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A 29-year-old Palestinian man died on Wednesday evening from wounds sustained after being shot with live ammunition fired by […] settlers during an attack on a West Bank town east of Ramallah, according to Palestinian medical personnel and local sources cited by WAFA.

Medical sources at the Palestine Medical Complex said the man, identified as Odeh Ataf Odeh Awawdeh, was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital with a gunshot wound to the back. They said he was hit by live fire directed by […] settlers at residents in the area.

Local sources said groups of settlers attacked the outskirts of Deir Dibwan and opened fire, critically wounding Awawda before he later died of his injuries.

A Palestinian security source told Haaretz that the shooting was carried out by an Israeli citizen using his personal weapon, and that four Israelis entered the town without coordination, an entry that preceded the outbreak of clashes. The source added that the four were detained by security forces and released shortly afterward.

The same sources said Israeli forces closed the entrance to the town during the incident and later entered it, carrying out arrests in which around 30 residents were detained.

The killing in Deir Dibwan came amid a wider wave of violence across the West Bank on Wednesday.

In an incident on Monday, […] settlers shot dead two Palestinians in the village of Al-Mughayyir near Ramallah, medics said, identifying them as 14-year-old Aws Hamdi Al-Naasan and 32-year-old Marzouq Abu Naim. Several others were wounded in the incident, which Palestinian reports said took place near a school on the outskirts of the village.

Palestinian reports added that settlers reached a hill overlooking homes in the village, in some accounts accompanied by soldiers.

Earlier Monday, a 16-year-old Palestinian boy, Mohammed al-Jaabari, was killed after being struck by a vehicle near Hebron. Israeli police said they had opened an investigation into the incident.

A security source said the vehicle belonged to a security unit. The IDF said the incident involved a reserve soldier, who was later suspended from reserve duty and had his weapon confiscated pending investigation.

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submitted 13 hours ago by pete_link@lemmy.ml to c/palestine@lemmygrad.ml
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submitted 13 hours ago by pete_link@lemmy.ml to c/palestine@lemmygrad.ml

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/63739301

In a secret location due to right-wing attacks in previous years, bereaved families recognized each other's grief and called for a shared future.

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submitted 13 hours ago by pete_link@lemmy.ml to c/palestine@lemmygrad.ml

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/45929411

Fuck Israel.

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Palestinian journalists from Gaza Ahmed Alnaouq and Hala Hanina are joined by Palestinian author, academic and physician Dr Ghada Karmi and investigative journalist Matt Kennard.

They discuss the latest news from Palestine and the wider region, including the now viral of image from L’Espresso magazine showing an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank terrorising a Palestinian woman, the ongoing genocide in Gaza despite six months of so-called “ceasefire” and the significance of Palestinian Prisoner’s Day on 17th April.

01:20 L’Espresso Magazine photo of Israeli settler

16:00 six months into the so-called ‘ceasefire’ in Gaza

25:00 Why won’t Israel STILL allow journalists to enter Gaza?

37:00 Flotilla sets sail from Barcelona to break the siege of Gaza

45:00 Palantir, Israel and the NHS

57:00 Green Party motion declaring Zionism is racism

1:04:00 Palestinian Prisoner’s Day

1:17:00 Is the British government involved in the Israeli attacks on Lebanon?

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Seven months into the so-called “ceasefire,” Israel continues to restrict the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza while killing civilians in airstrikes and border incidents on a daily basis. Among the dead have been women, children, aid workers, and journalists.

But the ongoing restrictions have tightened dramatically since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, carried out under the pretext of “security.”

The continued humanitarian blockade on Gaza sometimes manifests in clear and violent incidents, such as the killing of Majdi Aslan, but most of the time it remains less visible. Last January, Israel banned the activities of 37 international aid organizations in both Gaza and the West Bank, which has devastated Palestinians in Gaza, who overwhelmingly rely on international aid for survival.

“We are clearly observing a significant decline in the ability of international organizations to carry out their work inside the Gaza Strip,” said Ismail Thawabta, Director of the Government Media Office in Gaza. “This decline is not natural. It is the direct result of Israeli measures targeting the operations of these organizations, whether through restrictions on the entry of aid, obstruction of their movement, or undermining their working conditions.”

Some organizations, such as the World Food Program (WFP) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), have already reduced their services due to Israeli pressure and continued restrictions. The WFP’s flour supply has been reduced by 30%, while WFP-funded bakeries have cut bread production by 50%, amid broader critical shortages in bread, water, and baby formula.

Abdulnasser Ajrami, the head of Bakeries’ Association in Gaza, told local news last week that the WFP reductions in the supply of flour and diesel to bakeries “have decreased bread production from 300 tons to 200 tons daily.”

UNRWA, on the other hand, announced that political and economic pressures have led to a 20% reduction in services provided to Palestinian refugees. In a press interview on April 5, Jonathan Fowler, Director of Communications for UNRWA, said the organization is being directly targeted to undermine its work.

UNRWA, WFP, WHO, and other UN-affiliated organizations worked in Gaza for years before the genocide, building an efficient database of families, their locations, and household sizes, with a monthly schedule for the orderly distribution of aid.

The impact of the humanitarian blockade

The blockade has been directly felt among residents in Gaza, who say that the past five months have gotten progressively worse.

Hamouda Hussam, 43, says that many community kitchens, known as “Tekiya” kitchens that served as a frontline against the famine in Gaza during the war, have shut down since the restrictions tightened. Such kitchens were organized by independent groups and international charities that have found it increasingly difficult to operate in the Strip due to onerous “coordination” procedures with the Israeli authorities.

The effects are showing in the bread lines in Gaza. Getting bread has now become a several-hour affair, Hussam says, with bread lines sometimes taking up to 10 hours of jostling to secure a few loaves. Hussam says that he has returned to his family empty-handed on several occasions.

