Broken heart

Palestine, Gaza, the West Bank, Israel

It is with a broken heart that I watch what is happening in the Middle East, the latest iteration of a seemingly endless cycle of violence and destruction that has been occurring for longer than I've been alive. For me, the saddest aspect of this is the huge number of civilians on all sides that have been caught up in these cycles of violence for decades, killed, maimed, displaced.

I absolutely condemn the atrocious act of terrorism perpetrated by Hamas primarily against innocent Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, killing 1,164 and wounding more than 5,000, and by holding more than 250 of them hostage, 100 of whom are still held hostage as I write this. I also condemn that Hamas continues to espouse the goal of destroying Israel.

However, after October 7, 2023 and over the subsequent weeks, months, and now more than a year, I have grown increasingly horrified by Israel's retaliatory war and the way it so blatantly disregards the lives and welfare of Palestinian civilians in attacks that killed more than 40,000 in the first year alone, likely many more, and that have displaced as much as 90% of the more than two million people living in Gaza.

Most civilians in Gaza are without adequate clean water, food, sanitation, and medical care. Israel continuously directs them to leave certain areas into other areas that are supposed to be safe zones, but then has bombed those areas, killing displaced civilians. In one year, more than 60% of Gaza's buildings have been damaged or destroyed, including most of its hospitals, universities, and schools.

I also am appalled by the way the Israeli so-called "settlers" are killing and displacing Palestinians in the West Bank, and the way the Israeli government is forcibly displacing Palestinians from East Jerusalem.

Of course, the roots of this current war go back more than a century. For details, jump down to Alternative timeline ∨.

This must end. We must find a path forward towards peaceful coexistence.

My heart is with the ordinary civilians who all deserve dignified and safe lives.

Jump to:

• Ongoing reflections: Year 2 ∨
• Ongoing reflections: < Year 1 · Year 3 >
• Related Wikipedia articles, historical perspective, books, additional notes ∨

Ongoing reflections – Year 2

A note about the timeline

Each entry in these ongoing reflections is introduced with the date the item was published, followed by the number of days since Hamas carried out its act of terrorism on October 7, 2023 and Israel retaliated with its full-scale war on Gaza. However, it would be reasonable to list alternate dates for the start of this ongoing war that, counting from October 7, 2023, would add between 16 and 141 years (adapted from the Israeli–Palestinian conflict⩘  article in Wikipedia).

For details, jump down to: Alternative timeline ∨ 

See also: Before October 7th: Understanding the Long History of Israel's Assault on Gaza⩘  by Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV), Sep 27, 2024. IJV is "a grassroots organization grounded in Jewish tradition that opposes all forms of racism and advocates for justice and peace for all in Israel-Palestine".

Ongoing reflections

• Oct 6, 2025 (day 731): What to know as key talks to end the war in Gaza are set to begin⩘  by Cara Anna and Samy Magdy, The Associated Press.
• Oct 6, 2025 (day 731): 'I hear him screaming': brother of Israeli hostage describes agonising two years: Guy Gilboa-Dalal was taken from Nova festival in 7 October Hamas attack that led to Israel's devastating assault on Gaza⩘  by Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum in Hod Hasharon, The Guardian.
  
  • " 'It's so hard missing him all day every day, thinking about him all day every day,' Gal [Guy Gilboa-Dalal's brother] said. 'And as time goes by it's getting harder and harder [to bear], and harder and harder to see the light at the end of the tunnel.'…
  • "The last time he saw his brother was at sunrise on Saturday 7 October two years ago, when the first rockets were fired from Gaza, warning sirens sounded over the Nova festival and police ordered festival-goers to evacuate or take cover.
  • "The party had begun on Friday but was at its peak that morning with about 3,500 guests and 500 staff at the site. More than one in 10 would become victims of the biggest single massacre⩘  on that day, with 378 people killed and 44 taken hostage.
  • "Approximately 1,200 people were killed in Israel on 7 October, the majority of them civilians. Israel has since killed more than 67,000 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians⩘ , in a war that genocide scholars⩘ , international politicians and a UN commission of inquiry⩘  say is genocidal.
  • "Israel has not ordered an independent inquiry⩘  into how the country was so vulnerable on 7 October but media and military investigations have already revealed a damning litany of complacency and incompetence."
• Oct 3, 2025 (day 728): Donald Trump orders Israel to 'immediately' stop bombing Gaza as Hamas agrees to free hostages⩘  by William Christou in Jerusalem, The Guardian.
  
  • "In a statement earlier on Friday night, Hamas said it was giving its 'approval of releasing all occupation prisoners – living and remains – according to the exchange formula contained in president Trump's proposal, with the necessary field conditions for implementing the exchange'.
  • "Hamas also said it was prepared to turn over 'the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independent technocrats based on Palestinian national consensus and supported by Arab and Islamic backing'.
  • "However, the group said 'other issues' in Trump's proposal would need to be discussed further 'within a unified Palestinian national framework'. The unspecified issues would likely include arms, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and international guarantees for a permanent ceasefire.…
  • "The deal also stipulated a surge of aid to Gaza, parts of which are experiencing famine, and the reconstruction to the mostly demolished strip.
  • "The deal was largely seen as unfavourable to Hamas and, if agreed in full, would likely spell the group's end as an armed Palestinian faction while demanding few concessions from Israel. International pressure on the group to accept the plan has been intense, with most regional and international powers welcoming the Trump initiative."
• Sep 26, 2025 (day 721): Netanyahu faces mass walk out protest at UN speech⩘  by Barak Ravid & Dave Lawler, Axios.
  
  • "The vast majority of officials and diplomats in the UN General Assembly Hall appeared to walk out as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the stage for his address on Friday.
  • "Why it matters: Israel is deeply isolated internationally as it presses on with the war in Gaza. Outside of President Trump, Netanyahu – who faces war crimes charges from the ICC – has very few allies on the global stage."
• Sep 25, 2025 (day 720): Israel is increasingly being treated as a global pariah. It's shielded by Trump, for now⩘  by Joseph Krauss, The Associated Press.
  
  • "Western countries⩘  are outraged by Israel's intensifying offensive in the Gaza Strip and several have recognized Palestinian statehood⩘ . The European Union is weighing tariffs and sanctions⩘ . Democratic voters in the United States have expressed disgust in polls⩘ , and small cracks are showing in Republican support."
• Sep 17, 2025 (day 712): Bernie Sanders becomes first US senator to say Israel committing genocide in Gaza⩘  by Joseph Gedeon, The Guardian.
• Sep 16, 2025 (day 711): Opinion: Jews and Israel are not the same. Equating them is a propaganda technique⩘  by Norman Solomon, The Guardian.
  
  • "Fusing Israel with 'the Jewish people' is a key propaganda technique. The fact that it's so ubiquitous makes it no less ridiculous, or dangerous. A comment attributed to Voltaire applies: 'As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.' "
• Sep 16, 2025 (day 711): ⩘  .
  
  • "A United Nations commission of inquiry says Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
  • "A new report says there are reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out since the start of the war with Hamas in 2023: killing members of a group, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group, and preventing births.
  • "It cites statements by Israeli leaders, and the pattern of conduct by Israeli forces, as evidence of genocidal intent.
  • "Israel's foreign ministry said it categorically rejected the report, denouncing it as 'distorted and false'.
  • "The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
  • "At least 64,964 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen as reliable by the UN.
  • "Most of the population has also been repeatedly displaced; more than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and UN-backed food security experts have declared a famine in Gaza City."
• Sep 14, 2025 (day 709): How to burst the Israeli bubble – Recognizing a Palestinian state is a limited but welcome step that addresses an enduring blind spot: Palestinian rights cannot be conditioned on Israeli interests⩘  by Noam Sheizaf, journalist and documentary film-maker based in Tel Aviv, The Guardian.
  
  • "Yet the real danger in Israel today is that nobody imagines a future at all: the society is locked in a permanent present. The war is unpopular, but enough are willing to serve it and only few are actively protesting against it. The liberal opposition movement and the protests over the hostages have morphed into each other, along with the pre-war domestic fights over the government's plans to weaken the judiciary. Together, they have created a sense of never-ending crisis that Netanyahu and his coalition have managed to turn into an asset.…
  • "This turn toward mythical thinking – the idea that Jews and Palestinians are locked in an eternal, zero-sum battle for the same land ֹe dominates not just Israeli society, but much of the political thinking abroad. It obscures the more mundane reality that has enabled today's carnage: a political system where one people rules and the other is ruled. It also narrows our political imagination, reducing the range of what is possible and fostering passivity precisely when action is most urgently needed.…
  • "The two-state solution, concludes the duo who devoted much of their life to reaching it, 'is not the natural resting place for either Israelis or Palestinians [as] it runs counter to the essence of their national identities and aspirations'. The attempt to reach it was doomed because 'both groups cannot accept a definitive closure', since 'neither is prepared to relinquish otherworldly dreams for the sake of an earthly understanding'.…
  • "Every criticism of Israel, any sympathy for the Palestinians, any pressure to end the war, is seen today as a form of antisemitism – even endorsement of Hamas. Over 60% of Israelis, according to recent polls⩘ , believe 'nobody in Gaza is innocent.' Along with Israel's sense of impunity, this popular notion explains how this war has turned into a genocide.…
  • "Yet the reality is not of two sides arguing over myths but one sovereign power ruling over millions of people without rights. It is not just a conflict, but a problem inherent to a regime. The most important local dynamic is a de facto one-state condition in which half the population – namely, the Palestinians – is excluded from the political system.
  • "Israel controls every border, every checkpoint, every natural resource, every aspect of the economy. It decides where Palestinians can work, travel, or build; it denies them legal protection, allows their property to be vandalized or taken and leaves them exposed to violence.…
  • "The danger now is surrendering to fatalism: the idea that ancient hatreds or religious attachments make the current trajectory inevitable."
• Sep 12, 2025 (day 707): Israeli conductor condemns his country in extraordinary Proms outburst⩘ , Jewish News.
  
  • "Ilan Volkov was performing with the Scottish Symphony orchestra last night, and addressed the audience at the Royal Albert Hall after the musicians took their bows.
  • " 'In my heart there is great pain', he said, as reported by The Times. 'I come from Israel and live there. I love it, it's my home. But what's happening is atrocious and horrific on a scale that's unimagnable. Innocent Palestinians being killed in thousands, displaced again and again, without hospitals and schools, not knowing when the next meal [will come]. Israeli hostages are kept in terrible conditions for almost two years and political prisoners are languishing in Israeli jails. I ask you all to do whatever is in your power to stop this madness. Every little action counts while governments hesitate and wait. We cannot let this go on any longer, every moment that passes puts the safety of millions at risk.'
  • "Volkov, who lives in Herzliya, subsequently told The Times that he would not be working in Israel for the foreseeable future.
  • " 'In Israel, there is no real democracy,' he told the paper. 'The media is not showing reality, the police are under a fascist minister and the justice system has supported the occupation for decades. We Israelis alone – Palestinians and the small minority of Jews standing against it all – won't be able to stop Netanyahu's government. We need the support of the whole world to make this massacre end.' "
  • Video (YouTube): At BBC Proms, Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov calls for action against Israel⩘ , Watermelon Collective.
• Sep 12, 2025 (day 707): General Assembly endorses New York Declaration on two-State solution between Israel and Palestine ⩘ , United Nations News.
  
  • "Applause rang out in the UN General Assembly Hall on Friday as countries endorsed a declaration on the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine and implementation of the two-State solution with Israel.
  • "The New York Declaration is the outcome of an international conference held in July at UN Headquarters, organized by France and Saudi Arabia, which resumes later this month.
  • "The General Assembly comprises all 193 UN Member States and 142 countries voted in favour of a resolution backing the document."
• Sep 12, 2025 (day 707): UN general assembly to back Hamas-free government for Palestine: Compromise plan sees Arab states condemning 7 October attacks in return for clear UN support for a Palestinian state⩘  by Patrick Wintour, Diplomatic editor, The Guardian.
  
  • "The United Nations general assembly is to back a Hamas-free government for Palestine as part of a carefully crafted compromise that sees Arab states go further in condemning its October 2023 attack on Israel in return for clear support for a Palestinian state.
  • "The aim is to show how Israel and the US are isolated in opposing a long-term solution to the Gaza war, and how countries such as Germany, a strong supporter of Israel, are backing a solution in which the Palestinian Authority governs the West Bank and Gaza.…
  • "Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, insisted on Thursday that Israel would never accept a Palestinian state. Around three-quarters of the 193 UN member states recognise the Palestinian state proclaimed in 1988 by the exiled Palestinian leadership.…
  • "The UAE summoned the Israeli ambassador on Friday to express its displeasure over Israel's attack on Hamas leaders. Dr Anwar Gargash, a senior UAE diplomat, warned Israel at the security council on Thursday: 'These reckless belligerent actions will deliver neither Israel nor the region our shared goal for peace, prosperity, security and stability. They only serve to fuel more violence, extremism, and chaos – precisely when the region desperately needs restraint and de-escalation. Furthermore, the relentless threats of land annexation and attacks on neighbouring countries destroys any foundation for lasting peace, and threatens the entire region's stability.' "
• Sep 9, 2025 (day 704): 'It's so different from the media narrative': telling a different story of 7 October. Brandon Kramer's documentary Holding Liat follows an Israeli family torn apart by the Hamas attacks, but clinging to hopes of reconciliation⩘  by Julian Borger, The Guardian.
  
  • "Two-thirds of the way through the film, there is finally relief and joy for the family. Liat Atzili is released after 54 days of captivity, as part of a short-lived ceasefire agreement which involves an exchange of some of the 251 Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. But at the same time came the confirmation that Aviv was dead, killed in the Hamas attack and his body dragged back into Gaza.
  • "Atzili's homecoming is captured by the Lees' unblinking camera, the moment of reunion with her parents, and the news of her husband's violent death. Later, she gets to see how her family dealt in their different ways with her abduction. Very much her father's daughter, Atzili says he was right to insist on framing the campaign for her release as part of a broader struggle against endless war and Netanyahu's opportunism, and for an enduring political settlement between Israelis and Palestinians.
  • " '[My father] conducts himself in a way to honour me, to respect me, and I'm just so, so proud of him,' she says. 'Treating it just as a human interest issue, and making it non-political, is a huge mistake.'
  • "Atzili is speaking from the family's rebuilt home in Nir Oz. Many of her fellow kibbutzniks have balked at returning to the scene of such bloodshed and trauma, but Atzili did not hesitate.
  • " 'The places that have the most meaning for us are the places that he lived, and worked and created, where we have wonderful memories of him,' she says. 'The exact spot where he died has absolutely no meaning for us.'
  • "Her experience differed from most of the other hostages, many of whom suffered brutal treatment. Atzili's captor brought her back to his family home, where she was treated respectfully, especially by his female relatives.
  • " 'They chose to see me as a human being, and to me, it's impossible to not do the same,' she says. Her experience combined with her upbringing and her training as a history teacher, to leave her with a trait that is now vanishingly rare in that part of the world – empathy with the other side. Even before 7 October, that had been whittled down to a trace element in Israeli politics. Palestinian suffering, even under starvation imposed by the Israeli government, is not a burning issue.
  • " 'I think a minority of people would say that they want peace because of the part that the Holocaust plays in the Israeli psyche.'
  • " 'I think victim consciousness in Israel is so overpowering that the idea that we're going to make a political agreement with people who hate us is very difficult for people to grasp.' "
• Sep 5, 2025 (day 700): AP reporting calls into question why and how Israel attacked a Gaza hospital⩘  by Sam Mednick and Samy Magdy, The Associated Press.
  
  • "Israeli fire has killed 189 Palestinian reporters in Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering Gaza since the war erupted in October 2023, giving Palestinian journalists a critical role in covering the conflict."
• Sep 2, 2025 (day 697): Video: Gaza teen explains what it's like to starve⩘  by CBC News.
  
  • "Seventeen-year-old Ahmed Ali Batniji shares his experience struggling to survive hunger in Gaza. The United Nations and many aid groups accuse Israel of creating a famine by obstructing food deliveries into the territory, which Israel denies."
  • Ahmed died a few days later.
• Sep 2, 2025 (day 697): Five children in Gaza among those killed by Israeli strike while fetching water⩘  by William Christou in Beirut, The Guardian.
  
  • "At least nine people, including five children, have been killed in an Israeli strike while fetching water in al-Mawasi, an area of southern Gaza which Israel has designated as a safe zone, health officials said.
  • "A doctor from al-Nasser hospital shared a picture of the children's bodies in the hospital, as well as a picture of water jugs left in a pool of blood at the site of the attack on Tuesday.
  • "The attack came shortly after the Israel Defense Forces encouraged people to leave Gaza City for al-Mawasi, before Israel's looming invasion of Gaza City. The Israeli military has sought to displace people from the city before its offensive and has promised that southern Gaza would be able to accommodate them, despite experts disagreeing with the suggestion."
• Sep 1, 2025 (day 696): Israel committing genocide in Gaza, world's top scholars on the crime say⩘  by Lorenzo Tondo, The Guardian.
  
