Palestinian

Image of man in underwear, blindfold and bound to iron rod has been widely shared on social mediaMiddle East crisis live – latest updatesAn Israeli soldier’s photo of a Palestinian man from Gaza stripped to his underwear, blindfolded and bound face-down to an iron rod corroborates extensive reporting on Israeli torture of Palestinians in detention and itself may constitute a war crime, rights groups have said.The image was shared on a now-deleted personal social media account, with the Hebrew-language caption “good morning”. It was brought to wider public attention by a Palestinian writer and activist who goes by Tamer. Continue reading...

• The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is reviewing its database of journalists killed in Gaza following a December study by the Meir Amit Center. • The study claims that 60% of the individuals identified as journalists who were killed in the region were members of or affiliated with terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. • This review is critical as it challenges the accuracy of casualty figures used to track press fatalities during the ongoing conflict.

• The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is conducting a comprehensive review of its database of killed journalists following reports that some listed individuals were members of Palestinian terror groups. • The review aims to ensure that no one actively engaged in combat is classified as a journalist within the organization's data. • This move follows identifications by Palestinian militant groups claiming some of the deceased were their members, challenging the neutrality and accuracy of the CPJ's casualty lists.

Dr Mazen Al-Rantisi, a 71-year-old physician well known for providing care to low-income Palestinians, was arrested in the occupied West BankIsraeli forces on Sunday arrested a prominent 71-year-old Palestinian physician known as the “doctor of the poor” in a pre-dawn raid on his home in the occupied West Bank, prompting widespread condemnation.Dr Mazen Al-Rantisi, a physician widely known for providing care to low-income Palestinians, was arrested before dawn at his home in the al-Tira neighbourhood of Ramallah. Continue reading...

Soldiers arrested university student Sama Safi, 20, along with members of Palestinian women’s national soccer teamA 20-year-old Palestinian American woman has been held in Israeli military detention for nearly two weeks after Israeli soldiers stormed her family home in a pre-dawn raid on 2 June.Sama Safi, a psychology student at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank, has not been charged with any crimes. A spokesperson for the Israeli military said she and three other women detained around the same time were arrested “after promoting hostile terrorist activity and additional terrorist-related activities”. Continue reading...

Paris meeting draws up proposals and calls for ‘urgent diplomacy’ towards two-state solution at summit next weekPalestinian and Israeli civil society groups meeting in Paris on Friday have urged G7 leaders to act at their summit in the French spa town of Évian-les-Bains next week to save the narrowing chances of a two-state solution.The groups called for specific action on enforcing a ceasefire, disarming Hamas and starting reconstruction in Gaza, and said the various peace processes including the Board of Peace initiative should be integrated into one programme. Continue reading...

Jibril Rajoub attended opening match in Mexico but becomes latest football official hit by US visa issues, he saysThe head of the Palestinian Football Association has said he is unable to travel to the United States with other federation heads attending the 2026 Fifa World Cup because he has not been issued a visa.Jibril Rajoub went to the opening match between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City on Thursday. But he is among several people accredited to attend the World Cup who have been denied visas or have yet to receive them from the United States. Continue reading...

Ayoub Junaid, seven, given new pair but needs surgery as Gaza’s children remain unable to access treatmentA video of a seven-year-old Palestinian boy in Gaza who suffers from a severe visual impairment crying over his shattered glasses has drawn widespread attention across social and international media.The footage of Ayoub Junaid has shone a light on the plight of the many visually impaired children in Gaza who, because of Israel’s blockade and the devastation caused by the war, have been unable to access eye examinations, corrective lenses or specialist ophthalmic surgery. Continue reading...

• The UK, Australia, and Canada have launched a major new international fund designed to scale civil society initiatives and address the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. • The fund will invest in grassroots projects aimed at rebuilding trust and reducing community divisions, integrating civil society efforts directly into broader diplomatic strategies. • UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper emphasized that Middle East peace is too often viewed solely as a matter of international diplomacy, necessitating this shift toward community-led stability.

Federal prosecutors unsealed indictment against activists trying to force the school to cut financial ties to IsraelSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailFederal prosecutors unsealed an indictment Wednesday against eight pro-Palestinian activists who are accused of conspiring to run a criminal intimidation campaign against University of Michigan officials while trying to force the school to cut financial ties to Israel.The indictment also describes vandalism against some companies that operate in Michigan and against the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. Continue reading...

