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2024 Dec wk5 -- Dec wk4 P2 -- Dec wk4 -- Dec Wk3 P3 -- Dec Wk3 P2 -- Dec Wk 3 -- Dec Wk 2 P3 -- WK2 P 2 -- wk2 -- wk1 P 3 -- wk1 P 2 -- wk1 -- Nov wk5 P3 -- wk5 P2 -- wk5 -- wk4 P3 -- wk4 P2 -- Nwk4
 Click here for an overview by week in 2024

Special reports: Updates February and earlier, 2025-'24: Actual: ADDED: Punishing pro-Palestine protests &  Gaza urgently needs a more effective humanitarian approach and More than $50bn needed to rebuild Gaza after Israel’s war on enclave & No, Mr Trump, we will not be “happy” and “safe” elsewhere. & Returning to Gaza, a stranger in my own city Earlier: & Stories about nazis and medic-aid heroes and the PA betraying the people earlier stories: & Our ‘return’ to northern Gaza is not the end of exile and On idle talk and genocide in Gaza   & Earlier:  A thousand days of Israeli impunity, still no justice for Shireen Abu Akleh & Trump must not be allowed to torpedo the Palestinian right to remain Palestine students & Overview special reports

November 28 - 24 and earler stories, 2024 Is Netanyahu immune from ICC arrest warrant-NO!   TRIBUTES TO MOTHERS AND CHILDREN

Shireen Abu Akleh In commemoration of Shireen Abu Akleh, the 'voice of Al Jazeera' killed while revealing the true face of israel Updated: December 6, 2024: Attacks, arrests, threats, censorship: The high risks of reporting the Israel-Gaza war   Click here for earlier stories/news

February 22 - 18, 2025 just read the actual and fact-finding news February 19 - 16, 2025 Unchilding Palestine’s children... Read more and decide for yourself February 15 - 12, 2025 more fact-finding news

February 13 - 12, 2025 Opinion: Western democracy has lost her tongue. just read the actual and fact-finding news February 11 - 5, 2025 <<Does Israel violate the Gaza ceasefire? Yes! Together with their western allies. just read the actual and fact-finding news February 7 - 1, 2025 Fact: Gaza is not for sale... despite the continues suffering and betrayals on netanyahus' Western allies side. And more fact-finding news January 31 - 28, 2025 In pictures and words: Bittersweet homecoming for Palestinians returning to Gaza City... Read more and decide for yourself

January 28 - 24, 2025 "Now it's time to grief" If the ones guilty of the genocide let us and it doesn't look like it. By the way, did you know that during WW2 the american allies knew all about the transportation routes that brought the jews to the gaschambers but simply let the trains roll. And now there was this so-called 'holocaust remembrance day' but... too many haven't learned anything from history... Read more and decide for yourself  Pre-ceasefire & Post-Ceasefire December 30 - 26, 2024 'Betrayed' and 'abandoned' Sixth baby dies from severe cold

 When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.


 Al Jazeera - Feb 22, 2025
<<Hamas releases remains of captive Shiri Bibas after ‘mix-up of bodies’
Family members and forensic experts confirm that the new remains turned over by Hamas belong to the deceased Bibas.
Israel’s Bibas family has confirmed that the remains of Shiri Bibas have been returned by Hamas, a day after it announced that the Palestinian group had returned an unidentified body. On Friday, Hamas released the remains of Bibas, whose misidentification in a handover earlier prompted anger in the Israeli government and threatened to derail the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal. Bibas’s community, Kibbutz Nir Oz, also confirmed her identity on Saturday, just hours before the seventh captive-prisoner exchange under the ceasefire agreement. “After the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, this morning we received the news we feared the most. Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family to rest,” the Bibas family said in a statement published on Saturday. Hamas had agreed to hand over the bodies of Bibas and her two young sons Kfir and Ariel along with the remains of a fourth captive on Thursday under a ceasefire that has halted fighting in Gaza since last month. Hamas said the children and their mother were killed in an Israeli air attack in November 2023. Four bodies were delivered, but Israel later said one of the remains did not belong to the elder Bibas. On Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to “ensure that Hamas pays the full price” for what he described as a “violation” of the ceasefire deal. Hamas later admitted “the possibility of an error or mix-up of bodies”, which it attributed to Israeli bombing of the area that had killed several people. Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said “unfortunate mistakes” could occur, especially as Israeli bombing had mixed the bodies of Israeli captives and Palestinians, thousands of whom were still buried under the rubble due to relentless Israeli bombardments. “We confirm that it is not in our values or our interest to keep any bodies or not to abide by the covenants and agreements that we sign,” he said in a statement. Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza Government Media Office, said Netanyahu “bears full responsibility for killing her and her children”. The incident underscored the fragility of the ceasefire deal reached with United States backing and with the help of Qatari and Egyptian mediators last month. Six living captives are due for release on Saturday in exchange for 602 Palestinians in Israeli prison, most of whom have been detained without charge or trial. Negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire are expected to start in the coming days.>>
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES:
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/22/hamas-releases-remains-of-captive-shiri-bibas-after-mix-up-of-bodies

