Eyewitnesses and local sources confirm that the settlers set fire to multiple homes, properties, and vehicles. Disturbingly, Israeli occupation soldiers were present during the attack, not to intervene, but to accompany and protect the settlers. This pattern of violence is not new, as similar incidents have been recorded repeatedly in Palestinian towns across the region.

Human rights organizations have extensively documented the ongoing settler violence. Between October 2023 and October 2024, nearly 20 Palestinian communities were forcibly displaced due to such attacks, which continue with impunity and the backing of Israeli forces.

In a related development, Israeli Defense Minister, alongside the Minister of Finance, has vowed to combat what they term as “illegal Palestinian construction” in the occupied West Bank. This move further escalates the threat of forced displacement for Palestinian residents, compounding their already precarious living conditions.

The continuous aggression against Palestinian communities highlights the urgent need for international intervention to curb the growing cycle of violence and displacement in the occupied territories.

News source- Al Jazeera

One key issue is Netanyahu’s approach to negotiations. While there are ongoing talks between Hamas and international mediators, Netanyahu’s rhetoric appears focused on escalating the conflict rather than resolving it. Critics argue that his threats of seizing land in Gaza are more about political posturing than actual military feasibility. The United States, the Arab League, and even segments of Israel’s own political establishment see these statements as impractical unless Hamas releases Israeli hostages.

Domestically, Netanyahu’s handling of the war has drawn significant criticism. Many Israelis, including those who have served in the military for extended periods, are increasingly unwilling to return to what they see as a futile war. Some believe the conflict is no longer about national security but rather Netanyahu’s political survival. Deep divisions within Israeli society have also been exacerbated by the war, further complicating the government’s ability to unify the nation.

Beyond the battlefield, Israel’s economy is feeling the strain. The recent approval of the 2025 budget highlights these financial pressures, with $30 billion allocated to defense compared to just $25 billion for education. The international credit agency Moody’s has issued warnings about the high political risk to Israel’s economy, citing concerns over the long-term effects of the war. Rising costs of living, real estate instability, and declining foreign investment are beginning to take their toll on Israeli citizens.

Economists warn that Israel has not yet faced the full financial impact of the war. While current hardships include immediate economic downturns, the long-term consequences could be even more severe, affecting generations to come. As the war drags on, the question remains: at what cost will Netanyahu’s government continue its current course?

“A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co-director of our film No Other Land. They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding,” Abraham said in a post.

“Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since,” he added.

A video provided by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence showed a masked settler shoving and swinging his fists at two activists from the group in a dusty field at night.

The activists rush back to their car. “Get in, get in!” one shouts, and they duck inside as the thuds of rocks can be heard hitting the car.

“Car window was broken,” the driver says as they drive off.

A group of 10 to 20 masked settlers also attacked Jewish activists at the scene with stones and sticks, smashed their car windows and slashed their tyres.

“We don’t know where Hamdan is because he was taken away in a blindfold,” Josh Kimelman, one of the activists who was at the scene, told The Associated Press news agency.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the episode but did not immediately comment.

No Other Land, a collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, follows activist Basel Adra as he risks arrest and violence to document the destruction of his hometown, Masafer Yatta, by the Israeli military.

The film has won a string of international awards, starting at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024. It has also drawn ire in Israel and abroad, as when Miami Beach briefly proposed ending the lease of a movie theatre that screened the documentary.

News source- Al Jazeera

The heavy use of powerful bombs in crowded neighborhoods has led to a high number of civilian casualties. With no safe places to shelter, many people are trapped as attacks continue. On Tuesday morning, Rafah was under fire from three sides, with Israeli naval vessels and tanks attacking the city. The Israeli army has also ordered evacuations from areas near Khan Younis and Beit Hanoun after shelling them with artillery and tank fire.

Satellite images show a growing Israeli military presence around Rafah, with tanks and armored vehicles preparing for a possible ground invasion. The situation has sparked international concern, with humanitarian groups warning of a worsening crisis. Calls for a ceasefire continue, but Israel remains focused on its military objectives, leaving the future of Gaza uncertain.