“It always starts with the bread,” he told Mondoweiss. “Whenever there is a shortage in essential goods, bread is the first sign. This is always how it begins. Later, we will struggle to find everything else.”

“We completely depend on the organizations that Israel is fighting,” he added. “When the WFP reduces its supplies to bakeries, we can’t feed our children. When the WHO closes its doors, we can’t treat our sick. And when UNRWA shuts down, we have no educational system or health care. So what does Israel want by fighting these organizations?”

He answers the question for himself. “To leave Palestinians to the unknown, and to strip them of the ability to feed themselves.”

He says this is clear in who Israel targets: “farmers, factories, even people who plant their lands.”

It is infuriating, he added, that the shortages became apparent even during the first week of the war on Iran, because it revealed the extent of Gazans’ total reliance on Israeli cooperation with international organizations. “Israel kept us alive from one day to another, and when they shut down the aid even for a short period, everybody was immediately on the edge of starvation,” he said.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46249337

April 19, 2026 [article from London Review Of Books with intro and photos by World Outlook.]

The​ UN Genocide Convention of 1948 lists five acts that constitute genocide when committed with the intent to destroy a group in whole or in part. The first two concern mass killing and serious bodily or mental harm...

The third prohibition ...forbids ‘deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction’. This refers to indirect forms of killing, those that don’t target human bodies but the environment that sustains them. Sufficient ‘conditions of life’ require buildings, hospitals, ...sewage and water systems, power grids, agriculture. The intentional destruction or degradation of such structures undermines a people’s ability to survive, leading to a slower and more tortuous form of annihilation.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46243509

April 21, 2026

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.

A reservist who drives an armoured bulldozer, Zarbiv rose to prominence through videos documenting his personal campaign of destruction in Gaza, often accompanied by inflammatory rhetoric.

“You will have nothing left,” he declares in one voiceover, as the camera pans across a landscape of shattered buildings. “We will flatten you and destroy you.”

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46230817

April 21, 2026

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.

Sixteen cases of conflict-related sexual violence were recorded by researchers for the West Bank Protection Consortium over the last three years, a figure that is likely an under-reporting because of the shame and stigma faced by survivors.

“Sexualised violence is used to pressure communities, shape decisions about remaining or leaving their homes and land, and alter patterns of daily life,” the group of international humanitarian organisations said in a report.>

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46203227

from +972’s Sunday Recap +972Magazine [published in Israel]

April 19, 2026

It remains unclear whether the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that took effect Thursday will hold. In any case, Dimi Reider argued, it’s unlikely to stop Israel’s expansionist ambitions. Efforts to establish buffer zones and “natural borders,” he wrote, suggest that ongoing ethnic cleansing in southern Lebanon is far from over.

Also:

  • Why I will not stand for Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day siren
  • Can a renewed Joint List survive until Israel’s elections?
  • Brief, arbitrary abductions: A new tool of Israeli intimidation in Masafer Yatta
  • PODCAST: The disappeared of Gaza
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cross-posted from: https://hcommons.social/users/adachika192/statuses/116433137792432262

Jewish Voice for Peace on Instagram (2026-04-19)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DXUTgmYl0J8/
———

>> The Warsaw Ghetto uprising is the most well known act of Jewish resistance to the Nazi regime’s fascism. The refusal of Warsaw Jews to accept the violent fate the Nazis prescribed to them, and instead fight back, reminds us all of our duty to resist oppression wherever it is.

>> We hold these ancestors close and affirm our commitment to ensuring their values of solidarity, collective liberation, and anti-imperialism are carried on into the future as we fight for justice in Palestine and stand against rising fascism here in the US.

>> Never again for anyone.

#WarsawGhettoUprising #JewishVoiceForPeace #Gaza #palestine #NeverAgainForAnyone
@palestine@lemmy.ml @palestine@fedibird.com

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46143996

April 19, 2026

Hamas has rebuffed a proposal by the US-backed “Board of Peace” to disarm the group, citing ongoing Israeli violations of the first phase of the ceasefire.

Palestinian sources with direct knowledge of the talks told Middle East Eye that Hamas views the plan, presented earlier this month, as a “trap” designed to ignite civil war in the Gaza Strip and destabilise Palestinian society.

The group fears the proposal would leave Palestinians in Gaza defenceless while allowing Israeli-backed armed gangs to operate freely and spread disorder.

“Hamas completely rejects this,” a Gaza-based source said, adding that opposition is even stronger within its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, which considers disarmament “collective suicide”.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46122976

Among its goals, the US-Israel war on Iran aims to bury Palestinian self-determination. Now more than ever, a one-state framework is the only defence against surrender

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46120869

April 16, 2026

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Written by Mujamma Haraket, published by The Electronic Intifada, on 16 April 2026

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46083802

April 15, 2026

As evidence of Thunberg’s antisemitism, the Israeli government pointed to her use of “terms such as ‘genocide,’ ‘siege’ and ‘mass starvation’ in reference to Israel’s actions in Gaza.”

Many of these views are well within the American mainstream. A Quinnipac poll from August found that half of American voters believe that Israel is committing a genocide. Thirty-nine percent of Jewish Americans believe Israel is committing a genocide, according to an October Washington Post poll. Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, which produced the report, deemed Thunberg a more dangerous threat than Fuentes, who has said Judaism is incompatible with Western civilization and called for a “total Aryan victory.”

In a separate section about American influencers, the Israeli government report also singles out Ms. Rachel, a YouTuber with nearly 20 million subscribers who makes educational videos for toddlers, as one of the most influential supposed antisemites. Ms. Rachel’s misdeeds include publishing “content dealing with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, highlighting alleged harm to civilians and children, and condemning Israeli military actions.” The report also says Ms. Rachel has “promoted fundraising campaigns for emergency aid for children in Gaza and other conflict zones.”