France24 - February 21, 2025
<<Arab leaders meet in Saudi Arabia in bid to counter Trump’s ‘Riviera’ Gaza proposal
Leaders from Arab countries met in Saudi Arabia Friday to hammer out a recovery plan for Gaza. The summit is aimed at countering US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate the Palestinian enclave’s two million people to Egypt and Jordan and turn Gaza into a Middle Eastern “Riviera” under US control. Trump’s plan has united Arab states in opposition, but disagreements remain over who should govern the war-ravaged Palestinian territory and how to fund its reconstruction. Umer Karim, an expert on Saudi foreign policy, called the summit the “most consequential” in decades for the wider Arab world and the Palestinian issue. Trump triggered global outrage when he proposed the United States “take over the Gaza Strip” and relocate its 2.4 million people to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan.
READ MORE
Trump reiterates Gaza expulsion plan – and stokes security fears = link
The US, he said, would then be able to turn the enclave into “the Riviera of the Middle East”. "The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too," Trump told reporters. "We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site." A source close to the Saudi government told AFP Arab leaders would discuss “a reconstruction plan to counter Trump’s plan for Gaza”. The Gaza Strip is largely in ruins after more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas, with the United Nations recently estimating that rebuilding would cost more than $53 billion. Meeting with Trump in Washington on February 11, Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Egypt would present a plan for a way forward. The Saudi source said the talks would discuss “a version of the Egyptian plan”. The official Saudi Press Agency, citing an official, confirmed on Thursday that Egypt and Jordan were participating in the Riyadh summit along with the six country members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. It also said decisions issued by the “unofficial fraternal meeting” would appear on the agenda of an emergency Arab League summit to be held in Egypt on 4 March. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi arrived in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, his office said. Previously, a Saudi source told AFP the Palestinian Authority would also take part in the talks.
Three phases
Rebuilding Gaza will be a key issue, after Trump cited reconstruction as justification for relocating its population. Cairo has yet to announce its initiative, but former Egyptian diplomat Mohamed Hegazy outlined a plan “in three technical phases over a period of three to five years”. The first phase, lasting six months, would focus on “early recovery” and the removal of debris, he said. The second would require an international conference to provide details of reconstruction and focus on rebuilding utility infrastructure. And the final one, Hegazy said, would entail urban planning, the reconstruction of housing, provision of services and the establishment of a “political track to implement the two-state solution”. An Arab diplomat familiar with Gulf affairs told AFP: “The biggest challenge facing the Egyptian plan is how to finance it.” The plan also seeks to address the complex issue of post-war oversight for Gaza – which Hamas has controlled since 2007 – with “a Palestinian administration that is not aligned with any faction”, Hegazy said. It will comprise “experts” and will be “politically and legally subordinate to the Palestinian Authority”, he added. Hegazy said Hamas “will retreat from the political scene in the coming period”.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)>>
Source: https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250221-arab-leaders-meet-in-saudi-arabia-in-bid-to-counter-trump-s-riviera-gaza-proposal


