Palestine today
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A massive protest of tens of thousands took place outside the Israeli embassy in London on Saturday, March 22, 2025, denouncing Israel's renewed offensive in Gaza as a genocidal act that violated the ceasefire agreement.
14 Gaza medics killed by Israeli fire found in Rafah, says Palestine Red Crescent
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has confirmed that 14 bodies have been recovered in Rafah, southern Gaza, a week after its paramedics came under heavy fire from Israeli forces during a rescue operation. In a statement on Sunday, the PRCS said that eight of the bodies have been identified as Red Crescent medics, five as members of the Civil Defence, and one as an employee of a UN agency. One PRCS first responder and one Civil Defence paramedic remain missing. "PRCS was devastated today by the loss of eight of our paramedics in Rafah who were targeted by the occupation forces while performing their humanitarian duty, responding to the wounded and injured in the Hashashin area of Rafah," the organisation said in a post on X. "The ninth paramedic is still missing and is believed to have been detained."
Israeli air strikes hit displaced Palestinians’ tents on Eid al-Fitr
Israeli air strikes continued on Sunday, March 30, the first day of Eid al-Fitr, with attacks targeting tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Anadolu news agency reported. The attacks left multiple casualties, including children, local sources reported. The wounded and deceased were transported to the city’s Nasser Hospital, where medical teams struggled to treat the influx of injured amid worsening humanitarian conditions. Following the deadly strikes, funeral prayers were held for those killed in the attacks.
The attack came as Israeli bombardments persist across Gaza despite calls for a cease-fire during the Islamic holiday. The Israeli army launched a surprise aerial campaign on Gaza on 18 March, killing more than 920 victims, injuring over 2,000, and shattering a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement.
Israeli air attacks kill dozens in Gaza as Palestinians mark Eid al-Fitr
Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip has continued on the first day of the Muslim Eid holidays, killing dozens of people as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows no sign of letting up pressure on Hamas amid a new round of ceasefire talks. Several air raids in the early hours of Sunday struck tents and homes as Palestinians celebrated the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. At least 35 people were killed in the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
Sunday’s killings come as the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) recovered the bodies of 15 medical workers in Rafah who came under heavy Israeli fire last week. Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad obtained exclusive satellite images showing that at least five rescue vehicles were destroyed by the Israeli military in that deadly attack. “[This] is a tragedy not only for us … but also for humanitarian work and humanity,” PRCS said in a statement, adding that the Israeli military targeting the health workers “can only be considered a war crime”. Amid the violence, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip continues to deteriorate as Israel has halted the delivery of aid into Gaza since early March.
Gazans perform Eid prayers atop ruins of mosques amid relentless Israeli bombardment
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday did prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr atop the rubble of destroyed mosques, in overcrowded shelters, and beside the ruins of their homes, as Israel’s ongoing war left no room for traditional celebrations, Anadolu news agency reported. Israeli airstrikes continued through the early hours of Sunday, targeting various areas across the besieged enclave, resulting in casualties, according to an Anadolu correspondent.
Despite the destruction, displaced Palestinians gathered amid artillery shelling and heavy gunfire from Israeli forces to perform the prayers, recite takbirat (chants glorifying Allah), and exchange greetings for Eid, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. But the holiday’s usual festive traditions, such as sharing sweets, giving gifts to children, and celebrating in public squares, were absent. In Gaza City, thousands prayed inside the partially destroyed Great Omari Mosque in the Old City, which has suffered Israeli bombardment during the ongoing war, which began nearly 18 months ago.
Israeli forces fire tear gas at Palestinians visiting graves during Eid
This is the moment Israeli forces fired tear gas at Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as they visited the graves of loved ones buried in the Jenin refugee camp on the first day of Eid al-Fitr.
Palestinians commemorate Land Day under threat of erasure
Palestinians marked Land Day today with renewed defiance, affirming their steadfastness in the face of ongoing war, displacement, and efforts to uproot them. Every year on 30 March, Palestinians commemorate Land Day, a powerful symbol of resistance against land confiscation, forced displacement, and erasure. The day marks the killing of six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel by Israeli forces in 1976, during protests against a government plan to expropriate large swathes of Arab-owned land in the Galilee. Land Day began in response to an Israeli government decision in 1976 to seize around 20,000 dunams of land (approximately 20 square kilometres) between the towns of Sakhnin and Arraba in the northern Galilee.