  • "Eighty-six per cent of those who voted in the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) supported the motion. The resolution states that 'Israel's policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in article II of the United Nations convention for the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide (1948).' "
• Aug 25, 2025 (day 689): AP freelancer among 5 journalists killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza hospital, health officials say⩘  by Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magdy and Melanie Lidman, The Associated Press.
  
  • "DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza killed five journalists Monday, according to health officials, including one who days earlier had reported for The Associated Press on children being treated for starvation at the same facility.…
  • "Two strikes hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in quick succession, medical officials said. In videos, journalists and rescue workers can be seen rushing to the scene of the first one, before a massive explosion hits an exterior staircase where journalists are often stationed.…
  • "Israel has killed nearly 200 Palestinian journalists since the war began."
• Aug 22, 2025 (day 686): UN officially declares famine in Gaza⩘  by Le Monde with AFP.
  
  • "The United Nations on Friday, August 22, officially declared a famine in Gaza, the first in the Middle East, with its experts saying 500,000 people were facing 'catastrophic' hunger. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said the famine was entirely preventable, saying food could not get through to the Palestinian territory 'because of systematic obstruction by Israel.' "
• Aug 21, 2025 (day 685): UN and Red Cross warn of catastrophe if Israel launches Gaza City offensive⩘  by Peter Beaumont, The Guardian.
  
  • "The International Red Cross and UN have warned of an impending catastrophe in the Gaza Strip if Israel launches an offensive to take over Gaza City, as the Israeli military told medical and aid groups in the Palestinian territory to prepare for imminent forced displacement.
  • "At the same time a concerted campaign of international opposition to Israel's defiance of ceasefire calls and its approval of a huge new illegal settlement construction in the occupied West Bank gathered pace, with the UK summoning Israel's ambassador and joining 20 other countries in condemning the settlement plan as a 'violation of international law'.
  • "The Gaza health ministry on Thursday rejected the Israeli military's call to displace personnel in the north before a military offensive to seize the area. It said to do so would 'deprive more than 1 million people of their right to medical treatment and expose the lives of residents, patients and the wounded to imminent danger'.…
  • "Netanyahu, who is wanted by the international criminal court over allegations of responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity, earlier told Sky News Australia that Israel intended to take over the whole of the Gaza Strip regardless of whether there was a ceasefire deal agreed with Hamas. The families of Israeli hostages have said such an operation would be a 'death sentence' for their relatives.…
  • "Calling for an immediate ceasefire, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned of the 'massive death and destruction that a military operation against Gaza would inevitably cause'.
  • "Christian Cardon, the chief spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said: 'The intensification of hostilities in Gaza means more killing, more displacement, more destruction and more panic. Gaza is a closed space from which nobody can escape … and where access to healthcare, food and safe water is dwindling. Meanwhile, the security of humanitarians is getting worse by the hour. This is intolerable.'
  • "Aid organisations say Israel has made negligible efforts to significantly increase humanitarian assistance to the levels needed by the population in Gaza, prompting a warning from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, earlier this week of the danger of a 'true disaster'.
  • "Opposition to a new military operation – repeatedly 'approved' by Israeli figures in recent days – is growing inside Israel and internationally."
• Aug 21, 2025 (day 685): Revealed: Israeli military's own data indicates civilian death rate of 83% in Gaza war⩘  by Emma Graham-Harrison and Yuval Abraham in Jerusalem, The Guardian
  
  • "Figures from classified IDF database listed 8,900 named fighters as dead or probably dead in May, as overall death toll reached 53,000."
• Aug 20, 2025 (day 684): Israel approves settlement project that could divide the West Bank⩘  by Melanie Lidman, Tel Aviv, The Associated Press.
  
  • "Israel's government is dominated by religious and ultranationalist politicians, like [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich, with close ties to the settlement movement. The finance minister has been granted Cabinet-level authority over settlement policies and vowed to double the settler population in the West Bank."
• Aug 18, 2025 (day 682): BBC witnesses Israeli settlers' attack on Palestinian farm in West Bank⩘  by Lucy Williamson, Der Abu Falah, in the occupied West Bank, BBC News.
  
  • "From among the broken remains of Brahim Hamaiel's olive trees, in the occupied West Bank, we saw the masked men approach.
  • "A dozen settlers, charging down from the illegal outpost above his farm and across the field towards us, moving fast and carrying large sticks.
  • "A sudden and unprovoked attack.
  • "Brahim had been showing us the trees he said had been hacked to pieces this week by settlers from the outpost.
  • "His family have farmed olives here on land near Turmus Aya, for generations, making it a target for extremist settlers who think killing Palestinian trees and livestock will also kill the idea of a Palestinian State, by forcing residents like Brahim off their land."
• Aug 17, 2025 (day 681): Hundreds of thousands of protesters gather in Tel Aviv to demand end to Gaza war⩘  by Agence France-Presse, The Guardian.
  
  • "The rally on Sunday evening was the culmination of a day of nationwide protests and a general strike to pressure the government to halt the military campaign. 'Bring them all home! Stop the war!' shouted the vast crowd, which had converged on the so-called Hostage Square in Tel Aviv plaza – a focal point for protesters throughout the war."
• Aug 17, 2025 (day 681): Israeli plan to displace 1 million Palestinians spreads fear in Gaza⩘  by Malak A Tantesh in Gaza and Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem, The Guardian.
  
  • "Population devastated by repeated displacement, hunger and lack of medical supplies braces for further humanitarian disaster."
• Aug 15, 2025 (day 679): Heat and thirst drive families in Gaza to drink water that makes them sick⩘  by Wafaa Shurafa and Sam Metz, The Associated Press.
  
  • "Over the 22 months since Israel launched its offensive, Gaza's water access has been progressively strained. Limits on fuel imports and electricity have hampered the operation of desalination plants while infrastructure bottlenecks and pipeline damage choked delivery to a dribble. Gaza's aquifers became polluted by sewage and the wreckage of bombed buildings. Wells are mostly inaccessible or destroyed, aid groups and the local utility say.
  • "Meanwhile, the water crisis has helped fuel the rampant spread of disease, on top of Gaza's rising starvation. UNRWA – the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees – said Thursday that its health centers now see an average 10,300 patients a week with infectious diseases, mostly diarrhea from contaminated water.…
  • "And the thirst is only growing as a heat wave bears down, with humidity and temperatures in Gaza soaring on Friday to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit)."
• Aug 14, 2025 (day 678): Malnourished kids arrive daily at a Gaza hospital as Netanyahu denies hunger⩘  by Mariam Dagga and Lee Keath, The Associated Press.
  
  • "KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) – The dead body of 2 1/2-year-old Ro'a Mashi lay on the table in Gaza's Nasser Hospital, her arms and rib cage skeletal, her eyes sunken in her skull. Doctors say she had no preexisting conditions and wasted away over months as her family struggled to find food and treatment.
  • "Her family showed The Associated Press a photo of Ro'a's body at the hospital, and it was confirmed by the doctor who received her remains. Several days after she died, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday told local media, 'There is no hunger. There was no hunger. There was a shortage, and there was certainly no policy of starvation.' "
• Aug 10, 2025 (day 674): Israeli settlers intensify campaign to drive out West Bank Palestinians⩘  by Jeremy Bowen, International editor, reporting from the occupied West Bank, BBC.
  
  • "We arranged to meet Yehuda Shaul at the road junction next to Sinjel. He is one of Israel's most prominent opponents of the occupation.
  • "Shaul founded an organisation called Breaking the Silence after, as a soldier, he saw first-hand the inherently brutal realities of a military occupation that has lasted almost 60 years.…
  • "Shaul believes Israel has two choices left. One direction, he argues, is 'the vector that this government is writing, displacement, abuse, killing, destroying Palestinian life, ultimately, writing a vector to mass population transfer'.
  • " 'Or, it is two states where Palestine resides besides Israel and both peoples here have rights and dignity. These are the only two options in our cards. Now you and anyone who watches us, need to choose which one you support.'…
  • " 'I actually believe that if 7 October taught us one thing it is, if you really care about protecting Israelis and Palestinian life, you need to take care of the root causes of the violence: decades of brutal military occupation, displacement of Palestinians and a conflict that is going on for about 100 years. Ultimately, the security protection, the sustainability of Jewish self-determination in this land, is interlinked and intertwined with achieving self-determination rights and equality for Palestinians.' "
• Aug 8, 2025 (day 672): Outrage at Israeli plan to take over Gaza City that could displace 1m Palestinians: Germany says it will halt arms deliveries to Israel amid growing international anger over planned operation⩘  by Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem and Julian Borger, The Guardian.
  
  • "The future of 1 million Palestinians hangs in the balance after Israel's security cabinet approved a new ground offensive aimed at taking complete control of Gaza's largest city in a decision that has triggered global outrage.
  • "The plan put forward by Benjamin Netanyahu for Gaza City would entail a further escalation in the 22-month war and mean more mass displacements of an exhausted and starving population. It has yet to be endorsed by the full cabinet, expected to convene in the next few days, but there have been calls from around the world for the government to change its mind."
• Jul 31, 2025 (day 665): The mathematics of starvation: how Israel caused a famine in Gaza⩘  by Emma Graham-Harrison, Chief Middle East correspondent, The Guardian.
  
  • "Israel controls the flow of food into Gaza. It has calculated how many calories Palestinians need to stay alive. Its data shows only a fraction has been allowed in."
• Jul 30, 2025 (day 664): Documentary – The Oath: to be a Palestinian doctor in Israel's healthcare system⩘  by Liane Aviram, Louis Hollis, Yuval Abraham, Charlie Phillips, Lindsay Poulton, Jess Gormley, The Guardian.
• Jul 30, 2025 (day 664): It's Not a Linguistic Debate, it's Man-Made Starvation: Defense of Israel cannot condone the indefensible⩘  by Jennifer Rubin, The Contrarian.
• Jul 29, 2025 (day 663): Israeli public figures call for 'crippling sanctions' on Israel over Gaza starvation⩘  by Peter Beaumont, The Guardian.
  
  • " 'Blocking food, water, medicine, and power – especially for children – is indefensible. Let us not allow our grief to harden into indifference, nor our love for Israel to blind us to the cries of the vulnerable. Let us rise to the moral challenge of this moment.' "
• Jul 29, 2025 (day 663): As scholars of genocide, we demand an end to Israel's atrocities⩘  by Taner Akçam, Marianne Hirsch and Michael Rothberg, The Guardian.
  
  • "The world has stood by as Israel has murdered tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, wounded more than double that number, buried countless more under the rubble and devastated civilian infrastructure. The territory's survivors, displaced repeatedly by the Israeli military, are in a state of enforced starvation and utter precarity. Despite Israel's ban on international journalists, witnesses and victims are livestreaming unbearable images and videos of emaciated children and adults shot while desperately seeking aid. Israeli officials have proposed the construction of what would be concentration camps and the deportation of surviving Palestinians.
  • "Motivated by our deep scholarly and ethical engagement with political violence and mass atrocity, including the Nazi genocide of Jewish people, we helped found the Genocide and Holocaust Studies Crisis Network⩘  in April. More than 400 scholars of genocide and Holocaust studies from two dozen countries joined within weeks of its launch. The rapid growth of the group testifies to the urgency of this moment. Today, along with hundreds of humanitarian organizations, dozens of governments, and millions of protesting students and citizens across the globe, we call for immediate concrete measures to prevent further atrocity crimes and to protect civilians.
• Jul 28, 2025 (day 662): Israel committing genocide in Gaza, say Israel-based human rights groups⩘  by Emma Graham-Harrison, The Guardian.
  
  • "Two leading human rights organisations based in Israel, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, say Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the country's western allies have a legal and moral duty to stop it.
  • "In reports published on Monday, the two groups said Israel had targeted civilians in Gaza only because of their identity as Palestinians over nearly two years of war, causing severe and in some cases irreparable damage to Palestinian society."
• Jul 27, 2025 (day 661): 'Really cautious': why the International Court of Justice is delaying a Gaza genocide verdict⩘  by Julian Borger, Senior international correspondent, The Guardian.
  
  • "While Palestinians in Gaza die in ever-increasing numbers from starvation each day and a growing number of legal scholars, aid officials and politicians have begun describing Israel's actions as genocide, a definitive ruling on the question by the world's top court will be a long time coming.
  • "Experts on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said a judgment on whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is unlikely before the end of 2027 at the earliest, amid warnings that the international community should not use the court's glacial proceedings as an excuse to put off action to stop the killing."
• Jul 24, 2025 (day 658): Opinion: Why the reluctance to recognize Israel's genocide in Gaza?⩘  by Kenneth Roth, The Guardian.
  
  • "Israel benefits from a halo effect associated with the Holocaust. Because the state of Israel was founded in response to the Nazi genocide, it is harder to accept that the Israeli government in turn would commit genocide. One obviously does not preclude the other, but Israel benefits from the cognitive dissonance.
  • "One would have hoped that a history of genocidal victimhood would yield an appreciation for human rights standards that prohibit oppression, but some leaders seem to have drawn the opposite lesson. They interpret the vow 'never again' to mean that anything goes in the name of preventing renewed persecution, even the commission of mass atrocities. Indeed, they weaponize the genocidal past to suppress criticism of their current atrocities."
• Jul 23, 2025 (day 657): 'Man'-made' mass starvation in Gaza, WHO chief says⩘  by William Christou in Jerusalem, and Cy Neff, The Guardian.
  
  • "The head of the World Health Organization has said a large proportion of Gaza's population is starving. 'I don't know what you would call it other than mass-starvation – and it's man-made,' Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
  • "Meanwhile aid organisations urged Israel to ease its aid blockade as more Palestinians died of hunger.
  • "At least 10 people have died from starvation in the last 24 hours, bringing the toll from hunger to 111, including 80 children, Gaza's health authority said on Wednesday.
  • "More than 100 aid agencies had earlier issued a warning that mass starvation was spreading across Gaza and urged Israel to let humanitarian aid into the besieged strip to alleviate the growing human-made hunger crisis.
  • "A letter signed by 109 agencies including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam International and Amnesty International says the Israeli government is blocking humanitarian organisations from effectively distributing life-saving aid."
• Jul 23, 2025 (day 657): As mass starvation spreads across Gaza, our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away⩘ , Amnesty International petition signed by well over 100 organizations.
  
  • "It is time to take decisive action: demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire; lift all bureaucratic and administrative restrictions; open all land crossings; ensure access to everyone in all of Gaza; reject military-controlled distribution models; restore a principled, UN-led humanitarian response and continue to fund principled and impartial humanitarian organisations. States must pursue concrete measures to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of weapons and ammunition."
• Jul 21, 2025 (day 655): UK and 27 other nations condemn Israel over 'inhumane killing' of Gaza civilians seeking aid⩘  by David Gritten, BBC News.
  
  • "The UK and 27 other countries have called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, where they say the suffering of civilians has 'reached new depths'.
  • "A joint statement says Israel's aid delivery model is dangerous and condemns what it calls the 'drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians' seeking food and water.…
  • "The signatories are the foreign ministers of the UK and 27 other nations, including Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and Switzerland."
• Jul 20, 2025 (day 654): Scenes from the end of Zionism: Reflections on the Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress in Vienna⩘  by Daniel Friedman, Mondoweiss.
  
  • "The first Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress, which drew 1,000 anti-Zionist Jews and their allies to Vienna, marked a significant moment in the rising tide against the settler-colonial state of Israel.…
  • "I was there representing South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) alongside Roshan Dadoo, the conference's only South African speaker and coordinator of the South African Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) coalition.
  • "SAJFP sent me to Austria to advocate for a united, Jewish Anti-Zionist movement that is inclusive rather than Eurocentric. Our experience in fighting apartheid as South Africans is also significant, in terms of both our successes and our failures. As United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese pointed out via live stream: While the political system underpinning apartheid was defeated in South Africa, the economic and social systems that enabled it remained in place.…
  • "The need to reclaim Judaism from Zionism – once seen as a fringe movement within global Jewry as UK writer and activist Tony Greenstein reminded us during a discussion – was a constant theme at the Congress, as was the need to embrace the Yiddish concept of doikayt, or hereness, the idea that Jewish people can, have and will live peacefully with their neighbors in countries across the globe, rather than needing to escape to a physical homeland.…
  • "To me, more important than anything that came out of the Congress is that it happened, that we united to continue our work, and that it symbolized a return to the roots of Judaism as a religion of peace. Despite all the damage that has been done in our name, Jews can and must be part of building a better world. I believe deep down that a day will come when we truly can celebrate our achievements as anti-Zionists, Jewish or otherwise."
• Jul 18, 2025 (day 652): Israel levelling thousands of Gaza civilian buildings in controlled demolitions⩘  by Benedict Garman, Matt Murphy & the Visual Journalism team, BBC News.
  
  • "Israel has demolished thousands of buildings across Gaza since it withdrew from a ceasefire with Hamas in March, with entire towns and suburbs – once home to tens of thousands of people – levelled in the past few weeks."
• Jul 17, 2025 (day 651): In Gaza I saw the suffering of children and the heroism of health workers trying to save them⩘ , opinion by Thienminh Dinh, who is an Australian specialist emergency physician and was the medical activity manager in Gaza for Médecins Sans Frontières, The Guardian.
  