Video-screenshot mistreatment of detainees called war crimes
Al Jazeera - Feb 21, 2025 - Hassan Abo Qamar - Gaza-based writer
<<Israel’s mistreatment of detainees called ‘war crimes’
“Everyone saw the dire condition they were in.” Rights groups describe Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians in detention as ‘war crimes’. Al Jazeera’s Hind Touissate explains.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/2/21/israels-mistreatment-of-detainees-called-war

Al Jazeera - Feb 21, 2025 - By Maram Humaid
<<Bathing once every 10 days: The reality of northern Gaza’s water crisis
Gaza families face a dire water crisis after the ceasefire and struggle to survive in the destroyed north.
Beit Lahiya, Gaza, Palestine – Amid towering piles of rubble and destruction, mother of five Faten Abu Haloub, her family and her in-laws have set up adjacent tents on the ruins of what used to be their extended family home. Her husband Karam’s parents – 60-year-old Dalal and 65-year-old Nasser – have eight children, three sons and five daughters, of whom two still live at home. Home is now the little tent next to Karam and Faten’s with a fire pit in front and makeshift “zones”. There’s the kitchen – no more than a few wooden planks to rest cooking utensils and their meagre food supplies on – near the fire. Off to the side is the bathroom, a stone-lined hole dug in the sand that serves as a latrine with more stones marking out a tiny bathing area, the whole section shielded by blankets draped over sticks stuck upright in the ground. Stacked up everywhere are water jugs and buckets for collecting water, which has become the family’s daily struggle. Severe water shortages have plagued the area, which have become more apparent since displaced residents began returning to their homes when the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on January 19. Oxfam says water supplies are at 7 percent of pre-conflict levels as Israel’s bombing of the besieged enclave destroyed water and sanitation infrastructure.
Struggling for water
Faten, 28, and Karam, 39, start their mornings carrying their buckets to fill from communal pipes or whatever other source of water they can find.
Sometimes, Karam’s parents join them in hauling and searching for water, something unheard of in Gaza’s traditional society, in which elders do not perform such physically demanding tasks. Younger family members typically do them. However, the war has upended all conventions. With resources stretched thin and survival at stake, everyone, including the elderly and small children, is forced to contribute. Karam’s two brothers who live in tents nearby bear the primary responsibility for securing water, but when water runs out, the entire family goes out in all directions to look for more.
Throughout Israel’s more than 15-month war on Gaza, Faten’s family had stayed on in the north, braving the intense bombardments until they were forced to flee to western Gaza City in October when a large-scale Israeli ground offensive in the north began and lasted three months. “We didn’t want to leave. … We were among the last people to stay in the north,” Faten says. “But in the end, we couldn’t stay. As soon as the ceasefire was announced, my husband immediately returned to see our home,” Faten says while sitting on a stone by the fire pit and gesturing to the rubble around her. “I didn’t recognise the area or where our home once stood. The level of destruction was shocking. “How can people live in a destroyed place? No essentials, no infrastructure, no water, no sewage, no electricity,” Faten says. “Sometimes, I think we would have been better off dying in the war.” Sometimes, a water truck comes around, she says, and everyone in the family runs to try to get a spot in the filling queue. But sometimes the Abu Haloubs don’t get a spot, and sometimes the water runs out. Faten notes that no one is providing a steady water supply and, while she knows the municipalities are unable to restore the pipes amid the destruction, she hopes someone involved in the aid process – local authorities, international aid organisations or humanitarian groups – will be able to help.
No relief in sight
To say water has become an obsession for the family is putting it lightly. “We ration it strictly. We fear wasting a single drop,” Faten says with a laugh as her mother-in-law joins the conversation. “I spend all day shouting at my daughters-in-law and daughters about water use,” Dalal says. “I set strict rules. No more than one person can bathe per day. Bathing is limited to once every 10 days. Only one family can do laundry per day,” Dalal says as she sits by the fire, preparing tea and coffee for her interviewers. “We used to have 5,000-litre [1,320-gallon] water tanks at home and electricity to pump water,” she reminisces. “We never lived like this before. I used to bathe my children daily or every other day,” Faten agrees. “Kids get dirty and need constant care, but that’s nearly impossible now.” Karam interrupts as he sparingly washes his children’s hands and faces. “My back is broken from carrying water.” But they have had to make do, Faten says, recounting how recent storms presented an unexpected boon. “When the storm hit, the water trucks disappeared, so we started collecting rainwater in all the containers, buckets and tubs we could find. “At first, people around us were sceptical, but soon they followed our lead. We used rainwater for everything. It became a perfect alternative.”
Dreaming of basic comforts
“Having running water from a tap feels like an impossible dream. A proper bathroom with running water is also a dream,” Faten says. “Pipes, hoses and taps with water – these are dreams for us now.” When they were living in tents in western Gaza City before the ceasefire, they dreamed of small comforts, especially when they heard mobile homes would be brought in as part of the ceasefire. “We were so happy. … People even started arguing over who would get these caravans,” Faten says, laughing. “We were told that families with more than six members would receive them, and I thought to myself: ‘If only I had two more children so I could qualify for one!'” “But reality was different,” she says. “No caravans, no services, no reconstruction, no water, no rubble removal. Nothing. We just returned to live amid the destruction.”
“The war hasn’t ended. We’re still living it. Its shadow has never left our lives.”>>
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/21/bathing-once-every-10-days-the-reality-of-northern-gazas-water-crisis

