongly condemned what they described as a televised genocide in Gaza, stressing that official data and international court decisions confirmed the gravity of the ongoing crimes. No Alternative to UN Response UNRWA The chief of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) on Friday strongly criticized the continued reliance on aid airdrops into Gaza, calling them “inefficient, insufficient, and at least 100 times more costly than trucks.” Philippe Lazzarini stressed in a statement that “trucks carry twice as much aid as planes,” and questioned the logic behind prioritizing air deliveries while road crossings remain closed. Airdrops are at least 100 times more costly than trucks Trucks carry twice as much aid as planes. If there is political will to allow airdrops which are highly costly, insufficient & inefficient, there should be similar political will to open the road crossings. As the… — Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) August 1, 2025 “If there is political will to allow airdrops, which are highly costly, insufficient & inefficient, there should be similar political will to open the road crossings,” he said. Lazzarini warned that “the only way to respond to the famine is to flood Gaza with assistance.” (PC, Anadolu) The post Israel Faces Diplomatic Collapse as Pressure Mounts over Gaza Crisis Report appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: News, gaza genocide, Israeli war crimes, Netanyahu, Palestinian children, united nations]

— Slovenia Imposes Arms Embargo on Israel – First EU State to Take Step

 

at 8/1/25 12:52pm

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   In early July, Slovenia, in a move that was the first of its kind in the European Union, banned two far-right Israeli ministers from entering the country. Slovenia has imposed a weapons ban on the export, import, and transit of arms to and from Israel, two weeks after declaring two Israeli ministers persona non grata. “At the initiative of Prime Minister Dr. Robert Golob, the government today confirmed a decision prohibiting the export and transit of military weapons and equipment from or through the Republic of Slovenia to Israel, or imports from Israel to the Republic of Slovenia,” the administration said in a statement on Thursday. Slovenija je kot prva evropska država prepovedala uvoz, izvoz in tranzit orožja v in iz Izraela. Več v sporočilu za javnost https://t.co/djdZLFxGfS pic.twitter.com/uzNDpoTP50 — Vlada Republike Slovenije (@vladaRS) July 31, 2025 The official news agency STA quoted Golob as saying that Slovenia “has become the first European country” to take such a step. Under the decision, all weapons and military equipment sent from Slovenia to, imported from, or transited through Israel are prohibited. EU Incapable Golob has made it clear before that Slovenia will act independently if the European Union is unable to adopt concrete measures by mid-July, the statement noted. The EU is currently incapable of completing this task due to internal discord and disunity, the statement added. “The result thereof is shameful: people in Gaza are dying because humanitarian aid is systematically denied them. They are dying under the rubble, without access to drinking water, food and basic healthcare,” it continued. Lack of Political Will in EU’s Failure to Address Ongoing Gaza Genocide The government said that  under such circumstances, “it is the duty of every responsible country to act, even if it means taking a step ahead of others.” This move comes amid growing criticism of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as well as the European Unions inability to take concrete action regarding Israel. The statement also reportedly added that the government has not issued any permits for the export of weapons and military equipment to Israel since October 2023 due to the conflict. Ben-Gvir, Smotrich Banned In early July, Slovenia banned two far-right Israeli ministers from entering the country. I welcome today’s decision by the Slovenian government to adopt sanctions against the extremist Israeli ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. Slovenia has sent a message to and the int. community: those who reject international law & pose a threat to humanity are not welcome! pic.twitter.com/XPCUscTl27 — Matjaž Nemec (@MatjaNemec) July 17, 2025 The government reportedly declared Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich persona non grata due to what it described as their statements calling for genocide, encouraging extreme violence, and grave violations of the human rights of Palestinians. In June 2024, the Slovenian parliament passed legislation recognizing the State of Palestine, following similar steps taken by Ireland, Norway, and Spain, prompted in part by condemnations of Israels bombing of Gaza. Ambassador Demarched Earlier Thursday, the Slovenian Foreign Ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador to protest the unbearable humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza due to the Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid. The Slovenian Foreign Ministry announced, in a post on its X account, that it had summoned the newly appointed ambassador to Ljubljana, Ruth Cohen-Dar, to the ministry, calling on Israel to immediately end the killing and starvation of civilians. .@MZEZ_RS called the Ambassador accredited for , for a demarche to convey a protest regarding the unbearable humanitarian catastrophe in #Gaza due to the restriction of access to urgent humanitarian aid. #Slovenia calls on #Israel to immediately end the killing and… pic.twitter.com/UBwV88oxOV — MFEA Slovenia (@MZEZ_RS) July 31, 2025 The UN, as well as dozens of human rights organizations have condemned the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution scheme which has led to the killings of over 1,000 Palestinians seeking aid at or near the aid sites, since the end of May. Israels ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza has killed over 60,000 and wounded more than 147,000 Palestinians since October 2023. (PC, AJA) The post Slovenia Imposes Arms Embargo on Israel First EU State to Take Step appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: News, European Union, gaza genocide, Israeli Army, Israeli war crimes, Slovenia]

