Category: News

Israel must allow aid into Gaza, and its restrictions on doing so over the past two years have put it in breach of its obligations, the UN’s top court has found.

The stinging advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice in The Hague also found that Israel had a duty not to impede the supply of aid by UN organisations including the beleaguered UN Palestinian relief agency Unrwa, which has been in effect banned from the territory since January.

The court found Israel had not produced adequate evidence to justify ending cooperation with Unrwa on the basis it was not a neutral organisation under the Geneva conventions.

The court instead found the organisation was the backbone of all humanitarian assistance in the area, requiring Israel to cooperate with the organisation in good faith.

The ruling that Israel has violated the UN’s immunities as set out in the UN charter, as well as ignored its humanitarian obligations as an occupying power under the Geneva conventions is bound to lead to further calls for Israel’s suspension from the UN.

Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/22/icj-orders-israel-to-allow-aid-into-gaza-and-says-blockade-had-been-a-breach

Exclusive: In an open letter, Israeli ex-officials, artists and intellectuals say ‘unconscionable’ actions in Gaza amount to genocide

Prominent Jewish figures around the world are calling on the United Nationsand world leaders to impose sanctions on Israel over what they describe as “unconscionable” actions amounting to genocide in Gaza.

Over 450 signatories, including former Israeli officials, Oscar winners, authors and intellectuals have signed an open letter demanding accountability over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The letter’s release comes as EU leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday amid reports they plan to shelve proposals for sanctions over human rights violations.

“We have not forgotten that so many of the laws, charters, and conventions established to safeguard and protect all human life were created in response to the Holocaust,” the signatories write. “Those safeguards have been relentlessly violated by Israel.”

Signatories include former speaker of the Israeli Knesset Avraham Burg, former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, British author Michael Rosen, Canadian author Naomi Klein, Oscar-winning film-maker Jonathan Glazer, US actor Wallace Shawn, Emmy winners Ilana Glazer and Hannah Einbinder, and Pulitzer prize winner Benjamin Moser.

Read more at:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/22/jewish-notables-open-letter-un-sanction-israel

I am not celebrating the end of the ‘war’ because this was not a war – and it’s not over, either

Again, I am thankful that the killing has slowed down. But let us not be naive here. Gaza has been rendered uninhabitable for a reason; settler attacks and home demolitions in the West Bank have ramped up for a reason. When people like the Israeli prime minister talk about “peace” in the region, the peace they appear to be referencing is the peace of finally being able to ignore the existence of Palestinians. A peace in which Palestinians have been expelled from their homeland. In May, for example, as Haaretz noted, the Israeli daily Maariv reported that Netanyahu told the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee: “We are destroying more and more homes. They have nowhere to return to. The only expected outcome will be the desire of Gazans to emigrate out of the Strip.” Netanyahu has made frequent references to the idea of mass population transfer from Gaza, the so-called “Trump plan”. This is the “peace” that Israel and the US seem to be working towards.

Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/16/is-gaza-war-over

A Global Sumud Flotilla coalition is headed to Gaza with hopes of delivering much-needed supplies and food. Local residents say they’ve already been hit with drone attacks.

Paul Reid and Stephen, both Portland residents, are among the hundreds of people from around the world who set sail in the Mediterranean Sea late last month. The two Portlanders joined the Global Sumud Flotilla, a fleet of civilian boats currently en route to Gaza in an attempt to deliver aid to Palestinians amid Israel’s ongoing siege on the enclave. 

Approaching nearly a month at sea, the flotilla has faced rough seas, multiple drone attacks, and coordinating complications due to the vast size of the coalition. Many members have endured persistent sea sickness, especially on smaller sail boats. 

Stephen is on a motorized boat with about 25 people, and has volunteered to work in the engine room. Reid is on a smaller sail boat where they take shifts at the helm.

Read more at Portland Mercury

You can see Paul’s Instagram Posts here.

See more at The Global Sumud Flotilla’s website and Instagram page

 

Democrats Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley reach ‘inescapable conclusion’ after fact-finding trip to region

Read the full report here: https://www.vanhollen.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/van_hollen_merkley_report_following_2025_codel_to_gaza_border_israel_west_bank_jordan_and_egypt.pdf

Two Democratic senators claim they have reached the “inescapable conclusion” that Israel is acting on a systematic plan to destroy and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza to force locals to leave, and they say the US is complicit.

Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, both members of the Senate foreign relations committee, released their findings in a report on Thursday after returning from a congressional delegation to the Middle East where, they note, the destruction goes beyond bombs and bullets. They say they also found a systematic campaign to strangle humanitarian aid, which they call “using food as a weapon of war”.

“The Netanyahu government has gone far beyond targeting Hamas to imposing collective punishment on all the people of Gaza,” Van Hollen said at a Thursday press conference. “What they’re doing, and what we witnessed, is putting those goals into action.”

Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/11/democratic-senators-gaza-ethnic-cleansing

https://www.ochaopt.org/content/no-safe-place-left-gaza-un-and-ngos-demand-ceasefire-and-protection-forced-displacement

With no safe place left in Gaza, UN and NGOs demand ceasefire and protection from forced displacement
Statement by the Humanitarian Country Team in the occupied Palestinian territory*
10 September 2025

We are witnessing a dangerous escalation in Gaza city, where Israeli forces have stepped up their operations and ordered everyone to move south. This comes two weeks after famine was confirmed in the city and surrounding areas. While Israeli authorities have unilaterally-declared an area in the south as “humanitarian,” it has not taken effective steps to ensure the safety of those forced to move there and neither the size nor scale of services provided is fit to support those already there, let alone new arrivals.

Nearly one million people are now left with no safe or viable options – neither the north nor the south offers safety.

Leaving northern Gaza means paying prohibitive costs for transport and safe passage, sums that most families simply cannot afford. It means navigating roads that are barely passable. It means finding a place to sleep either in the open air or in overcrowded displacement sites. And it means continued struggles to secure food, water, medical care, and shelter, and live without dignified and safe sanitation. Survivors in Gaza are exhausted.

Civilians, including humanitarian personnel, remain present throughout Gaza. They and the civilian infrastructure they depend on, such as health facilities, must never be targeted. Civilian sites must also never be used to shield military operations, but even if they are, this does not in itself render them lawful targets. The looming destruction of Gaza city sounds the gravest of alarms.

Amid ongoing Israeli impediments, the current levels of humanitarian support are wholly insufficient.

Humanitarian access must be expanded and sustained to include direct routes to both the north and the south. Critical supply lines of fuel and water must remain open and uninterrupted. Any further disruption will have devastating consequences for civilians.

To families in Gaza: The humanitarian community will remain in Gaza city for as long as we can and will remain across the Strip, doing all we can to bring aid and deliver lifesaving services.

To the international community: Act. Call for an immediate ceasefire. Uphold international humanitarian law, including the release of hostages and those arbitrarily detained.

This catastrophe is human-made, and responsibility rests with us all.

* The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) is a strategic decision-making forum led by the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It brings together heads of UN entities and over 200 NGOs – both international and local – all working on humanitarian affairs in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under internationally agreed humanitarian principles.

The United States has suspended visa approvals for nearly everyone who holds a Palestinian passport, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

The restrictions go beyond those Donald Trump’s administration had previously announced on visitors from Gaza. They would prevent Palestinians from traveling to the United States for medical treatment, attending college and business travel, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified officials.

The state department said two weeks ago that it was halting all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza while it conducts “a full and thorough” review, a move that has been condemned by pro-Palestinian groups.

Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/31/palestine-passport-visa-approval-suspension

 

The push to recognize a Palestinian state creates the illusion of action, but delays the real remedies: sanctioning and isolating Israel’s apartheid regime.

Let us not waste another 30 years of Palestinian lives on the partition paradigm — a colonial “solution” to a colonial problem. Israel has long made clear it will never accept a Palestinian state; clinging to the two-state solution is gaslighting on an extraordinary scale, and it has brought us only despair.

Now, more than ever, symbolic gestures are worse than useless, as they buy time for the regime committing the crimes and drain urgency from the only remedies that matter: ending the genocide, sanctioning the perpetrator, isolating the apartheid system, and insisting without apology on equal rights and the right of return. This is not extremism. It is the bare minimum of justice.

Read more at: https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-statehood-israeli-apartheid-recognition/

Remarks on Gaza at the UN press briefing and Q&A by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

https://www.unocha.org/news/un-relief-chief-says-gaza-famine-must-spur-world-urgent-action

You can watch Tom Fletcher give this report at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDegib9npZI

Geneva, 22 August 2025

As delivered

Please read the IPC report, cover to cover. Read it in sorrow and in anger. Not as words and numbers but as names and lives. Be in no doubt that this is irrefutable testimony.

It is a famine. The Gaza Famine.

It is a famine that we could have prevented, if we had been allowed. Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel.

It is a famine within a few hundred metres of food, in a fertile land.

It is a famine that hits the most vulnerable first. Each with a name, each with a story. That strips people of dignity before it strips them of life. That forces a parent to choose which child to feed. That forces people to risk their lives to seek food.

It is a famine that we repeatedly warned of. But that the international media has not been allowed in to cover. To bear witness.

It is a famine in 2025. A 21st century famine watched over by drones and the most advanced military technology in history.

It is a famine openly promoted by some Israeli leaders as a weapon of war.

The Israeli military has operated a special unit called the “Legitimization Cell,” tasked with gathering intelligence from Gaza that can bolster Israel’s image in the international media, according to three intelligence sources who spoke to +972 Magazine and Local Call and confirmed the unit’s existence. 

Established after October 7, the unit sought information on Hamas’ use of schools and hospitals for military purposes, and on failed rocket launches by armed Palestinian groups that harmed civilians in the enclave. It has also been assigned to identify Gaza-based journalists it could portray as undercover Hamas operatives, in an effort to blunt growing global outrage over Israel’s killing of reporters — the latest of whom was Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif, killed in an Israeli airstrike this past week.

According to the sources, the Legitimization Cell’s motivation was not security, but public relations. Driven by anger that Gaza-based reporters were “smearing [Israel’s] name in front of the world,” its members were eager to find a journalist they could link to Hamas and mark as a target, one source said.

….

Read more at: https://www.972mag.com/israel-gaza-journalists-hamas-hasbara/