  • "If our leaders allow this massacre to pass without consequence or condemnation, it will reveal a disturbing truth about what the world is willing to accept."
• Jul 15, 2025 (day 649): Israeli Holocaust scholar Omer Bartov calls out 'genocide in Gaza'⩘  by Xander Elliards, The National.
  
  • "Omer Bartov, the dean's professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at the Ivy-league Brown University in the US, penned a 3500-word essay for the New York Times on Tuesday outlining his reasoning.
  • "Bartov, who was born in Israel and served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) but has taught in the US since 1989, said: 'I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognise one when I see one.'
  • "Noting that experts including Francesca Albanese – the UN special rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories – and Amnesty International had come to the same conclusion, Bartov went on: 'The continued denial of this designation by states, international organizations and legal and scholarly experts will cause unmitigated damage not just to the people of Gaza and Israel but also to the system of international law established in the wake of the horrors of the Holocaust, designed to prevent such atrocities from happening ever again. It is a threat to the very foundations of the moral order on which we all depend.' "
  • See also: Post about Professor /Bartov's essay⩘  by Nina Bernstein (@NinaBernstein1@journa.host)⩘ , Jul 15, 2025, Mastodon, which includes a gift link to the original essay.
• Jul 15, 2025 (day 649): UN's Albanese hails 30-nation meeting aimed at ending Israeli occupation of Palestine⩘  by Patrick Wintou, Diplomatic editor, The Guardian.
• Jul 13, 2025 (day 647): 'Humanitarian city' would be concentration camp for Palestinians, says former Israeli PM⩘  by Emma Graham-Harrison in Tel Aviv, The Guardian. "Ehud Olmert says forcing people into camp would be ethnic cleansing, and anger at Israel over Gaza war is not all down to antisemitism."
  
  • "Olmert described extremist cabinet ministers who backed violence in Gaza and the West Bank – where they have authorised major settlement expansions and control law enforcement with a view to expanding the borders of Israel – as a greater threat to the country's long-term security than any external foe. 'These guys are the enemy from within,' he said.…
  • "Despite the devastation in Gaza, as the last Israeli premier to seriously attempt to reach a negotiated solution with Palestinians, Olmert still hopes that a two-state solution is possible.
  • "He is working with the former Palestinian foreign minister Nasser al-Kidwa to push for one internationally, and even believes that a historic settlement could be in reach – an end to the war in Gaza in exchange for normalisation of ties with Saudi Arabia – if only Netanyahu was able or willing to take it."
• Jul 13, 2025 (day 647): Children fetching water killed in Israeli strike in Gaza, emergency officials say⩘  by Rushdi Abualouf, Gaza correspondent, and Maia Davies, BBC News.
  
  • "Ten people, including six children, have been killed in an Israeli air strike while waiting to fill water containers in central Gaza on Sunday, emergency service officials say.…
  • "Eyewitnesses said a drone fired a missile at a crowd queuing with empty jerry cans next to a water tanker in al-Nuseirat refugee camp.
  • "The Israeli military said there had been a 'technical error' with a strike targeting an Islamic Jihad 'terrorist'…."
• Jul 10, 2025 (day 644): UN Gaza investigator Francesca Albanese says US sanctions against her a sign of 'guilt'⩘  by The Guardian. "United Nations' special rapporteur for Palestinian territories stresses all eyes must remain on Gaza as she urges 'let's stand tall, together'."
• Jul 7, 2025 (day 641): Israeli plan for forced transfer of Gaza's population 'a blueprint for crimes against humanity'⩘  by Emma Graham-Harrison in Jerusalem, The Guardian.
• Jul 3, 2025 (day 637): Global firms 'profiting from genocide' in Gaza, says UN rapporteur⩘  by Julian Borger in Amman, The Guardian.
  
  • "The UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories has called for sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel and for global corporations to be held accountable for 'profiting from genocide' in Gaza.
  • "A report by Francesca Albanese⩘  to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday points to the deep involvement of companies from around the world in supporting Israel during its 21-month onslaught in Gaza.
  • " 'While life in Gaza is being obliterated and the West Bank is under escalating assault, this report shows why Israel's genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many,' the report says.
  • "Special rapporteurs are independent human rights experts appointed to advise or report on specific situations. Albanese, an Italian legal scholar who has been the special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories since 2022, first referred to the Israeli offensive in Gaza as a genocide in January 2024.
  • "The international court of justice (ICJ) is weighing the charge of genocide against Israel but Albanese has argued that the evidence of genocide is overwhelming and pointed out that the court issued preliminary measures last year recognising the possibility of genocide in Gaza, triggering universal responsibility to prevent it.
  • "Israel has largely ignored the ICJ's calls on it to take steps to mitigate the toll on Palestinian civilians and disputed the court's jurisdiction."
• Jul 2, 2025 (day 636): Gaza: Doctors Under Attack review – this crucial film is the stuff of nightmares. But the world needs to see it⩘  by Stuart Heritage, The Guardian. Gaza: Doctors under attack⩘  by Basement Films.
• Jul 2, 2025 (day 636): Israeli military used 500lb bomb in strike on Gaza cafe, fragments reveal⩘  by Jason Burke in Jerusalem, The Guardian.
  
  • "The Israeli military used a 500lb (230kg) bomb – a powerful and indiscriminate weapon that generates a massive blast wave and scatters shrapnel over a wide area – when it attacked a target in a crowded beachfront cafe in Gaza on Monday, evidence seen by the Guardian has revealed.
  • "Experts in international law said the use of such a munition despite the known presence of many unprotected civilians, including children, women and elderly people, was almost certainly unlawful and may constitute a war crime."
• Jul 1, 2025 (day 635): Twelve days in Gaza: what happened while the world looked away?⩘  by Jason Burke; graphics by Tural Ahmedzade and Finbarr Sheehy; video by Saminda Sidhu, The Guardian.
  
  • "One of the consequences of Israel's 12-day conflict with Iran was a drop-off in attention paid to the war in Gaza, where a terrible humanitarian situation deteriorated even further."
• Jul 1, 2025 (day 635): Witnesses describe grim aftermath of Israeli strike on busy Gaza cafe⩘  by Jason Burke in Jerusalem and Malak A Tantesh in Gaza, The Guardian.
  
  • "Women, children and elderly people among at least 24 killed by attack that turned beach spot into scene of carnage."
• Jun 27, 2025 (day 631): The Guardian view on annihilation in Gaza: the deaths mount, but the pressure has ebbed⩘ , editorial by The Guardian.
  
  • "Israel's attack on Iran overshadowed the ongoing carnage. Its allies are complicit in the horror; they must instead help to build a future for Palestinians."
• Jun 27, 2025 (day 631): 'It's a Killing Field': IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid⩘  by Nir HassonYaniv Kubovich and Bar Peleg, Haaretz.
  
  • "IDF [Israel Defense Forces] officers and soldiers told Haaretz they were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, prompting the military prosecution to call for a review into possible war crimes."
• Jun 26, 2025 (day 630): A street in Gaza, a map of dreams, and the people desperate to live⩘  by Ana Lucía González Paz, Kaamil Ahmed, Antonio Voce, Prina Shah, Garry Blight and Laure Boulinier, The Guardian.
  
  • "Gaza City's main high street has been destroyed but Palestinian memories of life before the ongoing Israeli assault survive. As those in Gaza face bombing, starvation and miserable living conditions, here's how they try to hold both the past and the present in their minds."
• Jun 25, 2025 (day 629): Doctors and moms say these babies in Gaza may die without more formula. They blame Israel's blockade⩘  by Mariam Dagga and Samy Magdy, The Associated Press. How can anyone look at themselves in the mirror knowing that they are purposely causing the starvation of babies?
• Jun 20, 2025 (day 624): Unicef warns children could die of thirst in Gaza amid collapse of water systems: Fears grow of drought as well as hunger as medics report more killings by Israeli forces of Palestinians seeking aid⩘  by Jason Burke, and Malak A Tantesh in Gaza, The Guardian.
• Jun 19, 2025 (day 623): Israeli authorities are suffocating Gaza with deliberate shortages of food, medicine and fuel⩘ , press release, Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors without Borders.
• Jun 18, 2025 (day 622): Gaza: the grim reality of genocide⩘  by David Keys, North East Bylines. In the "first comprehensive analysis of how Israel's War on Gaza will cause suffering for generations to come, journalist David Keys reveals the horrifying scale and long-term implications of the ongoing tragedy." He studies eight factors: chronic malnutrition, very high child bereavement levels. constant and repeated evacuation and displacement, very high intensity and length of bombardment, extremely high levels of destruction, unusually high levels of civilian deaths and injuries, appalling levels of mental stress and trauma, and inability to escape. Here's a excerpt about two of them:
  
  • "Bombardment. More explosives have been dropped on Gaza in the past 20 months than the combined tonnage dropped on Dresden, Hamburg and London in World War Two. So far, over 100,000 tonnes of explosives have been dropped on the strip – that's almost 50 kilos of TNT-equivalent explosive for every man, woman and child in Gaza. It is also more than six times the explosive force of the nuclear bomb dropped by the Americans on Hiroshima in 1945.
  • "Destruction. Over 90% of people's homes have been completely destroyed or very severely damaged (mainly by bombs – but also by Israeli bulldozers). Around 60 square miles (some 70% of Gaza's urban area) has been destroyed or made uninhabitable. That's 12 times the area devastated by the Hiroshima atom bomb, 30 times the area destroyed at Nagasaki and around four times the area devastated in the World War Two firebombing of Dresden or Hamburg or even Tokyo. Israeli attacks have destroyed or rendered unusable most of Gaza's key infrastructure – including the vast majority of its hospitals and clinics, 90% of its schools, its universities, over 70% of its road network, its water supply systems and its waste management and sanitation systems. What's more, a majority of the territory's agricultural land has also been destroyed or damaged."
  • 
    Images from Gaza war 2023 – 2025: IMG 8182⩘ . Source: Jaber Jehad Badwan⩘ .
    Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International⩘  license.
• Jun 18, 2025 (day 622): Israeli forces kill 11 Palestinians awaiting food trucks, say Gaza officials⩘  by Jason Burke and Malak A Tantesh in Gaza, The Guardian. WTF?!
  
  • "IDF 'looking into' incident in central Gaza, as over a hundred die in recent days near or along routes to distribution sites."
• Jun 17, 2025 (day 621): Israeli tanks kill 59 people in Gaza crowd trying to get food aid, medics say⩘  by Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Hatem Khaled, Reuters. What is wrong with Israel and the IDF?! Have they totally lost touch with their souls and any sense of morality? They are starving an entire population of civilians and then killing them when they try to get some food aid. This is happening every day! WTF!
  
  • "Israeli tanks fired into a crowd trying to get aid from trucks in Gaza on Tuesday, killing at least 59 people, according to medics, in one of the bloodiest incidents yet in mounting violence as desperate residents struggle for food.
  • "Video shared on social media showed around a dozen mangled bodies lying in a street in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military, at war with Hamas-led Palestinian militants in Gaza since October 2023, acknowledged firing in the area and said it was looking into the incident.…
  • "Palestinian medics said at least 59 people were killed and 221 wounded in the incident, at least 20 of them in critical condition. Casualties were being rushed into the hospital in civilian cars, rickshaws and donkey carts. It was the worst death toll in a single day since aid resumed in Gaza in May."
  • From the day before, Monday, Jun 16, 2025: 34 killed in deadliest day of shootings near Gaza's new food distribution centers, authorities say⩘  by Wafaa Shurafa and Samy Magdy, The Associated Press.
• Jun 17, 2025 (day 621): Photos show crowds of desperate Palestinians struggling to get food⩘  by Jehad Alshrafi, The Associated Press.
  
  • "GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) – Hardly any food has entered northern Gaza for nearly four months. So when a rare convoy of aid trucks entered this week, gigantic crowds of desperate Palestinians were waiting for it."
  • 
    Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid that was unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
• Jun 14, 2025 (day 618): From Gaza to Ukraine to Iran, Trump's 'peacemaker' promise collapses⩘  by Joseph Gedeon, The Guardian.
  
  • "A president who vowed to end global conflicts – including one which he said he would resolve within his first 24 hours⩘  – has instead presided over their escalation – most recently the spiraling conflict between Israel and Iran.…
  • "Trump promised to be a peacemaker. Instead, he's managing multiple wars while his diplomatic initiatives collapse in real time. From Gaza to Ukraine to Iran, the world appears more volatile and dangerous than when he took his oath five months ago."
• Jun 12, 2025 (day 616): Opinion: Harvard appears to think all Jews support Israel. That is discriminatory⩘  by Barry Trachtenberg, Victor Silverman, Atalia Omer, Raz Segal, Rebecca T Alpert and Judith Butler, The Guardian.
  
  • "We are part of a group of 27 Jewish scholars of Jewish studies who have filed an amicus brief in Harvard's lawsuit against the Trump administration. We submitted the brief, drafted by the civil rights attorney Yaman Salahi, because we support the university's fight against government overreach. Yet in doing so, the institution has committed a different kind of discrimination – one that violates federal civil rights law. We reject Harvard's troubling assumption that being Jewish necessitates supporting Israel, or that criticism of Israel's genocide in Gaza constitutes antisemitism."
• Jun 11, 2025 (day 615): Israeli army officers refuse to serve in 'unnecessary, eternal war' in Gaza: In letter to Netanyahu, 41 signatories say government's orders are 'clearly illegal' and hostages have been given 'death sentence'⩘  by Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham in Jerusalem, The Guardian.
  
  • "The letter, which was shared online late on Tuesday, said the group would refuse to take part in a 'war designed to preserve the rule of Netanyahu' and appease 'anti-democratic and messianic elements in [his] government'.…
  • "Addressing the impact of the offensive on civilians in the territory, the group wrote: 'When a government acts for ulterior motives, harms civilians and leads to the killing of innocent people, the orders it issues are clearly illegal, and we must not obey them.' "
• Jun 9, 2025 (day 613): Israel seizes Gaza-bound activist boat and detains Greta Thunberg⩘  by Jaroslav Lukiv, BBC News.
  
  • "The [Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC)] has argued that the sea blockade is illegal, characterising Katz's statement as an example of Israel threatening the unlawful use of force against civilians and 'attempting to justify that violence with smears'.
  • " 'We will not be intimidated. The world is watching,' FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said.
  • " 'The Madleen is a civilian vessel, unarmed and sailing in international waters, carrying humanitarian aid and human rights defenders from across the globe… Israel has no right to obstruct our effort to reach Gaza.'
  • "The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the group said.
  • "Citizens of Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Turkey are onboard."
• Jun 4, 2025 (day 608): Gaza now worse than hell on earth, humanitarian chief tells BBC⩘  by Jeremy Bowen, BBC News.
  
  • "In an interview at the ICRC's [International Committee of the Red Cross] headquarters in Geneva, the organisation's president Mirjana Spoljaric said 'humanity is failing' as it watched the horrors of the Gaza war.…
  • " 'It has become worse… We cannot continue to watch what is happening. It's surpassing any acceptable, legal, moral, and humane standard. The level of destruction, the level of suffering.
  • " 'More importantly, the fact that we are watching a people entirely stripped of its human dignity. It should really shock our collective conscience.'…
  • "If there is no ceasefire, she fears for the future of the region.
  • " 'This is vital. To preserve a pathway back to peace for the region. If you destroy that pathway forever for good, the region will never find safety and security. But we can stop it now. It's not too late.' "
• Jun 3, 2025 (day 607): Public support for Israel in western Europe at lowest ever recorded by YouGov⩘  by Jon Henley, Europe correspondent, The Guardian.
• Jun 3, 2025 (day 607): At least 27 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire at food point, Gaza officials say: Gaza spokesperson says Israel fired with tanks and drones as Israeli military acknowledges troops shot at 'suspects'⩘  by Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem and Malak A Tantesh in Gaza, The Guardian. Another horrifying report. Does Israel suspect these civilians, including women and children, of not starving to death quickly enough?
  
  • "It is the third such incident in three days, with Israel admitting for the first time during the recent events that its forces shot at individuals who were moving towards them.
  • "The Gaza civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal told Agence France-Presse: 'Israeli forces opened fire with tanks and drones on thousands of civilians who had gathered since dawn near the al-Alam roundabout in the al-Mawasi area, north-west of Rafah.'' It is the same site where on Sunday more than 30 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire while they were heading to the distribution hub."
• Jun 2, 2025 (day 606): Boulder attack: eight injured in Colorado after man allegedly targets rally for Israeli hostages⩘  by Maya Yang and Diana Ramirez-Simon, The Guardian. This, too, is horrifying. How can anyone justify harming people who have assembled for "a peaceful walk to show solidarity with the hostages and their families, and a plea for their release" (per the organizer, Run For Their Lives⩘ )?
  
