The regional head of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for the Occupied Palestinian Territory warned that Israeli settlers are increasing violence against Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank. Ajith Sunghay said: "Settler violence has skyrocketed in scale and frequency, with the acquiescence, support, and in many cases participation, of Israeli security forces—and always with impunity." The statement comes at the start of the critical olive harvest season, a main source of income for many Palestinian families. The Israeli Knesset meanwhile voted to advance legislation that would effectively annex the West Bank.
Unprecedented Israeli air-strikes on buildings in Qatar's capital Doha apparently targeted senior members of Hamas' external leadership—precisely those involved in ceasefire negotiations. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the operation, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that the attack was "a wholly independent Israeli operation." He added: "Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility." However, the White House quickly confirmed that it was informed of the operation beforehand. On the same day as the Qatar strikes, organizers of a flotilla carrying aid for Gaza said their lead ship was hit by a drone while anchored at the port of Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia. A videoposted by the Global Sumud Flotilla appears to show a lit projectile falling from the sky onto the vessel before flames erupt on the front deck. The ship sustained some damage, according to later footage posted on social media. One day later, a second vessel in the flotilla was evidently struck, causing similar damage. The Global Sumud Flotilla's most prominent member is Greta Thunberg, internationally known for her climate activism and now a leading figure in the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
Two of Israel's leading human rights organizations charged that government practices and policies in the Gaza Strip amount to an ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel each published a report and jointly announced their findings. It marks the first time that any Israel-based rights group has labeled state actions as genocide. Both organizations invoked the "legal and moral duty" of Israel's Western allies to bring a halt to Israel's conduct.
The Israeli military intercepted a civilian vessel, detaining 21 international activists and journalists who were aiming to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza. In a statement, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an international grassroots network of human rights and civil society organizations, declared that its vessel Handala was "violently intercepted" by Israeli forces, seizing all cargo, including food, medical supplies and baby formula. According to the network, the attack on the Handala is the third against the Freedom Flotilla this year, following the "drone bombing of civilian ship Conscience" in European waters in May, and the seizure of the Madleen in June, when 12 civilians were "abducted" by Israeli forces. Furthermore, the network stated that the Israeli military acted in international waters, thus violating international maritime law.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres strongly condemned a deadly Israeli artillery strike that damaged Gaza's Holy Family Catholic Church, calling the attack "unacceptable" and reiterating calls for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages. The strike killed three civilians and injured several others, including parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli, according to the Vatican. The Holy Family Church, Gaza's only Catholic parish, had served as a refuge for displaced civilians since the onset of the war, and held up to 600 people when it was struck by tank fire.
The two most senior church leaders in the Holy Land toured the Christian Palestinian town of Taybeh in the West Bank, which has been the scene of repeated attacks by Israeli settlers in recent weeks. In a joint statement, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, called the settler attacks a threat to Christian heritage, and demanded an investigation into the failure of Israeli authorities to respond to the ongoing assaults. Taybeh, the biblical Ephraim, has three churches—Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Melkite—whose pastors have issued an joint appeal calling on Israeli authorities to prevent further settler violence. They charged that the violence—including arson attacks that have threatened the Byzantine-era Church of Al-Khader (St. George)—has often taken place in the presence of passive Israeli soldiers. The settlers have also damaged the olive groves that are Taybeh's primary source of income, and are preventing farmers from accessing and working their lands.
The word "ceasefire" seems like a misnomer for the situation in the Gaza Strip since Israel and Hamas agreed to a deal that was supposed to end two years of war a month ago. The Israeli military is still deployed in over 50% of the territory and continues to shell and fire on Palestinians, killing more than 240 and injuring over 600 since Oct. 11. Aid is also still entering the enclave at a trickle—far from the levels needed to address a hunger crisis caused by months of Israeli-enforced deprivation. A UN resolution creating an international stabilization force for Gaza—a key part of the 20-point US peace plan—may face delays over disagreements about its mandate and the timetable for Israel's withdrawal from the territory. Observers point out that the situation is beginning to resemble south Lebanon, where Israel has continued to occupy land and carry out attacks despite a ceasefire agreement that went into effect at the end of November last year. In recent weeks, Israel has carried out near-daily attacks in south Lebanon.
A UN independent inquiry issued findings that Israel has committed the international crime of genocide amid its military operations in the Gaza Strip. A 72-page legal analysis from the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found that Israeli forces have committed genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza, including killing or seriously harming members of the group, as well as inflicting conditions of life "calculated to bring about [Gazans'] physical destruction in whole or in part," and preventing births among the population. To support its conclusions, the commission cited the figure of 60,199 Palestinians killed since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, the fact that life expectancy in Gaza has dropped precipitously from 75.5 to 40.5 years, and that 46% of Palestinians killed were women or children. The panel also noted direct attacks on maternity wards and clinics.
The US military could face legal responsibility for assisting Israeli forces that commit war crimes, Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated. Direct participation by US forces in military operations in Gaza since October 2023, including by providing intelligence for Israeli strikes and conducting extensive coordination and planning, has made the United States a party to the conflict under international law, HRW found. Members of the US military could also be individually implicated for the crimes, according to the rights group.
Future plans for the Gaza Strip currently circulating among United States government officials call for for the relocation of the entire population to make way for construction of tourist resorts and tech industry hubs under a decade of US administrative control, according to a Washington Post exclusive. The 38-page document obtained by the newspaper includes full-color artist renderings of the envisioned "Riviera of the Middle East." The prospectus, yet to be officially approved, would see the US take the Strip under trusteeship for at least 10 years, overseeing "voluntary departures" of the residents to third countries or into "restricted" zones within the territory. A "Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration & Transformation Trust" (GREAT Trust) would be established to coordinate the effort.
The Israeli cabinet will convene to discuss annexation of areas of the West Bank, local media report. The discussion has been called in light of the recently-approved settlement construction plan spearheaded by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, which will see some 3,400 housing units built in the West Bank's contentious E1 area between Jerusalem and the Ma'ale Adumim settlement bloc. This follows approval of a Knesset resolution in favor of annexing the entirety of the West Bank. The motion, which passed 71-13, declared that the West Bank is "an inseparable part of the Land of Israel, the historical, cultural and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people," and that "Israel has the natural, historical and legal right to all of the territories of the Land of Israel."
The Israeli military's extensive destruction of civilian property and agricultural land across southern Lebanon must be investigated as war crimes, Amnesty International said in a new research briefing. The report, entitled "Nowhere to Return: Israel's Extensive Destruction of Southern Lebanon," documents the demolition of more than 10,000 civilian structures between October 2024 and January 2025. Amnesty concluded that the destruction, often carried out with manually laid explosives and bulldozers while Israeli forces were in control of the areas, occurred outside active combat and without the "imperative military necessity" required under international humanitarian law.
A report released by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) program found that a "famine is currently occurring in Gaza Governorate," the district covering Gaza City, and is "rapidly spreading" under seige conditions imposed by Israel. Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis governorates are also approaching the IPC's criteria for famine. Multiple international aid agencies and organizations have renewed their calls for an immediate ceasefire to facilitate an "unimpeded, large-scale humanitarian response that can save lives."
Bill Weinberg speaks at the NYC Anarchist Forum on "Neither NATO Nor Qaddafi, Thank You: Anarchist Perspectives on Libya and the Arab Spring," April 27, 2011
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