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How Israel stole Abraham

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cross-posted from: https://expressional.social/users/Peter_Link/statuses/116425965096112493

Mehdi Hasan breaks down the ‘right to exist’ argument about #Israel
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Az4ad8cM5/

Great little video - sorry that it's on Facebook.

#FreePalestine
#AntiZionismIsNotAntisemitism
#Palestine #politics
@palestine

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Found this through a Larouche publication 🤔

Expand article

In a recent interview with the former Israeli government minister and now ambassador to the United Kingdom, Tzipora ‘Tzipi’ Hotovely, combative British journalist Piers Morgan asked repeatedly whether she knew the number of children that had been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023. Morgan pointed out that the ambassador’s firm estimate of 30,000 ‘Hamas terrorists’ killed during the conflict contrasted starkly with her apparent ignorance of the number of dead and injured Palestinian children. Clearly frustrated, Morgan kept repeating the same question, but to no avail. Towards the end of what was a protracted and often terse exchange, a clearly discomforted ambassador (at one stage accusing Morgan of ‘blood libel’), dismissed the figures of civilian casualties produced by Gaza’s Ministry of Health—figures which over many years have been regarded as reliable by numerous media and aid organisations.

Ambassador Hotovely responded by saying that she would never believe any information coming from what she considered to be Hamas-influenced sources. Morgan ended the interview visibly frustrated, referring to many of the ambassador’s claims as ‘bullshit’. He was especially perplexed when she claimed that the IDF did not target or kill children and that, indeed, Israel’s military forces are among the most disciplined, orderly and moral in the world—an assertion strongly contested by Morgan who opined that since no journalists are allowed into Gaza (apart from ’embedded’ ones) none of the Israeli military’s claims could be independently investigated.

Hotovely is one of a number of diplomats and official spokespeople who over the course of the latest conflict, have defended Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’ and who vigorously justify almost all of the IDF’s actions, though sometimes admitting that ‘mistakes’ have been made. Without exception, they deny that a genocide is occurring in Gaza, that the IDF has committed war crimes or that it has violated international humanitarian law. They also assert that the United Nations, humans rights groups and other international agencies are either in league with Hamas and/or act as their proxies and mouthpieces. One of the more prominent of these spokespersons, David Mencer, a political communications expert and representative of Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate, has also stated his support for Donald Trump’s ‘Riviera’ solution, denying that this is tantamount to ethnic cleansing and claiming that all migrations would be ‘voluntary’. The tone adopted by Mencer and others is at once defensive and aggressive, with frequent accusations that the journalists interviewing them are either ‘antisemitic’, and/or in league with Hamas, or simply ill-informed.  

Their supportive dispositions reflect years of alignment with the Israel’s policies, with many currently of formerly serving as members of the IDF, and/or in diplomat and government positions. Some have backgrounds in broadcasting, strategic and political communications. In addition to Mesner, the most well-known of this group are IDF spokesperson, Brigadier General Efi Derin (who in April replaced Daniel Hagari); former Australian-Israeli diplomat and advisor to the prime minister’s office, Mark Regev, Oxford-educated and pugilistic media frontman, Eylon Levy; and the prime minister’s spokesperson, Avi Hyman.

THE MUZZLING OF DISSENTING VOICES

Among the more vocal and forceful unofficial defenders of Israel’s actions in Gaza are Rabbi  Shmuley Boteach and former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Lion, both of whom have clashed regularly with pro-Palestinian advocates on Piers Morgan Uncensored. The usual approach of these two staunch advocates of Israel’s current and past incursions into Gaza and the West Bank are unapologetic, combative and often shrill. They variously accuse their opponents of being antisemitic and biased, or Hamas sympathisers.

When it comes to body counts, both official and unofficial Israeli spokespeople have either no idea of the number of civilians killed, deny the Gazan Ministry of Health’s figures, argue that civilian’s deaths result from Hamas being embedded among civilians, often using civilians as ‘human shields’, or that the rate of killing is commensurate with (or less than) other conflicts, particularly those conducted in densely built-up urban areas. Some spokespeople like to invoke the allied bombings of Hamburg, Dresden, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki as examples of mass killing by supposedly decent, law-abiding nations—an interesting comparison given that the legality and moral rectitude of such actions has long been questioned.

These sorts of legitimations are of course part of a wider agenda of state-sponsored Hasbara or ‘explaining’, as occurs through the IDF’s Operations Directorate and the muzzling of dissenting voices. In addition to an increasingly concentrated private media ownership and sustained government pressure to privatize the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation, there is a long record of media control in Israel, with government permits for pro-Palestinian outlets disproportionality rejected and military censorship of articles deemed a ‘threat to national security’. Since the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023, both Israeli and foreign journalists regarded as anti-Israel or overly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause have faced violence and intimidation by right-wing groups, the Israeli military and police.

The Tel Aviv offices of Haaretz, described by The Jewish Chronicle as  a ‘left wing’ news outlet critical of the Israeli government, have been attacked, and two of its journalists assaulted by Israeli police. Under a 2024 Israeli law, the Qatar-based news agency Al Jazeera (which still reports from Gaza and the West Bank), has been banned from Israel because of its critical attacks on the government and judiciary. In Gaza itself, as of 8 June 2025, according to the International Federation of Journalists, 170 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since October 2023, with many others injured or missing.

The net result of all this is a series of consequences: First, apart from some brave reportage from Al Jazeera and a small number of independent journalists, and insights gained ftom Gazans themselves via social media, there is restricted opportunity for a wholesale international assessment of how the IDF conducts its military operations in Gaza. Second, threats and intimidation of anti-Israel reporting have resulted in growing self-censorship among Israeli and other journalists. Put simply, they fear Israeli retaliation. Third, increasing restrictions on the press in Israel mean that the public is denied vital information on the conflict, which contributes, in part, to the skewed public view of the conflict, often ignoring the bloodletting and destruction of Gaza, and celebrating the heroism of the IDF forces. According to one poll conducted by Penn State University researchers in May of this year, the vast majority of 1,005 respondents surveyed across Israel supported the forced removal (ethnic cleansing) of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Over 65 per cent believed in a modern-day incarnation of Amalek, with most supporting the biblical command to ‘erase Amalek’. Such views exist, as Professor Norman Finkelstein points out, despite the fact that online and other information sources are still readily accessible in Israel.