  • "Eight people were injured in an attack in Boulder, Colorado after a man is alleged to have thrown an incendiary device into a crowd and yelled 'Free Palestine', in what the FBI is treating as an 'act of terrorism'.
  • "The 45-year-old man, identified as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, is alleged to have thrown the device into a group of people who had assembled in a pedestrianized zone for a peaceful protest for Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.…
  • "The people injured were between the ages of 67 and 88, police said, and their injuries ranged from minor to 'very serious'. Four were taken to a local hospital, while two had to be airlifted to a hospital in Aurora.
  • "Brooke Coffman, a university student at the scene of the attack, said she saw four women on the ground with burns on their legs, Reuters reported. One of them appeared to have been badly burned on most of her body and had been wrapped in a flag by someone, she said."
• Jun 2, 2025 (day 605): Climate activist Greta Thunberg joins aid ship sailing to Gaza aimed at breaking Israel's blockade⩘  by Giada Zampano and Salvatore Cavalli, The Associated Press.
  
  • " 'We are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying,' Thunberg said, bursting into tears during her speech. 'Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity. And no matter how dangerous this mission is, it's not even near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the live-streamed genocide,' she added. "
• Jun 1, 2025 (day 605): Palestinians gunned down while trying to reach food aid site in Gaza, hospital says: Witnesses say Israeli forces opened fire on people near distribution point run by Israel-backed foundation⩘  by Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem and Malak A Tantesh in Gaza, The Guardian. This is horrifying. How can anyone justify starving people to the point of death, and then shoot and kill them for lining up early to desperately try to get some food?
  
  • "More than 30 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire on Sunday as they went to receive food at an aid distribution point set up by an Israeli-backed foundation in Gaza, according to witnesses, and a hospital run by the Red Cross confirming it was treating many wounded.
  • "Witnesses said Israeli forces had opened fire as Palestinians headed toward the aid distribution site in Rafah run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).…
  • "Israeli forces had given orders that no one should approach the hub before 6am local time. Multiple witnesses said people had begun lining up from 5am, and dozens were said to have surged forward and started running towards it. When the crowds reached the Flag Roundabout, about 0.6 miles (1km) away, Israeli forces started shooting at the crowd, witnesses said."
• May 31, 2025 (day 604): Jewish organizers are increasingly confronting Trump: 'The repression is growing, but so is the resistance'⩘  by Alice Speri, The Guardian.
  
  • " 'As a Jewish person, I'm really appalled at the idea that they are trying to make it sound as if opposing genocide is somehow antisemitic,' said Josh Dubnau, a professor at Stony Brook University who received a PhD from Columbia in 1995 and led the protest. 'There are thousands of us who don't believe in the right of the Jewish people to ethnically cleanse Palestine. There were Jews thousands of years before Zionism, and there will be Jews when Zionism is in the dustbin of history.'…
  • "[I]ncreasingly, Jewish students, faculty and alumni are pushing back against the exploitation of antisemitism charges to justify repressive policies they say do not represent their Jewish values. They have written letters, led protests, lobbied legislators and denounced what they say is the systematic exclusion of Jewish perspectives that are critical of Israel from the national conversation over antisemitism."
• May 30, 2025 (day 603): Opinion: It's time for Israel to halt its war of devastation in Gaza⩘  by Ehud Olmert, former prime minister of Israel.
  
  • "Genocide and war crimes are legal terms that very much refer to the intent and responsibility of the people authorized to formulate the war's objectives, its conduct and its purpose, the boundaries of fighting and the limitations on the use of force. I took every available opportunity to distinguish between the crimes we have been accused of, which I refused to admit, and the carelessness and indifference regarding Gazan victims⩘  and the unbearable human cost we've been levying there. The first accusation I rejected, the second I admitted to.
  • "In recent weeks I've been no longer able to do so. What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation: the indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians. We're not doing this due to loss of control in any specific sector, not due to some disproportionate outburst by some soldiers in some unit. Rather, it's the result of government policy – knowingly, evilly, maliciously, irresponsibly dictated. Yes, Israel is committing war crimes.…
  • "I believe the government of Israel is now the enemy from within. It has declared war on the state and its inhabitants. No external foe we've fought against over the past 77 years has caused greater damage to Israel than what the Itamar Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu and Bezalel Smotrich-led government has inflicted on us. No external foe managed to devastate the social solidarity that was the basis of Israeli society's strength in all existential tests facing it since 1948, as the Netanyahu government has done and does."
• May 30, 2025 (day 603): Gaza is 'hungriest place on Earth' with all its people at risk of famine, says UN: Mission to deliver help is 'one of most obstructed aid operations in recent history', humanitarian agency says⩘  by Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem and agencies, The Guardian.
  
  • "Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the territory was 'the only defined area – a country or defined territory within a country – where you have the entire population at risk of famine. One hundred per cent of the population [more than 2 million people] at risk of famine,' he said on Friday."
• May 29, 2025 (day 602): 'I worried I might start finding it normal. But I never did' – what I learned as the Guardians' Jerusalem correspondent ⩘  by Bethan McKernan, The Guardian.
  
  • "Fundamentally, I feel the same as when I arrived – that the occupation is wrong, and it doesn't make Israelis safer. For decades, Israel told itself a lie that the conflict could be contained and managed, sustaining a perpetual occupation and suppression of Palestinian rights without any major diplomatic, financial or security cost.
  • "That myth was shattered in the early morning of 7 October 2023. I understood what was at first a blinding Israeli need for revenge, even if I didn't agree with it, and I knew that they needed to make sure nothing like that bloody day could ever happen again. But since then, the last hope anyone I know had for a diplomatic solution to the conflict has been extinguished. Israel has doubled down on force. The slow suffocation of Palestinian hopes of dignity and statehood that was unfolding when I arrived has accelerated at a pace no one could previously have imagined."
• May 28, 2025 (day 601): Chased, beaten and robbed: survivors describe Israeli settler violence in West Bank⩘  by Lorenzo Tondo, Quique Kierszenbaum and Sufian Taha in Jerusalem, The Guardian.
  
  • " 'We had nowhere to go,' [Israeli photographer, who works for the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem, Avishay] Mohar says. 'Those settlers kept shooting at us and telling us to come over to them. We understood that we had nothing to do other than to walk towards them.'
  • " 'When we got there, the settlers immediately took all of our phones and all the things we had in our pockets and smashed it with rocks. Then they made us all sit on the ground. Both masked and unmasked settlers started hitting us with batons and with rocks. They kicked us while we lay on the ground. I got hit by batons on my head, on my eyes, on my back.'…
  • "The settlers left the injured where they lay and departed before the ambulance arrived. Ten Palestinians were wounded, some with multiple fractures.
  • " 'This is all part of a project of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank,' said Mohar. 'It's not done by crazy settlers. It's a state project. The state is informed of everything. If there was a will to stop those attacks, it would have happened in a minute.'…
  • " 'We lost 25 houses,' said Mlehat, [one of the residents of the village of Mughayyir al-Deir who was forced out and] father of the injured 14-year-old boy. 'The whole community were displaced. Those settlers are terrorists. They pursue ethnic cleansing against us. They don't care if you are a child or a grown-up, they do not discriminate between a man or a woman. All of us are a legitimate target for them. What can we do?'
  • "For many of the families forced out, it was a second displacement at the hands of Israelis, as their parents and grandparents had been forced from land near the Israeli city of Be'er Sheva when the state was formed in 1948."
• May 27, 2025 (day 600): Gaza's youngest influencer aged 11 among children killed by Israeli strikes: Yaqeen Hammad offered tips for surviving in war zone and is one of dozens of minors who have died in recent attacks⩘  by Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem, The Guardian.
  
  • "Her life was one of war but Yaqeen Hammad somehow found a reason to smile. The 11-year-old was Gaza's youngest influencer, whose bright smile reached tens of thousands, including other children, while she offered practical survival tips for daily life under bombardment, such as advice on how to cook with improvised methods when there was no gas.
  • "In one social media post, Yaqeen wrote: 'I try to bring a bit of joy to the other children so that they can forget the war.'
  • 
    Photo credit: Yaqeen Hammad, @yaqeen hmad
  • "On Friday night, she was killed after a series of heavy Israeli airstrikes hit the house where she lived with her family, in Al-Baraka area of Deir al-Bala, in central Gaza. Her body, torn apart by the bombing, was recovered from beneath the rubble."
• May 25, 2025 (day 598): 'Indiscriminate, Unrestrained, Brutal': Former Israeli PM Calls Gaza Assault 'War Crimes'⩘  by Kelba Vera, Huffpost. " 'What we are doing in Gaza is a war of extermination,' former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wrote in an op-ed aimed at Israeli citizens."
• May 25, 2025 (day 598): Israel is losing almost all its allies as it forges on in Gaza⩘  by Barak Ravid, Axios.
  
  • "Many of Israel's closest international allies have broken publicly with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government for its relentless pummeling of Gaza and freezing of desperately needed humanitarian aid.
  • "Why it matters: Netanyahu had unprecedented international legitimacy to fight back against Hamas after the Oct. 7 attacks. But a gradual decline in support as the war dragged on has now turned into a diplomatic tsunami."
• May 23, 2025 (day 596): Israeli settlers force about 150 Palestinians to leave their West Bank village⩘  by Quique Kierszenbaum in Mughayyir al-Deir and Emma Graham-Harrison in Jerusalem, The Guardian. Actions like this besmirch the term "settler".
  
  • "Settlers stalked between Palestinian men who worked fast and largely in silence, grappling with the grim reality of leaving the place where most were born and grew up. A child cried as he was driven away on a truck loaded with the family's red sofas.…
  • "For many of the families forced out, their move on Friday was a second displacement at the hands of Israelis, as their parents and grandparents had been forced from land near the Israeli city of Be'er Sheva when the state was formed in 1948."
• May 22, 2025 (day 595): Israeli politician critiques the Gaza war's toll on Palestinians and sparks an outcry⩘  by Tia Goldenberg, The Associated Press.
  
  • "It is some of the harshest language against Israel's wartime conduct in Gaza and it came this week from a prominent Israeli politician, sparking a domestic uproar as the country faces heavy international criticism.…
  • "Speaking to the Israeli public radio station Reshet Bet, [Yair] Golan – a former general – said Israel was becoming a pariah state and cautioned that 'a sane country doesn't engage in fighting against civilians, doesn't kill babies as a hobby and doesn't set for itself the goals of expelling a population.' "
• May 22, 2025 (day 595): Opinion: If aid doesn't enter Gaza now, 14,000 babies may die. UN peacekeepers must step in⩘  by Michael Fakhri, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, The Guardian.
  
  • "The UN general assembly must break the illegal blockade and stop the starvation of 2.3 million Palestinians."
• Washington DC shooting of Israeli embassy staff: what we know so far⩘  by Associated Press. A shameful, horrific act of terrorism. The victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were both working on peaceful initiatives.
  
  • "Lischinsky moved to Israel when he was 16, according to his LinkedIn profile, where he also wrote: 'I'm an ardent believer in the vision that was outlined in the Abraham Accords and believe that expanding the circle of peace with our Arab neighbours and pursuing regional cooperation is in the best interest of the state of Israel and the Middle East as a whole. To this end, I advocate for interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding.'
  • "Milgrim organised visits and missions to Israel. She was also a volunteer at Tech2Peace, an advocacy group training young Palestinians and Israelis and promoting dialogue between them."
• May 21, 2025 (day 594): George Washington University student banned after pro-Palestinian graduation speech: Senior Cecilia Culver criticized the university's ties to Israel and called for donations to be withheld⩘  by Marina Dunbar, The Guardian. It's especially valuable to watch the embedded video clip of her speech and to hear the response of those in attendance: STANDING OVATION!!! | Cecilia Culver, The George Washington University 2025 Commencement Speech⩘ . Courageous stand.
• May 20, 2025 (day 593): Israel still blocking aid for Gaza despite promise to lift siege, says UN⩘  by Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum in Jerusalem, The Guardian. "Continued restrictions come as opposition leader says Israel is becoming pariah nation that 'kills babies as a hobby'."
• May 19, 2025 (day 592): Netanyahu vows to 'take control' of Gaza as UK, France and Canada threaten action against Israel⩘  by Emma Graham-Harrison in Jerusalem, The Guardian.
  
  • "Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel will 'take control' of all Gaza, as three key allies attacked his 'egregious' escalation of the military campaign and blockade on humanitarian aid.
  • "Britain, France and Canada attacked Israel's expansion of its war as disproportionate, described conditions in Gaza as 'intolerable' and threatened a 'concrete' response if Israel's campaign continues.
  • "Earlier that day, Israel's military declared an entire city a combat zone, airstrikes killed more than 60 people, and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel's army would 'wipe out' what remains of Palestinian Gaza.
  • " 'We will not stand by while the Netanyahu government pursues these egregious actions. If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response,' the three allied governments said in a statement on Monday."
• May 19, 2025 (day 592): 'Our hearts ache': the fight for survival in Gaza amid Israel's new offensive and no aid⩘  by Jason Burke and Malak A Tantesh in Gaza, TThe Guardian.
  
  • "At about 2am on Sunday, Basel al-Barawi was dozing fitfully in his home in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza. For hours, he had listened fearfully to the sound of explosions and shooting.
  • "Then there was a massive blast. Barawi ran out to the street and saw that his cousin's house had been bombed, with 10 people inside. The strikes on Beit Lahiya came days after Israel launched a major new offensive, named Operation Gideon's Chariots.
  • " 'They were all martyred. Only a six-year-old girl survived, and she is now in the hospital. We started pulling them from under the rubble – their features were disfigured, their bodies covered in dirt, their clothes torn. Their skin had turned grey from the ash and dust. I felt my heart tearing apart as I carried them and handed them over to others,'' the 46-year-old said."
• May 19, 2025 (day 592): Village where Israelis and Palestinians live together to promote peace faces planned tax on funds⩘  by Chris Osuh, The Guardian. "Unique community in Israel appeals to UK for support after Knesset's proposed 80% tax on its funding."
  
  • "An Israeli village [Wahat Salam/Neve Shalom, which translates as 'Oasis of Peace'] where Jews and Palestinians live together to promote peace is in danger of losing vital overseas funding following Israeli government proposals to impose an 80% tax on foreign donations, residents have warned.…
  • " 'We break the rules, we break the stereotype, the brainwashing of the Israeli mainstream that peace isn't possible,' [Samah Salaime, an Israeli Palestinian and co-director of the village's educational institutions] said. 'We have to win this and offer a different agenda.' "
• May 16, 2025 (day 589): Gaza faces starvation unless Israel allows 'immediate' aid, European leaders warn⩘  by Shawn Pogatchnik, Politico.
  
  • "Thousands of Gazans could starve to death 'unless immediate action is taken,' the leaders of seven European nations warned Friday in an appeal to Israel.
  • "The statement – issued simultaneously by Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Slovenia and Spain – called on Israel to stop its renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip and to permit renewed access by international aid agencies.
  • " 'We will not be silent in front of the man-made humanitarian catastrophe that is taking place before our eyes in Gaza,' the leaders said. 'More than 50,000 men, women, and children have lost their lives. Many more could starve to death in the coming days and weeks unless immediate action is taken.'
  • "Earlier this week, the U.N. World Food Programme warned that 470,000 Gazans 'are facing catastrophic hunger' because of Israel's action to shut down aid flows since March 2. It said more than 116,000 metric tons of food aid was being blocked."
• May 15, 2025 (day 588): We are human rights lawyers. Our new report is clear: Israel perpetrates apartheid⩘ , opinion by Sandra L Babock, Susan M Akram, Thomas Becker and James Cavallaro, The Guardian.
  
  • "Israel has now killed more than 52,000 Palestinians in its attack on Gaza, an estimated 15,000 of whom are children⩘ . In 2024, we co-authored a report concluding that Israel's actions met the international definition of genocide. On Thursday, we issued a second report finding that Israel has also engaged in acts of apartheid against the Palestinian population.
  • "While most people associate apartheid with South Africa, the definition of apartheid⩘  – considered a crime against humanity – encompasses inhuman acts of racial subjugation and systematic oppression anywhere in the world. We concluded that Israel's treatment of Palestinians, which includes mass killing, arbitrary detention, torture, and the imposition of a legal regime that provides far less due process than that provided to Israelis living in the same territory, meets the legal threshold of apartheid as defined by the 1973 United Nations International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.
  • "We are not the first to reach this conclusion. Last year, the International Court of Justice⩘  determined that Israel is violating the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid, while Amnesty International⩘ , Human Rights Watch⩘ , and Israel's leading human rights organization, B'Tselem⩘ , have each independently found Israel's laws and policies meet the legal definition of apartheid.…
  • "By publishing this op-ed, we expose ourselves to harassment and risk losing our jobs. But if we silence ourselves on Palestine, how can we call ourselves human rights defenders?"
  • Sandra L Babcock is a clinical professor and director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School. Susan M Akram is clinical professor and director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law. Thomas Becker is the legal and policy director at the University Network for Human Rights and teaches human rights at Columbia Law School. James Cavallaro is the executive director of the University Network for Human Rights and a visiting professor at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs.
• May 11, 2025 (day 584): There is suffering everywhere you look, says mother of emaciated baby girl trapped in Gaza: Babies such as Siwar Ashour are suffering from malnutrition as crucial supplies run out amid Israel's total blockade on aid⩘  by Malak A Tantesh in Gaza and Julian Borger, The Guardian.
  