— US-Backed Israeli Forces Turn Gaza Aid Sites into ‘Regular Bloodbaths’ – HRW

 

at 8/1/25 8:32am

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   “US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths.” HRW Israeli forces at sites of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution scheme “have routinely opened fire on starving Palestinian civilians in acts that amount to serious violations of international law and war crimes,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Friday. In its latest report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) slammed Israeli occupation forces for committing war crimes at aid distribution points in Gaza, including those backed by the U.S. and the Israeli government. HRW says Israeli troops have repeatedly opened fire on Palestinians… pic.twitter.com/WSA26iSvFe — Quds News Network (@QudsNen) August 1, 2025 “Israeli forces are not only deliberately starving Palestinian civilians, but they are now gunning them down almost every day as they desperately seek food for their families,” said Belkis Wille, HRW associate crisis and conflict director. “US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths.” According to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry, 91 Palestinians seeking aid were killed in the last 24 hours, raising the total number killed to 1,330 and over 8,818 injured, since the end of May when the GHF was launched. UN Should be Permitted HRW said states should press Israeli authorities to immediately stop using lethal force as a method of crowd control against Palestinian civilians, lift unlawful sweeping restrictions on the entry of aid, and suspend this flawed distribution system. Instead, the UN and other humanitarian organizations “should be permitted” to resume aid distributions across Gaza at scale and without restrictions, “as they have proven able to feed the population in line with humanitarian standards and as required by binding rulings by the International Court of Justice in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.” UK director of Human Rights Watch, Yasmine Ahmed, says Israel is “exterminating Palestinians” in Gaza and calls for an immediate arms embargo. pic.twitter.com/y3vL1xLmTB — Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) July 31, 2025 The GHF distribution scheme began in May, after more than 11 weeks of Israel’s total blockade on the besieged enclave, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians, including children, due to starvation. HRW said Israeli authorities justified the GHF aid mechanism by claiming that Hamas diverted aid, “but New York Times reporting, based on Israeli military sources, indicates that the Israeli military does not have evidence that Hamas systematically diverted aid from the UN.” The convoy of US envoy Steve Witkoff arrives at one of the GHF death traps in Gaza, where Palestinian aid seekers are being shot dead by Israeli soldiers almost every day. pic.twitter.com/m1FvumiPND — Quds News Network (@QudsNen) August 1, 2025 The GHF system is run by two US private subcontracted companies: Safe Reach Solutions (SRS) and UG Solutions, in coordination with the Israeli military, HRW noted. Witnesses on the Ground In July, HRW interviewed 10 people who were on the ground in Gaza in recent months and “witnessed violence at or near aid sites, or who treated those injured and killed at the sites.” Those interviewed included Anthony Aguilar, a retired US Army Special Forces lieutenant colonel, who worked in Gaza as a security contractor for UG Solutions, including in the control centers and at dozens of distributions at all four distribution sites between May and June; and six Palestinian witnesses to “violent incidents” related to the distributions. After months of a complete blockade and forced starvation, Israeli forces have allowed limited international aid to enter #Gaza, but not without further attacks on aid seekers. Survivors of a recent attack in Rafah recall how Israeli soldiers targeted civilians waiting for aid.… pic.twitter.com/ls3R86c3pR — Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) July 31, 2025 Researchers also analyzed satellite imagery at different spatial resolutions, verified videos and photographs including content taken by Aguilar, analyzed document metadata, and reviewed social media posts by GHF. HRW pointed out that the GHF mechanism “requires Palestinians to trek across dangerous and destroyed terrain.” Free-for-All According to five witnesses, Israeli forces control the movement of Palestinians to the sites through the use of live ammunition. Inside the sites, the distribution of aid itself is an uncontrolled “free-for-all,” as Aguilar described it, that “often leaves the most vulnerable and weakest people with nothing.” We would rather starve to death than die like this. [comra] reporters interviewed survivors of the recent Israeli massacre that targeted aid seekers in northern Gaza. According to Gazas Ministry of Health, at least 58 people were killed and 579 injured. A crowd of people was… pic.twitter.com/8x61A6S8zY — Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) July 31, 2025 HRW also analyzed announcements made on GHF’s Facebook page of 105 distributions across