Israel to allow Palestinians to leave Gaza through a reopened border crossing, but not to return

 

 

Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) arrive at the site where Hamas militants are searching for the remains of hostages in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, December 1, 2025 

 

 

Roger McKenzie, Morning Star, 3 Dec 2025

 

 

ISRAEL said today that it will begin allowing Palestinians to leave Gaza through a reopened border crossing — but they would not be allowed to return.

This comes a day after aid groups revealed that at least 64,000 children have been killed or injured by Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 2023.

The decision by the Israelis is part of the so-called ceasefire deal reached with Hamas and the other Palestinian resistance groups, a deal Israeli forces are accused of violating with their continuing attacks on Palestinians.

The Gaza Health Ministry said that more than 360 Palestinians have been killed across Gaza since the ceasefire took effect on October 11. The ministry sets the total Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks at over 70,100.

The statement about opening Rafah came from the Co-ordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat), the Israeli military body charged with facilitating aid to Gaza.

It said that Israel would co-ordinate with Egypt on the exit of Palestinians, under the supervision of a mission from the European Union. Those wishing to leave Gaza will require “Israeli security approval,” Cogat said.

The ceasefire deal calls for the crossing to be opened for medical evacuations and for travel to and from the strip.

But an Israeli source said that all Palestinians who want to exit Gaza will be able to exit through Rafah as long as Egypt agrees to receive them, but the crossing won’t be open for people wishing to return to Gaza.

The official said that the EU still had to make some adjustments to logistics before the crossing could open.

The crossing was sealed off in May 2024 when Israel’s military invaded the area. It was briefly opened in February this year for the evacuation of sick and wounded Palestinians for treatment, as part of the previous ceasefire deal.

The United Nations Children’s Fund, the Global Protection Cluster Network and the Child Protection Area of ​​Responsibility warned that more than 64,000 Palestinian children have been killed or injured by Israel in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.

In a statement, the organisations reported 658,000 school dropouts due to the devastation caused by systematic Israeli aggression, which has left at least 70,000 people dead in Gaza.

The statement said that children “are exposed to relentless violence, repeated displacement and severe deprivation.”

The three aid groups warned that as a consequence of Israel’s attacks, more than 11,000 children have suffered serious injuries and require long-term rehabilitation and are in desperate need of mental health support.

The Gaza “Ceasefire” is a Total Fraud

 The fire has not, in fact, ceased, and there have to be meaningful penalties for Israel’s violations.

• Alex Skopic

filed 26 November 2025 in Israel/Palestine

It shouldn’t shock anyone, this long into both of their careers, to learn that Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are habitual liars. They lie, and they lie, and they lie, practically every time they make a public statement. There’s “no inflation” in Trump’s America, except there obviously is. Israel would never bomb a hospital on purpose, unless perhaps a “Hamas camera” was located there. The official stories grow more incredible by the day. So why, we might ask, do so many journalists and politicians still accept anything these men say at face value? And why are they acting as if a ceasefire and a peace process were happening in Gaza, when Israel’s bombing and killing is still raging on?

When he made his speech about the ceasefire to a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on October 13, Trump was his usual bombastic self. “Together, we’ve achieved what everybody said was impossible. At long last, we have peace in the Middle East[...] After years of suffering and bloodshed, the war in Gaza is over,” he said. And if you trust certain big media outlets, you might even think that’s true. In the Atlantic, we were told that Trump “has achieved a remarkable success and deserves full credit for it,” with his ceasefire marking “the first steps toward peace in Gaza.” The New York Times has consistently described a ceasefire which is “brittle” (October 14) or “very fragile” (October 24) but still essentially intact. The Bezos-owned Washington Post touts the Trump administration’s “efforts to promote the success of the Gaza ceasefire deal.” The overall narrative is that, while there might still be a minor flare-up of tensions here and there, Trump’s diplomacy is working, and the war is over. Peace on earth, good will to all. 

