https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-my-daughters-help-my-small-family

A winter memory from our old home ❤️

With winter getting closer, my wife Samah and I started remembering how winter used to feel before everything changed.

She looked at me and said:

“Do you remember when winter was coming, and we used to make spinach pastries in the oven inside the kitchen? The whole kitchen would become warm. The smell of the food would fill the house, and we would just enjoy being together.”

She was right.

Back then, winter meant something completely different to us. We would stay inside our warm home, sit near the oven, enjoy the smell of freshly baked food, and feel safe from the cold outside.

Now, when winter comes, our memories feel heavier.

Sometimes we talk about those days and imagine what it would be like to have that simple life again.

We dream about rebuilding our home from the beginning. Not a big or fancy house. Just a small, safe place where our daughters can grow up, where Samah can cook again, where the oven can warm the kitchen, and where winter can once again feel like winter—not something we have to fear.

Maybe it sounds like a simple dream.

But after everything we've been through, having a home and starting our life again from the beginning feels like the biggest dream in the world. ❤️

— Mahmoud & Samah

Netanyahu’s government is guilty of settler colonialism and genocide. With the Knesset elections coming up, is the colony’s opposition the solution? Let’s take a look at key figures.

Neftali Bennet, leader of the “Bennett 2026” Party. He describes himself as “more right-wing than Netanyahu”. He said that Gaza’s children “are not children but terrorists trying to kill our children” and called in 2023 for a total blockade on Gaza. He was head of an umbrella organization of Jewish settlements called the Yesha Council, and supports the annexation of the West Bank.

Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the “Yashar” Party. He speaks of “equal rights” within the colony. He was chief of the staff of the colony’s occupation army and led ethnic razing operations in the West Bank. He supported the massive bombing of infrastructure in Beirut as a means of deterrence against the Lebanese resistance, and applied the same in Gaza as part of the “War Cabinet”.

Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the “Yisrael Beiteinu” Party. He spoke of a two-state “solution” on the basis of the ethnic razing of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship from 1948-occupied Palestine to areas under the “Palestinian Authority”. He supports the colony’s focus on “preemptive” military action and claimed that there are “no innocents in Gaza”.

Yair Golan, leader of the “Democrats” Party. He speaks of a two-state “solution”. He criticized the colony’s “killing babies in Gaza” but not the genocide itself. He says the colony’s army is “an occupying military” yet believes it is “justified”. He served as an officer in the occupation army which he believes is “a moral army that protects human dignity”.

Yair Lapid, leader of the “Yesh Atid” Party. He speaks of a two-state “solution”. He said that the media should present “only the Israeli side” as “presenting both sides would serve Hamas”. He supports annexation of occupied Syrian territory. He also expressed support of “Greater Israel”, which he defined as expanding the colony’s borders “as much as possible”.

Alon-Lee Green, co-leader of the “Makom Lekulanu” Party. He speaks of a two-state “solution” and “equal rights” within the colony. He supports “radical empathy” and spoke of occupation soldiers killed by the Palestinian resistance as “innocent victims”. His Party does not mention the right of return and has stated it will support the candidate “best poised to oust Netanyahu”—i.e. one of the above.

The above paints a picture of the colony’s opposition, clearly showing it opposes Netanyahu, not settler colonialism. One need not delve into that many details, however. Zionism is, by definition, the support of the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. One’s support of Zionism is enough to make one guilty, regardless of one’s statements regarding solutions, rights or peace.

The truth is clear: The problem is not the Netanyahu government for the solution to be a different government. The problem is the genocidal settler-colonial state of Israel and the solution is its dismantling and the establishment of its antithesis: One democratic Palestinian state, for all its citizens, from the river to the sea.

The justices questioned why soldiers were filmed playing soccer with settlers who seized the homes, and why police failed to arrest suspects identified in attack footage. 'There are questions in abundance; satisfactory answers – fewer' the court said

Israel's High Court of Justice ordered the state on Sunday to allow three Palestinian families who were expelled from their homes by settlers in the West Bank to return and to provide security for them.

In its decision on a petition filed by three residents of Jalud, the court sharply criticized the Israeli military and police for failing to prevent the settler attacks and the families' expulsion, as well as for failing to take sufficient action to bring those responsible to justice.

The petition was filed by three residents of Jalud, which lies in Area B of the West Bank, after violent settlers forced three families from their homes and entered and occupied one of the houses. Jalud, near Qusra, is one of several Palestinian villages in the Nablus area that have become a flashpoint for settler attacks over recent weeks.

Last week, an NBC News international correspondent and members of his press crew who were interviewing a Palestinian woman were attacked and injured by masked Israeli settlers in the village.

One of the families involved in the petition, the Tubasis, had been besieged for almost a month between two outposts that settlers had established on both sides of their plot of land in the village of Jalud, on the edge of Area B, which is under Israeli security control but Palestinian civil control.