the 4 sites and found that 54 distribution windows were under 20 minutes long and 20 distributions were announced as finished before their official opening time had begun. Difficult and Risky Journey One Palestinian man told the rights organization that he left his home at about 9 p.m., trying to reach a site that was due to open at 9 a.m. the next day. On the way, he said, an Israeli tank opened fire on him and others as they were walking towards the site: “If you stopped walking, or did anything they didn’t want, they fired at you.” In a separate incident, Aguilar said he witnessed an Israeli tank fire on a civilian vehicle just outside Site 4, which he believed killed four people inside, on June 8. Another contractor who spoke to ITV News described the same attack on the car. Amir Walked 12km to Get Food’ and Was Shot US Mercenary on Gaza Death Traps Another Palestinian man described to HRW the difficult and risky journey: “So many people who need aid are not getting it because they are not able to make it all the way there.” “Those who do go are taking their luck into their own hands, and it’s remarkable if they come back alive,” he stressed. According to seven witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch, Israeli forces “regularly fired on civilians.” Live Fire Used Three Palestinian witnesses and Aguilar also claimed they witnessed armed guards within the GHF sites using live fire and other weapons against civilians during aid distributions, HRW said. “We go to collect aid in a bag and we return in that same bag — dead” A Palestinian man expressed his frustration as Israeli forces continue to target aid seekers in Gaza pic.twitter.com/HlEB0Mz1NL — TRT World (@trtworld) July 1, 2025 “These armed guards would apparently be UG Solutions contractors, given that the letter from the counsel of GHF and SRS confirmed that the only contractors with weapons inside the distribution sites are from UG Solutions,” the organization stated. However, GHF, SRS, and UG Solutions “have denied the allegations that their contractors used force against civilians and stated that UG Solutions personnel only use deadly force as a last resort and have never harmed civilians or aid seekers.” Failure to Address Mass Starvation HRW also stated that the aid mechanism “has failed to address mass starvation in Gaza.” Even though GHF’s legal representatives told HRW that they have delivered 95 million meals in Gaza, as of July 28, the organization said, it was not enough to meet the needs of the starving population. Even at full capacity at the four sites, the organization said,“the GHF scheme is only capable of providing about 60 trucks of food per day, according to Aguilar, as compared to the 600 trucks per day that entered Gaza under the UN-led aid scheme during the ceasefire in early 2025.” Child Starves to Death in Khan Yunis as Famine Toll in Gaza Rises to 159 “The repeated use of lethal force against Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces, without justification, violates both international humanitarian and human rights law,” HRW stated. It said it was not aware “of any evidence” in the cases documented that those killed represented an imminent threat to life at the time they were killed. “The intentional use of lethal force by those exercising policing powers without lawful justification also violates human rights law,” the organization said, adding that regular killings by Israeli forces near GHF sites “also amount to war crimes, given all the evidence indicating that these are deliberate, targeted killings of persons the Israeli authorities would know would be Palestinian civilians.” Funding Concerns HRW also raised concern that the source of funding for GHF’s first month of distributions “remains unknown.” In its letter to the organization, counsel for GHF said it “received $100 million from a government other than the United States or Israel,” without specifying the government, the organization noted. Over 90 House Democrats Demand Probe into Gaza Humanitarian Foundation  “The Trump administration sent the allocation by circumventing congressional approvals,” HRW said, adding that the “United States is complicit in Israeli violations of the laws of war in Gaza, given its provision of substantial military aid despite knowledge of the continuing grave violations.” Pursuant to their obligations under the Genocide Convention, “states should use all forms of their leverage, including targeted sanctions, an arms embargo and suspension of preferential trade agreements, to stop Israeli authorities’ ongoing atrocity crimes,” HRW stated. “It is indefensible that, instead of using its significant leverage to press Israel to end its ongoing acts of genocide, the US is backing and even funding a deadly mechanism that is resulting in Israeli forces killing starving Palestinian civilians as a method of crowd control,” Wille states. “States should urgently act to stop the extermination of Palestinians.” Read HRW’s full report here. (The Palestine Chronicle) The post US-Backed Israeli Forces Turn Gaza Aid Sites into Regular Bloodbaths HRW appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: News, gaza genocide, HRW, International Law, Israeli war crimes, United States]

