Palestinian

Loyalists of President Mahmoud Abbas won most races ‌in Palestinian municipal elections, election officials said on Sunday, in a vote that for the first time in nearly two decades included a city in the Gaza Strip run by rival Hamas.

Local officials and witnesses say attackers shot at students first then those who arrived at the sceneTwo Palestinians, including a 14-year-old schoolboy, have been killed in the occupied West Bank after Israeli settlers opened fire near a school amid mounting assaults on education in the territory, witnesses and local officials have said.The Palestinian health ministry said Aws al-Naasan, 14, and Jihad Abu Naim, 32, were killed in the attack on the village of al-Mughayyir, which also left three others wounded. The head of the local council told Reuters that Israeli settlers had entered the village and opened fire near a school – first at students, and later at others who arrived at the scene. Witnesses said settlers were eventually followed by Israeli soldiers. Continue reading...

Human rights campaigners say honour for Avraham Zarbiv endorses ethnic cleansing and war crimesMiddle East crisis – live updatesAn extremist rabbi known for razing civilian homes in Gaza will light a torch at Israel’s independence day celebration on Tuesday, a role human rights campaigners said marked the embrace of genocide as the official ‘spirit of the nation’.Avraham Zarbiv is one of 14 people chosen for their “extraordinary contribution to society and the state”, alongside a scientist, a Michelin-starred chef, a leading doctor, members of the security forces and entrepreneurs. Continue reading...

Experts say attacks, also carried out by settlers, are leading girls to quit school and enter early marriagesIsraeli soldiers and settlers are using gendered violence and sexual assault and harassment to force Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank, human rights and legal experts say.Palestinian women, men and children have reported attacks, forced nudity, invasive and painful body cavity searches, Israelis exposing their genitals, including to minors, and threats of sexual violence. Continue reading...

Stephen Heydt says he spoke in a custom-made T-shirt and was ‘charged with two offences: one for the shirt, one for the chanting’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastStephen Heydt woke up on Saturday, put on a T-shirt, hobbled out the door with the aid of a walking stick and spoke at a rally in the middle of Brisbane – where he was promptly arrested by a large and heavily armed contingent of police.For his choice of words and wardrobe, the 73-year-old Jewish clinical psychologist became one of the first people in Queensland charged under new laws designed to crack down on antisemitic hate speech. Continue reading...

‘Palestine’s Mandela’ suffers three recent attacks including assault where prison guards set a dog on him, lawyer saysJailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti is at immediate risk in Israeli jails, where he has been attacked three times in as many weeks, including in one assault last month where prison guards set a dog on the 66-year-old, his lawyer has said.Barghouti is often called Palestine’s Nelson Mandela. He is respected across otherwise feuding Palestinian factions, has broad popular support across occupied Palestine, repeatedly engaged with Israeli officials before his detention and long backed a two-state solution. Continue reading...

Three human rights groups are seeking to subpoena permit documents from Richard MarlesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA trio of Palestinian human rights groups have launched a legal bid to force Australia’s defence minister, Richard Marles, to shed light on whether the government has approved Israel-bound export permits, which could violate international law.The groups – the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights – will attempt to subpoena arms export documents after filing an affidavit in the federal court last week. Continue reading...

Immigration judges Roopal Patel and Nina Froes among six judges terminated by Department of JusticeTwo immigration judges who ruled against the Trump administration in the deportation cases of pro-Palestinian university students have been fired by the Department of Justice.The New York Times reported over the weekend that the justice department had terminated six judges, including Roopal Patel and Nina Froes, who oversaw deportation proceedings against Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi, two students who were arrested last year as part of Trump’s campaign against the Gaza protest movement. Continue reading...

• Israel and Palestinian Authority delegations reconvened ceasefire talks in Cairo on April 12 with US State Department officials facilitating discussions aimed at establishing a lasting truce in Gaza. • Negotiators are discussing humanitarian aid corridors, Israeli security arrangements, and parameters for Palestinian governance, with a tentative framework potentially emerging within two weeks according to US officials. • The talks mark a significant shift after months of stalled diplomacy, though Israeli settlements expansion and Palestinian factional divisions continue to complicate negotiations.

Revealed: JDL 613 Brotherhood has platformed a convicted terrorist and its video recordings display an obsessive antipathy to New York’s mayor, Zohran MamdaniSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxA man who has been charged with plotting to firebomb a pro-Palestine activist’s home is tied to a group whose leaders support violence against Palestinians and have platformed a convicted terrorist who fundraises for a violent settler movement in the occupied West Bank.Video recordings by the group, called JDL 613 Brotherhood, also reveal its leaders possess an obsessive antipathy to New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani. They feature the organization’s founder, Yisrael Yaacob Ben Avraham, describing Mamdani as a “Muslim terrorist”, a “cancer”, and his election a “harbinger” of “a creeping Islamic takeover of America”. Continue reading...

Mariam Sabbah, 10, to get specialist care in Britain instead of US, after Trump halted visitor visas for PalestiniansA Palestinian child who lost her arm during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza arrived in the UK for specialist treatment on Tuesday, amid ongoing pressure on the British government to step up efforts to help evacuate critically ill and injured children from the territory.Mariam Sabbah arrived at Heathrow airport with her mother, Fatma Salman, and two brothers. They were met by a small crowd bearing gifts, balloons and bouquets. Continue reading...

