LIVE: Israel pounds Gaza; 5-year-old Palestinian child dies from hunger
The European Union, China, and Israel's close ally, Germany, have denounced the killings, with the United Nations too describing the attack as a 'grave breach of international humanitarian law'.
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Al Jazeera
24 minutes ago
- Al Jazeera
Is Israel using Gaza tribal militias to help ethnic cleansing?
In June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted to arming and supporting the Popular Forces militia in Gaza to oppose Hamas. 'What's wrong with this?' he said in a short video he tweeted. 'It only saves the lives of Israeli soldiers.' He did not clarify what the Popular Forces would do exactly, but experts believe Israel is backing the militia and its leader, Yasser Abu Shabab, to put a Palestinian face on the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. The 31-year-old Abu Shabab, a previously unknown member of Gaza's Tarabin Bedouin tribe, escaped prison around October 7, having been imprisoned since 2015 for drug-related charges. Drugs are reportedly smuggled into Gaza through Egypt's Sinai and, according to analysts, are run by ISIL-affiliated groups. This has led to a widespread belief that Abu Shabab has ISIL (ISIS) links. But Abu Shabab's alleged affiliation with ISIL has not been an issue for Israel; analysts say it is using him to advance its ethnic cleansing plans in Gaza. Abu Shabab emerges Abu Shabab, who leads the 100-man-strong Popular Forces militia, is an elementary school dropout, according to Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations. Despite this, he has a sophisticated and multilingual social media presence, and he recently penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal claiming that Palestinians in Gaza were done with Hamas. Analysts believe his refined media presence is likely honed outside Gaza. 'He's not been in touch with society for the last decade,' Shehada said. 'He's a nobody. He's basically a front guy.' His own tribe, the Tarabin, does not approve of his role in Gaza today, making a rare public statement disavowing him for allegedly collaborating with Israel. Abu Shabab began to rise to prominence in late May 2024 after Israel invaded Rafah, in southern Gaza. 'His gang emerges a month later and becomes the main gang that loots the overwhelming majority of food and aid that's going into Gaza systematically under [Israeli military] protection,' Shehada said. About nine out of 10 trucks entering Gaza have been looted, according to United Nations statistics. Israel initially blamed Hamas for the looting, but humanitarian groups refuted that claim, and even the Israeli military was unable to find any proof that that was the case. Instead, international aid workers say it was Abu Shabab who was systematically looting the aid. An internal UN memo obtained by the Washington Post specifically named Abu Shabab 'the main and most influential stakeholder behind systematic and massive looting' in Gaza. During the brief ceasefire that Israel unilaterally broke in March, Abu Shabab disappeared, only to reappear in mid-May when Israel, under immense international pressure, started to allow a trickle of aid back into Gaza. 'Literally on that day, he emerges again out of nowhere,' Shehada said. 'He's been the face of Israel's hunger campaign,' Shehada said, 'while giving Israel full deniability of it and outsourcing the thing.' A Palestinian face to ethnic cleansing Beyond the stealing of aid meant for starving Palestinians, analysts said Abu Shabab and his militia are contributing to a wider Israeli plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza, which has been intensifying this year. 'Israel is in the process of trying to build up the militias associated with Abu Shabab in hopes that they can expand the concentration camp zones over which those militias can operate/control so that Israel can reduce the burden of occupation while facilitating the ethnic cleansing,' Tariq Kenney Shawa, the US policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian policy network, told Al Jazeera. In early July, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced a plan to push 600,000 Palestinians into tent cities in southern Gaza and called it 'voluntary migration'. When Katz revealed the plan, it was widely panned by the Israeli media and humanitarians. Abu Shabab's militia has been building what analysts are calling concentration camps in southern Gaza, in an effort to drive more than half a million Palestinians there before being displaced to third countries. 