THE MINISTRY’S DATA

There are many reasons why body counts in times of war are—at best—tenuous, depending on prevailing circumstances of the given conflict, especially when seeking the verification of the numbers of dead and injured. In the densely populated urban confines of Gaza where there has been so much destruction (with over 60 per cent of buildings damaged or destroyed), accurate figures are hard to come by. The independent charity, Save the Children, estimates that there may be up to 20,000 children buried under 51 million tons of rubble. There are also countless unidentified bodies and missing persons. So relentless has been Israel’s bombardment that accessing corpses has been difficult, if not impossible.

The Gaza death toll figures cited by governments, mainstream media, numerous human rights, medical and aid organisations vary significantly. That said, the most frequently sourced data are provided by the Palestinian Ministry of Health which has long been regarded as among the most accurate of death count monitoring organisations in the region. As AP journalist Isabel Debre has pointed out in a detailed analysis of the Ministry’s methodology: ‘The United Nations and other international institutions and experts, as well as Palestinian authorities in the West Bank—rivals of Hamas—say the Gaza Ministry has long made a good-faith effort to account for the dead under the most difficult conditions.’ Debre quotes Michael Ryan, of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program as saying that, ‘they [the Ministry’s figures] largely reflect the level of death and injury’. Ryan also asserts that the Ministry’s data have been positively assessed by the UN independent investigators, and have even aligned with Israel’s own estimates.

Interestingly, as Debre points out in an article for The Independent in October 2023, in past Gazan conflicts the UN humanitarian office has conducted its own research into civilian deaths  which have largely accorded with figures produced by the Ministry. This was the case following the 2008 war after which the Ministry reported 1,440 Palestinians killed while the UN reported 1,385. In the 2014 war the respective figures were 2,310 and 2,251; and following the 2021 war, 260 and 256.

Despite the care and diligence applied to the collection of mortality data by the Palestinian authorities, Israeli officials and organisations continue to question their veracity. For example, on 13 May 2025 the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council noted that, ‘there is no international law or standard practice governing how civilian death tolls in wars are counted or estimated’. Noting that Hamas has employed different methodologies to count the dead and injured, the AIJAC argues that, ‘Hamas refuses to differentiate between civilians and combatants’ and that ‘neither the United Nations nor other organisations have independently verified Hamas’ death toll’. The latter point is of course a smokescreen designed to draw attention away from the congruence of the Ministry’s data with other external data collection systems (including that used by the IDF itself).  Further, given Israel’s saturation bombardment and therefore destruction of almost every medical facility in the Strip, and not forgetting the absence of foreign journalists, it is nigh impossible for any organisation other than the Ministry to undertake such counts.

So how are the death toll figures arrived at? Debre says the methodological approach is as robust as it can be in catastrophic circumstances where hospitals and other medical facilities have been subject to regular and intense Israel attacks. Debre says that, ‘an office at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, al-Qidra receives a constant flow of data from every hospital in the Strip … Hospital administrators say they keep records of every wounded person occupying a bed and every dead body arriving at a morgue. They enter this data into a computerized system shared with al-Qidra and colleagues.’ From screenshots seen by AP journalists, ‘the system looks like a color-coded spreadsheet divided into categories: name, ID number, date of hospital entry, type of injury, condition’. Despite various practical problems associated with victim identification, including the absence of victims’ names, the data on the dead and the injured are double checked, and additional information is gathered from other sources like Palestinian Red Crescent.

Drawing on this data, the Ministry ‘releases casualty updates every few hours, providing the number of dead and wounded with a breakdown for men, women and minors’, says Debra. Names, ages or locations of those killed are not provided.  

THE NUMBERS

According to figures issued by the Ministry of Health in early May 2025, the official death toll in Gaza since 7 October 2023 was over 55,000, with more than half of the dead being women and children. Since then, of course, hundreds more Palestinians have been killed, many of them while seeking to access food aid supplied by a controversial US-backed organisation, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The Ministry’s figures have found their way into most mainstream news outlets across the world, yet have been repeatedly questioned by Israeli authorities—often claiming that they are an exaggeration.

While widely regarded as credible estimates of Palestinians killed during the conflict, the Ministry’s data have also been questioned by an international team of epidemiological researchers who in February 2025 put the death toll in Gaza at 64 ,260. This figure was arrived at by drawing on ‘multiple data sources to estimate deaths due to traumatic injury in the Gaza Strip between October 7, 2023, and June 30, 2024’. Data was drawn from the hospital lists of the Ministry of Health, an online Ministry survey, and social media obituaries. ‘Alternative generalised linear models’ were used to calculate ‘the probability of being listed.’ This was then averaged out, ‘to estimate the true number of deaths in the analysis period’ which was compared to data for 2022.

Using this approach, the authors argued that, ‘the Palestinian Ministry of Health under-reported mortality by 41%. The annualised crude death rate was 39·3 per 1000 people (95% CI 35·7–49·4), representing a rate ratio of 14·0 (95% CI 12·8–17·6) compared with all-cause mortality in 2022, even when ignoring non-injury excess mortality.’ Women, children and older people accounted for just under 60 per cent of the 28 ,257 deaths ‘for which age and sex data were available’. The Lancet study concludes that: ‘Our findings show an exceptionally high mortality rate in the Gaza Strip during the period studied’. Importantly, the researchers argued that the actual death toll was likely much higher given the exclusion of non-trauma deaths resulting from the destruction of health care facilities, food insecurity, and lack water and sanitation.