— US Envoy Tours Gaza Aid Site Fueling Starvation and Displacement

 

at 8/1/25 4:01am

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   Palestinians denounce Steve Witkoff’s visit as a propaganda move, citing Israel-backed aid system’s role in deadly ambushes and forced displacement. US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff visited an aid center operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation near Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Friday, Israeli media reported.  The facility, located north of the city, has been the focus of growing controversy over its role in both distributing and obstructing humanitarian assistance, as well as its link to the killing of hundreds of Palestinians seeking aid. According to reports by Israel’s Channel 12 and public broadcaster KAN, Witkoff’s convoy arrived at the site in the morning and toured the center, which has come under scrutiny for contributing to what critics describe as a humanitarian façade masking deeper patterns of displacement and lethal mismanagement. Palestinians accuse the foundation’s distribution system—established with Israeli backing in late May—of functioning as a mechanism for forced displacement under the guise of humanitarian relief.  A Palestinian mother bids farewell to her son, killed in the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza. pic.twitter.com/HFC8wHpf2F — The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) August 1, 2025 The mechanism has been widely described as a “death trap,” citing the killing of more than 1,300 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire while attempting to receive food or aid since the system was implemented. Witkoff arrived in Israel on Thursday for an unannounced visit that included a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  The two reportedly discussed a potential shift from “partial and phased” ceasefire talks to a broader “comprehensive agreement” on Gaza. This comes after Israel withdrew from US-Qatar-mediated negotiations earlier this month. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated Thursday that Witkoff would “visit distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food,” as well as “meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about the dire situation on the ground.” Hamas condemned Witkoff’s visit as a “propaganda stunt” intended to deflect international outrage over what rights organizations and UN officials have characterized as a deliberate Israeli starvation campaign in Gaza. Since October 7, 2023, at least 159 Palestinians, including 89 children, have died from hunger-related causes, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Palestinian officials hold the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation partly responsible for deadly attacks at food lines, with more than 1,330 Palestinians killed and at least 8,800 injured by Israeli fire during aid distribution events. Steve Witkoff arrived in the morning at the American-run facility, where the area had been staged and sanitized the blood of those who were injured or killed in previous days while seeking aid buried beneath the surface.Tanks and snipers were pulled back, and tens of thousands… pic.twitter.com/sQNb28NThK — Bassam Omar (@Bassam_Omar1988) August 1, 2025 Despite mounting international pressure, Israel continues its military campaign across the enclave, rejecting calls for a ceasefire. Since the beginning of the war, over 60,000 Palestinians—most of them women and children—have been killed, and much of Gaza’s infrastructure has been reduced to rubble. Severe food shortages persist. Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Separately, Israel is also facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice. (PC, AA) The post US Envoy Tours Gaza Aid Site Fueling Starvation and Displacement appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: News, gaza genocide, israel, Israeli Army, Israeli war crimes, Steve Witkoff]