 

 

The trouble is, the “fire” hasn’t actually “ceased.” The truce exists mainly on paper and in sound bites. In the real, flesh-and-blood world, Israel violates it on a near-daily basis, conducting airstrikes, shootings, and other assaults on the people of Gaza much as it did before the agreement was signed. Only the scale and strategy of the violence has changed. From all-out genocide, Israeli leaders have shifted to a quieter, more sporadic series of attacks that they clearly hope will be ignored or excused by the Trump administration, along with others in the U.S. who have a vested interest in pretending a meaningful peace has been reached. 

In fact, Al Jazeera reports that “Israel [has] violated the ceasefire agreement at least 497 times from October 10 to November 22,” including “attacks by air, artillery and direct shootings.” That’s an average of 11 violations per day. Experts at the United Nations have compiled slightly more modest numbers, reporting on November 24 that “Since the ceasefire was announced on 11 October, Israel has reportedly committed at least 393 violations, killing 339 Palestinians, including more than 70 children, and injuring over 871 others.” Whether you take the high or low estimate, the picture is the same: a continuous barrage of deadly assaults. 

Particular incidents stand out from the list. The worst of them was the Israeli airstrikes on October 28, which killed 104 Palestinians in a single bombing run. These attacks came in retaliation for the death of a single IDF soldier who was reportedly killed by Hamas, which would be a ceasefire violation in itself. But in their typical form, the Israelis struck “homes, schools and residential blocks” indiscriminately, and the BBC reports that “46 children and 20 women” were among the dead—that is, more than 60 percent of the total casualties. 

Even beyond direct attacks, Israel isn’t abiding by the terms of its agreement. The deliberate starvation hasn’t ended, as government officials in Gaza say that only around 200 trucks of food per day are being allowed through their borders, far short of the agreed-upon 600. As a result, malnutrition levels are still around 90 percent. Likewise, the latest UN report states that the IDF hasn’t actually withdrawn its forces from Gaza, with “40 active Israeli sites still operating beyond the agreed withdrawal line, in clear breach of the ceasefire terms.” Or, as Forensic Architecture puts it more bluntly, “nowhere in Gaza is safe.” The so-called “yellow line,” which ostensibly marks the point beyond which Israel has withdrawn, is in reality “unclear and contradictory,” with the line on the maps Israel releases not matching the line they actually occupy—and if Palestinians even venture near the line, even if they’re completely unarmed, they can be summarily shot and killed. Palestinians’ homes are still being demolished on a daily basis. In short, this “ceasefire” is not a ceasefire at all. The more accurate term would be a “reduction in fire,” or possibly a “temporary lull.” The ethnic cleansing and genocide is still ongoing, just by different means. 

The really incredible thing, though, is that so many U.S. journalists seem determined to clap their hands over their eyes, like the “see no evil” monkey, and pretend there really is “peace in the Middle East.” No example is more blatant than that of the Associated Press, who keep saying that Israel’s various attacks are “tests” of the ceasefire. An airstrike that “targeted a vehicle, killing 11 and wounding over 20 Palestinians” was the “Gaza ceasefire’s latest test,” according to the AP. (The majority of the dead were children.) Earlier, they reported that “The Israeli army launched a barrage of attacks in Gaza” after a dispute with Hamas over the return of a dead hostage’s body, killing “at least seven Palestinians”—but, astonishingly, wrote in the same article that the “Fragile ceasefire holds so far despite tests.” On another occasion, “Israel’s intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip this week marked the most serious challenge yet for a fragile, U.S.-brokered ceasefire.”

I’m sorry, but that just isn’t what those words mean. You can’t have both a “ceasefire” and “intense bombardment,” because you are bombing and not ceasing. It’s like walking up to your friend, shooting them in the shoulder with a handgun, and saying it’s a “test of your friendship.” And of course, there’s the usual double standard: if it were Hamas that were constantly bombing and killing hundreds of Israelis, it would not be described euphemistically as a “test.” Then, reporters would suddenly be able to call it what it is: a clear-cut violation, whose perpetrators should be held accountable.