Video appears to contradict Israeli military’s account of the killing of an infant while he was held in his mother’s armsNew footage appears to contradict the Israeli military’s account of the shooting that killed seven-month-old Sam Abu Haikal in his mother’s arms, showing the family’s car slowing near a military post before soldiers opened fire.On Friday, the killing of the infant by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank sparked outrage after soldiers opened fire on the family’s vehicle despite it having complied with an order to stop. Sam was killed and his mother, Daniyah Abu Haikal, and father, Fahed Abu Haikal, were both injured. Continue reading...

Dr Hussam Abu Safiya now in cell barely big enough to sit in, says son, after UN experts demanded his release in MarchThe son of a prominent Palestinian doctor detained by Israeli forces in Gaza in late 2024 and held for more than 500 days without formal charges has spoken of his deep concern for his father’s wellbeing after he was transferred without explanation to solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison.Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, was detained at work on 27 December 2024. Physicians for Human Rights Israel said last week it had received information indicating that the 53-year-old had been transferred from Ketziot prison to Ramon prison, part of the Ganot prison complex, where he had been put in solitary confinement. PHRI said it had not been told the reasons for the transfer. Continue reading...

The seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was in his mother’s arms when he was hit in the incident in HebronIsraeli troops killed a seven-month-old Palestinian baby in the occupied West Bank and injured one of the child’s parents on Friday after opening fire on the family’s car, despite it having complied with an order to stop.Soldiers opened fire on a car carrying the infant and his parents in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron. The seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was critically injured, evacuated in critical condition to a local hospital, where he later died. His parents were also injured. Continue reading...

School of the Art Institute of Chicago professor put under investigation after a student complained about a case studyA tenured art therapy professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) was suspended from teaching and placed under investigation following a student’s complaint about an assigned case study that mentioned violence against Palestinians.Savneet Talwar, a faculty member with the school’s art therapy and counseling program, assigned the case study in April to a class on the cultural dimensions of therapy. The assignment asked students to develop an ethical treatment plan for a hypothetical queer, Muslim woman living in the US. Continue reading...

Emily Thornberry criticises Israel’s ‘staggering’ sense of impunity and rebukes Donald Trump for abandoning GazaThe UK government has let the Palestinian people down and failed to make it economically impossible for Israel to continue to act with impunity in the West Bank and Gaza, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs select committee, Emily Thornberry, has said.She accused her own government of lacking ambition and wringing its hands on the Palestinian crisis, and she also chastised Donald Trump for declaring a ceasefire in Gaza and then walking away, leaving Gazans to live in rubble. Continue reading...

• The United Nations has asserted that 100% of the Gaza Strip belongs to Palestinians, directly opposing plans by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to establish Israeli control over 70% of the territory. • This diplomatic clash occurs amid high regional tensions, with Iran and Hezbollah closely monitoring the situation for any signs of further escalation. • The UN's stance serves as an attempt to establish clear diplomatic parameters to prevent an expansion of the conflict that could involve additional regional actors.

Human rights groups and lawyers say policy amounts to ethnic cleansingIsrael’s defence minister has said he is committed to the ethnic cleansing of Gaza through large-scale migration of Palestinians as part of Israel’s long-term plans for the territory.Israel Katz said the government would implement a plan for large numbers of Palestinians to leave Gaza “at the right time and in the right manner”, in a statement on Wednesday marking the targeted killing of Mohammed Odeh, Hamas’s most recent military commander. Continue reading...

Targeting of foreign activists drew global outrage from governments that have not acted on violence against Palestinian detaineesIsrael’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has made abuse of detained Palestinians something of a macabre calling card, celebrating cruelty publicly and often on video.During his time in office, violence including rape, extreme hunger and humiliation have been normalised in Israeli jails. Rights groups say detention centres have become “torture camps” for Palestinians. Continue reading...

In state department cable, Jerusalem embassy told to issue protest to Palestinian Authority leaders, warning ‘consequences will follow’ if they failed to complyThe US has ordered its Jerusalem embassy to pressure the Palestinian leadership into dropping a bid for a UN general assembly vice-presidency, anxious that the role could allow Palestinians to chair high-profile debates on the Middle East.A 19 May state department cable seen by the Guardian instructed the US embassy in Jerusalem to issue a démarche (a formal protest) to the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) pressuring them to withdraw the bid by 22 May, warning that “consequences will follow” if they failed to comply. Continue reading...