News source- Al Jazeera 

This scene is tragically common across hospitals in Gaza, where medical facilities are barely functioning under the weight of mass casualties and severe shortages of supplies. Shock and sorrow grip the community as survivors recount the terror of yet another night of relentless Israeli airstrikes.

“We were shocked late at night to see strikes and attacks on Gaza like in the early days of the war,” one survivor said. “I was with my family when suddenly a massive attack hit our residential block. It killed so many from my family. Some are still buried under the rubble. So far, we have managed to recover 26 bodies from my family and 20 others who were with us.”

Similar tragedies unfold across Gaza, from the central region to the north. People’s worst fears are materializing as the war intensifies, fueling displacement, destruction, and an unending cycle of death. The humanitarian situation has worsened dramatically in recent weeks, with Israel tightening its siege on Gaza, leading to widespread famine, dehydration, and starvation.

At Al-Ahli Hospital, grief and despair dominate the air as families come to claim the bodies of their loved ones. Some are loaded onto carts pulled by animals, a tragic testament to the lack of resources and the sheer scale of loss. Many of the shrouds are heartbreakingly small, marking the deaths of young children. In one particularly harrowing moment, a father laid the body of his child atop the body of the child’s mother, a painful image of a family torn apart.

Everywhere in the hospital courtyard, more bodies continue to arrive. The facility, already stretched beyond its limits, lacks the resources to provide proper medical care to those still clinging to life. The death toll continues to mount, with women and children making up the majority of victims.

As Gaza’s hospitals buckle under the weight of mass casualties, the world watches in horror, yet the bombardment continues. The war’s devastation knows no bounds, and for many in Gaza, survival is becoming an increasingly impossible battle.

News source- Al Jazeera

In one particularly harrowing account, a Palestinian resident described the horror of seeing an entire family killed in an instant. “All of them in pieces, and our house collapsed on us,” the survivor recounted. Their home, located directly next to the targeted residence, was severely damaged in the explosion. Rescue workers are still pulling bodies from beneath the debris, desperately searching for survivors in what has been described as the most intense assault since January 19th.

The latest wave of bombings comes after Israel seemingly unilaterally ended a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that had been in place since January. Hamas has now called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene and bring an end to the attacks, urging international pressure on Israel to halt its military campaign.

The Israeli military, however, insists that the renewed airstrikes are necessary, claiming they are operating under the direct orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli officials have stated that the intensification of military action is in response to stalled negotiations over the release of Israeli captives and Hamas’s refusal to accept proposed agreements.

The White House has confirmed that Israel consulted the Trump administration prior to launching the strikes, signaling Washington’s continued involvement in the conflict. Officials have warned that there will be consequences, raising the specter of an all-out return to full-scale war.

As the conflict rages on, the Palestinian death toll has climbed beyond 60,000, marking yet another grim milestone in a war that has spanned 17 months with no clear end in sight. The international community remains divided on how to respond, but for those on the ground in Gaza, survival is the only priority as they brace for further attacks in the days to come.

News source- Al Jazeera

For perspective, there are 220 Democrats in the House of Representatives, all of whom have been unabashedly vocal in their criticism of the Trump administration’s actions on a near-daily basis.

There are 45 Democrats in the Senate.

But only a select number of self-styled progressives including Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Summer Lee, and Al Green – the man thrown out of President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech last week – were willing to add their names to language that leaves no room for interpretation.

“We are horrified by the recent illegal abduction and now indefinite detention of Mahmoud Khalil – a US legal permanent resident – by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents, and we unequivocally demand his immediate release from DHS custody,” the letter said.

“Khalil's arrest is an act of anti-Palestinian racism intended to silence the Palestine solidarity movement in this country,” it read. “He is a political prisoner.”

Among those notably absent from the document was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, otherwise known as AOC. She grew her brand as a member of the so-called "Squad" of progressive women in the House of Representatives but came under fire throughout Israel’s war on Gaza as she adopted what many saw as a more establishment-friendly tone within the Democratic Party.