'The intention is to hold them there until an opportunity arises to send them elsewhere outside of Gaza, be that Egypt or any number of third countries,' Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, said. Forcing Palestinians into an unbearably small area and then forcing them over the border into Egypt could spark serious international repercussions, as the Egyptians have rejected displacing Palestinians. 'Israel understands that if the [Israeli army] operates a concentration camp in Rafah, it wouldn't look very nice,' Shehada told Al Jazeera, adding that Israel would prefer 'a Palestinian face that's dressed in Palestinian uniforms with a Palestinian flag and speaking in Arabic' as the face of such an operation. In addition, he said, Abu Shabab has 'two very well-oiled Facebook propaganda machineries' that could convince desperate people to seek shelter in his camps, 'especially if Israel [begins] forcefully pushing people there.' 'Abu Shabab's militia is running smaller concentration camps within areas Israel controls and has advertised them as 'safe havens' for people to come get aid and set up tents and such,' Kenney Shawa said. Taking advantage of desperation This process has been bolstered by the US and Israel-backed GHF, which Israel is trying to impose as the sole distributor of aid in Gaza. But the GHF has been widely lambasted by aid groups and the UN for politicising aid, and Israeli soldiers shoot at hungry Palestinians every day as they try to secure aid for their families. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed at the GHF's distribution centres since May. Worsening the situation is that, instead of some 400 aid distribution points that the UNRWA used to operate in Gaza, the GHF has only four sites in the whole Gaza Strip. Tellingly, three of those are in the south, with only one in central Gaza, leading analysts to believe the sites were selected intentionally by Israeli authorities. 'Survival depends on food access,' Rahman said. 'The entire purpose of GHF is to force the population to relocate.'
Al Jazeera
an hour ago
- Al Jazeera
Assaults by Israeli soldiers become a daily reality in West Bank's Sebastia
On July 2, Khaled Azem was pulled from his car at a checkpoint in the northern occupied West Bank, he tells Al Jazeera. Israeli soldiers beat and humiliated him, forcing him to say: 'I love Israel', while filming him on his phone, then posting it to his social media. Azem, 25, and his brother-in-law had just left the Azem home in Sebastia, a village to the northwest of Nablus, to work on a construction site. That's when he fell victim to one of the increasing attacks that villagers say are part of Israel's plan to drive Palestinians out. Israel has been eyeing Sebastia's significant archaeological site, which dates back to the Iron Age, since 2023, wanting to turn the area into a national park and tourism hub. The baby of the family On a hot afternoon in late July, Azem is sitting on his front porch, framed by his mother and grandmother. He smiles shyly and, at one point, puts his arms around both of the women. He's the baby of the family, the youngest of four siblings, and he and the two women share sloped hazel eyes. They also share the same anxieties over Israel's increasingly violent military presence in and around their town. 'I used to go out often with my family,' Azem told Al Jazeera. 'But now, due to the occupation forces, I hardly go out at all.' The family has lived in this yellow-plastered house for 40 years – longer than Azem has been alive. Before the violence escalated, his days were quiet and calm. He worked as a builder in Tel Aviv and enjoyed going into town in the evening to meet friends. Sometimes, he'd walk alone to the ruins overlooking the dry hills around Sebastia, past the ancient Roman columns and stone amphitheatre, enjoying the peaceful solitude and beautiful landscape. That peace has now disappeared. First came the job losses. Israel revoked nearly all border permits for Palestinians after October 7, 2023, and barred Palestinian workers from the construction industry. Unemployment soared over 30 percent, leaving Azem and his two brothers without regular work, and the family now relying solely on the income of Azem's father, Wael, a taxi driver. Then came the Israeli military incursions, which ramped up since late 2023, with soldiers now storming through the village nearly every night. One evening, on January 19, an Israeli army sniper shot and killed a 14-year-old child, Ahmad Rashid Rushdi Jazar, near Sebastia's kindergarten. Now, many families, including Azem's, no longer venture outside their homes, especially in the evenings. 