Palestine

Israel's war in Gaza grinds on, but opposition is growing.

In recent weeks, thousands of Israeli reservists – from all branches of the military – have signed letters demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government stop the fighting and concentrate instead on reaching a deal to bring back the remaining 59 hostages being held by Hamas.

Eighteen months ago, few Israelis doubted the war's logic: to defeat Hamas and return the hostages.

For many, the January ceasefire and subsequent return of more than 30 hostages raised hopes that the war might soon end.

Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil's bid to remain in the United States survives after a New Jersey federal judge decided Tuesday he could retain jurisdiction over the case.

Khalil claimed he was detained and targeted for deportation because of his speech at pro-Palestinian protests on the Columbia campus and challenged his detention based on the constitutionality of the State Department's finding that his continued presence in the country could have "serious adverse foreign policy consequences" for the United States.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, in his 2023 book, The Message, based on a 10-day West Bank trip, makes broad claims about Israel’s treatment of its Arab citizens. He focused his rhetoric on demonstrating that Israeli practices amount to apartheid by showing parallels to past South African and Jim Crow experiences. This enabled him to view Israel as engaging in “white supremacy.” 

A Palestinian student at Columbia University who was arrested at an interview for US citizenship will remain detained in Vermont after a judge ordered his attorneys and the Department of Justice to provide additional briefing papers to the court.

Attorneys for Mohsen Mahdawi and the Department of Justice presented oral arguments at a hearing before US District Judge Geoffrey Crawford on Wednesday as a large crowd of supporters gathered outside the court in Burlington, Vermont.

Fatima Hassouna, a war documentarian who had covered the conflict in Gaza on the ground for 18 months and the subject of a new documentary to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival next month, was killed along with seven members of her family in an Israeli strike this week.

As the bells rang out across the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the priests began to sing a deep, low prayer. Heads bowed over candles, and escorted by people bearing aloft large gold crosses, they made their way to a platform at the heart of the ancient square.

Hamas is facing a new problem in Gaza: coming up with the cash it needs to pay its rank and file.

Israel last month cut off supplies of humanitarian goods to the enclave, some of which Hamas had been seizing and selling to raise funds, according to Arab, Israeli and Western officials. Its renewed offensive has targeted and killed Hamas officials who played important roles in distributing cash to cadres and sent others into hiding, Arab intelligence officials said.

A predawn Israeli strike on al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, the last major hospital providing critical healthcare in northern Gaza, has sparked condemnation in Palestine and across the world as Israel continues to attack healthcare facilities.

Israel on Sunday claimed it struck a Hamas command and control centre at the hospital, without providing evidence, while Hamas denied the allegations.

A hospital in Gaza was intentionally hit by the Israeli military on Palm Sunday prompting widespread condemnations from Christian groups in the Middle East.

The Israeli Defense Forces claimed in a statement Sunday that it had dismantled an alleged Hamas "command and control center" operating inside the al-Ahli Hospital.