  • "The family has no source of income so relies on charity kitchens for food and some humanitarian aid, but that too is in desperately short supply as Israel's total blockade of Gaza approaches the 70-day mark. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN relief agency, Unrwa, said this week: 'the manmade and politically motivated starvation in Gaza is an expression of absolute cruelty'.…
  • " 'Seeing my daughter in this state every day gives me insomnia,' Najwa said. 'I'm constantly anxious and overthinking. Sometimes I can't bear seeing her like this, and I start crying. I'm so afraid of losing her. Can't the world open the crossings to allow in milk, food, and medicine. All I want is for my daughter Siwar to live like the rest of the children in the world.' "
• May 9, 2025 (day 582): Israel committing genocide in Gaza, says EU's former top diplomat⩘  by Sam Jones, The Guardian.
  
  • "The former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has launched a blistering attack on Israel, accusing its government of committing genocide in Gaza and 'carrying out the largest ethnic-cleansing operation since the end of the second world war in order to create a splendid holiday destination'.
  • "Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister who served as the EU's top diplomat from 2019 to 2024, and president of the European parliament from 2004 to 2007, also criticised the bloc's failure to use all the means at its disposal to influence Israel, saying expressions of regret were simply not enough."
• May 8, 2025 (day 581): The Financial Times savages Western silence on Gaza: The tide is turning on Israel⩘  by Owen Jones, Battlelines.
• May 6, 2025 (day 579): Miko Peled Exposes Uncomfortable Truths About Israel⩘ , Macintosh Team, May 6, 2025. "In this powerful lecture at Oxford, Miko Peled, the son of an Israeli general, sheds light on the truth behind Israel's occupation of Palestine."
• May 6, 2025 (day 579): Israel is starving us in Gaza. This is what that feels like⩘  by Aya Al-Hattab, The Guardian.
  
  • "Hunger was never part of our lives before. We used to cook the most delicious meals, order our favourite foods, and enjoy them without a second thought. Now, we remember those days not just as part of the past, but like they belonged to another world entirely – a world that was safer, kinder, and so much more beautiful.
  • "The blockade has forced me – and so many others – into collective punishment, facing hunger and hardship for something we had no part in. I'm just a young woman who loves life in all its beautiful forms, yet I'm made to suffer and watch my people suffer as a form of pressure to return the hostages. How is that fair? It's not. It's deeply unjust. As a young woman who should be in full physical and mental health, I feel my body growing weaker, more fragile with each passing moment.
  • "I've read on news sites that poverty in Gaza has reached unprecedented levels. But this is not poverty, it is famine. The Israeli occupation is directly responsible for creating this humanitarian catastrophe. Children in the Gaza Strip have begun to die of hunger. Unlike adults, they cannot endure such suffering. I think of them, imagining the food they long for but can't have – and the thought is heartbreaking.
  • "Fear of death casts a long shadow over life in a place under occupation. Everyone who has an illness or injury can no longer access the medicine they need. In this vast prison that is Gaza, death comes in many forms: by sniper fire, by bombing, by starvation, by lack of medical care, or even from great fear. We hear that Israel has plans to completely capture Gaza and remain here, displacing so many of us. We are dying, we are starving. Are we soon to be homeless, stateless?"
• May 2, 2025 (day 575): Desperate children and adults in Gaza struggle to get food as Israel blocks aid⩘  by Mohamed Jahjouh and Julia Frankel, The Associated Press.
  
  • "KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) – Screaming in anguish as the desperate crowd crushes them against a barrier, young children and adults frantically wave pots and pans at charity workers, begging for a portion of some of the last food aid left in Gaza: Rice.
  • "The chaos at the community kitchen in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Friday was too overwhelming for Niveen Abu Arar. She tried and tried, but the 33-year-old mother of eight didn't get to the front of the crowd in time. She left with her pot empty, and her eyes full of tears."
• Apr 29, 2025 (day 572): I used to run Israel's security agency – now I'm sounding the alarm about our extremist government⩘  by Ami Ayalon, former director of Shin Bet and a former commander-in-chief of Israel's navy, The Guardian. [My bolding.]
  
  • "I spent close to 40 years working as a public servant for the state of Israel, including as commander of the navy and head of the Shin Bet, protecting Israel and defending it from external and internal threats. Several weeks ago, along with 17 other colleagues who have also dedicated their lives to Israel's security and welfare, I made a decision that the future of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state is so under threat that it is not just my responsibility, but obligation, to sound the alarm.
  • "The 18 of us took out a full-page advert in two major Israeli broadsheet papers. In it, we made clear that the very fabric of the state of Israel and the values on which it was founded are being eroded. The truth is that our hostages in Gaza have been abandoned in favour of the government's messianic ideology and by a prime minister in Benjamin Netanyahu who is desperate to cling to power for his own personal gain. Our government is undermining the democratic functions of the state to shore up and protect its own power. It is forcing us into a perpetual war with no achievable military objectives and which can only result in more loss of life and hatred.
  • "And we are not the minority. The overwhelming majority of the Israeli public agree with us – 70% believe⩘  there needs to be a comprehensive end to the war in return for bringing our hostages home, and an election as soon as possible so that this government can be replaced. Since we took out our advert, we have been joined by thousands⩘  of pilots, navy officers, members of the intelligence and reservists, all of whom, in their own letters to the government, have expressed the same sentiments as our advert did.
  • "Concerned for the future of our beloved country, I supported the publication of our advert in translation in the UK Times newspaper on 17 April. It is no longer enough to keep this discussion solely within the borders of Israel. We need to make sure that our allies abroad understand how grave the danger is. We need our friends from outside Israel to express their support for the Israeli people and not an extremist government committed to unravelling the fabric of the state."
• Apr 25, 2025 (day 568): UN food agency says its food stocks in Gaza have run out under Israel's blockade⩘  by Wafaa Shurafa and Lee Keath, Associated Press.
  
  • 
    Palestinian children receive donated food at a distribution center in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Monday, April 21, 2025 (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
  • "DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) – The World Food Program says its food stocks in the Gaza Strip have run out under Israel's nearly 8-week-old blockade, ending a main source of sustenance for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the territory.
  • "The WFP said in a statement that it delivered the last of its stocks to charity kitchens that it supports around Gaza. It said those kitchens are expected to run out of food in the coming days.
  • "Some 80% of Gaza's population of more than 2 million relies primarily on charity kitchens for food, because other sources have shut down under Israel's blockade, according to the U.N. The WFP has been supporting 47 kitchens that distribute 644,000 hot meals a day, WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told the Associated Press.…
  • "Malnutrition is already surging. The U.N. said it identified 3,700 children suffering from acute malnutrition in March, up 80% from the month before. At the same time, because of diminishing supplies, aid groups were only able to provide nutritional supplements to some 22,000 children in March, down 70% from February. The supplements are a crucial tool for averting malnutrition."
• Apr 24, 2025 (day 567): New details on killing of paramedics in Gaza appear to contradict IDF's account⩘  by Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem, The Guardian.
  
  • "The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Wednesday that its analysis of the IDF's own materials collected as part of an internal investigation into the incident contradicted the army's claim that soldiers did not shoot indiscriminately at Palestinian ambulances and a fire engine in the early hours of 23 March.
  • "Instead, Haaretz said, soldiers fired continuously at the vehicles for three and a minutes from close range despite the aid workers' attempts to identify themselves."
• Apr 17, 2025 (day 560): Fatma Hassona, the Palestinian Protagonist of Cannes-Bound 'Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,' Killed in Israeli Missile Strike ⩘  by Marta Balaga, Variety, Apr 17, 2025.
  
  • "Fatma Hassona, the Palestinian protagonist of Sepideh Farsi's 'Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk' – selected for Cannes' ACID – was tragically killed with her family by an Israeli missile that targeted her building, the ACID team has shared with Variety. Hassona, who was based in Gaza, was 25.
  • 
    Photo credit: Courtesy of ACID
  • " 'Her smile was as magical as her tenacity: bearing witness, photographing Gaza, distributing food despite the bombs, mourning and hunger. We heard her story, rejoiced at each of her appearances to see her alive, we feared for her,' said the team in a statement."
• Apr 15, 2025 (day 558): Macron tells Netanyahu suffering of Gaza civilians 'must end'⩘  by Le Monde.
  
  • "France's President Emmanuel Macron told Israel's leader during a phone call on Tuesday, April 15, that the suffering of Gazan civilians 'must end' and that only a ceasefire in Gaza could free remaining Israeli hostages. 'The ordeal the civilian populations of Gaza are going through must end,' Macron posted on X after the call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
  • "He also called for 'opening all humanitarian aid crossings' into the besieged Palestinian territory."
• Apr 14, 2025 (day 557): Children in Gaza struggle to survive amid bombs and aid blockade: Humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens amid Israeli blockade⩘  by Chantal Da Silva, NBC News.
  
  • 
    Osama Al-Raqab on Sunday. Photo credit: NBC News
  • "With sunken cheeks, knobbly knees on stick-thin legs and ribs jutting out of his chest, 6-year-old Osama Al-Raqab hardly resembles a photo that showed the young boy smiling into the camera.…
  • "He is among many struggling to survive in the besieged Palestinian enclave as it endures a month-and-a-half-long blockade that has halted the flow of aid and goods – the longest suspension of aid since the war began.
  • " 'We are witnessing acts of war in Gaza that show an utter disregard for human life,' humanitarian and health bodies, including United Nations agencies, the World Health Organization and the World Food Programme, warned in a statement this month.
  • "In its latest humanitarian situation update, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that with no aid entering since March, when Israel launched its blockade, malnutrition and other preventable conditions were expected to rise, increasing the risk of child deaths. It added that medicines were rapidly running out."
• Apr 11, 2025 (day 554): The Israeli army is facing its biggest refusal crisis in decades⩘  by Meron Rapoport, +972 Magazine.
  
  • "Over 100,000 Israelis have reportedly stopped showing up for reserve duty. While their reasons differ, the scale demonstrates the war's waning legitimacy."
• Apr 10, 2025 (day 553): I'm a Jewish Israeli in the US standing up for Palestine. By Trump's logic, I'm a terror supporter⩘  by Eran Zelnik, The Guardian.
  
  • "I've called the Gaza war a genocide and spoken in favor of sanctions on Israel. I was also in the IDF. I ask the FBI: should you arrest me?…
  • "According to the historian Ian Kershaw, this type of leadership, where all bow to the great leader, led to the Holocaust, as the people surrounding Hitler constantly sought to outdo each other in their loyalty to the Führer. Knowing Hitler's hatred for Jews, they constantly tried to curry favor by suggesting the most radical and far-reaching policy ideas towards Jews. This dynamic, which Kershaw called 'working toward the Führer⩘ ', ultimately led Hitler and the people surrounding him to decide on the 'Final Solution', the plan to exterminate all the Jews in the world on an industrial scale in death camps. This idea of working toward the leader is upon us today, as we see institutions and even some in the Democratic party bowing before the great leader and his will. Instead of standing up to the administration at every turn, institutions, businesses and politicians across the country prefer to anticipate the administration's wrath and eliminate any behavior or materials that might come under scrutiny. Meanwhile, Republicans rush to outdo each other in flattering the great leader, as American society seems frozen with fear in face of the rising tides of fascism."
• Apr 10, 2025 (day 553): France could recognise Palestinian state 'in June', says Emmanuel Macron⩘  by Amy Sedghi and Tom Ambrose, The Guardian.
  
  • " 'We must move towards recognition, and we will do so in the coming months,'' Macron, who this week visited Egypt, told France 5 television, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP). 'Our aim is to chair this conference with Saudi Arabia in June, where we could finalise this movement of mutual recognition by several parties,' he added.
  • " 'I will do it because I believe that at some point it will be right and because I also want to participate in a collective dynamic, which must also allow all those who defend Palestine to recognise Israel in turn, which many of them do not do. Such recognition would allow France 'to be clear in our fight against those who deny Israel's right to exist – which is the case with Iran – and to commit ourselves to collective security in the region,' he added."
• Apr 5, 2025 (day 548): 'What was their crime?' Families tell of shock over IDF killing of Gaza paramedics⩘  by Malak A Tantesh in Gaza and Julian Borger, The Guardian.
  
  • "The 15 paramedics and rescue workers whose bodies were found last weekend in a bulldozed pit outside Rafah knew they were putting their lives in peril to try to save others, but they could not have been prepared for what awaited them in the early hours of 23 March."
  • See also:
    
    • Israel killed 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers one by one, says UN⩘  by Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem, Malak A Tantesh in Gaza, and Julian Borger, The Guardian, Mar 31, 2025.
    • Israeli military changes account of Gaza paramedics' killing after video of attack⩘  by Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem, The Guardian, Apr 6, 2025.
• Apr 1, 2025 (day 544): Israel's latest vision for Gaza has a name: Concentration camp⩘  by Meron Rapoport, +972 Magazine.
  
  • "Unable to immediately expel Gazans en masse, Israel seems intent on forcing them into a confined zone – and letting starvation and desperation do the rest."
  • Meron Rapoport is an Israeli journalist and writer, winner of the Napoli International Prize for Journalism.
• Mar 27, 2025 (day 539): It took an Oscar winner's ordeal for the world to see the truth of settler violence. This is how to stop it⩘  by Dr Ofer Cassif, a Jewish member of the Knesset representing the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) since 2019, The Guardian
  
  • "Since the start of this year, the Centre for Jewish Non Violence has documented more than 40 violent settler attacks in the village of Susya alone.
  • "Most go unnoticed by the rest of the world. But this time was different. One of the Palestinian victims was the award-winning director Hamdan Ballal, whose film, No Other Land, which covers the destruction of Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, won best documentary at the recent Academy Awards. For hours, the military didn't officially disclose his whereabouts, and attempts to locate him failed. When the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) finally issued a statement, they absurdly labelled him and his fellow villagers terrorists.
  • "This facade of justice, when law is nothing but an empty shell, is typical of how the Israeli occupation works. Under its veneer of legality, the most brutal savagery is legitimised and the role of criminal and victim inverted. In the past three years I have submitted numerous complaints to the Israeli Ministry of Defence and Israel's attorney general about settler violence. Nothing has ever happened. My experience is only one of many that indicates how the Israeli legal system makes a farce of justice and allows settlers to terrorise Palestinian communities with impunity.…
  • "When I arrived in Susya on Tuesday after the attack, I knew exactly what I wanted to tell its people. I said that we want to live together, Arabs and Jews, as brothers and sisters. That we are not the enemy of one another, as we struggle together for freedom. A mere day after a gang of criminal Israeli settlers terrorised this village, its villagers welcomed me, an Israeli member of the Knesset, and my message for peace. This proves that the real conflict is not between nations, but between those who seek justice and those who vow bloodshed. The government of Israel has chosen the path of bloodshed, ethnic cleansing and war. It is up to all of us – and to you – to choose a different path."
• Mar 26, 2025 (day 538): 'It was revenge for our movie': Oscar winner says soldiers helped settlers attack him in West Bank⩘  by Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem, The Guardian.
  
  • "The Oscar-winning Palestinian film director Hamdan Ballal has said that Israeli settlers who attacked him were aided by two Israeli soldiers, who beat him with the butt of their rifles outside his home and threatened to kill him.
  • "In an interview with the Guardian, Ballal, one of the four directors of the film No Other Land, which documents the destruction of villages in the West Bank and won best documentary at this year's Academy Awards, recounted how on Monday two Israeli soldiers first encircled him while a settler was assaulting him, before violently striking him on the head and threatening to shoot him."
• Mar 26, 2025 (day 538): Netanyahu repeats threat to seize territory in Gaza as anti-Hamas protests continue⩘  by Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem, The Guardian.
  
  • "For the second consecutive day, hundreds of Palestinians have joined protests in northern Gaza, shouting anti-Hamas slogans and calling for an end to the war with Israel, in a rare display of public anger against the militant group.
  • "On Tuesday, videos and photographs shared on social media, which appeared to be authentic, showed hundreds of people, mostly men, chanting: 'Hamas out' and: 'Hamas terrorists' in Beit Lahiya.
  • "Some protesters were seen carrying banners emblazoned with slogans including: 'Stop the war'and: 'We want to live in peace'. At least one appeal to join the protest was circulating on the social media network Telegram.
  • " 'I don't know who organised the protest,' one man told Agence France-Press. 'I took part to send a message on behalf of the people: enough with the war.' He said he had seen 'members of the Hamas security forces in civilian clothing breaking up the protest'."
• Mar 25, 2025 (day 537): Remembering Hossam Shabat: Gaza Journalist Killed by Israel Was Placed on "Hit List" Before His Death⩘ , an interview by Amy Goodman of Sharif Abdel Kouddous of Drop Site.
  
  • "[A]s you mentioned, you know, this is a 23-year-old who wrote a letter knowing that it would be published after his death, that opened with 'If you're reading this, it means I have been killed – most likely [deliberately] targeted – by the Israeli occupation forces.' And it ends with these words, and I think they're important: 'I ask you now: do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories – until Palestine is free.' And it's left to all of us to do just that."
• Mar 23, 2025 (day 535): Gaza medics issue malnutrition alert as total Israeli blockade enters fourth week⩘  by Jason Burke in Jerusalem, The Guardian.
  