The former British foreign secretary is among 3,000 signatories, including leading members of Jewish diaspora, to open letter to Isaac HerzogThe former British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind is among leading members of the Jewish diaspora urging the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, to intervene to stop “attacks by Jewish extremists” on Palestinians in the West Bank.An open letter to Herzog facilitated by the London Initiative – a liberal Zionist network of 360 people, including eminent Jewish, Israeli and Israeli Palestinian figures – has attracted more than 3,000 signatories, including diplomats, philanthropists, rabbis and academics from Australia, Canada, across Europe, South Africa the UK and US. It follows a spate of killings and arson attacks by settlers on Palestinian civilians in March. Continue reading...

Knesset approves measure that has been criticised by European nations and rights groupsIsrael’s parliament has passed a law imposing the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of fatal attacks, a measure sharply criticised as discriminatory by European nations and rights groups.The legislation makes the death penalty the default punishment for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank found guilty of intentionally carrying out deadly attacks deemed acts of terrorism by a military court. Continue reading...

Five months after a ceasefire was announced in Gaza, airstrikes are still killing civilians, and the humanitarian situation remains direThere is little left that connects Palestinians in Gaza with their prewar existence. The contours of life have become darker and far more brutal, as if the population has been stripped from its past.“Drones never stop buzzing overhead, gunfire and shelling continue almost daily and naval boats fire towards fishermen,” said 56-year-old Ahmed Baroud, a father of five currently displaced in Deir al-Balah. Continue reading...

Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of Within Our Lifetime group, says FBI told her plot against her life was ‘about to’ take placeSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxFederal US law enforcement has foiled a plot to assassinate New York-based Palestinian American activist Nerdeen Kiswani.Kiswani wrote in post on X that late on Thursday, the FBI joint terrorism task force informed her that a plot against her life was “about to” take place, and that agents had conducted an operation in Hoboken, New Jersey in connection to the plot. Continue reading...

Aipac-backed lawmakers denounce ‘extremist’ violence in West Bank as support for Israel becomes a political liabilityAs Israeli settlers ramp up violent attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, often as Israeli forces stand by, denunciations are mounting in the US, even from Democratic legislators and public figures who are typically staunch defenders of Israel.In recent days, dozens of settlers have torched homes and vehicles and attacked Palestinians in apparently coordinated attacks. Since the start of the month, Israeli settlers and police have killed at least 10 Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, including two young brothers and their parents as they returned from a Ramadan shopping trip. Continue reading...

Legislation initiated by far-right Otzma Yehudit party drew mounting criticism from opponents and rights groups as it moved through the KnessetIsrael’s parliament has advanced a contentious bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of terrorism to its final vote, after the Knesset’s national security committee approved the measure on Tuesday.The legislation, initiated by the far-right Otzma Yehudit party led by National Security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has drawn sharp criticism from opponents who warn it would mark a significant escalation in Israel’s penal policy. Members of Otzma Yehudit have worn noose-shaped pins in support of the bill. Continue reading...

Dozens of former Israeli military, police and spy chiefs describe situation as ‘organised Jewish terrorism’Middle East crisis – live updatesIsrael has not prosecuted its citizens for killing Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank since the start of this decade, , a Guardian analysis of legal data and public records show, creating impunity for a campaign of violence.Attacks have spurred former prime minister Ehud Olmert to call for an intervention by the international criminal court (ICC), to “save the Palestinians and us [Israelis]” from state-backed settler violence, carried out with the complicity and sometimes participation of the police and military. Continue reading...

Rulings in cases alleging antisemitism on US campuses say common pro-Palestinian speech is constitutionally protectedFew debates from the last few years have been more contentious than whether criticism of Israel and Zionism is antisemitic, threatens Jewish people or violates their civil rights. Allegations of antisemitism have cost people jobs, provided pretexts for censorship and fueled an unprecedented crackdown on protest over Israel and shows of support for Palestinian rights, especially at universities.Pro-Israel groups have filed hundreds of lawsuits or legal actions in an effort to silence some of this speech, with the vast majority filed since 2023 in response to the protest movement surrounding Israel’s recent war in Gaza. The most important rulings to have come out of these cases, experts say, have found that speech and slogans at the heart of the controversies are protected by the first amendment. Continue reading...

Kordia was taken at a check-in at an ICE office in New Jersey and was held despite court ruling thrice for her releaseA New Jersey woman who had been arrested at a pro-Palestine protest and booked into a US immigration detention center in Texas last March has been released on bond, after a year in custody.Leqaa Kordia, 33, originally from the West Bank, was arrested in April 2024 at a protest against Israel’s war on Gaza outside of Columbia University. Nearly a year later, she was taken into custody after reporting for a check-in at a Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in New Jersey. Continue reading...

Mother, father and brothers aged five and seven shot in their car as they returned from Ramadan shopping tripIsraeli police have killed two young Palestinian brothers and their parents in the occupied West Bank, shooting all four in the head and face as the family returned from a Ramadan shopping trip.Mohammed, five, Othman, seven, who was blind and had special needs, their mother Waad Bani Odeh, 35, and father Ali Bani Odeh, 37, were driving through their hometown of Tamoun late on Saturday when Israeli forces opened fire. Continue reading...

Motaz Malhees is an actor in The Voice of Hind Rajab, a film about a Palestinian girl killed by the IDF in Gaza in 2024Palestinian actor Motaz Malhees said a travel ban imposed by Donald Trump is preventing him from attending Sunday’s Academy Awards, whose nominees include a movie in which he has a starring role.The Voice of Hind Rajab, a film about a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2024, has been nominated for best international feature film. Continue reading...