Based on the Lancet study’s findings of the first nine months of the Israeli-imposed Gaza massacre, the projected death total by 25 April 2025 is 136,000 violent deaths after 15.5 months of killing. However, this analysis only goes so far. A more comprehensive picture of the death toll in Gaza since the start of the current conflict suggests it is necessary to estimate the number of non-violent deaths resulting from war-imposed deprivation.

IMPOSED DEPRIVATION AND GAZA’S DEATH TOLL

When deaths resulting from imposed deprivation (indirect deaths) are factored into mortality data, the total figures will be higher than those from only violent deaths (direct deaths). Eminent epidemiologist Professor Devi Sridhar (chair of Global Health, University of Edinburgh) reported in an article in The Guardian a ‘conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death’.  Assuming that deaths from deprivation were four times the violent deaths, then the 136,000 violent deaths after 15.5 months of killing (25 April 2025) would imply 544,000 Gaza deaths from imposed deprivation, and that the total Gazan death toll would accordingly be 136,000 violent deaths plus 544,000 from imposed deprivation, leading to a staggering total of 680,000 deaths by 25 April 2025. Most of these victims, as indicated in earlier counts by the Ministry of Health are women and children. 

Shocking in its enormity, the figure of 680,000 is derived from calculations based on other conflicts around the world. The UNHCR, Reword Global Law and Policy Database has found that the ratio of indirect deaths (non-violent deaths from imposed deprivation) to direct deaths (violent deaths) ranges from about two to 16 in a variety of wars in recent decades. Indeed, estimates of violent deaths and non-violent deaths from deprivation drawn from UN Population Division data, reveal direct deaths in the Iraq War (2003-2011) of 1.5 million and indirect deaths of 1.2 million, yielding a total of around 2.7 million deaths, a ratio of 1.5:1.2. The ratio of direct deaths/indirect deaths in the Afghan War (2001–2021) is estimated to be 0.4 million/6.4 million, that is deaths from deprivation 16 times the death toll of violent deaths.

The estimate of 680,000 Gazan deaths therefore is about 12 to 14 times greater than the death toll of about 50–55,000 presently reported by nearly all Western mainstream media.  Among the most ‘at risk’ people in violent conflicts are children—and Gaza is no exception.  Exhaustive analysis of avoidable deaths from deprivation in all countries from 1950 onwards reveals that under-five-year-old infant deaths make up about 70 per cent of avoidable deaths in impoverished countries. (In early May 2024 a joint study by the UN Development Programme and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia reported that the poverty rate in Gaza—already chronic—surged to 58.4 per cent since the 7 October 2023. Since then, conditions have become much worse). As of Anzac Day 2025 (25 April), the 544,000 Gaza deaths from violent and imposed deprivation included about 380,000 under-five infant deaths. Infants are highly vulnerable—thus, for example, breast feeding would be highly problematic for highly traumatized Gaza mothers substantially denied water, food, shelter, hygiene, baby bottles, baby formula, electricity, sanitation and other life-sustaining requisites demanded of the occupying power, as stated in Articles 55 and 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Assuming that 33 per cent of the violent Gaza deaths were children, 21 per cent women and 46 per cent, men (according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor), and that the same proportions obtain for the deprivation-based deaths of non-infant children, women and men, then the 680,000 Gazans killed by violence and imposed deprivation by 25 April 2025 included about 380,000 under-five-year-old infants, 479,000 children in total, 63,000 women and 138,000 men.

QUESTIONING THE DATA

As noted, attempts have been made to discredit the Ministry’s figures. This came to a head in April of this year when numerous mainstream, mainly right-wing Western media outlets reported on alterations to the Ministry’s death tally. This was seized upon as evidence of disinformation on the part of the ‘Hamas-run’ health authority. The real reason for the data adjustment however, is far more complex. As reported by the BBC on 23 April of this year, the usual way of counting the dead in Gaza (up to January) was to record the deceased in hospitals. The collected data was then logged and placed into a computer system based at the al-Shifa hospital, with support from al-Rantissi hospital. As conditions rapidly deteriorated in Gaza after October 2023, and especially following the sustained bombing and destruction of hospitals and other medical centres, this method became increasingly untenable, so from the beginning of 2024 health authorities developed an online form which allowed relatives to report persons dead or missing. According to the Ministry of Health, the names that were removed from the official list in early 2025 were the result of the introduction of new verification systems. Names taken off the list, around 3,000, could be put back after checks were conducted.

Some of those on the list had in fact died of natural causes, not directly related to violent conflict (although this raises the question of avoidable deaths in such circumstances and particularly how the lack of adequate health care and immense trauma contributes to fatal illnesses). As the head of the statistical team overseeing the new methods of counting observed: deaths resulting from hypothermia, malnutrition and many other problems ‘are indirect and do not get added to the lists’.

In light of various accusations of misinformation, Professor Mike Spagat of Royal Holloway College, London and chair of Every Casualty Counts, commented: ‘We should have regarded the previous lists as a little bit more provisional than I had assumed’, adding that he saw no attempt to deceive or mislead, and that the data changes were, ‘a big clean-up operation’. In our view, the knee-jerk response to what are methodological changes discussed above, especially in the context of a highly destructive conflict is, at best, disingenuous—or worse, part of an ongoing attempt to discredit the huge levels of casualties in Gaza. The efforts by the Health Ministry to provide verifiable figures on the dead and injured warrants a considerable degree of respect and admiration. It is no surprise that its data are commonly cited by a host of media, aid organizations and governments. They warrant such attention.

Nonetheless, what becomes clear from the methodologies used by the Ministry is they present only a small part of the overall picture when it comes to Gaza’s death toll. There is, however, no clear evidence that this limited data has been deliberately distorted to suit a particular narrative. That said, American consumer advocate Ralph Nader has commented on what he considers to be the massive undercounting of the Gaza death toll in the following terms: ‘Hamas is vested in an undercount to temper accusations by their own people that it has not protected them. (Hamas badly under-estimated the total savagery of the Israeli response to its October 7 attack through a mysteriously collapsed multitiered Israeli border security complex.) The Israeli government also prefers an undercount to temper the rising level of international condemnation and boycotts.’