  • "Malnutrition is spreading in Gaza, medics and aid workers in the devastated Palestinian territory are warning, as a total Israeli blockade of all supplies enters its fourth week.
  • "There has been no sign that Israel will open entry points to allow essential aid to flow or ease its new offensive in Gaza, which started on Tuesday with a wave of airstrikes that killed 400 people, mostly civilians, ending two months of relative calm. On Sunday, Palestinian officials said the total death toll from nearly 18 months of conflict had passed 50,000."
• Mar 23, 2025 (day 535): The new definition of antisemitism is transforming America – and serving a Christian nationalist plan⩘  by Itamar Mann and Lihi Yona, The Guardian.
  
  • "What appears, at first glance, to be a technical change in terminology has become a powerful instrument for political control, solidifying executive power to enforce a narrow, state-sanctioned definition of Judaism. In the name of combating antisemitism, this effort threatens to reshape American public life – and with it, the pillars of American liberalism. But despite what some will have you believe, two things are clear: first, this campaign does not protect Jews – it endangers them; and second, this redefinition plays into a larger Christian nationalist project.…
  • "Accordingly, for many Jews, Israel is a crucial element of their Jewish identity. As Noah Feldman writes in To Be a Jew Today, for many American Jews, 'Israel can function as the chosen focal point of their Jewish identity and connection. Caring about and supporting Israel can be constitutive of what makes them actively Jewish.' An attack on that element, a denial of its legitimacy, feels to many like an attack on who they are as Jews.
  • "But this does not necessarily cast anti-Israel opinions as antisemitic. When we criticize something important to someone's identity, it doesn't automatically mean we're attacking their identity itself. When political positions become enshrined as essential components of personhood, substantive disagreements risk being recast as attacks on identity. The result, as the scholar Richard Ford once put it, is the potential to 'camouflage' ideological conflict as discrimination.…
  • "While combating antisemitism is imperative, the sweeping application of this label to pro-Palestinian voices endangers dissenting voices and erodes free expression, making open debate on one of the world's most enduring conflicts increasingly difficult.…
  • "The increasingly aggressive use of 'antisemitism' as a political instrument was never about Jewish safety. It has always been about power: consolidating a political order that merges religion, nationalism and authoritarianism under the veneer of minority protection.…
  • "Reclaiming religious freedom from the state, as part of this act of resistance, would not just protect Jewish dissenters – it would offer a broader framework for resisting state attempts to control religious identity."
• Mar 21, 2025 (day 533): Australian doctor's message to Anthony Albanese as bombs fall around him in Gaza⩘  by Jessica Bahr, SBS News.
  
  • " 'We need the bombing to stop. That's the first thing we need, and we need the blockade that's been going on for three weeks to open,'' he said.
  • " 'What we really, really need is medical doctors here … the second thing we need is medicines. We need medicines to get here and we need medical equipment.' "
• Mar 18, 2025 (day 530): What Ceasefire? Trump Helps Netanyahu Kill Over 400 Palestinians in Gaza⩘  by Spencer Ackerman, Zeteo.
  
  • "Americans watching horror again unfold in Gaza should make no mistake. This is our war, our body count. And it cannot be separated from the authoritarian advance at home that is rapidly choking off our fundamental political freedoms.
  • "Late Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Levitt said Israel had consulted with the Trump administration before launching punishing pre-dawn airstrikes that killed more than 400 people, including multiple children. An Israeli official told the Washington Post that the resumption of violence was 'fully coordinated' with Washington."
• Mar 18, 2025 (day 530): Israel shatters Gaza ceasefire as more than 400 Palestinians killed in IDF strikes⩘  by Jason Burke in Jerusalem and Malak A Tantesh in Gaza City, BBC News.
  
  • "Critics accuse Netanyahu of using war to maintain his own grip on power.
  • " 'It is all connected…. The hostages have been sacrificed for political reasons,' said Ora Peled Nakash, a former senior officer in Israel's navy and protest organiser. Recent polls show widespread support in Israel for a deal to end the war."
• Mar 17, 2025 (day 529): Debunking 6 AIPAC Myths About the US-Israel Relationship⩘  by Josh Paul and Tariq Habash, Zeteo.
  
  • "Rather than being a strategic benefit, US support for Israel in its current form comes at a net cost to America. And none of the limited benefits the United States may accrue from this relationship require that we support it unconditionally. A more balanced and reciprocal arrangement, as we have with all other nations, would serve both US and Israeli interests. By prioritizing our national interest and curbing the worst impulses of Israel's extreme right, the US would cut diplomatic, military, and economic costs to ourselves, save thousands of Palestinian lives, and also substantively and strategically advance Israel's own goal for its people to live in peace within the broader Middle East. That would be a loss for AIPAC's propaganda and political machine, but for Palestinians, Israelis, and Americans, it would deliver, finally, a strategic benefit that is real."
• Mar 17, 2025 (day 529): Israeli Blockade Prevents 1 Million Children in Gaza From Meeting Basic Needs⩘  by Julia Conley Common Dreams via Truthout. "Israel is endangering Palestinian kids' lives to force Hamas into accepting a proposal without a permanent ceasefire."
• Mar 16, 2025 (day 528): I Am a Jewish Student at Columbia. Mahmoud Khalil Is One of the Most Upstanding People I Have Ever MetZeteo⩘  by Jonathan Ben-Menachem Mar 16, 2025. Jonathan Ben-Menachem makes so many good points in his brief, passionate essay.
  
  • "We cannot allow fascists to use the pretext of Jewish safety to attack our communities.…
  • "Mahmoud is one of the most upstanding people I have ever met. Alongside other Jewish student activists, I only ever felt Mahmoud's respect, solidarity, and strength. As Mahmoud told CNN last spring, 'I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand, and you cannot achieve one without the other.' "
• Mar 11, 2025 (day 523): As Jews celebrate Purim, let us end the slaughter in Gaza committed in our name⩘  by Peter Beinart, The Guardian.
  
  • "Israel's assault on Gaza became excessive on 9 October, when it cut off food and electricity to everyone in the Strip. The following day, Israel's defense minister announced that he had 'released all the restraints' on how Israel fought and its military spokesperson declared that 'emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy'. An investigation by the publications +972 Magazine and Local Call found that in the first five days of fighting alone, Israel bombed more than a thousand 'power targets' – which included high-rise apartment buildings, banks, universities and government offices – that it struck not because of their military value but merely for psychological effect. Israeli officials hoped the destruction would shock Gaza's population into turning against Hamas.…
  • "My hope, this Purim, is that when Jews encounter the slaughter that concludes the Book of Esther, we shudder. And that from this revulsion comes a new dedication to ending the slaughter being committed in our name in the Gaza Strip."
• Mar 8, 2025 (day 520): European leaders back 'realistic' Arab plan for Gaza⩘  by Lucy Clarke-Billings, BBC News.
• Mar 4, 2025 (day 516): Arab leaders approve $53bn alternative to Trump's Gaza plan⩘  by Lyse Doucet and Wael Hussein, BBC News.
  
  • "What sets this new plan apart is it is not just about property development; its banners are politics and the rights of Palestinians.
  • "In his opening remarks, Egypt's President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi also called for a parallel plan alongside the physical reconstruction to move towards what is known as the two state solution – a Palestinian state alongside Israel. This is widely seen by Arab states, and many others, as the only lasting solution to this perpetual conflict, but it is firmly ruled out by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies."
• Mar 4, 2025 (day 516): Injured Gazan boy takes first steps after surgery in Jordan⩘  by Caroline Hawley, BBC News.
  
  • "The boys had been fast asleep in the family's third-floor flat in Maghazi in central Gaza when, their mother says, an Israeli air strike targeted the building next door, raining rubble and shrapnel on the children.
  • "Rami's 12-year-old brother, Mustafa, was killed, his body blown to pieces.…
  • "Rami endured several surgical procedures without painkillers, anaesthesia or antibiotics, his mother told the BBC. His wounds became so infected that they were crawling with maggots. Doctors did not think his legs could be saved.
  • " 'Rami was in such pain, he was screaming 'God, you've taken my brother, now take me too!' Islam says.
  • "And then, in January, a rare chance came up – for Rami and his mother to be evacuated to Jordan for treatment at a specialised hospital for reconstructive surgery, run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Jordan's capital, Amman.…
  • "They're grateful for their treatment, but both he and his mother want to return home as soon as they can.
  • " 'Gaza is beautiful,' Rami told me. 'In Gaza before the war, we used to have medical treatment, but then the aid stopped.'
  • "With the facilities and expertise at the MSF hospital, he's now making quick progress.
  • " 'He arrived in a wheelchair,' says his physiotherapist, Zaid Alqaisi, who has formed a strong bond with Rami while helping him to walk again.
  • " 'He's very motivated. He wants to get back to his friends and his family. He wants to make his dad proud.'
  • "He also wants to swim again in the sea in Gaza.
  • "But many more operations lie ahead, and Rami and his mother have no idea when they will return home.
  • "Not knowing if they will be allowed back into Gaza is another huge stress for all of the Palestinian patients on top of their trauma, according to psychologist Zainoun al-Sunna."
• Mar 2, 2025 (day 514): The Gazafication of the West Bank: 'Is This Really Happening Again?'⩘  by Diana Buttu, Zeteo.
  
  • "Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced, 'Tulkarm and Jenin will look like Jabalia and Shuja'iyya. Nablus and Ramallah will resemble Rafah and Khan Younis. They will also be turned into uninhabitable ruins, and their residents will be forced to migrate and seek a new life in other countries.'
  • "Not to be outdone in the War Crimes Olympics, Netanyahu announced, from outside the Tulkarm house that he took over, 'Just before the start of Shabbat, I have arrived here, at the Tulkarm refugee camp, to be with our heroic soldiers. They are doing a tremendous job.' He was sure to add that they are 'leveling entire streets' and destroying homes. A day later, Israeli tanks rolled into Jenin and Tulkarm, with the Israeli army callously flattening anything in its way. Israel's assaults have killed more than 51 Palestinians since Jan. 21 and forced more than 40,000 Palestinians to flee their homes – the biggest single displacement in the West Bank since Israel occupied the territory in 1967. Palestinians were forced to flee with snipers aimed at them from rooftops.
  • Nakba 2.0
  • "The timing and tactics are not at all coincidental. Israel's attack on the West Bank came just days after the start of the ceasefire in Gaza. Needing to show its military prowess on a stateless refugee population in Gaza was not enough; it needs to show that same military prowess on a stateless refugee population in the West Bank. Having failed in Gaza – and indeed, Israel has failed – it has turned its sights on the West Bank."
• Mar 2, 2025 (day 514): Israel cuts off Gaza aid to pressure Hamas to accept new ceasefire proposal⩘  by Tia Goldenberg and Samy Magdy, The Associated Press.
  
  • "Egypt, which has served as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, condemned the closure and accused Israel of using 'starvation as a weapon.' "
• Feb 25, 2025 (day 509): 'No rules': Gaza's doctors say they were tortured, beaten and humiliated in Israeli detention ⩘  by Annie Kelly, Hoda Osman and Farah Jallad, The Guardian
  
  • "Some, including Abu Ajwa, believe they were singled out for extreme violence by prison guards and interrogators because they were doctors.
  • " 'One of the senior interrogators had given instructions that because I was a senior consultant surgeon they should work hard to make sure that I lost [the use of my hands] and became unable to perform surgery,' he says.
  • "He says he was handcuffed for 24 hours a day and interrogators used planks with chains to restrain his hands for hours at a time. 'They said they wanted to make sure I could never return to work.'
  • "None of the senior doctors interviewed say they were given an explanation for their detention. All were released without charge after months of imprisonment."
• Feb 25, 2025 (day 509): More than 160 Gazan medics held in Israeli prisons amid reports of torture⩘  by Annie Kelly, Hoda Osman and Farah Jallad, The Guardian.
• Feb 25, 2025 (day 509): Desperation grows in northern Gaza as Palestinians struggle to rebuild their homes⩘  by Fatma Khaled and Abdel Kareem, The Associated Press.
• Feb 24, 2025 (day 508): Israel says 40,000 displaced Palestinians in northern West Bank will not be allowed to return ⩘  by Qassam Muaddi, Mondoweiss.
  
  • "The Israeli army expanded its 'Iron Wall' offensive in the northern West Bank, sending tanks into Jenin for the first time in two decades and announcing that displaced residents from Jenin and Tulkarem would not be allowed to return to their homes."
• Feb 14, 2025 (day 498): In Israel, dread and rage haunt the streets. Netanyahu is exploiting that⩘  by Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian.
  
  • "All this is feeding an implacable fury that has several consequences. The first is that many of those Israelis who prided themselves on their empathy and would once have been part of the peace camp – which had deep roots, incidentally, in the very kibbutzim that felt the full force of the 7 October attacks – now have little or no room in their hearts for the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli media rarely show the devastation Israeli bombardment has wreaked on the strip; most Israelis don't see what the rest of the world sees. They know that thousands have been killed, but they put the blame squarely on Hamas, which surely knew what it was unleashing on 7 October.
  • "These are the sentiments Benjamin Netanyahu so expertly plays on when he promises Israelis the complete and imminent elimination of Hamas by military means, leading most observers to conclude he has no intention of moving to the ceasefire deal's second phase. He wants the war to resume, and for cynical reasons: because if the war continues, his far-right coalition members stay onboard, keeping him in the prime minister's chair and out of jail. (His trial on corruption charges is ongoing.)
  • "What's more, a new phase would not simply pick up where Israel left off. The esteemed military analyst Amos Harel warns that 'particularly intense warfare is planned this time, along with a siege on parts of the strip'. With a green light from Trump, who says he wants to empty Gaza of its people and turn it into a US-owned beach resort, Netanyahu would embark on a 'very aggressive', two-month operation that would, Harel writes, culminate in 'the forced expulsion of Palestinians'.
  • "There is some opposition to the plan within the Israeli military, not least because it all but guarantees the deaths of the remaining hostages, but surely the only lasting way out of this nightmare is a change in the leadership of both Palestinians and Israelis. This week, I met Yair Golan, the new leader of what was the Israeli Labor party, now rebadged as the Democrats. A former general, Golan is hailed as one of the heroes of 7 October: that morning, he put on his old uniform, drove south and saved several young Israelis fleeing the Hamas men who had been mowing down hundreds of people at the Nova music festival.
  • "Golan speaks robust good sense. He castigates Netanyahu for wanting to keep Israelis in a constant state of emergency and anxiety, says Israel has nothing to fear from a long ceasefire and believes that, ultimately: 'It's not enough to fight the military wing of Hamas. Equally important is to provide an alternative to Hamas.'' Only when 'a young Palestinian' can see the path to a better future that does not involve violence will Hamas be truly defeated."
• Feb 13, 2025 (day 497): 'No to ethnic cleansing': over 350 rabbis sign US ad assailing Trump's Gaza plan⩘  by Maya Yang, The Guardian.
  
  • "More than 350 rabbis, alongside additional signatories including Jewish creatives and activists, have signed an ad in the New York Times in which they condemn Donald Trump's proposal for the effective ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.
  • "The ad, which was signed by rabbis including Sharon Brous, Roly Matalon and Alissa Wise, as well as Jewish creatives and activists including Tony Kushner, Ilana Glazer, Naomi Klein and Joaquin Phoenix, says: 'Trump has called for the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza. Jewish people say no to ethnic cleansing!' "
• Feb 13, 2025 (day 497): 'Last nail in the coffin': Israeli settlers push on with fresh West Bank land grab⩘  by Peter Beaumont and Quique Kierszenbaum in Tko'a, The Guardian.
• Feb 11, 2025 (day 495): Israeli minister backs Trump's plan to 'let hell break out' on Gaza if Israeli hostages are not released by Saturday⩘  by Yohannes Lowe, Jane Clinton and Kate Lamb, The Guardian, Feb 11, 2025.
  
  • "Israel's communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, has backed Trump's call to 'let hell break out' on Gaza if all the remaining Israeli captives are not released by Saturday. In a post on X he said:
  • 'The response must be exactly as President Trump suggested.Completely halt humanitarian aid, cut off electricity, water and communications and use brutal and disproportionate force until the hostages return.' "
• Feb 11, 2025 (day 495): Ex-AIPAC Staffer: 'I Woke Up to What Israel Was'⩘ , interview of MJ Rosenberg by Prem Thakker, Zeteo, Feb 11, 2025.
• Jan 27, 2025 (day 480): Goodbye to the lost children of Gaza. You were loved, you are remembered, you did not deserve it⩘  by Nesrine Malik, The Guardian.
  
  • "Even if the ceasefire does herald the end of the war, there is no doubt Gazas' youngest generation will limp forward into a dark future if the world cannot locate its empathy and an epic marshalling of crucial aid and support is not extended. In a plea to the security council last week, the United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs made that case for the maimed, orphaned, displaced and traumatised. 'The children of Gaza are not collateral damage,' Tom Fletcher said. 'They are as deserving as children everywhere of security, education and hope. They tell us that the world was not there for them throughout this war. We must be there for them now.' "
• Jan 17, 2025 (day 470): After the ceasefire, Gazans face a different kind of war. But we're still clinging to hope⩘  by Al-Meqdad Jamil Meqdad, The Guardian.
  