 

 

There are immediate, life-or-death consequences to this lying. In a grim article from November 21, the Guardian reports that charities dealing with humanitarian aid for Palestinians have seen a “catastrophic drop-off in donations” ever since the “ceasefire” was announced, with one organizer saying that “the world thinks Palestinians don’t need our help any more.” As a result, the aid groups are now struggling to get desperately-needed blankets and clothing to Gaza, which is entering a bitterly cold winter. The Gaza Soup Kitchen reports that donations have fallen by 51 percent. Because of the “ceasefire” narrative, people will starve. And this, of course, is the purpose of spreading the narrative to begin with: to draw the eyes of the world away from Gaza, tamp down the anger and urgency that fuels anti-genocide protests, and let Palestinians suffer and die in silence. 

“It’s harmful and disingenuous for American media to continue the charade that there’s a ceasefire in place,” said Representative Joaquin Castro in a recent social media post. “There is no ceasefire. It's a lie,” says Representative Rashida Tlaib. Exactly right. Trump and Netanyahu, the premier liars of the modern world, have simply lied again. The fire has not ceased, the food aid is not coming, and true peace is still a long way off. They can’t be allowed to get away with it. We’ve got to see through this false ceasefire, and renew the pressure on our leaders to actually end the violence. When Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian civilians under the guise of a truce, we can’t call it a “test,” shrug, and walk away. We need to demand the names and ID numbers of the commanders responsible, and put them on trial. We need to demand all the aid be let through, and make politicians’ lives hell until it is. The people of Gaza still need our solidarity, as much as they did when the war was officially on. For their sake, we can’t look away.

Italy Holds Third General Strike in Three Months, Against War Budget and for Palestine

December 1, 2025 

 

“Guerra e carovita. Governo Meloni governo dei padroni” by Rete dei Comunisti, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

In one of the scariest moments in modern history, we're doing our best at ScheerPost to pierce the fog of lies that conceal it but we need some help to pay our writers and staff. Please consider a tax-deductible  donation.

By Ana Vračar / Peoples Dispatch

Italy is on general strike for the third time in less than three months, following a call by the grassroots union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB). Pickets, industrial actions, and demonstrations were organized in over 40 cities, with massive rallies demanding an end to rearmament plans and the war budget shaped by Giorgia Meloni’s government.

On Friday, workers stressed that their mobilization is tied both to worsening material conditions at home and to international events, specifically the struggle of the Palestinian people – whose fate, they insist, is inseparable from Europe’s expanding war economy. As a result, those striking today reiterated their commitment to join the national march for Palestine in Rome, taking place on Saturday, November 29.

“The Meloni government’s rearmament budget is in line with the warmongering policies pursued in recent years, but it also represents a further leap in quality, with public services being sacrificed on the altar of the war economy, all while inflation continues to rise and wages have been stagnant for decades,” USB and the dockworkers’ collective CALP wrote in one of the strike calls.

“We want at least €2,000 in base pay, retirement no later than 62, an end to subcontracting, reduced working hours with no loss of pay, guaranteed housing rights, new public-sector hiring, and free, universal public health care,” USB added. “These are urgent needs in an exhausted country, needs that are incompatible with the government’s warmongering.”

Italy’s social situation is “a political choice,” workers say

Like other European governments, Meloni’s administration has aligned itself with the European Union’s armament agenda. According to trade unions, this will mean billions for the military and related industries while essential public services fall apart. CALP described the new budget as one that freezes wages, ignores inflation, and prioritizes banks and capital gains. “While prices keep rising, salaries stay stagnant and pensions are cut every year,” the collective stated. “We work more, earn less, and live worse. This isn’t a crisis: it’s a political choice, and workers are the ones paying for it.”

Calls for the government’s dismissal could be heard across today’s actions, together with refusals to accept the shift toward militarization and military enrollment. Groups including left party Potere al Popolo and student collectives CAU and Cambiare Rotta marched with striking workers, blocking roads and picketing companies set to profit from military budgets while healthcare and education are left underfunded.