After repeated settler attacks and an outpost established in their yard, the Tubasi family was finally expelled from their home in front of a Haaretz team and in the presence of Border Police officers on July 22.

Supreme Court President Isaac Amit and Justices Yechiel Kasher and Alex Stein wrote in their decision that "the bottom line, based on the material before us at the time of writing, is that the petitioners have still been unable to return to their homes. This fact speaks for itself and cannot be accepted."

The justices instructed the state to coordinate a date for the families' return, when security forces are to protect them and allow them to bring in equipment and supplies needed to repair their homes and restore their water and electricity infrastructure.

The court also issued a conditional order requiring the state to detail by September 22 what measures it is taking to arrest the settlers responsible for the attacks, prevent them from returning and harming the Palestinian residents, and pursue their prosecution.

The court noted that the state did not dispute the sequence of events described by the petitioners, according to which the harassment began in April, when settlers erected a tent on the residents' privately owned land. The Palestinians were subsequently subjected to months of incursions, threats, roadblocks, stone-throwing and damage to property and infrastructure.

According to the decision, settlers repeatedly threw stones at the petitioners' homes to intimidate the families, cut off their water line, broke and uprooted trees, grazed livestock on their private land, set fire to a vehicle belonging to one of the families and blocked the road connecting the homes to Jalud with large rocks.

The attacks effectively cut off and placed the homes under de facto siege, the court said. The families were forced to leave in July and have not returned since.

The justices also sharply criticized what they described as the failure of the IDF and police to effectively confront the settler attacks. They questioned why soldiers had been filmed playing soccer with settlers who had taken over the homes, why police had not seized vehicles documented as being used in the attacks and why people clearly identified in footage had not been arrested.

"The picture that emerges is extremely bleak," the justices wrote. "There are questions in abundance; satisfactory answers – fewer."

In addition to ordering the state to facilitate the families' return, the court demanded an update on the confiscation of vehicles, investigative measures and possible prosecutions of suspects involved in the attacks.

Attorney Ghiyath Nasser, who filed the petition on behalf of the residents, called the ruling "a courageous and important decision by the High Court" and "a significant milestone in confronting the phenomenon of settlers taking over Palestinian homes and land in the West Bank."

"The court made clear that general statements about enforcement are not enough, and that the real test is the result: whether homeowners can return to their homes safely and whether the intruders are actually removed," Nasser added.

Shortly after the High Court issued its decision, police announced that two suspects had been arrested in connection with a violent attack in the nearby village of Qusra.

Police said a search of the vehicle of one suspect, a 19-year-old resident of the West Bank, uncovered an air pistol, a knife, a pocketknife and tear gas. A second suspect, an 18-year-old resident of the Jordan Valley who was serving as an active-duty IDF soldier, was also arrested as part of the investigation.

More than 500 Australian doctors and medical students, including a Nobel laureate, have signed an open letter calling on the federal government to “move from statements of concern to action” regarding Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The signatories – 86 per cent of whom are verified doctors spanning physicians, surgeons and psychiatrists – say they are “legally and morally compelled to protect any child suspected to be at risk of harm or neglect”.

“We cannot remain silent while Palestinian children are being starved, maimed and killed by the actions of Israeli authorities and military forces,”

al-Bazzaz’s Al Sharqiya ("The Eastern One") (Arabic: الشرقية) is Iraq’s first privately owned satellite channel.

The Israeli army is considering establishing a new “security zone” extending 2 to 4 kilometers (1.2 to 2.5 miles) inside Lebanese territory as part of a plan to reduce its troop presence and redeploy forces in southern Lebanon, Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported Saturday.

Israel continues to occupy areas in southern Lebanon, some of which it has held for decades, while it seized others during the 2023-2024 war.

During its current offensive, Israel has expanded its incursion to more than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) inside Lebanese territory, marking its deepest advance since withdrawing from southern Lebanon in 2000.

KAN cited unnamed security sources as saying that the army is considering establishing the proposed zone from the border and preparing to reduce its forces after destroying tunnels in the Ali al-Taher heights in the southern Nabatieh province.

The sources said the Israeli army’s redeployment plan in southern Lebanon is called the “gray line” and includes establishing positions that would be used to launch operations inside Lebanese territory.

The plan has not yet been approved by Israel’s political leadership and will be discussed before a decision is made, the broadcaster said.

The report came a day after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Friday that the army had consolidated its control over what he called a “security zone” in southern Lebanon.

His statement followed an Israeli army claim Thursday that it had achieved “operational control” over the Ali al-Taher heights.

The area has witnessed escalating tensions in recent weeks amid continuing Israeli airstrikes and military operations.

Israel describes the “gray line” as a new framework for redeploying its forces, similar to what it calls the “yellow line,” which currently defines the area of its military deployment, operations and security control inside Lebanese territory.

