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By Gary Wilson

In a brazen escalation, the U.S.-backed and armed Zionist regime has launched what it calls the “concluding” offensive on Gaza. This escalation coincides with advanced U.S. proposals to forcibly resettle Palestinians from Gaza to war-torn Libya and Syria, according to reports.

While global media attention has shifted from Israel’s starvation siege and mass slaughter in Gaza, Trump’s West Asia visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates drew significant coverage, particularly his decision to bypass Israel — a move framed as a diplomatic “snub” to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Washington Post praised Trump’s “unorthodox” regional strategy, calling the trip a series of “laudable wins.”

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In a landmark and highly controversial decision, Israel's cabinet voted on 13 May to take full responsibility for land registration in Area C of the occupied West Bank – an area comprising around 60 percent of the territory and home to the vast majority of Israeli settlements. The move, pushed by far-right Ministers Israel Katz and Bezalel Smotrich, is widely being described by critics as a de facto annexation of Palestinian land.

Under the 1995 Oslo Accords, Area C was placed under temporary Israeli control, with an eventual transition to Palestinian Authority (PA) administration expected. That transition never materialized. Now, with the new cabinet resolution, any land registration efforts by Palestinians in Area C will be declared legally void by Israel. Israeli authorities plan to initiate formal land registration processes, conduct widespread land surveys, and potentially reclassify vast tracts as “state land,” opening them for settlement expansion.

Under international law, all Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank is illegal.

May 13, 2025.

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Hossam Shabat is dead. I am beyond rage and despair as I write these words. The Israeli military bombed his car this morning as he was traveling in Beit Lahia. Videos fill my screen of his body lying on the street, carried to the hospital, grieved by his colleagues and loved ones. These are the kinds of tragic scenes Hossam himself would so often document for the world. He was an exemplary journalist: brave, tireless, and dedicated to telling the story of Palestinians in Gaza.

Hossam was one of a handful of reporters who remained in northern Gaza through Israel’s genocidal war. His ability to cover one of the most brutal military campaigns in recent history was almost beyond comprehension. He bore witness to untold death and suffering on an almost daily basis for seventeen months. He was displaced over twenty times. He was often hungry. He buried many of his journalist colleagues. In November, he was wounded in an Israeli airstrike. I still can’t believe I am referring to him in the past tense. Israel obliterates the present.

When I contacted Hossam in November to ask him to write for Drop Site News, he was enthusiastic. “Greetings habibi. May God keep you. I am very happy to have this opportunity,” he wrote. “There are so many ideas, scenes, stories.”

His first dispatch for Drop Site was a searing account of a vicious mass expulsion campaign by the Israeli military in Beit Lahia that forced thousands of Palestinian families to flee one of the last remaining shelters in the besieged town:

Some of the wounded fell on the road with no hope of getting treatment. "I was walking with my sister in the street,” said Rahaf, 16. She and her sister were the sole survivors in their family of an earlier airstrike that killed 70 people. “Suddenly my sister fell due to the bombing. I saw blood pouring from her, but I couldn't do anything. I left her in the street, and no one pulled her out. I was screaming, but no one heard me."

His writing was lyrical and arresting. I struggled to translate and edit his pieces—to do them justice, to convey his emotive use of Arabic into something relatable in English. In the typical editorial see-saw back and forth of finalizing a piece, I would often return to him with clarifications and questions, asking him for additional details and direct quotes. He was always quick to respond despite his extraordinary circumstances.

In January, Hossam filed a piece about the three days between when the “ceasefire” deal was announced and when it was scheduled to be implemented, a period when Israel escalated its bombing campaign across Gaza:

They targeted the al-Falah school; they bombed an entire residential block in Jabaliya; they killed families, like the Alloush family, whose bodies have not yet been recovered and still lie under and over the rubble. The children I saw that night appeared happy but they were no longer living, their faces frozen in a mix of smiles and blood.

In early December, when writing a preamble to one of his articles, I asked him to confirm his age. “Hahaha. I’m young. 24,” he wrote. Then moments later he clarified: “Actually, I haven’t turned 24 yet. I’m 23.” I told him he was young in age only, but in experience he was old (it sounds better in Arabic). “I'm really tired,” he responded. “I swear I have no strength left. I can't find a place to sleep. I've been displaced 20 times.” He continued: “Did you know that I am the only one in my family who lives alone in the north?” Last month, during the “ceasefire,” he was reunited with his mother for the first time in 492 days.

In October, the Israeli military placed Hossam and five other Palestinian journalists on a hit list. At the time, he said it felt like he was “hunted.” He called on people to speak out using the hashtag #ProtectTheJournalists: “I plead everyone to share the reality about Journalists in order to spread awareness about the real plans of the Israeli occupation to target journalists in order to impose a media blackout. Spread the hashtag and talk about us!”

In December, after the Israeli military killed five journalists in an airstrike on their vehicle, I messaged to check in on him.

“Our job is only to die,” he responded. “I hate the whole world. No one is doing anything. I swear I've come to hate this job.” About his surviving colleagues he wrote, “We've started saying to each other: "Ok, whose turn is it?…Our families consider us already martyred.”

When Israel resumed its scorched earth bombing last week, I messaged again to check in on him. He responded with one word: “Death.”

Throughout it all, Hossam would message with ideas for stories, or just to relay what was happening in the north. In his messages and voice notes, he often somehow still managed to be warm and funny—a kind of rebellion against the death all around him.