Messages of support arrived from abroad as well. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and Freedom Flotilla participants Greta Thunberg and Thiago Ávila announced they would join the 28-29 November mobilizations in person. Artists including Roger Waters, as well as international trade unions and Palestine solidarity coalitions, expressed solidarity with the strike. “USB’s strikes have shed a bright light on the shameful complicity of the Italian government and Italian corporations in enabling Israel’s genocide, illegal occupation and apartheid against Palestinians,” the BDS National Committee wrote. “They have shown the power of the people and inspired many across the globe.”

In a letter to USB, the Galician Unions Confederacy (CIG) emphasized the strike’s relevance in the context of the EU’s ReArm Europe strategy and the rise of the far right. “We reject the policies promoted by the EU and its member states, which fuel a warmongering escalation and commit to increasing military budgets at the expense of public services and social support,” CIG stated. “And we are concerned about the fascist drift toward which Europe is heading, of which the Meloni government is a clear example.”

Unlike the general strike in October, in which the confederation CGIL joined USB’s call in a rare moment of unity, the call for today’s action came from grassroots unions alone, with CGIL planning its own strike in mid-December. This, however, did not diminish USB’s determination. “Calling the third general strike in just over two months is not a decision to be taken lightly or symbolically,” they wrote.

Instead, they reiterated that today’s strike was intended to table concrete demands and alternatives. The strike, USB added, should not be perceived as a one-off protest but as “an event that represents not only a stage of mobilization, but also a decisive political step to give a voice to those who can’t make ends meet, those working for starvation wages, and those watching their futures crushed by wars, inequality, and the choices of a government hostile to workers.”

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Amnesty International Says Gaza Genocide Is Not Over

 The group says Israel continues to deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza

by Dave DeCamp | November 27, 2025 at 1:17 pm ET | Gaza, Israel

Amnesty International said on Thursday that the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian population of Gaza is not over despite the US-backed ceasefire deal, which Israel has continued to violate.

While the agreement has led to a de-escalation of Israeli attacks and a slight increase in aid entering Gaza, Israeli forces have killed hundreds of Palestinians, and Israel continues to impose restrictions on humanitarian aid and is not allowing reconstruction.

“More than one month after a ceasefire was announced in Gaza on 9 October, Israeli authorities are still committing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, by continuing to deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction,” Amnesty said in a statement.

A man and a child mourn by the covered body of a Palestinian killed in an Israeli air strike, according to medics, at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, November 19, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

“Israel severely restricts the entry of supplies and the restoration of services essential for the survival of the civilian population – including nutritious food, medical supplies, and electricity – as well as stringently limiting medical evacuations. Israeli authorities continue to prohibit the entry of equipment and material necessary to repair life-sustaining infrastructure and required to remove unexploded ordnance, contaminated rubble and sewage,” the group added.

Amnesty also pointed to the continued displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza as they are not allowed to enter the Israeli-occupied side of the Strip, which accounts for 58% of the territory, and are shot and killed if they attempt to cross the “yellow line,” the ambiguous boundary that cuts Gaza in two.

“Palestinians are prevented from returning to their homes or agricultural lands located in areas beyond the yellow line, and the Israeli military has shot at those who come near,” Amnesty said. “Some 93 Palestinians attempting to cross and return to their homes have been killed.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Thursday that since the ceasefire was supposed to go into effect, Israeli forces have killed at least 347 Palestinians and wounded 889, more than 1,000 total casualties.

Amnesty called for international pressure on Israel, saying it was “clear that Israel will not permit the provision of aid sufficient to create life-sustaining conditions within Gaza unless the international community demands that it takes effective measures to ensure that it does so.”

𝐀 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐆𝐚𝐳𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞

Nasir Khan

Mr Trump, who likes to promote himself as a powerful MAGA leader, has been a sustainer and dedicated accomplice to the mass slaughters of Palestinians in Gaza and the destruction of the enclave since he took office this year. In addition, he has been and will always be an instrument in the hands of Israeli war machine.