Much of this land was privately owned by Palestinian citizens of Israel, but the confiscation was framed by the state as being "for public use". In reality, the move formed part of a broader strategy known as the Judaisation of the Galilee - a demographic campaign aimed at increasing the Jewish population in Palestinian-majority areas. Nearly five decades later, Land Day resonates more than ever, particularly in Gaza, where Palestinians are marking the occasion in the shadow of a devastating war that has entered its second year. As the Israeli onslaught continues and displacement deepens, Land Day this year reflects not only on past land theft but also on continued attempts to uproot Palestinians from their land once again.
Trump wants Gaza for real estate deals, but Mike Huckabee’s all-inclusive Israel tours erase Palestinians for a higher purpose. For those who wish to see a united Palestinian homeland, it was a month of nightmares. For Mike Huckabee, Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Israel, the moves fit perfectly into the maximalist vision of the Holy Land he has promulgated for decades.
In his long career as a politician and media personality, Huckabee has made his views on the Israel–Palestine conflict well known. He believes that, according to the Bible, only Israel has legitimate claim to the Holy Land and that Palestinians who can’t accept this should leave.
Now, if he can be confirmed by the Senate, where he faced his first hearing before the Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Huckabee can bring his religious worldview to bear as the U.S. ambassador to Israel — and find allies in Trump’s White House. Little attention has been paid to how Huckabee and others have inspired such fervent support for Israel among grassroots American evangelicals. Part of the answer lies in the cottage industry of evangelical pilgrimages to the Holy Land — led by religious leaders like Huckabee himself.
“Adoption of the Group of Eight (Go8) antisemitism definition represents not only an assault on religious freedoms crucial to a democratic society but a feeble capitulation to an agenda that sacrifices democratic rights and safety of minorities to protect interests of a foreign state.” At the University of Sydney rally on 3 March, Michael Berkon underscored gravity of the issue, stating, “I unequivocally call for Zionism to be officially declared a racist ideology, for Zionist speech to be outlawed as hate speech, and for the Israeli flag to be banned as a symbol of racialised hatred and oppression.”
David Dixon brought further clarity: “Anyone with half-an-ounce of commonsense knows that criticising Israel doesn’t make one an antisemite any more than criticising the Vatican makes one anti-Catholic. What is happening is weaponising this definition against critics of the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza.” It should be revised! Indeed it heralds Australia’s entry into a new Dark Age with continuing debasement of Western civilisational values. The Vice-Chancellors’ craven acceptance of this definition shocked Australians, signalling a stark departure from intellectual freedoms, threatening to curtail critical inquiry into one of the world’s most enduring geopolitical crises. The hypocrisy is glaring…
Israel’s “Culture of Cruelty” Inspires the Far Right Worldwide, Says Pankaj Mishra
“The World After Gaza” author on what Israel’s war reveals about power, violence, and who sets the rules on the world stage. Author Pankaj Mishra argues Israel operates within a “culture of impunity,” emboldened by global far-right movements that admire Israel’s “brazen cruelty.” This week on The Intercept Briefing, reporter Jonah Valdez speaks to Mishra about his latest book, “The World After Gaza,” which examines how the war on Gaza isn’t just another conflict — it’s a turning point reshaping global politics, exposing institutional failures, and forcing a reckoning over who sets the rules on the world stage.
“Some of the worst people in the world today are drawn to Israel,” Mishra says. “Not because they believe in Zionism, not because they are protective of Jewish population of Israel, but because Israel again represents to them — embodies this opportunity to take whatever you can and hold on to it using extreme violence if necessary.”
A Reel War: Israeli filmmaker’s search for stolen Palestinian films
An Israeli filmmaker uncovers seized PLO archives, raising questions about Palestinian heritage and identity. Was Palestinian history carefully recorded by the earliest 20th-century filmmakers as a way of preserving their heritage? Or were they, as some Israelis claim, simply disorganised amateurs operating on basic equipment in a primitive society?
In this documentary, Israeli researcher and filmmaker Karnit Mandel uncovers previously unseen footage of Palestinian life and history in a box of old VHS tapes. The cassettes are a small sample from a huge archive seized from the PLO during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Mandel tries to retrieve it from the Israeli army but comes up against overwhelming obstacles and bureaucracy. She hears a range of contrasting views, from Palestinians who describe a well-developed film industry in the 1930s to dismissive Israeli historians who say Palestinian cinema never existed at all. In the end, Mandel is forced to abandon her search – but it highlights the continuing struggle for narrative control over Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.