Al Jazeera - Feb 20, 2025 - By Jillian Kestler-D'Amours
<<Canada faces lawsuit over delays in Gaza visa programme
Montreal, Canada – Palestinian families are suing the Canadian government over delays in the issuance of visas meant to allow them to escape Israel’s deadly war in Gaza and receive temporary protection in Canada. Filed in the Federal Court of Canada this month, on behalf of 53 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with family members in Canada, the lawsuit alleges that the country’s special visa programme has been plagued by inefficiencies.
Hana Marku, a Toronto lawyer representing the families, said all of her clients submitted a form expressing interest in the visas within the first month of the scheme’s launch in January 2024. However, none have received the unique reference codes needed to move to the next stage of the process, which is the submission of their relatives’ Canadian visa applications. The prolonged delay has left their Gaza-based relatives open to “life-threatening and inhumane conditions” in the Palestinian territory, where Israel has bombarded cities, neighbourhoods and refugee camps for 15 months, the lawsuit states. “There’s no rhyme or reason to how the codes are being rolled out, and the fact that there’s no transparency here is — it’s emotional torture, frankly,” Marku told Al Jazeera. “It’s emotional torture for the Canadian family members who put in a financial undertaking in the belief that this would create the chance of getting their loved ones out of Gaza.” Canada launched the special Gaza visa programme on January 9, 2024, a few months into Israel’s attacks on the coastal Palestinian enclave. The scheme allowed Canadian citizens and permanent residents to apply to bring extended family members from Gaza to the country amid the war. If approved, successful applicants would receive temporary residency for up to three years. But from the start, families and immigration lawyers said the process was confusing and included invasive questions that went beyond what is typically required, including inquiries about any scars or injuries that required medical attention. They also said Canada did not explain why some Palestinian families received codes to submit their applications while others did not. A spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) — the federal immigration department — told Al Jazeera that it was reviewing a “large volume” of first-stage submissions and that processing times vary according to each case. As of January 28, the government had accepted 4,873 Gaza visa applications into processing, the department said. By that same date, 1,093 people who exited Gaza without any help from the Canadian authorities were approved to come to Canada. Of that, 645 people have arrived in the country. The programme will close once 5,000 applications have reached the processing stage or upon a final cutoff date of April 22. “Movement out of Gaza remains extremely challenging due to factors outside of Canada’s control. This continues to be the primary issue in how quickly we can process applications from Gazans,” the IRCC spokesperson said. But Marku, the Toronto lawyer, said her clients are not asking for assistance in leaving Gaza or for a positive decision on their relatives’ visa requests; they just want the chance to be allowed to submit the applications. “They can’t continue to the next step in this process — they can’t even fill out the application forms — without being given unique reference codes,” she said. “We’re just asking for an order from the Federal Court to compel the federal government to give these people unique reference codes. This is what we’ve had to litigate.” Asked about the lawsuit, IRCC told Al Jazeera that the government could not comment on specific cases due to privacy concerns. One of the Canada-based family members involved in the lawsuit, who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity due to a fear of retribution, said the visa scheme appears to have been “designed to fail and not to evacuate people” from Gaza. “They’re not serious about the process,” the person said of the Canadian government. “They don’t have a structured system. It’s just a bad system. You have to figure out things on your own, it doesn’t make any sense.” The relatives they were hoping to bring to Canada remain in Gaza, which has been decimated. A total of 48,319 Palestinians have been confirmed dead, though the Government Media Office in Gaza has said the total may be as high as 61,709, given the bodies yet to be found under the rubble. A shaky ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, implemented last month, has provided a brief reprieve from widespread bombings, but the enclave is in ruins, and Palestinians face a dire humanitarian crisis, with shortages of food and other basic supplies. The relative in Canada said watching the destruction from afar while struggling to access the Canadian visas has taken a mental toll. “I never … in my entire life [had] to experience such a thing, the pressure like this,” they added. Meanwhile, Marku said the lawyers are “working against the clock” to try to receive the application codes before the programme closes in April. The Canadian government has 30 days from when the lawsuit was filed on February 6 to submit its response, and Marku said her team is hoping the Federal Court will then agree to their arguments on an expedited basis.
“Leaving people in limbo, I think, is almost worse than flat-out refusing them,” Marku told Al Jazeera. “In this situation, it’s just cruel to do this to people.”>>
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/20/canada-faces-lawsuit-over-delays-to-gaza-visa-programme