After a social media firestorm, AOC’s chief of staff said she would have definitely signed the letter if it wasn’t too late, and that she was simply “waiting on a detail before signing”.

“Unfortunately, the letter was closed before that detail was confirmed,” he said on X.

“There are potentially logistical reasons for that, or just internal congressional process reasons for that,” one Democratic strategist working on Palestinian advocacy in Congress told Middle East Eye.

“I do think more lawmakers have spoken out than signed that letter.”

By the end of the day, it was revealed that AOC had signed a similar letter along with fellow New York Democrats serving at the local level.

Columbia University is located in New York City.

The United States and Israel have discussed with three East African governments the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza to Sudan, Somalia and its breakaway region of Somaliland, according to US and Israeli officials quoted by The Associated Press news agency.

Friday’s report said officials from Sudan claimed to have rejected overtures from the US, while officials from Somalia and Somaliland told AP they were unaware of any contacts.

Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a secret diplomatic initiative, US and Israeli officials confirmed the contacts with Somalia and Somaliland, while the US officials confirmed Sudan as well. They said it was unclear how much progress the efforts made or at what level the discussions took place.

The development comes more than a month after US President Donald Trump floated the idea of forcibly displacing Palestinians and “taking over” the Gaza Strip. It was roundly rejected by Palestinians and countries in the Middle East, with many describing it as ethnic cleansing.

Separate outreach from the US and Israel to the three potential destinations began last month, days after Trump floated the Gaza plan alongside Netanyahu, according to the US officials, who said Israel was taking the lead in the discussions.

There was no immediate reaction to the report from the US or Israel.

But Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a longtime advocate of what he calls “voluntary” emigration of Palestinians, said this week that Israel is working to identify countries to take them in. He also said Israel is preparing a “very large emigration department” within its Ministry of Defense.

‘Red line’
Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera the forced displacement of Palestinians is “a red line that should not be crossed”.

He said governments around the world have a responsibility to stop the “outrageous” proposal and “should not be engaging with Israel on any of these scenarios”, especially the displacement of Palestinians to African countries, “many of which continue to struggle from colonial legacies”.

“Sudan and Somalia are still ravaged by wars due to the colonial legacy. They [the Israeli government] have to be exposed and put on a shame list,” Qarmout added.

In exchange for accepting resettled Palestinians, it is thought that a variety of incentives – financial, diplomatic and security – would be offered to the East African governments.

A US official involved in the efforts confirmed to AP that the US was “having a quiet conversation with Somaliland about a range of areas where they can be helpful to the US in exchange for recognition”.

The US could offer the breakaway region of more than 3 million people international recognition, which is a priority for Somaliland’s new president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi.

Abdirahman Dahir Adan, Somaliland’s foreign minister, told the Reuters news agency denied the breakaway region’s authorities having received a proposal.

“I haven’t received such a proposal, and there are no talks with anyone regarding Palestinians,” he said.

‘Hidden agenda’
Meanwhile, it is difficult to understand why Somalia would want to host Palestinians given the country’s strong support for Palestinian self-rule, Sambu Chepkorir, a lawyer and conflict researcher in Nairobi, told AP.

“The realignments keep changing, and so maybe there is a hidden agenda in why Somalia,” Chepkorir said.

Two Sudanese officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic matter, confirmed the Trump administration has approached the military-led government about accepting Palestinians.

One said the contacts began even before Trump’s inauguration, with offers of military assistance against the RSF paramilitary group, assistance with postwar reconstruction and other incentives.

Both officials said the Sudanese government rejected the idea. “This suggestion was immediately rebuffed,” said one official. “No one opened this matter again.”

Khalil, a 29-year-old Palestinian student, was arrested from his university residence in New York’s upper Manhattan over the weekend by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who said they would revoke his permanent residency – popularly known as a green card – at the behest of the Department of State. Though no federal charges have been pressed against Khalil.

“This is the first arrest of many to come,” President Donald Trump wrote on Monday on his Truth Social platform, describing Khalil as “a radical foreign pro-Hamas student”.