While the extent to which the Israeli state or Hamas have actively sought to downplay the official figures has not been fully established, the fact remains that the reported death rates exceed those of many other conflicts. For example, the death ratio of the occupied Palestinians and occupying Israelis on 7 October 2023 in Gaza is 680,000/1,139, that is 597 to 1, or (to put it into another historical perspective), 60 times greater than the reprisals ratio of 10 ordered by Hitler and immediately carried out in the Ardeatine cave massacre in Rome, 1944. Similar ratios apply to a multiplicity of war scenarios. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has determined that in the period covering 2008 to 7 October 2023 the occupied/occupier death ratio was ‘only’ 20 Palestinians for every Israeli killed. Such figures tell us a good deal about the extent of the carnage in Gaze since October 2023.

TRUMP’S ADMISSION

Data of this sort are unlikely to find their way into the mainstream media, however. The Australian media, in reporting 50,000-plus deaths in Gaza has seriously under-reported the toll by a factor of 14. Indeed, Australia’s’ only public broadcaster, the ABC, continues to under-report Gazan deaths, preferring at some points to allocate equal time each day to reporting a bizarre murder trial in Victoria (3 people allegedly murdered by poisonous mushrooms) as it does to the Gaza ‘genocide’—a word, incidentally, along with occupation and ethnic cleansing which reporters are forbidden to utter.

Confirmation of the horrific extent of the Gaza genocide has unwittingly come from none other than US President Donald Trump. In May of this year, with access to top intelligence, he referred to ‘1.7 million’ Gazans who he wants totally removed from Gaza to permit a Riviera-style resort development. Given that the pre-conflict Gazan population was around 2.4 million, this means, according to Trump’s own figures, that up to 700,000 Gazans have been disappeared. To press the point, it has been estimated that around a hundred thousand Gazans may have found refuge in Egypt, hence Trump has unwittingly conceded that about 0.6 million Gazans have been killed—a figure broadly consistent with our estimate above.  Canada’s CBC network reported this disclosure, quoting Professor Devi Sridhar as saying she would expect, ‘Trump has received the best intelligence on the matter, and the fact he has cited the number several times suggests it came from American or Israeli officials’.   Sridhar added, ‘I was just surprised that I saw that [figure], and no one even flinched. They were just like, ‘Oh, OK, 1.7 [million] left.’ And I’m like, ‘so where did the half a million or 400,000 people go.’

SKEWED BODY COUNTS AND THE SKEWERING OF HISTORY

Downplaying, ignoring, or disputing the accuracy of body counts is a common tactic in wartime, and in many retrospective narratives. According to Politics and International Relations academic at the University of Auckland, Thomas Gregory, who studied the ways in which body counts were employed by Coalition forces during the Afghanistan conflict (2008–14), these counts were integral to how conflict was perceived. In the case of Afghanistan, as Gregory writes in the 2022 journal of European Journal of International Security, body counts were ‘weaponised’ as a means of presenting the conflict in a certain light. Thus: ‘Rather than simply documenting the death and destruction, these counts were complicit in the violence experienced by Afghan civilians, helping to enable and enhance the effectiveness of military operations’. As such, Gregory concludes, ‘I argue that these counts failed to contest the violence of war or the continued dehumanization of Afghan civilians’. In his 2025 book Weaponizing Civilian Protection, Gregory argues that coalition forces used body counts so that many of the military’s monitoring activities could be framed as humanitarian efforts. Civilian deaths were tracked not necessarily to prevent them, but to manage perceptions and maintain legitimacy.

The massaging of death toll numbers for military and political purposes is certainly not usual. In the Sacking of Fallujah: A Peoples’ History, Ross Caputi, Richard Hil and Donna Mulhearn observed how ‘strategic communications’ were deployed by the US military to play down the extent of carnage in Iraq and instead to report the conflict in triumphalist terms, suitable for a domestic audience. The same could be said of how the allied forces in World War 2 privileged a triumphal narrative of victory over the deliberate bombing of civilian targets in places like Dresden and Hamburg. Minimizing the numbers of civilians killed and injured in conflicts, or undermining attempts to report on such, is a feature of the ways in which conquering powers have operated in war situations.

Colonial conquests are no different: the numbers of subject populations—almost invariably Indigenous peoples—murdered, dispossessed or violated through poverty and disease were of little consequence. That is, until revisionist histories began to emerge through the persistence of Indigenous voices and the work of academic historians. In dominant colonial narratives, scant attention is paid to deaths in general and even less to the number of lives lost due to imposed deprivation. It is as if those ‘conquered’, erased and harmed are reduced to unpeople, not even worthy of mention—abstracted from history. Modern conflicts, including in the case of the Gaza genocide, continue this practice of denial and obfuscation. Thus, we find in the official accounts of Israel or the US (or their complicit supporters in other Western countries), including Australia, no mention of civilian casualties, downplaying the extent of death and destruction, or simply, and deliberately, undermining methodologies and findings. Often, the intention is to convey the impression that death counts are too complex or contested, or methodically challenging, to attain universal credibility. At best, violent deaths per se might be reported, in effect ignoring fatalities resulting from imposed deprivation – which would obviously inflate total numbers.

It is thus the case that the Western-imposed atrocity in Iraq between 1990-2011 resulted not in the tens of thousands claimed by mainstream media, but up to 5 million people if imposed deprivations are taken into account. Similar disparities exist in relation to what occurred in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021, with around 6.8 million estimated deaths – well in excess of the violent death numbers trotted trotted out, if at all, by the Western media. Looking further back at atrocities overseen by western powers, it is estimated by Gideon Polya and others that during the “forgotten” Bengali famine of 1942-5, up to 7 million Indians were deliberately starved to death by the British, largely for strategic reasons. This holocaust has received scant attention in Western historical texts on the second world war—a form of erasure not uncommon in narrated official histories.  