We should keep in mind that he won't be able to change the direction of his policy, either, because the reins of his Zio-chariot are firmly in the hands of Israel, AIPAC and his billionaire donors, who helped him to be in the White House for the second term.

No, there is no ceasefire in Gaza

Israel’s bombing of Gaza is not a ‘violation of the ceasefire’. It is a continuing genocide under diplomatic cover.

By Yara Hawari

Co-director of Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.

Published On 24 Nov 202524 Nov 2025

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A child and a man injured in an Israeli army attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp await treatment at al-Awda Hospital, central Gaza Strip on November 22, 2025 [Moiz Salhi/Anadolu]

When on October 10, a “ceasefire” was declared in Gaza, many Palestinians breathed a sigh of relief. They had just endured two years of constant bombardment estimated to equal roughly six times the explosive force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, concentrated on an area less than half the size of the Japanese city..

The devastation was all encompassing. All hospitals and universities had been bombed, most homes and schools destroyed and vital infrastructure, such as the sewage system and electricity lines, had been damaged beyond repair. An estimated 50 million tonnes of rubble was strewn across the strip and under it lay at least 10,000 bodies of Palestinians killed in bombardments who were yet to be recovered.

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And yet, the respite the people of Gaza expected to finally come never materialised. Almost immediately after the “ceasefire” announcement, the Israeli regime started bombing the strip again. It hasn’t stopped since then.

According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, Israel has violated the “ceasefire” nearly 500 times in 44 days, killing 342 civilians. The deadliest day was on October 29 when the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed 109 Palestinians, including 52 children. More recently, on Thursday, 32 Palestinians were killed, including an entire family in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City when a bomb was dropped on a building they were sheltering in.

But it is not just the bombardment that hasn’t stopped. The starvation hasn’t either.

As per the “ceasefire” agreement, 600 trucks of aid were supposed to be allowed in every day, which Israel has not fulfilled. As Al Jazeera’s correspondent Hind al-Khoudary has reported from Gaza, the IOF is permitting only 150 trucks a day to cross into the strip. They are also preventing the entry of nutritious foods, including meat, dairy and vegetables, as well as much-needed medicine, tents and other materials for shelter.

A coalition of Palestinian relief agencies estimated that the aid that enters now doesn’t even cover a quarter of the basic needs of the population.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which says it has enough food in its warehouses to feed everyone in Gaza for months, is still not allowed to bring in any of it. This is in direct contravention of an October advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the Israeli regime has a duty to not impede the supply of aid by UN agencies, including UNRWA.

The court also rejected Israeli accusations that the agency lacks neutrality and asserted that it is an indispensable actor in the humanitarian landscape. Nonetheless, the Israeli regime has rejected the advisory opinion and continues to limit UNRWA activities by preventing aid distribution and denying visas to its international staff.

The Israeli regime is also not abiding by the provisional measures that were laid out in an ICJ ruling in January 2024 that found that plausible acts of genocide were being committed in Gaza. These measures included preventing acts of genocide, preventing and punishing incitement to genocide and allowing humanitarian assistance into Gaza. Since then, the court has reaffirmed its provisional measures several times. The Israeli regime continues to ignore them.

And that is because on the international level, it continues to enjoy unprecedented diplomatic, financial and military cover. The latest iteration of that came on November 17 when the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2803, endorsing United States President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza.

Among its provisions is the creation of two bodies that would take control of Gaza: the board of peace, chaired by Trump himself, and the international stabilisation force, tasked with maintaining security and enforcing the disarmament of Palestinian groups. The governing structure of both bodies remains unclear, but they would operate in coordination with the Israeli regime, effectively installing another layer of foreign control over the Palestinian people.

The resolution also allows for the bypassing of existing local and international structures in the distribution of aid. It makes no mention of the genocide and does not propose any mechanism for accountability for war crimes. Essentially, the resolution contravenes international law and gives the US – a co-perpetrator of genocide – control over Gaza.