'A message for Sebastia' Azem recalls his attack as he drove to a construction gig before dawn with his brother-in-law. Three Israeli soldiers stopped his car at a checkpoint in the adjoining town of Deir Sharaf. The Israelis demanded their names and identity cards and began to interrogate them, asking what they were doing and where they were from. Azem told them he was from Sebastia, at which point the soldiers made him get out of the car and kicked his legs out from under him, forcing him to his knees. Azem says the soldiers tried to frame him as an armed fighter, yelling questions at him like: 'Why are you attacking us with Molotov cocktails?' The questions didn't make sense to Azem, who says he has never engaged in violence. He told them he doesn't do much of anything, except occasionally look for work. Azem repeated that he was only on his way to work and told them he didn't know anything. He says the soldiers then pushed him face-first into the ground, and one of them stepped on his head and asked: 'Do you love Iran?' Azem said no, that he wasn't political and that he doesn't support Iran. For the next 40 minutes, as his brother-in-law sat in the car, the soldiers kicked and beat Azem with their weapons as he lay on the ground. One soldier sat on his legs to ensure he couldn't escape. Then they demanded his phone. The soldiers filmed a video in which they commanded Azem to repeat after them, in Hebrew: 'I love Israel' and 'I will do everything they ask of me'. Azem still has the video the soldiers shot on his phone. Filmed above the muzzle of a gun, Azem's worried face is turned towards the lens, repeating the Hebrew words one by one as he lies on his belly. The soldiers then uploaded the video to Azem's Facebook account. They waited 15 to 20 minutes to ensure that some of Azem's friends and family saw the video before giving back the phone. As Azem recounts the story, his voice is strong and clear, but he anxiously bounces his heels on the floor. When the soldiers finally let him go, his brother-in-law had to turn around and drive home. Azem, too injured to work, spent the rest of the day trying to sleep and heal. Humiliated by the video and afraid that he will be attacked again, Azem no longer leaves his house. When friends call and invite him out, he declines. 'I am extremely embarrassed,' Azem says. 'The video mocks us, the people of Palestine.' Though he took the video down quickly, others saw it, including Sebastia's Mayor Mohammed Azem (no relation), who saved a copy as evidence of the soldiers' mistreatment. 'If I leave home again … I don't want to think what they could do to me next time,' Azem says. Maha, Azem's mother, speaks up: 'When the Israeli soldier learned he was from Sebastia, they wanted to make this video to send a message to all of Sebastia, to say: 'I'm here, and I control your village, and I do what I want to do here.'' 'If he hadn't said [what they commanded him to say], they could have hurt him worse, or killed him,' she adds. Humiliation by design Israel has been accused of deliberately and systematically humiliating Palestinians, particularly civilians detained in Gaza. There, human rights organisations say soldiers have forced men to strip while being filmed. Israel has also been accused of using sexual assault, rape, and the threat of rape as a way of humiliating prisoners. In the West Bank, soldiers near Hebron have allegedly drawn the Star of David on a Palestinian child's book and branded the symbol on a man's face in occupied East Jerusalem. 'Israel employs a systematic strategy of humiliation to psychologically impact and break down Palestinian individuals and communities,' writes Ramy Abdu, chairman of the Swiss nonprofit Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, comparing such acts of humiliation to those witnessed during World War II's Kristallnacht. Israel has purportedly set its sights on Sebastia because it's an important archaeological site believed to be among the oldest continuously inhabited places in the occupied West Bank. It was an important centre under Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Roman rule. Israeli politicians say it was the historical capital of the Biblical Kingdom of Israel, while Christians and Muslims believe it is the burial site of John the Baptist. In 2012, Palestine applied for Sebastia to become a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site, an application that is still pending. The town remains under civilian Palestinian control, but the acropolis has been under Israeli control since the 1995 signing of the Oslo Accords. Increasingly, and especially since 2019, Jewish settlers have 'attempted to impose a separation between the acropolis of the ancient site of Sebastia … and the village', according to a report from Emek Shaveh, an Israeli archaeological NGO. In May 2023, the Israeli government approved a massive $8m plan to turn Sebastia into a tourist hub and national park. Last summer, Israel's military issued an order to seize 1.3 dunums (1,300 square metres) of land at the summit of the