Today, particularly in the US, we are also witnessing, the attempted erasure of histories that record the slaughter of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of Africans over the course of several centuries. Other attempted erasures are evidenced in settler colonial societies like Australia where the ‘black armband’ view of history has been the subject of great debate, as have current attempts to rewrite school curricula in favour of a more triumphalist, nationalistic story.

Much the same applies to Gaza where in 1948 the ‘catastrophe’ or Nakba, resulted in the forced expulsion of around 700,000 Palestinians—a historical reality that has only been fully exposed relatively recently in the West through books like Ilan Pappe’s The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine in which he writes:  ‘After the Holocaust, it has become almost impossible to conceal large-scale crimes against humanity … And yet, one such crime has been erased almost totally from the global public memory: the dispossession of the Palestinians in 1948 by Israel.’ Pappe’s seminal work was written, ‘with the deep conviction that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine must become rooted in our memory and consciousness as a crime against humanity …’.

The glossing over of mortality figures, or undermining attempts at recording them, should be considered in the context of efforts by the powerful to obscure realities on the ground. In the case of Gaza, these efforts have been deployed to subdue growing public criticism in respect of war crimes and crimes against humanity—documented claims which suggest that the IDF may not be the most “moral army in the world”.

For the sake of the Palestinians who have thus far perished in the latest conflict—and indeed for all those killed since the Nakba—we must tell the full, heartbreaking extent of their suffering.

About the authors

Richard Hil

Dr Richard Hil is Adjunct Professor in the School of Human Services and Social Work at Griffith University, Gold Coast, Adjunct Professor at Southern Cross University and Convenor of the Ngara Institute. Richard is the author of numerous books, the latest being The Sacking of Fallujah: A People’s History (with Ross Caputi and Donna Mulhearn).

More articles by Richard Hil

Gideon Polya

Dr Gideon Polya is a biochemist and taught science students at La Trobe University over 4 decades. His research was largely concerned with signal transduction in plants. He is the author of numerous scientific papers and a huge biochemical pharmacology text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds”. As a humanitarian concerned with reportage of avoidable mortality from deprivation and war, he has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” and “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History”.

More articles by Gideon Polya

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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by deathtoreddit@lemmygrad.ml to c/palestine@lemmygrad.ml

I must post or I forget

Introduction:

The daily report provides a summary of the violations committed by the occupation forces since the ceasefire agreement came into force, documenting these through figures and field developments. It reviews the numbers of martyrs and wounded, details of armed incidents, and an assessment of the flow of humanitarian and commercial assistance. The report does not reiterate previous violations that remain unresolved to date, particularly the breaches of the agreed withdrawal lines, the imposition of armed control over additional areas outside the scope of the agreement, amounting to approximately 34 square kilometers, non-compliance with the humanitarian protocol, and the obstruction of urgent infrastructure repairs, including electricity, water, and sewage networks. It also notes the prevention of the entry of heavy machinery required for infrastructure works, the continued exposure of detainees to serious violations, including torture and inhuman treatment, and the ongoing lack of clarity regarding the fate of the missing, all constituting clear violations of the ceasefire agreement and international humanitarian law. These accumulated violations are added to the ongoing daily violations, as follows:

Rest of infoIsrael has carried out 2,436 documented violations of the Gaza ceasefire in the 185 days since it came into effect, averaging more than 13 violations per day, according to a document shared by the Palestinian side with mediators:

▪️ On the ground:

• 1,123 airstrikes and shelling incidents recorded

• 940 live fire incidents

• 275 home demolitions

• 98 vehicle incursions

• Repeated attacks across Gaza City, Khan Younis, and northern Gaza

▪️ Casualties:

• 765 killed

• 2,140 wounded

• 40.9% of those killed are children, women, and elderly

• 51.5% of the wounded are vulnerable civilians

▪️ Aid blockade:

• Only ~38–39% of agreed aid has entered

• Fuel deliveries at just 14.9%

• Average of ~228 trucks per day vs. 600 agreed

▪️ Rafah crossing:

• Only 2,954 of 11,200 planned crossings carried out (~26.3%)

• Severe restrictions on humanitarian and medical travel

• Ongoing arbitrary and degrading procedures imposed

The report also highlights continued obstruction of infrastructure repairs, denial of heavy equipment entry, and ongoing abuse and torture of detainees, pointing to a sustained pattern of violations that has undermined the ceasefire and deepened the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

In one day under a “ceasefire” in Gaza:

Israeli forces killed at least 11 Palestinians, including several children, and wounded many others, according to data shared by the Palestinian side with mediators. There were no reported threats to Israel during this period.

🔸Data on Armed Field Incidents - April 14

00:05 – Gaza City

Israeli forces carried out explosive demolition operations of buildings east of Gaza City.

  1. 05:10 – Khan Younis

Artillery shelling by Israeli military vehicles southeast of Khan Younis.

  1. 06:05 – Gaza City

Artillery shelling east of Gaza City.

  1. 06:10 – Khan Younis

Live Fire

Israeli naval boats opened fire in the waters off Rafah and Khan Younis.

  1. 06:50 – North Gaza

Live Fire

Intensive gunfire from Israeli military vehicles east of Jabalia camp.

  1. 07:00 – North Gaza

Live Fire

Civilian Sobhi Mahna Al-Ashqar was injured by gunfire while inside his home near Tal Al-Rabee’ School in Beit Lahia.

  1. 07:20 – Gaza City

Live Fire

Israeli naval boats opened fire in the waters off Gaza City.

  1. 07:50 – Gaza City

Live Fire

Gunfire targeting Al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.

  1. 08:20 – Khan Younis

Live Fire

Gunfire from Israeli helicopters east of Khan Younis.