  • "Hope is what we have right now. We have been crushed countless times, we have lived through difficult circumstances, and many things have died in our hearts. But hope is the invisible thread that binds us together, drives us to keep going, to get up every day, to hold conversations on public transport about what people will do once the war ends. Even though we cannot see the thread, we feel it's there."
• Jan 15, 2025 (day 468): The devastating impact of 15 months of war on Gaza⩘  by Emma Graham-Harrison, The Guardian.
  
  • "The Israeli response to Hamas's attacks on 7 October 2023 has killed tens of thousands, left most schools and hospitals in ruins, and caused long-term damage to agricultural land in the territory."
• Jan 10, 2025 (day 463): What to watch out for in the unfolding Palestinian genocide⩘  by Yanis Varoufakis, DiEM25.
  
  • "Watching, on the one hand, the Israeli soldiers' video confessions of their genocidal intent and acts and, on the other hand, the Palestinians' livestreaming of their own deaths and devastation, it is ever so easy to throw one's hands up in the air, to despair, to want to shut the cruelty out, to find solace in oblivion and disengagement. But, it is not only ethically wrong to surrender to despair – it is also factually wrong that nothing good can be expected. Things change every day and, yes, the seeds of hope are already planted on the blood soaked soil of the ancient land of Palestine. They may be only seeds, but that's how new life is born."
• Dec 23, 2024 (day 445): Opinion: 'When You Leave Israel and Enter Gaza, You Are God': Inside the Minds of IDF Soldiers Who Commit War Crimes⩘  by Yoel Elizur, Haaretz.
  
  • "We identified five groups of soldiers based on personality traits.…
    
    1. 1. A small Callous group was composed of ruthless soldiers, some of whom confessed to violence before the draft.…
    2. A small, ideologically violent group supported the brutality without taking part. They believed in Jewish supremacy and were derogatory toward Arabs.…
    3. A small incorruptible group opposed the influence of the callous and ideological groups on the company's culture. Initially intimidated by brutal commanders, they later took a moral stand and went on to report the atrocities to the division commander.…
    4. A large group of followers consisted of soldiers with no prior inclination to violence. Their behavior was most influenced by junior officers' modeling and the company's norms. Some followers who committed atrocities reported moral injuries: 'I felt like, like, like a Nazi … it looked exactly like we were actually the Nazis and they were the Jews.'
    5. The restrained was a large group of inner-directed soldiers who maintained military standards and did not commit atrocities. They responded to Palestinian violence and life-threatening situations in balanced and legally justified ways.…
    6. "In each of the companies, an internal culture developed that was largely shaped by junior commanders and charismatic soldiers. Initially, the norms instigated atrocities.…
  • "Prof. (Emeritus) Yoel Elizur, The Seymour Fox School of Education, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Chairperson of the Council of Psychologists (2010-13). As a mental health officer in reserve, he was the chief supervisor of the IDF's RRC. Editor of 'The Blot of a Light Cloud: Israeli Soldiers, Army, and Society in the Intifada'(Hebrew)."
• Dec 19, 2024 (day 441): Life in the death trap that is Gaza: Israel's war on Gaza is unraveling the fabric of society in the Strip⩘ , a report by Médecins Sans Frontiers / Doctors Without Borders.
  
  • "Israel's war on Gaza has so far killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, wounded more than 107,000, and displaced approximately 1.9 million people—90 percent of the population—according to Gaza's Ministry of Health. In response to the horrific attacks carried out by Hamas and other armed groups on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, Israeli forces are crushing an entire population under bombs and rubble.
  • "Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has witnessed 14 months of repeated attacks on civilians, the dismantling of essential civilian infrastructure including health care facilities, and a systematic denial of humanitarian assistance, seemingly underpinning Israel's campaign to unravel the very fabric of society in Gaza. In the first 12 months of hostilities, MSF staff themselves endured 41 attacks and violent incidents, including airstrikes, shelling, and violent incursions into health facilities; direct fire on its shelters and convoys; and arbitrary detention by Israeli forces. Eight MSF colleagues and many of their family members have been killed; many more have been injured. Medical personnel and patients alike have been forced to urgently evacuate health facilities on 17 separate occasions, often literally running for their lives. MSF has only been able to restart activities in three facilities."
  • "Urgent calls for action:
    
    • An immediate and sustained ceasefire must be implemented.…
    • The shameful and extreme rationing of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip must stop.…
    • Israel must revoke its recent law banning UNRWA….
    • Forced displacement must end.…
    • MSF calls on States, particularly Israel's closest allies, to end their unconditional support for Israel and fulfill their obligation to prevent genocide in Gaza. …
    • MSF renews its call for an independent investigation to determine the facts and responsibilities behind the repeated attacks on MSF teams and facilities…."
• Dec 19, 2024 (day 441): Israel accused of act of genocide over restriction of Gaza water supply⩘  by Julian Borger, Senior international correspondent, The Guardian, Dec 19, 2024.
  
  • "Israel's restriction of Gaza's water supply to levels below minimum needs amounts to an act of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity, a human rights report has alleged.
  • "Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigated⩘  Israeli attacks on the water supply infrastructure in Gaza over the course of its 14-month war there.
  • "It has accused Israeli forces of deliberate actions intended to cut the availability of clean water so drastically that the population has been forced to resort to contaminated sources, leading to the outbreak of lethal diseases, especially among children.
  • "Israel's actions have killed many thousands of Palestinians and constitute an act of genocide, HRW argues, citing declarations by ministers in the country's ruling coalition that Gaza's water supply would be cut off as evidence of intent."
• Dec 18, 2024 (day 440): 'Tired of writing about dead kids': why a US state department worker resigned over Israel-Gaza policy⩘  by Joseph Gedeon, The Guardian, Dec 18, 2024.
  
  • " 'I got so tired of writing about dead kids,' [Mike Casey] said. 'Just constantly having to prove to Washington that these children actually died and then watching nothing happen.'…
  • "According to the latest UN figures, more than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, with 90% of the population displaced and facing catastrophic humanitarian conditions that teeter on the brink of famine. Despite international legal interventions – including the international court of justice's order to halt military operations in Rafah earlier this year and the international criminal court's pursuit of war crimes charges against Israeli leaders – the conflict continues unabated, with humanitarian aid barely preventing total collapse.…
  • "Far from diplomacy, Casey now works at a local bank, where he watches from afar and his criticisms extend beyond a single administration. He sees a systemic failure in US policy towards Palestinians – a complete absence of a coherent strategy that in turn hurts Israelis too and remains viscerally personal."
• Dec 12, 2024 (day 434): Letters from an American⩘  by Professor Heather Cox Richardson. The most recent post of Professor Richardson's Letters has helped me to understand more clearly the strategic foundations of what is happening in Gaza and Ukraine, and how the events in Syria tie into it, something I haven't garnered from any other news analysis I've read. While I now better understand the strategic goals, I still abhor the way Palestinians are being treated by Israel with the backing of the U.S.
  
  • " '[I]t is impossible not to place this week's events in the context of the decisions the President has made to fully back Israel against Iran and its proxy terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, and Ukraine against Russia,' the official said. After bipartisan support for that position, the official added, 'Hamas is on its back; its leaders are dead. Iran is on its back. Hezbollah is on its back. Russia is on its back. It's just abandoned its only ally in the Middle East. Now, the Assad regime, Russia and Iran's main ally in the Middle East, has just collapsed. None of this would have been possible absent the direct support for Ukraine and [Israel] in their own defense provided by the United States of America.'
• Dec 12, 2024 (day 433): Middle East latest: Israeli airstrikes kill 28 in Gaza, including 7 children, health officials say⩘  by The Associated Press.
• Dec 11, 2024 (day 432): Death feels imminent for 96% of children in Gaza, study finds⩘  by Julian Borger, The Guardian.
  
  • "A new study of children living through the war in Gaza has found that 96% of them feel that their death is imminent and almost half want to die as a result of the trauma they have been through.
  • "A needs assessment, carried out by a Gaza-based NGO sponsored by the War Child Alliance charity, also found that 92% of the children in the survey were 'not accepting of reality', 79% suffer from nightmares and 73% exhibit symptoms of aggression.
  • " 'This report lays bare that Gaza is one of the most horrifying places in the world to be a child,' Helen Pattinson, chief executive of War Child UK, said. 'Alongside the levelling of hospitals, schools and homes, a trail of psychological destruction has caused wounds unseen but no less destructive on children who hold no responsibility for this war.' "
• Dec 5, 2024 (day 426): Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza⩘ .
• Dec 4, 2024 (day 425): 'They killed him on the spot.' Israel targeted Gaza soup kitchen chef in drone attack, brother says⩘  by Sana Noor Haq and Abeer Salman, CNN.
  
  • " 'This is really purely ethnic cleansing. They're just killing everybody. This is not a targeted operation,' [Mahmoud's brother Hani Almadhoun] told CNN. 'There is nothing left for them. They're just destroying homes and kicking people out.'
  • " 'This is really reliving the Nakba,' Hani added, referring to 'the catastrophe' of 1948 – when at least 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forcibly expelled from their homes in historic Palestine, during the creation of Israel.
  • " 'Mahmoud, and people like him, were doing God's work. And that was good enough to put a target on his back,' he said. 'He was punished because he was helping people fight the famine.' "
• Dec 3, 2024 (day 424): Why these Israeli men volunteered to fight – but now refuse to return to Gaza⩘  by Fergal Keane, BBC News.
• Dec 2, 2024 (day 423): Former defense minister accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza⩘  by Mick Krever and Dana Karni, CNN, Dec 2, 2024.
  
  • "A highly decorated former Israeli defense minister has caused a firestorm by accusing Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in northern Gaza.
  • "Moshe Ya'alon, who served for three decades in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), including in the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit, and as the military's chief of staff, also said that he believed Israel was losing its identity as a liberal democracy and becoming a 'corrupt and leprous fascist Messianic state.'
  • " 'Conquering, annexing, ethnic cleansing – look at northern Gaza,' Ya'alon told Israel's Democrat TV."
• Nov 29, 2024 (day 420): Two devastating reports on Israel's genocide: Two reports detail the hideous consequences of Israel's Western-facilitated genocide. And yet the Western media bury or ignore them altogether.⩘  by Owen Jones, Battlelines.
  
  •    "In looking at the mass destruction of civilian infrastructure, the report examines a crucial detail which most media outlets simply do not even engage in: how artificial intelligence systems relying on mass surveillance are used to swiftly generate tens of thousands of targets, not least at night when those targets return to their families, including of course their children, and that this reliance on AI assisted targeting means that soldiers can authorise strikes within seconds, with them happening at night increasing the risk of, say, butchering their families alongside them.
       "This is particularly important to examine because the International Criminal Court has so far focused on the question of starvation, not the bombing campaign. This report estimates it would take approaching half a century to recycle just half of the debris produced by Israel's onslaught.
       "It looks at the mass violent displacement, a deliberate policy of starvation, with a deliberate siege of the essentials of life and the war on UNRWA, UN's Palestinian refugee agency – and the main humanitarian agency in Gaza.
       "The report details the mass destruction of water, sanitation and hygiene systems, the widespread contamination of soil, beaches, coastal waters and freshwater sources, with access to clean water deliberately suffocated."
    – A/79/363: Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories⩘  by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sep, 20, 2024.
  •    "And then there is a truly terrifying report by Forensic Architecture, a research agency based at the University of London bringing together a range of experts. It's entitled 'A Cartography of Genocide: Israel's Genocide in Gaza Since October 2023'.
       "They say simply: 'Our analysis of this conduct reveals the near total destruction of civilian life in Gaza', and they look at how the evacuation orders used by the Israeli state – supposedly telling Palestinian civilians to flee to areas classified as safe enhave resulted in mass repeated displacements of the population, often to areas which then came under attack. This is crucial work, because apologists for the genocide have often presented these evacuation orders as some sort of humanitarian gesture.
       "Crucially they conclude: 'The patterns we have observed concerning Israel's military conduct in Gaza indicate a systematic and organised campaign to destroy life, conditions necessary for life, and life-sustaining infrastructure.'…
       "This report finds that 83% [of] all plant life in Gaza has been destroyed. 70% of Gaza's agricultural land – from fields to orchards – have also been destroyed."
    – A Cartography of Genocide: Israel's Conduct in Gaza Since October 2023⩘  by Eyal Weizman⩘  (Wikipedia⩘ ), Principal Investigator, and team, Forensic Architecture, Oct 25, 2024.
• Nov 29, 2024 (day 420): Diaries from north Gaza: one woman's story of survival⩘  by Sondos Sabra, a 25-year-old woman struggling to survive in north Gaza, Mondoweiss, Nov 29, 2024.
  
  •    "In January, the cold at night is biting. My hands and nose freeze, hurting even more each time I have to use water. I wish I could light a fire to warm a little water, but my sister warned me repeatedly against even lighting a small light at night, fearing the planes might notice it. Although they pretend their missions are all directed at military targets, we know the enemy's real target is indiscriminate – all people in Gaza.…
  •    "Of course, they don't intend to kill me, even when they drop 2000-pound bombs on us. Even when they rain down bombardments across entire neighborhoods and make life impossible in our city. No, no, don't misunderstand. They are merely eradicating 'terrorism'.
       Today, 'terrorism' was hiding in the body of Omar, my six-year-old nephew, perhaps in his heart, or maybe among his soft locks of hair; so they killed him. They dropped two missiles on him and his siblings, Aya and Ahmad, and his niece Sila, who was only six months old, killing them all. Who knows, perhaps terrorism hides in a garden, in the warmth of a home, in the bells of churches, or the minarets of mosques, between the pages of books, in the streets and alleyways of the camp, or even amidst the tents of the displaced. They have every right to erase anything from the face of the earth if they so desire, and no one has the right to criticize Israel.…
  •    "Here in the north, food is scarce and prices have skyrocketed. This strategy of starvation has continued for over a year now, and no international law or humanitarian plea seems capable of stopping it. What a farce this world is.…
  •    "In Gaza, living under such brutality, you find yourself struggling to remember that you're human; that you deserve life. Israel gives you nothing to allow you to recall this – not even a sip of drinkable water, not even a warm shower to wash off the dust of war. From day one, they announced loud and clear: 'No water, no food, no electricity.' And for seventeen years before that, they imposed a suffocating blockade on us, making us feel as though even the air we breathe is being watched. A world busy with its own news and gossip had forgotten that there were human beings with hearts and blood in Gaza, and only woke up on October 7, shocked, as if nothing had happened before, suddenly concluding that we were beyond the salvation of international or 'humanitarian' law."
• Nov 26, 2024 (day 417): Oct. 7 a result of 'arrogant groupthink instilled by Netanyahu, civil probe finds⩘  by Eliav Breuer, The Jerusalem Post.
  
  • "The Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, was made possible by 'arrogant' groupthink led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which stifled critical voices, entrenched the mistaken 'conception' that money could buy quiet from Hamas, and fed the state's unpreparedness in nearly every aspect on the day of the massacre and the days and weeks after it, the Civilian Committee of Inquiry found in its final report, published on Tuesday."
• Nov 21, 2024 (day 412):
  Situation in the State of Palestine: ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I rejects the State of Israel's challenges to jurisdiction and issues warrants of arrest for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant⩘ 
  – Press Release, International Criminal Court.
  - - -
  Situation in the State of Palestine: ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I issues warrant of arrest for Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (Deif)⩘ 
  – Press Release, International Criminal Court.
  - - -
  
  • Human Rights Watch Quote on ICC Palestine Warrants⩘ :
    "The ICC arrest warrants against senior Israeli leaders and a Hamas official break through the perception that certain individuals are beyond the reach of the law. This is all the more important given the brazen attempts to obstruct the course of justice at the court. Whether the ICC can effectively deliver on its mandate will depend on governments willingness to support justice no matter where abuses are committed and by whom. These warrants should finally push the international community to address atrocities and secure justice for all victims in Palestine and Israel."
    – Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director, Human Rights Watch.
  - - -
  
  • This 94-year-old Holocaust survivor recommended arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders⩘  by Andrew Silverstein, Forward, May 23, 2024.
    "By the age of 14, he had survived the Holocaust; by 44, he was an Israeli diplomat; now, at the age of 94, Theodor Meron recommended the International Criminal Court seek arrest warrants of Israeli and Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity."
• Nov 14, 2024 (day 405): UN Special Committee finds Israel's warfare methods in Gaza consistent with genocide, including use of starvation as weapon of war⩘ , press release, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
  
  • "Israel's warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, with mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians there, the UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices* said in a new report released today.
  • " 'Since the beginning of the war, Israeli officials have publicly supported policies that strip Palestinians of the very necessities required to sustain life – food, water, and fuel,' the Committee said. 'These statements along with the systematic and unlawful interference of humanitarian aid make clear Israel's intent to instrumentalise life-saving supplies for political and military gains.' "
• Nov 14, 2024 (day 405): Israel's Crimes Against Humanity in Gaza: Forced Displacement of Palestinians Leaves Much of Area Uninhabitable⩘ , report by Human Rights Watch.
  
