Palestine

Gallipoli, Italy, July 20, 2025 — The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) announces that Handala, our civilian aid boat, launched today from Gallipoli, Italy, beginning the final leg of its journey to Gaza. This marks a determined step in our ongoing effort to confront and break Israel’s illegal and deadly blockade of the Palestinian people in Gaza. Handala carries life-saving humanitarian aid and a message of solidarity from people across the world refusing to stay silent as Gaza is starved, bombed, and buried under rubble.

SUSPECTED SABOTAGE JUST HOURS BEFORE DEPARTURE Just hours before launching, Handala was the target of two deeply alarming incidents that appear to be deliberate sabotage intended to obstruct our mission and harm our crew.

On the night of July 19 or early morning July 20, a rope was discovered tightly wound around the boat’s propeller. This could not have occurred through normal use or by accident. It was a direct threat to the safety of our vessel and its ability to sail.

Even more dangerous, on the morning of July 20, the truck sent to deliver fresh water to our boat for washing and cooking on the journey, carried not water, but sulfuric acid. It splashed on a crew member’s leg, causing chemical burns. Another crew member who smelled the substance and opened the container sustained burns to his hand.

We have video footage of the individuals who delivered this dangerous substance. We call for an immediate investigation and full accountability for these acts.

Despite this suspected sabotage, we remain undeterred. The attempt to harm our team and silence this mission will not succeed.

...

FFC’s Handala Launches from Gallipoli, Begins Final Leg of Its Journey to Break the Blockade [despite two disturbing incidents] - Freedom Flotilla (2025-07-20)

https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/20/ffcs-handala-launches-from-gallipoli-begins-final-leg-of-its-journey-to-break-the-blockade-for-the-children-of-gaza/
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>> Just hours before launching, #Handala was the target of two deeply alarming incidents that appear to be deliberate sabotage intended to obstruct our mission and harm our crew.

>> On the night of July 19 or early morning July 20, a rope was discovered tightly wound around the boat’s propeller. This could not have occurred through normal use or by accident...

>> ... on the morning of July 20, the truck sent to deliver fresh water to our boat for washing and cooking on the journey, carried not water, but sulfuric acid. It splashed on a crew member’s leg, causing chemical burns. Another crew member who smelled the substance and opened the container sustained burns to his hand.

#FreedomFlotilla #BreakTheSiege
@palestine@lemmy.ml @palestine@a.gup.pe

Gaza Holodomor

https://farid.ps/articles/gaza/_holodomor

24 Languages, Audio Podcasts, PDF eBooks, No Ads

@palestine@lemmy.ml
@palestine@a.gup.pe
#Palestine #Gaza

Pontiff also speaks of anguish over Israeli strike on territory’s only Catholic church, which killed three people

Jennifer Rankin and agencies
Sun 20 Jul 2025 12.17 EDT

[these are the strongest words yet from Pope Leo]

Israel has expressed “deep sorrow” and opened an investigation into the strike on the church, which was sheltering about 600 displaced people, most of them children and many with special needs.

“This act unfortunately adds to the ongoing military attacks against the civilian population and places of worship in Gaza,” the Pope said on Sunday.

“I appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force, and the forced displacement of populations.”

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5608041

Energy exports play a central role in Israel's campaign to normalize relations with its neighbors and avoid accountability for its ongoing genocide of Palestinians. An energy embargo on Israel should go hand-in-hand with calls for an arms embargo.

On March 17, 2025, Israel launched airstrikes across five municipalities across Gaza without warning. More than 400 Palestinians were murdered, including 100 children. The airstrikes violently ruptured the tentative ceasefire agreement brokered in January. Hours before the massacre, delegates from SOCAR, BP, and New Med arrived in Israel to officially announce a deal to explore the zone known as “Cluster I”; a 1700 sq km area near the Leviathan gas field operated by the U.S. global energy company, Chevron. Cluster I is one of several offshore exploration licenses tendered by Israel throughout the genocide, including licenses to extract gas from Palestinian waters annexed by Israel.

With this new contract, energy corporations are deepening their complicity in Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestine and genocide of Palestinians. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, in her From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide report, specifically highlights the role of energy companies, describing that:

“By supplying Israel with coal, gas, oil and fuel, companies are contributing to civilian infrastructures that Israel uses to entrench permanent annexation and weaponises in the destruction of Palestinian life. The same infrastructure services the Israeli military while it obliterates Gaza, including the network supplying the resources that these companies have provided. The ostensibly civilian nature of such infrastructure does not exonerate a company of responsibility.”

Full Article

A few weeks ago, our teams in Gaza started sending alarming photos of emaciated babies. More than 50 children died of malnutrition during Israel’s total blockade between March and May, according to the WHO, and malnutrition rates are still rising rapidly. Since January 24, UNRWA has screened over 242,000 children at its clinics and medical points, covering more than half of Gaza’s under-5 population. One in 10 children screened is malnourished.