Ahead of Nakba march, Sara Husseini says many feel they are being treated as suspects rather than victims of mass sufferingBritish Palestinians feel unable to speak openly about Israel’s war on Gaza, the director of the British Palestinian Committee has said, amid what campaigners believe is a growing climate of hostility around Palestinian identity and activism in the UK.Some were afraid to wear Palestinian symbols at work or display Arabic jewellery and keffiyehs in public, Sara Husseini said. Continue reading...

Media law experts cast doubt on viability of a defamation lawsuit promised by Netanyahu over Nicholas Kristof essayIsrael’s prime minister, Benjamin Nethanyahu, and foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, have threatened to sue the New York Times for defamation over the publication of an essay by Nicholas Kristof detailing allegations that Palestinian women, men and children have been raped and sexually abused in Israeli military detention.“Following the publication by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times of one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press, which also received the backing of the newspaper, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar have instructed the initiation of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times,” Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs wrote in a social media post on Thursday. Continue reading...

West Bank home described as ‘ideal for outdoor gatherings’ is among 41 listed rentals in illegal Israeli settlements Some of Mohammad al-Sbeih’s fondest childhood memories are of his small farm in the hills south of Bethlehem, where three generations of his family grew wheat and barley.“It was a hard plot to farm as it was on a hillside with terraces, but it was so beautiful,” Sbeih remembers. Continue reading...

Millions of documents chronicling generations of trauma saved from Gaza and East Jerusalem in 10-month Unrwa operationEast Jerusalem to Amman should have been an easy trip: a short drive down to the Dead Sea, across the border checkpoint and swiftly on to the Jordanian capital.But in the early summer of 2024, the distance appeared an almost insurmountable obstacle to humanitarian workers from Unrwa (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees), as they sought to safeguard huge quantities of archival documents vitally important to decades of recent Palestinian history. Continue reading...

Australia Palestine Advocacy Network says criticism of Israel is routinely misrepresented as antisemitic – and that Palestinian voices are being excluded from debateGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastPalestinian voices are being excluded from the debate on social cohesion, the peak body for Palestinians in Australia has said after it was refused leave to appear before the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion.The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (Apan) made detailed submissions on the issues of antisemitism – including how it is defined – as well as on racism and social cohesion, but was told it did not have a “direct and substantial” interest in the public hearings, which are under way in Sydney. Continue reading...

• Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, has led the right-wing Likud party to dominate politics, shaping the landscape for Arab citizens. • Palestinians in Israel face heightened marginalization under Netanyahu's leadership as Knesset elections approach. • The dominance of Likud raises concerns over policy impacts on minority representation and rights.

Rami Elghandour tells Guardian in exclusive interview that cancellation sends ‘dangerous’ message to studentsRutgers University abruptly rescinded its invitation to a prominent alum who was slated to deliver a graduation speech next week after some students complained about social media posts he had published about Palestine.Rami Elghandour – a tech entrepreneur, graduate of Rutgers’ School of Engineering, and executive producer of the Oscar-nominated film The Voice of Hind Rajab – was set to deliver a commencement address at the school’s campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey on 15 May. Continue reading...

Objection after museum removes word ‘Palestine’ from list of countries of ancient Levant and Egypt and from some explanatory panelsThe Palestinian ambassador to the UK has called for Foreign Office intervention after the British Museum removed references to Palestine from its exhibits.The UK recognised the state of Palestine in September 2025, but the same year the museum removed the name “Palestine” from a panel listing the present-day countries encompassed by the ancient Levant, and replaced it with Gaza and the West Bank. Continue reading...

Leaked remarks by Maj Gen Avi Bluth describe fatal shootings of stone-throwers and different treatment for Jewish settlersThe Israeli army chief in the West Bank has said his troops were “killing like we haven’t killed since 1967”, including fatally shooting Palestinian stone-throwers, according to an Israeli report of his comments.The remarks by Maj Gen Avi Bluth, head of the army’s central command, were made in a recent closed forum but were leaked to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. Bluth has so far not denied the authenticity of the Haaretz account. The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to a request for comment. Continue reading...