Video-screenshot West Bank and Gaza hard to tell apart
Al Jazeera - Feb 20, 2025 - Hassan Abo Qamar - Gaza-based writer
<<Palestinians say the occupied West Bank & Gaza hard to tell apart
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank say the Israeli army is using the same tactics it used in Gaza to forcibly displace them. Israel is expanding military operations and demolishing their homes.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/2/20/palestinians-say-the-occupied-west-bank-gaza-hard-to-tell-apart

Al Jazeera - Feb 20, 2025 - Hassan Abo Qamar - Gaza-based writer
<<What’s going on with the Gaza ceasefire deal?
The clock is ticking towards phase two of the Gaza ceasefire deal but there are still major questions over the agreement and whether Israel’s war could resume. Soraya Lennie breaks it down.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/2/20/whats-going-on-with-the-gaza-ceasefire-deal


Video-screenshot doctor Hussam Abu Safia seen shackled
Al Jazeera - Feb 20, 2025 - Hassan Abo Qamar - Gaza-based writer
<<Detained Gaza doctor Hussam Abu Safia seen shackled in new video
The detained director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital has been shown in shackles in a video on Israeli media that has been condemned by his family. It’s the first time Dr Hussam Abu Safia has been seen since his arrest in December.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/2/20/detained-gaza-doctor-hussam-abu-safia-seen-shackled-in-new-video