— Child Starves to Death in Khan Yunis as Famine Toll in Gaza Rises to 159

 

at 8/1/25 3:37am

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   As the humanitarian crisis intensifies, the Nasser Medical Complex confirmed the death of a child in Khan Yunis due to starvation. At least 15 Palestinians, including six individuals seeking humanitarian aid, have been killed by Israeli fire across the Gaza Strip since dawn Friday, according to medical sources. The deaths coincided with the visit of US envoy Steve Witkoff to an aid center near Rafah, in southern Gaza. The Israeli military continues its targeting of Palestinians waiting for food aid in central Gaza. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital reported that four people were killed and others injured in an Israeli drone strike on Deir al-Balah early Friday. In Khan Yunis, the Nasser Medical Complex confirmed that two civilians were killed and over 70 others injured by Israeli fire near the Morag axis while waiting for food. The same hospital reported that the death toll from the Israeli shelling of displaced persons’ tents in Al-Mawasi had climbed to seven. Separately, Al-Awda Hospital reported the death of Karam Al-Jamal, a 27-year-old man who succumbed to famine and malnutrition. A Palestinian mother bids farewell to her son, killed in the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza. pic.twitter.com/HFC8wHpf2F — The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) August 1, 2025 Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza cited medical sources saying that multiple Palestinians were wounded in an Israeli strike on the Jawazat area, which shelters displaced families in western Gaza City. The situation follows a bloody Thursday in which hospital sources said 51 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including 23 people seeking humanitarian aid. Al-Shifa Hospital also reported that two Palestinians were injured by Israeli gunfire near the Zikim area in northern Gaza, with several of the wounded in critical condition. Famine Deepens As the humanitarian crisis intensifies, the Nasser Medical Complex confirmed the death of a child in Khan Yunis due to starvation. Gaza’s Health Ministry reported four additional deaths from malnutrition, raising the total number of famine-related deaths in the past two days to 12. The death of Karam Al-Jamal was also noted by Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, bringing further attention to the scale of the crisis. According to the Health Ministry, 159 people — including 90 children — have now died from starvation and malnutrition since the beginning of the siege. The World Health Organization warned that the worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding in Gaza, where many residents have gone days without food. The UN agency urged Israel to allow safe, rapid, and unhindered humanitarian access for aid organizations. LIVE BLOG: Daring Resistance Operation Caught on Camera as Israels Gideon Chariots Ends in Failure Day 664 The UN World Food Programme added that halting the hunger crisis would require at least 100 aid trucks to enter Gaza daily. UNICEF, meanwhile, warned that “every hour brings the deaths of more children” in the territory. International and UN appeals to lift the blockade and end the war have grown louder in response to the increasing number of Palestinians dying at so-called “aid distribution points.” These sites — described as “death traps” by critics — are reportedly run by the US- and Israeli-backed “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.” Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza — with the backing of the United States — has killed and wounded over 207,000 Palestinians. The vast majority of victims are women and children. More than 14,000 remain missing, while hundreds of thousands have been displaced. (PC, AJA) The post Child Starves to Death in Khan Yunis as Famine Toll in Gaza Rises to 159 appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: News, gaza genocide, International Law, Israeli Army, Israeli war crimes, palestine]

— LIVE BLOG: Witkoff Visits Rafah’s ‘Death Trap’ as More Palestinians Die from Starvation, Massacres – Day 664

 

at 7/31/25 3:37pm

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   A large cell of Palestinian resistance fighters ambushed Israeli forces along a military supply route in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced it has begun reducing its forces in the Gaza Strip, including the withdrawal of the 98th Division. Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed 60,239 and injured 146,894 others, the majority of whom are women and children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. Click here for the previous blogs. The post LIVE BLOG: Witkoff Visits Rafahs Death Trap as More Palestinians Die from Starvation, Massacres Day 664 appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: Blog, News, Slider, Al-Aqsa Flood Live Blog, gaza genocide, iran, israel, palestine]

— LIVE BLOG: Daring Resistance Operation Caught on Camera as Israel’s ‘Gideon Chariots’ Ends in Failure – Day 664