After the “ceasefire” went into effect, he returned to his hometown of Beit Hanoun on the northeastern edge of Gaza. Hardly a structure was left standing, but he was determined to stay and document the destruction.

He messaged me late Sunday night, just hours before he was killed. He had been forced to leave his hometown of Beit Hanoun on the day of Israel’s renewed assault last week and was forcibly displaced yet again—this time to Jabaliya. We had agreed on him writing a piece about the attack last week and what he had witnessed.

“Habibi,” he wrote. “I miss you.” I asked him what the situation was like in Jabaliya. “Difficult,” he said.

He sent his piece, and I read through it, sent my follow-up questions. He only answered one before going offline. I messaged him again as soon as I woke up this morning. I didn’t yet know that he had been killed.

What you are about to read is Hossam’s last article. I translated it through tears.

—Sharif Abdel Kouddous

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statement from mahmoud khalil shared by the center for constitutional rights

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The Gaza ceasefire has ended as Israel resumes bombing the Strip 20 days after blocking all aid from entering the enclave.

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Palestinian graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, lead negotiator of Columbia Encampment in ICE custody, with green card revoked despite being married to a US citizen.

This is under bipartisan agreement ofc.

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Ramadan in Gaza 2025

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The Israel Prison Service said in a statement on Friday that Israeli authorities, not the Red Cross, will transport Palestinian prisoners released as part of the deal to ensure “the terrorists do not deviate from the strict security guidelines and refrain from any expression of joy within Israeli territory.”

During the week-long truce in November 2023, Ben-Gvir instructed police to use “an iron fist” against attempts by Palestinians to celebrate prisoner releases. “My instructions are clear: There are to be no expressions of joy,” Ben-Gvir told the Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai and Israel Prison Service Commissioner. “Expressions of joy are equivalent to backing terrorism; victory celebrations give backing to those human scum, for those Nazis.” The restrictions on prisoners and their families even included a ban on passing out candy as part of family celebrations. Prisoners and their families were forbidden from speaking to the media, holding community gatherings, or displaying any form of celebration. Any violation of the conditions would result in a fine of 70,000 shekels (around $20,000).

cartoon villain ass shit

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ceasefire today, accountability from tomorrow until the end of time. all my love to the steadfast people and martyrs of gaza

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“We endured and resisted, and now we are rebuilding Gaza stronger than before. The future is ours, and we will rebuild our land with peace and hope.”

Powerful words from a true lioness. God bless the people of Palestine.

(source)

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- The grandfather who lost his beloved granddaughter Reem, the soul of his soul, to the Israeli airstrikes.

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It’s almost christmas. Palestine is still under the brutal oppression of Israel. Please, donate what you can to Palestinians.

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Here's a website where Palestine GoFundMes are vetted and shared that you can send out to people. The url is gazafunds.com

Easy to use and simple. Just share the site whenever someone asks for GFMs for Palestine.

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please don’t forget to extend a hand to lebanon too i know of the wfp raising money but if anyone knows of any other organizations feel free to lmk

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Balsam Ibrahim (@balsamibrahim), whose vetted campaign I've been reblogging for several days, has asked me to also share this campaign that is raising money to provide water for the people in the displacement camp in Az-Zawaida. Here is a photo she took of people waiting for water:

Balsam says:

This campaign is more important than my personal one because it helps more than 60 families. Imagine, €100 or €50 can help more than 60 families.

Right now, as of 12:26 GMT on 18 October 2024, this campaign is at $2,955 of its $7,500 goal.

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Notes from besieged northern Gaza this morning:

- The occupation forces besiege Jabalia and northern Gaza for the 18th day with continuous artillery shelling and shooting at citizens' homes and shelters

- The israeli occupation forces destroy a number of citizens' homes in the Beit Lahia project

- Hundreds of appeals from families trapped in Jabalia camp and Beit Lahia project to rescue and evacuate them

- Director of the Indonesian Hospital: The occupation prevents the Red Cross from providing medical staff and patients with food and water.

- Dozens of martyrs and injuries in the streets of Beit Lahia project and Jabalia camp after the displaced were targeted by drones and artillery

- The israeli occupation army imposes a siege by fire on the Beit Lahia project, where tens of thousands of displaced people are present in this area.

- Martyrs and wounded in israeli shelling targeting citizens near Al-Qassam Mosque in Beit Lahia

- “Beit Lahia project is now being literally wiped out”

- Quadcopter aircraft besiege Khalifa bin Zayed School in the Beit Lahia project in the northern Gaza Strip with fire, and call on thousands of displaced persons to leave forcibly or face death and arrest threats.

- Shrouds run out in hospitals, families bury their loved ones in holes in the roads and homes without shrouds

- Kamal Adwan Hospital is surrounded by fire and medical crews are unable to move to rescue the wounded and martyrs

- As a result of the ongoing israeli bombing, three schools caught fire: Kuwait, Aleppo, and Hamad, which are the main schools in Jabalia camp, north of the Strip. Refugee shelters.

- “Calls in the quadcopters in northern Gaza, in Jabalia and Beit Lahia to evacuate, to blow up entire neighborhoods at once... Death, suffering, displacement and destroyed homes, all of them came together on us at one time and in one moment. For those outside Gaza, the entire Gaza Strip is barely the size of a small street in Cairo. To put the picture more clearly, the explosions that occur in Jabalia can be heard in Khan Younis.”