Al Jazeera - Feb 20, 2025
<<Israeli army kills three Palestinians in West Bank refugee camp assault
Israeli soldiers storm the Far’a refugee camp, killing three, as raids and arrests continue across the West Bank.
Israeli forces have killed at least three Palestinians in an attack on a house in the Far’a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that the killings took place on Wednesday night after the Israeli military surrounded their homes near Tubas and opened fire. The report added that Israeli forces have withheld all three bodies. “Ambulance crews entered the house after the occupation forces withdrew from it and found body parts and traces of blood inside,” Wafa reported. The Israeli military claimed that the three Palestinians were “wanted terrorists who sold weapons for terror purposes”. Israeli forces also arrested two Palestinians – Ahmed Nabil Sobh and Hakam Muhammad al-Khatib – during a raid in the camp near the besieged house. The killings come as the Israeli military continues its weeks-long, large-scale offensive on several areas of the northern West Bank, including Jenin and its refugee camp, as well as Tulkarem and its Nur Shams refugee camp, forcing thousands to flee their homes. The army has also deployed hundreds of soldiers and bulldozers that demolished houses and tore up vital infrastructure in the camps, cutting off water and power. Israel launched its crackdown on refugee camps in the West Bank in January. The camps have long been a hotbed of Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation. The army has since killed dozens of Palestinians and forced at least 40,000 to flee as they have demolished homes and torn up vital infrastructure in refugee camps across the West Bank, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reports. Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli forces continued with their raids and arrests. Soldiers detained two brothers after storming their family home near Tubas on Thursday. At least three other Palestinians were arrested when Israeli forces stormed towns and villages in Ramallah and the nearby el-Bireh city in central West Bank. Another six were arrested after Israeli soldiers raided the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem. In Beita, a town south of Nablus, confrontations broke out between residents and Israeli soldiers. A 15-year-old boy was shot in the leg, Wafa reported. Israeli forces also launched tear gas canisters towards the residents.>>
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/20/israeli-army-kills-three-palestinians-in-west-bank-refugee-camp-assault

Al Jazeera - Feb 19, 2025
<<Israeli army’s Jenin raid enters 2nd month; mass displacement in West Bank
Thousands flee Jenin as Israeli army continues demolitions, marking largest displacement in decades across West Bank. The Israeli army has continued with its large-scale military raid in the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin and its refugee camp, forcing thousands to flee their homes. Wednesday marks 30 days since Israeli forces began their assault on Jenin which then spread to other parts of the northern West Bank, including Tulkarem and its Nur Shams refugee camp. At least 26 Palestinians have been killed in Jenin since January 21. The army has also deployed hundreds of soldiers and bulldozers that demolished houses and tore up vital infrastructure in the overcrowded camp, forcing almost all of its residents out. “We don’t know what’s going on in the camp but there is continuous demolition and roads being dug up,” said Mohammed al-Sabbagh, head of the Jenin camp services committee. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Jenin Mayor Mohammed Jarrar said the Israeli army “adopted a pattern of random destruction” in the camp and its surroundings in order to make the camp “uninhabitable”. The mass displacement of Palestinians from various parts of the West Bank in recent weeks marks the largest displacement operation in decades. The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 Nakba around the creation of Israel, have long been major centres for resistance groups fighting Israeli occupation. They have been raided repeatedly by the Israeli military but the current operation, which began as the ceasefire was agreed in the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip, has been on an unusually large scale. According to figures from the Palestinian Authority, about 17,000 people have now been forced out of Jenin refugee camp, leaving it almost deserted. In Nur Shams, 6,000 people, or about two-thirds of its population, have been forced out, with another 10,000 leaving from Tulkarem camp. “The ones who are left are trapped,” said Nihad al-Shawish, head of the Nur Shams camp services committee. “The Civil Defence, the Red Crescent and the Palestinian security forces brought them some food yesterday but the army is still bulldozing and destroying the camp.” Israeli raids have demolished dozens of houses and torn up large stretches of roadway as well as cutting off water and power. Humanitarian officials say they have not seen such displacement in the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel captured the territory west of the Jordan River, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. “This is unprecedented. When you add to this the destruction of infrastructure, we’re reaching a point where the camps are becoming uninhabitable,” said Roland Friedrich, director of West Bank affairs for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Israeli forces have also continued to carry out arrests of Palestinians across the West Bank. On Wednesday, four people, including two children, were detained from Jenin. Also on Wednesday, an elderly woman was shot in the chest near the entrance to the Jenin refugee camp. The Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces have sealed the entrances of the camp and that soldiers stationed at the main entrance have been shooting at people who try coming near it. Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli forces raided and demolished a home in Hebron, while military bulldozers razed agricultural land.>>
SOURCE/Video: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/19/israeli-armys-jenin-raid-enters-2nd-month-mass-displacement-in-west-bank