One of them is Ahlam, only seven months old. Her family has been displaced every month since the war began, always searching for safety that doesn’t exist. Like many babies in Gaza, her tiny body is weakened; her immune system has been damaged by trauma, repeated displacement, lack of clean water, poor hygiene, and very little food.

In Gaza, therapeutic food and medicine are in desperately short supply. Israeli authorities have imposed a tight siege, blocking the entry of food, medical supplies, nutritional aid, and even hygiene items like soap. Although the blockade is sometimes eased, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the primary humanitarian organization in Gaza, has not been allowed to bring in aid for over four months.

Last week, Salam, another baby girl, died of malnutrition. She was only a few months old. By the time she reached our clinic, it was too late.

🚨 Gaza Government Media Office: —

The number of aid victims near the death traps has risen to 995 martyrs, 6,011 injured, and 45 missing

The Government Media Office publishes statistics on the number of martyrs, injured, and missing among the starving civilian population killed by the "israeli" occupation forces while attempting to obtain food from death traps among those awaiting aid from May 27, 2025, until today:

Total number of aid victims: 995 martyrs 6,011 injured 45 missing

Sunday, July 20, 2025

US Mercenaries "UG Solutions" is responsible and there is copious evidence of these brutal murders. THE US GOVERNMENT IS A FULL PARTNER IN THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/33428789

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

Other articles

• The suffocation of Sinjil
• Autel denies selling drones to Israel. So why are they roaming Gaza’s skies?
• ‘I haven’t been here in 40 years’: Emotional reunions as Druze cross Israel-Syria fence
• My journalist friend was arrested by Israel. He won’t be the last

From https://x.com/liamcunningham1/status/1946575903238095166

There's a need for at least 700 trucks every day to cover everyone's needs(, at least 1000-1500 according to wikipedia), three months ago the WaPo talked about only allowing sixty trucks per day, citing israeli officials.
Since the last ceasefire there's apparently less than a hundred trucks per day(, 27/day for the WFP, sometimes with a week-long pause on truck movements). The WFP claims to possess more than 116,000 tons of food assistance, enough to feed 1 million people for up to 4 months.
The GHF only fed 2% of the population. The same wiki article says it now delivers 2.6M meals/day of 500-700kcal, enough to feed 800.000 people, others only speak of 1.2M meals, confirmed here and in most articles. Note that they proudly claim transparency, but that's the most official page i could find launched the 11th of June and last updated the 12th. They weirdly did not even bother to create a website(, why ?), and are critized for their behavior(, here as well,) and opacity, apparently linked with Boston Consulting Group who was «shocked and outraged to learn that people at the firm were so closely tied to it», and fired two people linked to the project.
The UNRWA is mostly inactive now, the OCHA doesn't distribute food, nor does the UNICEF/WHO/..
The World Central Kitchen has suspended its programs in April after Israel killed 7 of its workers, and only partially relaunched their program.
The help from some border states, like Jordan or Egypt, doesn't amount to that much a.f.a.i.k.(, perhaps 50 trucks per day for Jordan, while Egypt is blocking the aid).

Their goal is to get rid of the local population, either though murders or by forcing them to flee, while systematically destroying their habitation like during the Nakba.

In April 2025, Israel Katz, Israel's Defense Minister, said that « Israel's policy is clear : no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza, and blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population. »

Edit/Addition : Another worrying thing is that COGAT, a unit from Israel's ministry of defense, stopped updating its weekly reports, 150 trucks for 2M people has always been far below the minimum of 700 required, and that weren't given for some weird reasons somehow linked to Hamas.
I couldn't find an official statement from COGAT explaining why they stopped, but it should logically be somewhere. Doesn't help in trusting Israel's intentions.
We still have the UN weekly reports, the chapter "Deteriorating Food Insecurity and Malnutrition" in their most recent one seems worth reading.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/33426944

'I Won't Let the Fascists Win'

from Haaretz.com (2025-07-19)

https://archive.is/k3m9u

Right-wing demonstrators on Saturday assaulted Arab lawmaker Ayman Odeh and attacked his car as he traveled to an anti-war protest in Nes Ziona, days after the Knesset failed to approve a motion to expel him from the legislature over controversial comments he made on the conflict with Hamas in Gaza.

Demonstrators could be heard repeatedly cursing Odeh and chanting “death to Arabs” in a video filmed from inside the vehicle.