archaeological site. Since then, Israel has put more checkpoints around Sebastia. And this May, it began excavations there, transporting sacks of soil with ancient artefacts to the nearby illegal settlement, named Shavei Shomron. Emek Shaveh says taking artefacts and material from Sebastia is considered illegal under international law. Last month, it released a paper addressed to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, stating: 'Israel's attempt to appropriate the acropolis and sever it from the town undermines the historical integrity of the site … and violates the cultural rights of the town residents.' In response to Emek Shaveh's objections, the Israeli military confirmed last year that establishing a military facility at the summit of the Sebastia archaeological site would involve frequent military incursions through the Palestinian town below. In May 2025, a UN report revealed that Israel plans to build a fence and bypass road through Sebastia. The report said this will 'not only cut off Palestinians from the site, it will also develop the site to focus exclusively on Jewish history'. In June, Israel's Civil Administration also issued a permit for its army to set up a 'defence station' at the nearby historical Massoudieh Ottoman train station. Locals fear the worst Palestinian residents and leaders fear that Israel's plans are leading towards the annexation of Sebastia. They see it as similar to moves made in Tulkarem and Jenin, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced by Israeli military raids this year. Sebastia's Mayor Azem told Al Jazeera that Israeli military incursions have escalated in recent weeks. While soldiers used to come to the village once a week, over the last three months, they've arrived every night, paralysing the villagers' freedom of movement. 'They even attack the electricity,' he says. 'The municipal employees, when they're working in the street, they attack them.' There is no presence of Palestinian resistance fighters in Sebastia, and locals don't have weapons to defend themselves, the mayor says. Groups of Israeli settlers also regularly visit the Sebastia archaeological site under the protection of Israeli soldiers. This has led to frequent incidents of settler violence against Palestinian residents. Mayor Azem pointed to an incident in June in which soldiers stormed into a Sebastia home and beat a family, sending a daughter to the hospital. 'They attacked the house of a family who have small daughters,' said Azem. 'When they pushed and attacked the girls, the Red Crescent came and took them to the hospital,' because locals can't use their own cars for transportation to the hospital, for fear of Israeli military violence. Israeli authorities did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment on the attacks. These incursions and the intended bifurcation of the village are happening even though Israel is signatory to the First Protocol of the Hague Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from retaining cultural property in an occupied territory. On May 13, UNESCO approved funds to prepare a preliminary assessment of Palestine's application for Sebastia to become a World Heritage site. This gives villagers a glimmer of hope of some limited protection from annexation. But Mayor Azem believes UNESCO has been slow to move forward partly because it doesn't want to agitate the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has already put UNESCO participation under review due to so-called 'anti-Israel sentiment'. Meanwhile, back on the porch with Azem and his family, his mother notes that while things were bad before October 7, 2023, 'now it's 10 times worse'. She says her village no longer holds events after dark – they even worry that weddings that go past dusk will bring violence. 'There are no reasons for attacking us, but they don't want us to be happy,' Maha says. 'If they hear that there is a wedding or something we can celebrate here, in the night, they come to the village to cancel our happiness.'
Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Widow of slain Al Jazeera journalist demands justice
Widow of slain Al Jazeera journalist calls on world to stop Israel from killing others NewsFeed 'Stop the killing of our spouses.' The widow of slain Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Qreiqeh says he was a kind, loving father and husband before he was assassinated by Israeli forces to silence his coverage on the Gaza war. Video Duration 04 minutes 23 seconds 04:23 Video Duration 02 minutes 30 seconds 02:30 Video Duration 02 minutes 51 seconds 02:51 Video Duration 00 minutes 41 seconds 00:41 Video Duration 00 minutes 28 seconds 00:28 Video Duration 03 minutes 22 seconds 03:22 Video Duration 02 minutes 03 seconds 02:03