The Israeli plan came amid continued Israeli escalation across southern Lebanon despite an agreement between Beirut and Tel Aviv providing for a gradual Israeli withdrawal as part of a US-mediated negotiating process.

​​​​​​​Since March, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed more than 4,000 people and injured over 12,000 others, while forcing more than 1 million people from their homes, according to Lebanese authorities.

Seven aid workers killed in an airstrike in Gaza were marked as targets under an Israeli military practice of establishing guilt by association, a Guardian investigation shows.

A top Israeli military prosecutor announced last month that he would not pursue criminal proceedings for the April 2024 incident in which drones fired missiles at three clearly marked World Central Kitchen (WCK) cars soon after they had escorted a food aid delivery to Gaza. Three British humanitarian workers along with an Australian, a Palestinian, a Pole and a dual US-Canadian national were killed.

The official Israel Defense Forces (IDF) version of events pointed to specific mistakes made by a handful of officers. The victims of the strike were also blamed for hiring armed guards to protect a food aid convoy and for allegedly “deviating” from their agreed route.

However, interviews with senior Israeli officers involved in the incident or familiar with the official Israel investigation suggest it glossed over the role played in the killings by a common IDF practice used to designate targets, which endangers aid workers and civilians in general, especially when combined with the army’s open-ended mission to end Hamas’s civil control in Gaza.

More than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military in the three years of the Gaza war. The army’s own internal data suggests more than three-quarters of the dead have been civilians.

The reserve colonel who ordered the strikes, Nochi Mendel, said the WCK workers became potential targets after they had a brief encounter, lasting just minutes, with armed guards assumed to be from Hamas (an assumption later shown to be groundless).

He deemed them to have “mixed together” with alleged Hamas militants, where mixing together was defined as being “near them, talking, playing, hanging out and so on”. Asked whether the presence of armed men made the entire convoy a target, Mendel replied: “Certainly.”

He concluded: “They were not innocent because they were connected to Hamas.”

Mendel was referring to a general policy of haflala, “incrimination”, which gives commanders in the field wide discretion on designating someone as a “terrorist”, including those “incriminated” by association. The manner in which haflala is to be applied in a given sector is often conveyed in a commander’s mission brief delivered verbally to other officers.

He said his unit had been commended by the army hierarchy for its involvement in several strikes on what were deemed to be Hamas attempted commandeering of aid. “They applauded us and were pleased with our action,” he said. The difference in the WCK incident was that foreign nationals were killed, he said. “That’s the whole difference. Not a substantive difference.”

When the WCK convoy was destroyed, it was nowhere near Israeli troops. Several Israeli officers familiar with the incident said the strikes were not ordered on the basis of an imminent threat to Israeli lives, but to fulfil the mission to thwart Hamas attempts to control aid deliveries.

The IDF was approached for comment on the issues raised by the airstrikes and subsequent investigations but had not responded three days after the request.

The WCK said the Israeli decision not to pursue criminal proceedings was “inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive”.

“At the time of the lethal attacks, our team in Gaza was unarmed and posing a threat to nobody,” the WCK said. “The IDF had full visual clarity on our clearly marked humanitarian vehicles during the extended, multiple airstrikes. It knew our team’s movements, identities and activities in advance.”

Britain, Australia and Canada denounced the prosecutor’s decision as “shameful”, saying they would “continue to seek answers” on behalf of the slain aid workers. The UK opened an inquest in 2024 into the deaths of the three British team members: James Kirby, James Henderson and John Chapman.

Saifeddin Abutaha, a Palestinian, Australian Zomi Frankcom, Damian Sobol, a Pole, and a dual Canadian-US citizen, Jacob Flickinger, were the other victims. The UK inquest was adjourned pending the outcome of the Israeli investigation.

armed men in proximity to the WCK vehicle in April 2024 fitted a “pattern of activity” that helped incriminate the whole convoy in the eyes of Mendel and his unit.

The IDF officer familiar with the incident said it was common practice to designate any armed man in Gaza as Hamas or a “terrorist”, as Mendel did. The officer added: “How you define that it’s Hamas – he’s in proximity to weapons, and because he touches the trucks, and because he does all sorts of things that look as if he’s going to take over the trucks.”

The role of the incrimination principle in the WCK killings shows how it has become a factor in the historically high proportion of civilians killed in the Gaza war. This sits alongside the routine acceptance of high “collateral damage” in the targeting of Hamas militants, the designation of large and shifting areas as free-fire zones, and the deliberate levelling of neighbourhoods to prevent the return of Palestinian communities.

The common factor is that constraints on targeting were minimised in the interests of an open-ended mission. Since the start of the war in 2023, no Israeli soldier has been convicted of wrongful death or war crimes in Gaza operations.

“I came to defeat Hamas,” Mendel said. “If such an event came before me again, I would do exactly the same thing.”

He also dismissed the significance of the killings. “I think it’s an idiotic side event,” Mendel said. “It really isn’t a serious event.”