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Israel saw a general strike and huge demonstrations following the death of six hostages at the hands of Hamas. The protesters are angry at their prime minister, who is multiplying the obstacles to a ceasefire agreement that could save the last living hostages.
For two decades Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah spoke about destroying Israel, but in recent speeches, he’s just demanding it pull out of Gaza. It’s one more sign that its patrons in Tehran have made a calculation to try to salvage a status quo in the region.
Arab Americans’ outrage over the Biden-Harris administration’s politics is understandable. But boycotting the election — or voting for a third-party candidate — would benefit Donald Trump, who has played up his relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu. What choice does that leave?
The Philadelphi Corridor has again become a sticking point in the ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel. It’s all premeditated as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pursues his undeclared goal: keep fighting in order to occupy Gaza.
Since Oct. 7, the Israel-Hamas conflict has continued to spread, deepening divisions within Israeli society and radicalizing a section of public opinion. Radicals both in Israel and Hamas are taking advantage of the chaos of war to prevent peace — just as they did in the 1990s. For how long will the world allow them to do so?
For years Israeli activists have been helping securing water for Palestinians in the West Bank and recording abuses they suffered at the hands of radical Jewish settlers. The stakes, and risks, have never been higher.
Almost 10 months after the Oct. 7 attack, the Middle East appears to be on the verge of a second act of tragedy. This new escalation of the conflict could result in regional war on a massive scale.
The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh has become the subject of an unhealthy debate between Palestinians and Syrians. Yet this discussion misses the point and has allowed Israel to benefit from the situation.
The killing of Ismail Haniyeh was not merely the assassination of Hamas’ political leader; it ended the life of a figure who could bring consensus to the Palestinian cause.
A series of strikes occurred just days after Netanyahu returned from the United States, which will have difficulty denying a role in the targeting of three capitals in the region in 24 hours, and may spark a much wider war in the Middle East.
Some Palestinians believe the Israel-Hamas in Gaza war has turned into a war of attrition. But it is, in reality, one of extermination. And the people of Gaza are no longer hiding their criticism with the international community that for nine months has failed to stop the war.
In the Arab world, it is a regional sport to blast the biases and prejudice of Western media. But voices criticizing the performance of Arab media are rare. That is a serious problem, for multiple reasons.
Questioning the choices that Hamas makes is a necessary step to bring forward the Palestinian cause.
The recent images showing a wounded Palestinian tied to the hood of an Israeli military vehicle is not an isolated incident. Despite the accumulation of evidence indicating the Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, the country’s politicians and officials continue to claim that their army is the world’s most moral.
The remains arrived in Rafah in two bags, one blue and the other white. I placed them in front of me, waiting for a time that would force me to open them up.
An Israeli missile struck children playing soccer in a schoolyard a day after international outrage at Russia’s bombing of Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital. As the Israel-Hamas war drags on, ceasefire negotiations get harder as the rest of the world looks away.
The concept of “resistance” adopted by militants in the Middle East has a close relationship with oppression and “divine victory,” which Hamas and Hezbollah both embrace in a false interpretation of the Koran, despite the heavy human and material losses inflicted.
A new Palestinian body is crucially needed to unify the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and across the diaspora. The organization founded by Yasser Arafat and overseen since by Mahmoud Abbas has let its people down one too many times.
After nine months of war, most Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced multiple times. Often that leaves the sense of being at home, even a destroyed home, fading from their consciousness.
The October 7 attack and Israel’s brutal response have left a trail of devastation, which materializes in very different tragedies for Palestine and Israel, a story of missed opportunity for Turkey — and a tragicomedy of U.S. leadership.
For three decades, negotiations to solve the Palestinian cause focused on giving Israel guarantees and reassurances out of fear for its security and continued existence, not to end the occupation and the suffering of the Palestinians.
Faced with a deepening shortage of resources and shuttered bakeries, Palestinians are resorting to makeshift means to survive, using clay ovens fueled by firewood from destroyed homes to cook their food. Resourcefulness that fights famine in the short term but may have long-term health effects.
As the war in Gaza nears nine months, bombardments continue, even in the camps where displaced people live. Death and fear are everywhere, as is hunger. Palestinian human rights activist Moustafa Ibrahim is also displaced now. In this personal essay, he addresses the hopelessness that people in Gaza face as they see Israel committing genocide.
Zionism shares with Nazism the claims of building what they call National Socialism, though the nationalism always takes over. There are lessons in the Oscar-winning film The Zone of Interest, and the current politics of the far right in Europe.
The Israeli army’s spokesman said that those talking about eradicating Hamas are “throwing sand in the eyes” of the Israeli public. It was a clear challenge to Benjamin Netanyahu, who counterattacked even as he remains under fire from all sides.
Spain, Norway, Ireland and Slovenia’s formal recognition of Palestine as a state highlights that Arab countries, many of which recognized Palestine in 1988, have not built upon that step.
In 19 years in Gaza, she always felt lost in her mind, body and even time. She was desperate to escape abroad, and made one attempt after another to find a way out. Eventually she did, for better or worse.
The Israel-Hamas war has made transportation almost impossible in Gaza, where more than 80% of the population is displaced and more than 65% of the road networks are destroyed. The high costs are forcing some Palestinians to stay put despite the dangers.
More and more Palestinians in Gaza have no choice but to resize their clothes after losing weight after eight months of war. They desperately search for tailors to fix or tighten their clothes, who try to do their job despite the lack of electricity.
Israel’s special forces rescued four hostages on Saturday, an apparent major success of the war in Gaza. Yet, paradoxically, the operation has created a political crisis for Benjamin Netanyahu, leading to protests and the resignation of several war cabinet ministers.
Comparisons between the wars in Europe and the Middle East tell us a lot about the standpoint of those who compare. They also signal to a new world order that has yet to be shaped.
Israel’s war on Gaza, with the support of the West, is not far from the necessities of capitalist accumulation in many regions of the world, or at least about managing the crisis of contemporary global capitalism.
The killing of an Egyptian soldier by Israeli fire on the border with Gaza, and Israel’s control of a buffer zone has increased tensions between Israel and Egypt, which finds itself in a difficult position.
Palestinian women are suffering disproportionately in the Gaza conflict, where they represent 70% of casualties and more than half of the displaced people.
Since the war in Gaza broke out, the Israeli military sealed off the Palestinian enclave and barred independent journalists from entering. In many cases, it targeted the few journalists still working there, especially photojournalists. Daraj spoke with one such reporter, Ahmed al Danaf.
Ukraine is not allowed to attack Russian territory. Israel, on the other hand, has free rein. These are the would-be restrictions of Western weapons in two wars that might seem to have little in common.
The efforts of chief prosecutor Karim Khan to try Israel’s Prime Minister and Defense Minister over the Gaza war could be a starting point to hold Israeli political and military officials accountable for crimes have committed over many years against Palestinians.
Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “tragic accident” after the deadly bombing of a camp for displaced Palestinians near Rafah; but this rare act of contrition does not mean the Israeli leader has changed his strategy, despite the indignation of the rest of the world at the number of civilians killed.
The “day after” the war in Gaza increasingly becomes hard to even imagine, as Israel’s prime minister sticks to his guns despite all evidence that says Hamas cannot be eradicated. The humanitarian toll, including Sunday’s airstrike on a displacement camp in Rafah, makes negotiations look increasingly impossible.
Two young Palestinians have sought to help children in war-torn Gaza. They first established a classroom between tents of displaced people to educate children. The second used virtual reality glasses as a psychological treatment especially for injured children.