 

at 7/31/25 3:37pm

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   A large cell of Palestinian resistance fighters ambushed Israeli forces along a military supply route in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced it has begun reducing its forces in the Gaza Strip, including the withdrawal of the 98th Division. Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed 60,239 and injured 146,894 others, the majority of whom are women and children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. Click here for the previous blogs. The post LIVE BLOG: Daring Resistance Operation Caught on Camera as Israels Gideon Chariots Ends in Failure Day 664 appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: Blog, News, Slider, Al-Aqsa Flood Live Blog, gaza genocide, iran, israel, palestine]

— WATCH: Hamas Ambush in Khan Yunis Reveals Growing Resistance Capabilities

 

at 7/31/25 2:54pm

By Palestine Chronicle Staff   A 12-member cell targets Israeli forces on a military supply route, underscoring the resilience of organized Palestinian resistance. A large cell of Palestinian resistance fighters ambushed Israeli forces along a military supply route in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported.  According to the report, the group—believed to be affiliated with Hamas—intended to kill and capture Israeli soldiers.  The cell, reportedly composed of 12 fighters armed with rifles and grenades, withdrew into a tunnel before executing the ambush, escaping Israeli attempts to assassinate them. Citing military sources, Israeli Army Radio warned that the operation could have inflicted heavy losses on Israeli forces had it succeeded. The incident, it said, reflects Hamas continued capacity to operate in organized, well-armed cells capable of gathering intelligence and planning complex attacks, despite nearly ten months of all-out war. Watch: Footage aired by Israel’s Kan channel shows yesterday’s ambush by Palestinian resistance fighters in Khan Yunis. The resistance set up a complex ambush in an attempt to capture Israeli soldiers. Despite spotting the fighters, the occupation forces failed to eliminate… pic.twitter.com/W1YtG0NKgz — The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) July 31, 2025 The Israeli militarys concerns over abduction attempts have intensified in recent weeks. On July 17, the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, released a video showing captured Israeli soldiers, urging others to surrender rather than be killed.  Earlier that month, Al-Jazeera aired exclusive footage of a failed Hamas operation to seize an Israeli soldier during a raid on Israeli forces east of Khan Yunis. A Qassam commander later told the network that future attempts to capture soldiers would be more successful. Separately, Israeli media on Sunday broadcast footage from another ambush near Rafah in southern Gaza, showing the moment an explosive device detonated under an Israeli military vehicle.  The attack killed two Israeli soldiers and injured four others, including the commander of the desert reconnaissance battalion. Since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has acknowledged the deaths of 898 soldiers, though Palestinian resistance factions insist the true toll is significantly higher. As resistance operations persist, the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza continues to deepen.  In a video released by the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, 22-year-old Israeli captive Rom Barslavsky appeared gaunt and weeping from an undisclosed location in Gaza. Video about one of the captives held by the Al-Quds Brigades The last message from the captive soldier "Rom Barslavsky," before losing contact with the capturing group. The message is that the captives are suffering from famine in Gaza pic.twitter.com/tYaHQ62sCz — Ahmed M. Fahmy (@ahfahmy85) July 31, 2025 Barslavsky described his deteriorating physical and mental condition, saying he suffers from dizziness, difficulty breathing, and constant pain. “Every time I try to get up and go to the bathroom, I fall,” he said in the video. “I simply don’t eat or drink. From morning until night, there is nothing.” The soldier pleaded with Israeli authorities to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, linking his own suffering to that of the population around him.  “I saw children dying of hunger—skeletons. Ive never seen anything like this before,” he said. “Please bring food before I die of hunger. If not for the children of Gaza, then do it for your prisoners.” The video showed Barslavsky writing in his diary and watching images of starving children in Gaza.  The video concluded with a stark message: “What our people are suffering is what your prisoners are suffering,” underlining that the siege imposed by Israel on Gaza is inextricably linked to the fate of Israeli captives held inside the Strip. (PC, AJA) The post WATCH: Hamas Ambush in Khan Yunis Reveals Growing Resistance Capabilities appeared first on Palestine Chronicle.

[Category: News, gaza genocide, israel, Israeli Army, palestine, palestinian resistance]

As of 8/9/26 1:09pm. Last new 8/7/26 5:32pm.