All of this makes clear the fact that the “ceasefire” is not a ceasefire at all. The Israeli regime continues to attack Gaza, to starve the Palestinian population and to deny it access to proper shelter and healthcare.

Calling this arrangement a ceasefire allows third states to claim progress on conflict resolution and even peace when the core genocidal reality of the Palestinians on the ground remains largely unchanged. The “ceasefire” is a diplomatic sham – a cover for the continuing extermination, displacement and erasure of the Palestinian people in Gaza and a distraction for the international public and the media.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

---

• 
  Yara Hawari

  Co-director of Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.

  Yara Hawari is the co-director of Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network. She previously served as the Palestine policy fellow and senior analyst. Yara completed her PhD in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter, where she taught various undergraduate courses and continues to be an honorary research fellow. In addition to her academic work, which focused on indigenous studies and oral history, she is a frequent political commentator writing for various media outlets.

Evidence Shows Israel Used Weapon Banned for Its Civilian Impact on Lebanon

Cluster munitions release dozens or hundreds of “bomblets” that have a high failure rate, leaving explosive hazards.

By Sharon Zhang, Truthout Published November 19, 2025

An Israeli soldier rides in the army Merkava main battle tank at a position in northern Israel along the border with southern Lebanon on November 6, 2025.

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Israeli forces used a munition widely banned for its impact on civilians amid their war in Lebanon, new reporting finds as Israel carries out new assaults in Lebanon despite the ceasefire agreement.

Photo evidence of Israeli munitions remnants from three different locations in southern Lebanon suggests that the weapons were cluster munitions, The Guardian reported Wednesday, citing half a dozen arms experts who examined the photos.

These munitions scatter dozens or hundreds of “bomblets” across an area spanning several football fields. For decades, “civilians have paid dearly for [cluster munitions’] unreliability and inaccuracy,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has noted, as the weapons are imprecise by definition.

The evidence was found south of the Litani River, in Wadi Zibqin, Wadi Barghouz, and Wadi Deir Siryan, The Guardian found. The publication reports that this is the first evidence of such munitions being used in Lebanon since Israel first used them in its invasion of Lebanon in 2006.

They are especially dangerous as up to 40 percent of submunitions don’t explode on impact, leaving behind unexploded ordnance that could potentially harm civilians later if they come across them.

Palestinians in Gaza reject UN Security Council approval of Trump’s plan: It’s a ‘new occupation’

 On Monday, the UN Security Council voted to endorse the Trump administration’s “International Stabilization Force” in Gaza. Palestinians in Gaza say it is just a new face of the same Israeli occupation.

By Tareq S. Hajjaj November 18, 20250

A general view of the extensive destruction in the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, on November 17, 2025. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)

The UN Security Council voted on Monday in favor of a U.S.-backed resolution establishing an “International Stabilization Force” (ISF) in Gaza under a “Board of Peace” headed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Under a two-year mandate, the stabilization force is reportedly planned to have an “executive” role in Gaza, not just as a peacekeeping force. The ISF is being established under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which means it is being granted the authority to disarm Palestinian resistance factions, aligning with Israeli demands, and could be established unilaterally, without the approval of the Palestinians.

The UN Security Council resolution voted 13-0 in favor of the resolution, with two permanent members, Russia and China, abstaining from the vote.

Hamas rejected and condemned the resolution, asserting that it does not satisfy the rights of the Palestinian people and imposes an international system of “guardianship” over Gaza, something the Palestinian people and Palestinian factions reject.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad also rejected the resolution, saying it amounts to a new Western “mandate” over Palestine.

In Gaza, local reactions to the UN vote varied, but very few viewed the development as hopeful. 

Nader Qassem, one of the displaced in Gaza City, expressed his resentment over the resolution to Mondoweiss, pointing out that it is nothing more than a retrenchment of the Israeli occupation.

“Receiving the news was highly shocking to many families, including mine,” Qassem said. “After a long episode of suffering that has lasted through two years of death…after all this, we’re placed under international supervision?”