  1. 09:00 – North Gaza

Live Fire

Hussein Samir Al-Amoudi (20) was killed by gunfire inside Abu Hussein School in Jabalia camp.

  1. 09:05 – Gaza City

Live Fire

Gunfire from Israeli helicopters targeting northern Gaza.

  1. 13:20 – Central Gaza Strip

Demolition

Explosive demolition operations east of Deir al-Balah.

  1. 14:15 – Gaza City

Airstrike

Several civilians, including a child, were killed and others injured in a drone strike targeting a vehicle on Al-Nafaq Street.

  1. 15:10 – Central Gaza Strip

Live Fire

Intensive and random gunfire from quadcopter drones targeting Salah al-Din Street near Shomer factory.

  1. 17:00 – Khan Younis

Live Fire / Artillery Shelling

Renewed helicopter gunfire targeting eastern Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah, alongside heavy artillery shelling.

  1. 17:25 – Central Gaza Strip

Artillery Shelling

Artillery shelling northeast of Al-Bureij camp.

  1. 17:25 – Central Gaza Strip

Live Fire

A civilian was injured by gunfire east of Al-Bureij.

  1. 17:50 – Gaza City

Artillery Shelling

Shelling targeting Al-Zeitoun neighborhood southeast of Gaza City.

  1. 18:50 – North Gaza

Live Fire

Intensive gunfire east of Jabalia camp.

  1. 19:25 – Gaza City

Live Fire

Israeli naval boats opened fire in Gaza City waters.

  1. 20:05 – Gaza City

Artillery Shelling

Shelling east of Gaza City.

  1. 20:45 – Khan Younis

Artillery Shelling / Live Fire

Shelling and gunfire south and southeast of Khan Younis.

  1. 21:40 – Gaza City

Airstrike

Five civilians were killed and seven injured in a drone strike in Al-Shati camp west of Gaza City.


Source:-https://xcancel.com/DropSiteNews/status/2044477622814675452

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/45997105

April 15, 2026

Two shipments from Britain of military components bound for Israel have been seized in Belgium, which has banned aircaft carrying military equipment for Israel from stopping in the country or using its airspace.

Last month, the British news website Declassified, Belgian NGO Vredesactie, Irish news website The Ditch, and the Palestinian Youth Movement alerted authorities in Brussells of a shipment travelling from Britain to Israel through Liege airport.

The consignments left Britain on 23 March and were siezed at Liege airport in Belgium on 24 March.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/45943840

https://chuffed.org/project/113222-tent-campaign-the-sameer-project

https://xcancel.com/sameerproject/status/2044164439373746427#m

Beit Lahia has been left behind. HELP: chuffed.org/project/113222-t… While aid flows to other areas, families here - especially widows and single mothers - are struggling alone with no support system.

This widow is caring for a baby with nothing. No partner, no income, no safety net. Just her and a child who needs clean clothes to survive.

On April 12, The Sameer Project distributed 100 baby onesies in Al-Salatin Camp, Beit Lahia. Each onesie cost 20 shekels - total $738 after 11% commission. We intentionally target Beit Lahia because no one else does.

These aren't luxuries. They're necessities for babies who deserve dignity, warmth, and basic care - even when the world has forgotten them.

Donate to our Shelter, Goods & Activities Campaign to help us reach more forgotten families in North Gaza.

Other ways to donate include: paypal.me/mahertali (Paypal option, please make sure to add a message saying "Goods") account.venmo.com/u/Maher-Al… (Venmo option, please make sure to add a message saying "Goods")

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/45881675

April 12, 2026

from +972’s Sunday Recap
+972Magazine [published in Israel]

For Palestinians in the West Bank, as Ghaith J. experienced, traveling abroad has become a humiliating ordeal. When he travelled to Istanbul in December, Israel closed the Allenby Bridge crossing to Jordan without any warning — turning his journey into 36 hours of missed flights, uncertainty, and endless waiting.

Also:

  • What Israelis can learn from the nightmares of an Iranian hangman
  • On TikTok, Palestinians in Israel are a scroll away from organized crime
  • Inside the Israeli army’s propaganda wing
  • PHOTOS: How hypermilitarism pervades everyday life in Israel
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cross-posted from: https://hcommons.social/users/adachika192/statuses/116393990089733102

Vigil in Buchenwald [despite banned] (Kufiyas in Buchenwald, 2026-04-12)

https://kufiyas-in-buchenwald.org/2026/04/12/press-release-vigil-in-buchenwald/
------

>> On Saturday, a group of Jews wearing T-shirts bearing the slogans “Jews Against Genocide” and “From #Buchenwald to #Gaza – Resistance until Liberation” gathered at the memorial to highlight the continuity of genocidal violence. At the vigil, they drew attention to the urgency of the situation in #Palestine and surrounding countries, as well as to Germany’s ongoing complicity in Zionist war crimes.

>> “This memorial does not mandate the prevention and recognition of genocides as they occur. Instead, it portrays German fascism and the Nazi genocide as a singular and apolitical event to justify the German state’s political and economic support for the apartheid state of Israel while it commits genocide in Palestine,” says Rachael Shapiro of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network...

#GermanComplicityInGenocide
@palestine@lemmy.ml @palestine@fedibird.com

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Palestine

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A community for everything related to Palestine and the occupation currently underway by the occupying force known as Israel.

Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. Existence is resistance for Palestinians.

Please refer to Israel as Occupied Palestine, or occupied territories. The IDF is a fascist and ethnonationalist occupying force. Israelis are settlers. We understand however that the imperial narrative (which tries to legitimise Israel) is internalised in the imperial core and slip-ups are naturally expected.

We always take the sides of Palestine and Palestinians and are unapologetic about it. Israel is an occupying power whose "defence force"'s (note the contradiction) sole purpose for existing is to push Palestinians out so they can resettle their rightful land. If you have anything positive to say about Israel we do not care.

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