  • "Israeli authorities have caused the massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza since October 2023 and are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The report is being published at the time of an ongoing Israeli military campaign in northern Gaza that has most likely created a new wave of forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians.
  • "There is no plausible imperative military reason to justify Israel's mass displacement of nearly all of Gaza's population, often multiple times. Rather than ensuring civilians' security, military “evacuation orders” have caused grave harm.
  • "Governments should adopt targeted sanctions and other measures, and halt weapons sales to Israel. The International Criminal Court prosecutor should investigate Israel's forced displacement and prevention of the right to return as a crime against humanity."
• Nov 8, 2024 (day 399): Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead are women and children, UN says⩘  by Mallory Moench, BBC News.
  
  • "The UN's Human Rights Office has condemned the high number of civilians killed in the war in Gaza, saying its analysis shows close to 70% of verified victims over a six-month period were women and children.
  • "The agency said the high number was largely due to Israel's use of weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas, although some deaths may have been the result of errant projectiles by Palestinian armed groups.
  • "The report said it found 'unprecedented' levels of international law violations, raising concerns about 'war crimes and other possible atrocity crimes'.
• Nov 8, 2024 (day 399): Gaza's top Islamic scholar issues fatwa criticising 7 October attack⩘  by Rushdi Abualouf, BBC Gaza correspondent, Istanbul, BBC News.
  
  • "The most prominent Islamic scholar in Gaza has issued a rare, powerful fatwa condemning Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the devastating war in the Palestinian territory.
  • "Professor Dr Salman al-Dayah, a former dean of the Faculty of Sharia and Law at the Hamas-affiliated Islamic University of Gaza, is one of the region's most respected religious authorities, so his legal opinion carries significant weight among Gaza's two million population, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim."
• Nov 5, 2024 (day 396): UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories holds news conference⩘ , CPAC (Canada).
  
  • 
    Photo credit: screen capture from the video of the news conference
  • "Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, holds a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa to highlight the release of two recent reports and to call on the Canadian government to revise its policies."
  • I don't speak French so I can't speak to those portions of the press conference during which the questions and answers are in French, but when Francesca Albanese is answering English questions, she speaks with an incredible clarity, conviction, and courage. I wish more politicians and countries would address the issue of the rights of Palestinian people under international law with equal clarity, conviction, and courage
• Oct 31, 2024 (day 391): "Genocide as Colonial Erasure": U.N. Expert Francesca Albanese on Israel's "Intent to Destroy" Gaza⩘ , an interview of Francesca Albanese by Nermeen Shaikh and Amy Goodman, Democracy Now.
  
  • "AMY GOODMAN: Francesca Albanese, talk about the title of your report, 'Genocide as colonial erasure.'
  • "FRANCESCA ALBANESE: This is another element which I think – and, in fact, it's the most important, where we see the difference between this genocide and others, because there is a settler-colonial component. And again, if you look at what the International Court of Justice in July this year concluded, when it decided that the – when it found that Israel's 57 years of occupation in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem is unlawful and needs to be withdrawn totally and unconditionally, as rapidly as possibly, which the General Assembly says before – by September 2025. The court said that it amounts to – that the colonies amount to – have led to a process of annexation and racial segregation and apartheid. And these are the features of settler colonialism, the taking of the land, the taking of the resources, displacing the local population and replacing it. This has been a feature.
  • "Now, it is in this context that we need to analyze what is happening today. And by the way, don't believe, don't listen only to Francesca Albanese. Listen to what these Israeli leaders and ministers are saying – reoccupying Gaza, retaking Gaza, recolonizing Gaza, reconquesting Gaza. This is what they are saying. And there are settlers on expeditions, not only to Gaza but also to Lebanon. So, this is why I say that the main difference, the main feature of this genocide, apart all the horrible aspects of it, is that this is the first settler-colonial genocide to be ever litigated before a court, an international court.
  • "And this is why coming to this country, which is a country birthed from a genocide, when I meet the Native Americans, for example, I feel the pain of these people. And I say if we manage to build on the intersectionality of Indigenous struggle, the cry for justice behind this case for Palestine will resonate even louder, because it will somewhat be an act of atonement from the settler-colonial endeavor, which has sprouted out of Europe, toward Indigenous peoples. So there is a lot of symbolism behind it."
  • See also:
    
    • Video: "End the Genocide! It is not a war!"⩘  by Francesca Albanese, UN Palestinian Rights Committee, Nov 6, 2024.
    • Wikipedia: Fracesca Albanese⩘ .
• Oct 30, 2024 (day 390): Why I'm voting for Harris despite her stance on Gaza – and you should too⩘  Sen. Bernie Sanders, U.S. senator from Vermont, MSNBC.
  
  • "I understand that there are millions of Americans who disagree with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the terrible war in Gaza. I am one of them.…
  • "Let me give you my best answer. And that is that even on this issue, Donald Trump and his right wing friends are worse.…
  • "But even more importantly – and this I promise you – after Kamala wins, we will, together, do everything we can to change U.S. policy toward Netanyahu, including an immediate cease-fire, the return of all hostages, a surge of massive humanitarian aid, the stopping of settler attacks on the West Bank, and the rebuilding of Gaza for the Palestinian people.…
  • "So let me conclude by saying this. This is the most consequential election in our lifetimes. Many of you have differences of opinion with Kamala Harris on Gaza. So do I. But we cannot sit this election out. Trump has got to be defeated."
• Oct 26, 2024 (day 386): 'Entire population of north Gaza at risk of dying,' warns UN's top humanitarian official⩘ , United Nations News.
  
  • "The UN's top humanitarian official warned on Saturday that the entire population of northern Gaza is at risk of dying, calling for an immediate stop to 'blatant disregard for basic humanity' by Israeli forces."
  • " 'What Israeli forces are doing in besieged north Gaza cannot be allowed to continue,' said Joyce Msuya, acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.…
  • "Hospitals have been hit, health workers detained and first responders prevented from rescuing people trapped under the rubble, she noted.
  • " 'Shelters have been emptied and burned down…families have been separated, and men and boys taken away by the truckload,' she added.
  • "According to reports, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since Israeli security forces renewed their offensive in northern Gaza earlier this month. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced again."
• Oct 26, 2024 (day 386): Gaza: Israel's Northern Offensive Endangering Hundreds of Thousands of Civilians⩘ , Human Rights Watch.
  
  • "Israel's renewed northern Gaza offensive is displacing and endangering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, Human Rights Watch said today. Videos, photographs, satellite imagery, media reports, and UN agency reports analyzed by Human Rights Watch show that civilians are at grave risk of mass forced displacement and other atrocities as the last remaining places of refuge in northern Gaza, including shelters and hospitals, come under fire.
  • "Since early October 2024, Israel has renewed mass evacuation orders for Gaza's north, largely ordering civilians to move south, including to the 'humanitarian' zone in al-Mawasi. The overcrowded area lacks adequate food, shelter, water, sanitation, and medical care. Israeli forces have also frequently attacked the zone, killing civilians."
• Oct 25, 2024 (day 385): Is Israel committing genocide? Reexamining the question, a year later.⩘  by Nicole Narea, Vox.
  
  • " 'I don't think we have to sit on our hands and wait for these institutes to tell us yes or no genocide when we all see genocide in front of our eyes,' [Raz Segal, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University] said. 'The process of radical change in the system has already begun. Israel is very isolated today in the world, and the US is also isolated.' "
• Oct 19, 2024 (day 379): Oxfam condemns killing of water engineers in Gaza.
  
  • "Attacks on civilian infrastructure and those who maintain it are clear violations of international humanitarian law. Those responsible must be held to account. Such attacks are part of the crime of using starvation as a weapon of war.
  • "Oxfam demands an independent investigation into this and other attacks on essential workers. We reiterate our calls for a ceasefire, an immediate halt to arms transfers to Israel, and the international community to ensure Israel is held accountable for its continued assault on civilians and those working to deliver life-saving services.
• Oct 19, 2024 (day 379): 'You see us burning, you stay silent': Family's agony over mother and sons burned to death in Gaza tent⩘  by Fergal Keane, BBC News.
• Oct 16, 2024 (day 376): A Year of War: Israelis and Palestinians⩘ , Frontline PBS documentary, released Oct 16, 2024. "In 'A Year of War: Israelis and Palestinians,' Israelis describe what it was like to experience the deadliest day for Jews since World War II as the Oct. 7 attacks unfolded, with around 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage. And in Gaza, where more than 40,000 people have reportedly been killed in Israel's retaliation against Hamas, Palestinians describe – and record – the horrors of large-scale devastation."
  
  • Dr. Mohamed El-Ran, Head of Surgery, Indonesian Hospital, Northern Gaza: "This is not an ordinary war. It is a war of extermination. The tools that are being used are fierce, unimaginable."
  • Eitan, a young Israeli boy who spent 52 days as a hostage before his release in Nov 2023: "The first 16 days, I was alone. There were no people that I knew or could talk to. Like fear, I felt fear." Eitan's father, Ohad, has not been released from Gaza, and it is not clear if he is alive.
  • Ghada, a young Palestinian woman who lost her father when Israel bombed his shop, and has been displaced with her mother and siblings, having to move multiple times and having experienced severe food shortages: "I live for today and don't look ahead to tomorrow as I have no certainty about what it holds. There's no future at all."
  • 
• Oct 16, 2024 (day 376): Life and Death in Gaza⩘ , BBC News | World Service documentary, filmed over the past year and released on Oct 14, 2024: "Life and Death in Gaza, a new film from the World Service's #BBCEye investigations team for BBC Storyville, is made by four Palestinians living through extraordinary times. Filmed from the first days of the war, Khalid, Aya, Adam, and Aseel document their own lives as they endure bombing raids, multiple evacuations, family separations and reunions, deaths, and even the birth of a new life amidst the chaos."
  
  • 
• Oct 16, 2024 (day 376): Settlements Above the Law⩘ , BBC News | World Service documentary, released Sep 2, 2024. "Since Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people in Israel on 7 October 2023, extremist Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank are increasingly using violence to seize land and property which is forcing many Palestinians from their homes. 'Settlements Above the Law', a new film from the #BBCEye Investigations team, reveals how these settlers are establishing a new type of illegal settlement known as a 'herding outpost', giving them access to huge areas of land."
• Oct 15, 2024 (day 375): US gives Israel 30 days to boost Gaza aid or risk cut to military support⩘  by Tom Bateman and David Gritten, BBC News.
  This should have happened a year ago.
• Oct 15, 2024 (day 375): UN condemns civilian deaths in northern Gaza⩘ , BBC News Live.
  
  • "The UN has condemned the 'large number of civilian casualties' caused by Israeli strikes on northern Gaza in recent days.
  • "The comments come as at least 10 people have reportedly been killed by Israeli artillery fire at a food distribution centre at Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, where Israeli tanks and troops are continuing a ground offensive.
  • "The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said shells hit the centre on Monday as some people were trying to access food handouts.
  • "The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident, adding that it operates "only against terror targets'.
  • " 'The secretary general condemns the large number of civilian casualties in the intensifying Israeli campaign in northern Gaza, including its schools, displacing sheltered Palestinian civilians,' a spokesman for the UN Secretary General said."
• Oct 15, 2024 (day 375): The situation in northern Gaza is "desperate", the UN says, as it delivers the first food aid allowed into the area in more than two weeks⩘ , BBC News Live.
• Oct 12, 2024 (day 372): 'Surrender or starve': Attack on Jabalia hints at controversial Israeli plan for northern Gaza⩘  by Jeremy Bowen, International Editor, BBC News.
  
  • "The ultra-nationalist extremists in Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet want to replace Palestinians in northern Gaza with Jewish settlers."
• Oct 10, 2024 (day 370): Israeli forces fire at UN peacekeeper positions in south Lebanon, peacekeepers say⩘  by Maya Gebeily and Alexander Cornwell, Reuters.
  See also: Israeli troops fire on Unifil positions in south Lebanon region where Irish troops based⩘  by Conor Lally and Marie O'Halloran, The Irish Times.
• Oct 6, 2024 (day 366): Year of killing and broken assumptions has taken Middle East to edge of deeper, wider war⩘  by Jeremy Bowen, International editor, BBC News. The best overview article I've come across in a long time.
  
  • "Insaf wept for her old life, and the people they have lost. 'Our lives were beautiful, and suddenly we had nothing—no clothes, no food, no essentials for life. Constantly being displaced is incredibly hard on my children's health. They've had malnutrition and they have been infected with diseases, including amoebic dysentery and hepatitis.'…
  • "The only chance of making even small improvements in the lives of Insaf and her family and well over two million others in Gaza is to agree a ceasefire. If the killing stops, diplomats might have a window to stop the slide into a much wider catastrophe."

Related

Wikipedia articles

• Wikipedia: Israeli–Palestinian conflict⩘ 
• Wikipedia: 1948 Palestine war⩘ 
• Wikipedia: Nakba⩘ 
• Wikipedia: Arab Peace Initiative⩘ 
• Wikipedia: The Iron Wall⩘ , 2006 documentary film about the establishment of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Historical perspective

• Israel Gaza war: History of the conflict explained⩘ , BBC News, Nov 15, 2023

Books

• The General's Son by Miko Peled
• Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning by Peter Beinart
• The Drone Eats with Me by Atef Abu Saif⩘ 
• Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future by Jason Stanley⩘ 
• Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics by Marc Lamont Hill & Mitchell Plitnick⩘ 
• Going Home by Raja Shehadeh⩘ 
• The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi⩘ 
• The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates⩘ 
• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
• Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter⩘ 
• Palestinian Walks by Raja Shehadeh⩘ 
• What Does Israel Fear From Palestine? by Raja Shehadeh⩘ 
• Where the Line Is Drawn by Raja Shehadeh⩘ 

Additional notes

• The heartbreaking story of Masafer Yatta⩘ . A powerful documentary that vividly tells an absolutely heartbreaking and infuriating story.
• Foundation for Middle East Peace⩘ . "The Foundation works to ensure a just, secure, and peaceful future for Palestinians and Israelis."
• Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)⩘ , a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.

A note about the timeline

Each entry in these ongoing reflections is introduced with the date the item was published, followed by the number of days since Hamas carried out its act of terrorism on October 7, 2023 and Israel retaliated with its full-scale war on Gaza. However, it would be reasonable to list alternate dates for the start of this ongoing war that, counting from October 7, 2023, would add between 16 and 141 years (adapted from the Israeli–Palestinian conflict⩘  article in Wikipedia).

Alternative timeline

• 2007 (add 16 years to the start of the war on Oct 7, 2023) - Israel tightened its blockade of the Gaza Strip and made official its policy of isolating it from the West Bank. Since then, Israel has framed its relationship with Gaza in terms of the laws of war rather than in terms of its status as an occupying power. In a July 2024 ruling, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rebuffed Israel's stance, determining that the Palestinian territories constitute one political unit and that Israel continues to illegally occupy the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The ICJ also determined that Israeli policies violate the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Since 2006, Hamas and Israel have fought several wars. Attacks by Hamas-led armed groups in October 2023 in Israel were followed by another war.[41] Israel's actions in Gaza since the start of the war have been described by international law experts, genocide scholars and human rights organizations as genocidal.
• 1967 (add 56 years) - Since the Six-Day War, Israel has been occupying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, known collectively as the Palestinian territories. Two Palestinian uprisings against Israel and its occupation erupted in 1987 and 2000, the first and second intifadas respectively. Israel's occupation, which is now considered to be the longest military occupation in modern history, has seen it constructing illegal settlements there, creating a system of institutionalized discrimination against Palestinians under its occupation called Israeli apartheid. This discrimination includes Israel's denial of Palestinian refugees from their right of return and right to their lost properties. Israel has also drawn international condemnation for violating the human rights of the Palestinians.
• 1948 (add 75 years) - Eventually tensions led to the United Nations adopting a partition plan, triggering a civil war. During the ensuing 1948 Palestine war, more than half of the mandate's predominantly Palestinian Arab population fled or were expelled by Israeli forces. By the end of the war, Israel was established on most of the former mandate's territory, and the Gaza Strip and the West Bank were controlled by Egypt and Jordan respectively.
• 1936 (add 87 years) - An Arab revolt erupted demanding independence and an end to British support for Zionism, which was suppressed by the British.
• 1918 (add 104 years) - Following British occupation of the formerly Ottoman region during World War I, Mandatory Palestine was established as a British mandate. Increasing Jewish immigration led to tensions between Jews and Arabs which grew into intercommunal conflict.
• 1917 (add 105 years) - The Zionist movement garnered the support of an imperial power in the 1917 Balfour Declaration issued by Britain, which promised to support the creation of a "Jewish homeland" in Palestine.
• 1882 (add 141 years) - The first arrival of Jewish settlers to Ottoman Palestine in 1882. The local Arab population increasingly began to oppose Zionism, primarily out of the fear of territorial displacement and dispossession.

See also: Before October 7th: Understanding the Long History of Israel's Assault on Gaza⩘  by Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV), Sep 27, 2024. IJV is "a grassroots organization grounded in Jewish tradition that opposes all forms of racism and advocates for justice and peace for all in Israel-Palestine".