Al Jazeera - Feb 18, 2025 - Hassan Abo Qamar - Gaza-based writer
<<A letter from Gaza to Mr Trump
Gaza was already the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ and it will be again – when we, the Palestinians, rebuild it.
Dear Mr Trump,
I am writing to you as a Palestinian and a survivor of a genocide, who was born and raised in Gaza – a city of love and resilience. I have read to your statements about Gaza and frankly, I am confused. You claim to be a “peace-maker” but encourage Israel to continue its genocide, calling for “all hell” to break lose if your demands are not fulfilled. Mr Trump, we have already been through hell. We lost 60,000 martyrs in it. You claim credit for the ceasefire deal, and yet your government – one of its guarantors – refuses to pressure Israel into fulfilling all its obligations under it. You call Gaza a “demolition site” but conveniently fail to name the criminal responsible—while simultaneously supplying it with more bombs, funding, and diplomatic cover. You talk about Palestinians being “safe” and “happy”, yet you refer to us as if we are a burden to be offloaded onto Jordan, Egypt, or any country willing to take us. You claim that we “only want to be in the Gaza Strip because [we] don’t know anything else”. Mr Trump, I think you profoundly misunderstand who we are and what Gaza is to us. You may think of us as a mere obstacle to your vision of luxury resorts, but we are a people with deep roots, long history, and unalienable rights. We are the rightful owners of our land. Gaza is not your business venture, and it is not for sale.
Gaza is our home, our land, our inheritance.
And no, it is not true that we want to stay here because we “know nothing else”. Although the 17-year-long Israeli siege has made life incredibly difficult for us, some of us have still managed to travel – for education, medical treatment or work. But these people still return because Gaza is home. A powerful example is Dr Refaat Alareer, an inspiring figure, who the Israeli occupation targeted and killed in 2023. He earned his master’s degree in the UK and later completed his PhD at Universiti Putra Malaysia. Despite having the opportunity to stay abroad, he chose to return to Gaza, where he taught creative writing and literature at the Islamic University. He also co-founded We Are Not Numbers, an initiative that paired young Palestinian writers with experienced authors to amplify their voices and resist occupation through storytelling. One of these voices is mine. Last spring, I, too, had the opportunity to leave, but I decided against it. I could not leave my family, friends and Gaza amid a genocidal war. However, like many others, I plan to travel to complete my education and then return to help rebuild and support my people. This is the Palestinian way – we seek knowledge and opportunities, not to abandon our homeland, but to build and strengthen it. Speaking of building – you talk about your plans to turn Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East”. The thing is, Gaza was the Riviera of the Middle East. Our ancestors built it into a flourishing trade hub, port city and cultural centre. It was “magnificent” – to use your words – until Israel was created and it started destroying it. And yet, after every brutal Israeli assault on Gaza, Palestinians would rebuild. Despite all the Israeli violence, restrictions and thievery, Palestinians still made sure Gaza was a safe place with a cosy rhythm of life, where its youth were doing their best to pursue decent livelihoods, where families were happy and together, and where homes thrived. Israel has now tried to reduce all of Gaza to rubble and death so we are no longer able to live in it. You have picked up on the idea, effectively endorsing our ethnic cleansing under the veneer of humanitarianism.
No, Mr Trump, we will not be “happy” and “safe” elsewhere.
But I agree with you on something else you said: “You’ve got to learn from history”. Indeed, history teaches us that settler-colonialism in modern times is unsustainable. In this sense, your plans and Israel’s plans are doomed to fail. We, the people of Gaza – like any Indigenous people – refuse to be uprooted. We refuse to be dispossessed. We refuse to be forced into exile so that our land can be handed to the highest bidder. We are not a problem to be solved; we are a people with the right to live in our homeland in freedom and dignity. No amount of bombs, blockades, or tanks will make us forget that. We will not be relocated, resettled, or replaced.
Power and wealth will not decide the fate of Gaza. History is not written by thieves – it is written by those who resist, by the will of the people. No matter the pressure, our connection to this land will never be severed. Surrender and abandonment are not an option. We will honour our martyrs with resistance by nourishing this land with love, care and remembrance.
Wishing you all the best in your futile pursuits,
Hassan Abuqamar
Gaza, Palestine
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.>>
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/2/18/a-letter-from-gaza-to-mr-trum

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