Coming under fire from the left for the glaring contradiction of providing military assistance to a state that is perpetrating an active genocide, AOC issued a statement claiming her vote was about protecting civilians. AOC’s statement is absolute crap. The Iron Dome is not used for defending, it’s used to facilitate constant attacks. In an article for Jewish Currents titled “Iron Dome Is Not a Defensive System,” Dylan Saba explains:

“‘In theory, a weapon like Iron Dome could be used only defensively. But in practice it doesn’t work that way,’ analyst Nathan Thrall told Jewish Currents. ‘Iron Dome facilitates greater Israeli offensive measures, because it lowers the perceived cost to Israel of escalating or extending or initiating attacks.’ In other words, while the Iron Dome may prevent the deaths of Israeli non-combatants, it has made it easier for Israel to engage in deadly operations that take Palestinian lives.”

The Iron Dome isn’t for protecting civilians, it’s for protecting the Israeli regime from deterrence. We see this in the comfort the regime displays in waging constant military violence on its neighbors knowing they can’t retaliate. That’s why Israel cut a ceasefire deal with Iran so fast.

Iran’s advanced missiles can’t be reliably stopped by the Iron Dome, so Iran was able to smash Israel and force it to cease its unprovoked aggressions. If Israel had had a missile defense system which could casually swat those missiles out of the sky at a high rate of success, Israel would still be bombing Iran today, and would continue doing so until Tehran looked like Gaza. Israel’s war-horny population would have supported this, because they’d have no skin in the game.

All my friends in Gaza are telling the same story at this point, even with money, the markets are empty, there is simply **NO FOOD** to buy.

Israel is implementing it's **FINAL SOLUTION** in full view of the world.

Zionism has turned this planet into a **DYSTOPIAN NIGHTMARE**.

@palestine@lemmy.ml
@palestine@a.gup.pe
#Palestine #Gaza

Sammy Gecsoyler
Sat 19 Jul 2025 14.41 EDT

Demonstrations were held in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol and Truro on Saturday as part of a campaign coordinated by Defend Our Juries.

In London’s Parliament Square, beside the Mahatma Gandhi statue, police officers surrounded people at an event at which signs were held that read “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”.

A woman who was detained in Parliament Square said: “We demand that #Palestine Action is de-proscribed.

“Our government is not only arming a genocide, they are using terrorism laws to silence people who speak out."

People in Gaza are now literally dropping in the streets from starvation. There's no food available at all, not even for money.

Seriously, is there not a single country on this god-forsaken planet with the will and the ability to air-drop food over Gaza?!?

@palestine@lemmy.ml
@palestine@a.gup.pe
#Palestine #Gaza

A touching song

In Gaza City, Palestine,
Just standing by the sea
Here I was born a refugee,
But no refuge could they find for me.
Well I’ve been trapped here all my days
Three borders closed surrounding me
And soldiers sitting in the sea
And bombs a-falling down on me.
And there’s no place to hide,
My home isn’t even safe inside -
Nowhere to run, to play,
Where I can be a child:
Just for one minute,
Just an hour of my troubled days,
Let this flying kite take back the sky for me.
This kite that’s flying over me
Seeing things that I can’t see,
Saying all the things that I would say
If I could leave this place;
No walls could stop me dreaming,
No lies could lock me down,
And all the words in all the world
Couldn’t stop me from roaming around.
This kite that’s flying over me,
It’s just paper string and wood,
And a picture that I painted
And I hope it’s understood.
Will you carry all my dreaming up towards the sun,
Will you show the world that freedom means the same to everyone.
All it needs is the right wind blowing
Just one breath from the sea,
And where bombs and bullets have been falling
I send my kite soaring.
It may seem a simple thing
Just holding on to a piece of string –
But don’t forget I’ve been holding on
For all of my short years,
And my mother and my father
Held on long before my time.
Just for one minute,
Just an hour of my troubled days,
Let this flying kite take back the sky for me. 

by Caitlin Johnstone
Jul 18, 2025

It’s 2025. Israeli soldiers are telling the Israeli press that they’re being ordered to massacre starving civilians trying to obtain food from aid centers. Countless doctors have been telling the world that Israeli snipers are routinely, deliberately shooting children in the head and chest throughout the Gaza Strip. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and all the leading genocide experts and human rights authorities are saying that a genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza. The New York fucking Times just published an op-ed by a Zionist genocide scholar who’s finally admitting that it’s a genocide.

There’s no way to deny what this is anymore. If you still support Israel in the year 2025, it’s not because you don’t believe Israel is committing horrific atrocities. It’s because you believe those horrific atrocities are good, and you want to see more of them.

This is not an exaggeration.
If aid doesn’t enter within the next 48 hours,
prepare to witness one of the largest mass death crimes in modern history.
#ThisIsMassMurder
#GazaFamine
#LetGazaLive
#IsraelIsStarvingGaza
#starvation #Genocide #Israel
#FamineByIsrael

#BlockadeIsWar

#IsraelIsTheFamine

#SiegeIsAGenocide
@palestine@lemmy.ml @palestine@a.gup.pe @israel

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/33400817

July 19, 2025

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/33360678