“It’s as if we are a people without a right to self-determination or the right to decide who protects us and manages our affairs,” he continued. “This is a disregard for our suffering in Gaza. The world is conspiring against us through international agreements that don’t serve the citizenry, helping out the occupier and its partners instead.”

Qassem adds that the ISF will not help preserve stability either. “This force will not be in a position to maintain security if it does not represent the Palestinians and if it does not result from a joint Palestinian process.”

“This force will increase the burdens of the Palestinian people and increase their suffering,” Qassem said.

“It’s as if we in Gaza have no opinion, no sovereignty over ourselves, not even a decision on who governs us,” Qassem continued.

Qassem also said that such decisions make Palestinians lose hope in reconstruction and returning to live in proper homes instead of tents. He also added that the vote makes it clear that the world is ignoring Palestinian rights and sovereignty when it gives guardianship to those who have no right to be in this land.

“These international forces,” Qassam explained, “belong to their countries and will not be closely connected to the Palestinians. They will not know the requirements of the Palestinian people and will not be able to provide them with safety or protection, because they do not know what the people of Gaza suffer or what they need. Whoever governs us must be from among us, aware of our suffering, so that they can solve these problems and provide us with a dignified life. These forces will not provide political, economic, or even social support to the population in Gaza.”

Others in Gaza agree that the stabilization force is a recipe for disaster. The minute it arrives in Gaza, it will be forced to engage in armed confrontations and start arresting people in Gaza, following Israeli recommendations. This will turn the international force into “a new occupation,” Gaza residents say.

Samir Al-Bakri, a resident of Gaza City, says that any force that is formed will be totally rejected by Palestinians so long as it isn’t formed through a Palestinian national consensus process.

Al-Bakri tells Mondoweiss that the international force will constitute a new occupation of the Strip. “Look at Lebanon. There is an international force operating in Lebanese territory, but does it prevent the daily shelling of Lebanon?” al-Bakri says. “No. Every day, we see Israeli shelling of Lebanese land and continual Israeli violations.” 

“It is as if the mission of the international force coming to Gaza is to protect Israel’s borders from Palestinians without offering anything in return to us,” al-Bakri continued. “And it won’t even offer us any real protection either; it won’t prevent Israel from carrying out its military operations or aerial bombardments of Gaza. It may even help Israel achieve its goals.”

The greatest fear, according to al-Bakri, is the confrontation between Palestinians in Gaza and these international forces, and the emergence of new problems with the countries that send these forces—including Egypt and Qatar. “We fear that our disputes will become with Egypt instead of Israel, and with Qatar as well, and this is what they are trying to establish.”

“If the international force arrests one of my relatives, there will be no enemy to confront except this international force composed of Egyptians and Qataris,” he explained. “They will become our enemies instead of the Israelis. And this force will serve as a helping hand for the Israelis to achieve their objectives.”

“After all this suffering, the Palestinian people deserve a unified Palestinian force, of the people and for them, to manage their affairs,” al-Bakri added. “It is a renewal of the Israeli occupation. The UN is rewarding us with a new occupation.”

Israel’s Ben Gvir Calls for the Killing of Palestinian Authority Officials If UN Backs Palestinian State

 

by Dave DeCamp | November 17, 2025

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir has called for the assassination of Palestinian Authority officials and for PA President Mahmoud Abbas to be placed in solitary confinement if the UN advances the recognition of a Palestinian state.

“A ‘Palestinian’ state of the ‘invented people’ who call themselves ‘Palestinian’ must never be established, because the aspiration of those seeking to establish such a state is to build it on the ruins of the State of Israel,” Ben Gvir said at a meeting of his Jewish Power party, according to The Times of Israel.

“If they accelerate recognition of a Palestinian terror state… orders must be given for targeted killings of senior Palestinian Authority officials — who are terrorists in every respect — as well as an order for the arrest of [Mahmoud Abbas]. There is a solitary confinement cell ready for him in Ketziot Prison,” he added.

Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir walks inside the Knesset, on the day US President Donald Trump delivers remarks, in Jerusalem, October 13, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

As the minister of national security, Ben Gvir oversees Israeli prisons, where at least 98 Palestinians have died since October 7, 2023, according to new data, due to torture, food deprivation, medical neglect, and other Israeli abuses.

Ben Gvir’s call for the killing of PA officials came ahead of a UN Security Council resolution that would authorize the deployment of an “International Stabilization Force” to Gaza. Some states initially objected to the resolution because it made no mention of a Palestinian state, prompting the US to add an amendment that says once the PA “faithfully carried out and Gaza redevelopment has advanced, the conditions may be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”

The US issued a joint statement with several Arab states on Friday that said the US resolution “offers a pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.” But the Israeli government has made clear that it’s very opposed to the establishment of the Palestinian state, and the US plan for Gaza doesn’t address the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the continued expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the territory.

Editorial | Israel's Violent Jewish Settlers Are Neither Marginal and nor a Handful

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Israeli settlers attempt to disrupt the harvest of olive groves by Palestinian farmers in the West Bank town of Silwad, in October.Credit: Nasser Nasser/AP

Haaretz Editorial

Nov 14, 2025 12:51 am IST

If in fact they are only a minority, a few dozen Jewish settlers who are destroying olive groves, wounding harvesters, torching homes, cars and mosques and driving communities from their homes, their output is impressive – more than two attacks a day on average, by the military's calculations; more than eight a day in October; more than four a day in the November 4-10 period, according to a meticulous examination by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and about 15 a day according to data reaching the PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department.

The latter's list, unlike the UN agency's does not include only attacks that resulted in casualties, in olives stolen and branches sawn off. After all, for the Palestinians even a threatening march by a few armed and masked Israelis with a herd of cows and an all-terrain vehicle into a Palestinian spring, grove or tent encampment, or around homes on the outskirts of a community, is a terrifying assault.

Its purpose, like that of the bleeding attacks, is to displace people from their land for the next proud Jewish settlement outpost.

‘Settler violence is out of control': How a 'perfect storm' of settler attacks backed by the IDF and Israel's extremist government is terrorizing the West Bank

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To call these anomalous, marginal cases is a blatant lie: A handful of hooligans would not have been able to displace nearly 60 Palestinian communities since 2022, according to the organization Kerem Navot – 44 of them since October 2023, according to B'Tselem. A few rioters would not have been able to take control, on their own, of about 200,000 acres of West Bank land by the end of 2024, according to a study by Kerem Navot and Peace Now.

After all, there are organizations that bought the herds of cows and sheep and distributed them to the young couples who ascended the mountain in order to settle. There are institutions that supply the structures and the security. There is a government that provides ATVs and drones, a police force that repeatedly fails to locate suspects and a military that arms residents of the outposts and also protects them during their raids on the neighboring village.

If suddenly there is talk about a few rotten apples, it's because a few television channels deviated from their silence and broadcast a small sample of the videos of Jewish violence that are circulating freely on social media. The flavor-of-the-month shock, therefore, is self-deception.

Israeli soldiers stand behind a masked man during a settler attack on the Palestinian village of Beita, south of Nablus, in October.Credit: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP

• Under the radar, quiet and persistent population transfer is underway in the West Bank
• IDF reports surge in West Bank settler attacks, says police and Shin Bet looking away
• Violent settlers are 'fringe teens' but can 'destabilize' West Bank, IDF source says

This is a process of organized and calculated violence that began in the second half of the 1990s and intensified during the 2000s. Settlement outposts were established frequently, generating cycles of violence against Palestinians. To avoid "friction," the military prevented and prevents the legal owners and cultivators of the land from reaching it.

The outposts have been expanding. Some of them are already neighborhoods of existing settlements that invite the Israeli masses to purchase "boutique" one-family homes in them. And the process continues tirelessly, on an upward trajectory that has peaked under the current government. The purported handful succeeds because its violence serves official policy. It's only if the Israeli public renounces it that the "handful" of rioters can only be stopped.

The above article is Haaretz's lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.