The Israeli activists protesting for Gaza's children
In Israel, a small but growing minority has been critical of the IDF's renewed offensive, since it broke the ceasefire in March.
Now, alongside the regular anti-government protests demanding a deal to return the hostages, other movements are becoming bolder and louder.
For the past month, filmmaker Matthew Cassel has been following one of them, run by left wing activists, which focuses solely on the suffering of civilians in Gaza.
They are often not popular with other Israelis and the film does contain interactions which some might find offensive
Filmmaker: Matthew Cassel
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
5 hours ago
- BBC News
Six killed by Israeli gunfire near Gaza aid site, Hamas officials say
Six Palestinians have been killed and several others wounded by Israeli gunfire in the latest deadly incident close to an aid distribution centre in southern Gaza, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency had gathered to collect food supplies on Saturday morning when the shooting started, a spokesman for the agency said. Reports quoting an eyewitness said the Israelis opened fire when people tried to advance towards the site. The Israeli military said it fired warning shots at suspects who approached them in a threatening of Palestinians have been killed and hundreds injured trying to get to the distribution centre this week. The US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) which runs the centre says it has paused its operations to deal with overcrowding and improve people have gathered nearly every day at a roundabout on the edge of an Israeli military zone, through which they have to pass to reach the aid a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had told Gazans the area was an active combat zone during nighttime said it had not been able to distribute food on Saturday because of direct threats from Hamas - something the group has the case, the new incident will almost certainly strengthen international criticism of the new distribution United Nations insists it puts Palestinians in danger and does not provide enough food and medicine to deal with Gaza's humanitarian Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said at least 15 people had also been killed by Israeli air strikes on a residential home in Gaza city, with reports that some of the casualties remained trapped in the Israeli army said the strikes had eliminated the head of a Palestinian militant group known as the Mujahideen Israelis have accused the group of killing and kidnapping some of the victims of the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October, including a Thai national named Nattapong body was recovered in the Rafah area of southern Gaza in a special operation on Friday. Israel recently began to allow limited aid into Gaza after a three-month blockade, prioritising distribution through the the foundation has been mired in and local health authorities reported more than 60 Palestinians were killed by gunfire over three days shortly after it started witnesses blamed Israeli soldiers for the Israeli military said it had fired warning shots on the first two days and shot near Palestinian suspects advancing towards their positions on the third, adding that it is investigating the distribution centre is one of four operated in Gaza by the is part of a new aid system - widely condemned by humanitarian groups - aimed at circumventing the UN which Israel has accused of failing to prevent Hamas from diverting supplies to its fighters. The UN has denied these allegations, stating that it can account for all the aid it hands out and that the GHF's system is unworkable and is almost 20 months since Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led cross-border attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken least 54,677 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the territory's health ministry.
The Independent
13 hours ago
- The Independent
‘Let down by a world that claims to be humane but does nothing': Palestinians speak out as Israeli bulldozers raze West Bank villages
Jaber Dabbaseh sits upon a pile of dust-strewn rubble. 'We feel oppressed, let down by a world that claims to be humane, while it does nothing,' the father-of-five says. The ruins once formed his family home in Khalet al-Daba'a in the West Bank, before his village was almost entirely demolished by Israeli bulldozers. A crippling 2025 for Palestinians in the West Bank has seen 14 children among 80 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the north of the territory alone. In late May came a hammer blow when Israel announced that 22 new settlements had been approved. Far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich warned Israel would 'not stop until the entire area receives its full legal status and becomes an inseparable part of the State of Israel,' a lucid illustration of the aggressive pro-settlement policies of Benjamin Netanyahu's government. On Thursday 5 June Palestinians marked Naksa Day, a commemoration of the forced displacement of around 300,000 Palestinians during the June 1967 war. Nearly six decades on, demoralised West Bank residents tell The Independent that the current situation is worse than ever. 'Their future is lost and we cannot provide for them, even a little,' says Dabbaseh, lamenting the life awaiting his five boys. 'The situation is very, very tragic.' Dabbaseh is one of the residents of Khalet al-Daba'a that have remained on the land, living in tents and residential caves since Israeli machinery razed it to the ground on 5 May. The IDF says the village is 'built illegally within a military firing zone' and that Palestinians live there illegally. This is disputed by the UN, EU, and rights organisations who say the forced expulsion of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta is illegal. 'Israel must immediately halt illegal practices leading to the forced displacement of Palestinians, including attacks on residential areas, destruction of property and infrastructure, pervasive access and movement restrictions imposed on Palestinians,' Amnesty International said on Thursday in a statement marking Naksa Day, as it accused Israel of presiding over a 'ruthless system of apartheid'. Since Khalet al-Daba'a's destruction, settlers have roamed the remnants of the village daily, grazing their sheep and vandalising remaining structures in the hope of pushing Palestinians away from the land, residents say. Footage shows settlers stood among the wreckage of Khalet al-Daba'a as three soldiers watch on, hands in pockets, relaxed and chatty. 'Our children are struggling to reach school and live in anxiety and fear. We cannot protect them from the settlers. We have no clinics, no schools, no recreational facilities for children,' Dabbaseh says. Nine houses, ten water tanks, four animal shelters, a community centre and most of the village's solar panels in the village were flattened by the army of bulldozers in less than two hours, according to activists. Residents watched on helplessly from a nearby hilltop, witnessing the stark transformation of their small village into a bleak landscape of lost livelihoods. Masafer Yatta, a collection of hamlets in the South Hebron Hills which the Israeli army declared a military firing zone in the 1980s, has faced some of the most brutal manifestations of Israeli occupation. After decades of legal wrangling, the High Court ruled in 2022 that there were no legal barriers to prevent the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes. Many Palestinians have repeatedly rebuilt their homes after they have been flattened. Others have moved into caves which have been renovated by locals and activists to make them habitable for families. Jaber Dabbaseh says the latest eviction was the eighth he has seen his home demolished in as many years. Increasingly emboldened by the Israeli government's pro-settlement policies, the rate of settler attacks on Palestinian villages has increased over the past year, residents say. Each week, footage emerges on social media of settlers, often masked and armed, descending on Palestinian villages in the West Bank. 'We are full of sadness, full of weakness. What can we do?' asks Mohammad Hesham Huraini, a 22-year-old activist who lives in the nearby village of at-Tuwani. 'The people are scared and afraid. They want someone to stand by them to at least feel that we are not alone.' Speaking in a phone call last Friday, Huraini says he is due to join join fellow activists and resident to visit the remnants of Khalet al-Daba'a. 'I don't know if we will come back in an ambulance, or a military jeep, or a police jeep,' he says. 'It's really worse than ever before, more dangerous than before. The people feel that they are alone, the international community just watches.' Days later, Huraini was detained while sitting in a tent with other activists in Khalet al-Daba'a. Israeli police have routinely detained activists and residents on the land, including 70-year-old Irish woman Deirdre Murphy - who as of Friday remained in detention as she appealed her deportation - and Swedish national Susanne Björk, both UK residents. The army says entry into is prohibited under military orders. 'Every day it's getting worse and worse, and we expect there is more worse to come,' says Mohammad Hureini - a cousin of the previously-quoted Mohammad Hesham Huraini. Speaking of the settlers, he said: 'There is no power to stop them, they are roaming daily, shooting, stealing land. Anyone who stands up for their rights will be attacked.' The Israeli military says its troops are 'required to act to stop the violation' in instances of violence against Palestinians and 'to delay or detain the suspects until the police arrive at the scene'. But Palestinians say Israeli authorities offer no such protection. Activists including Basel Adra, the Oscar-winning director of the documentary No Other Land, which depicts settler and military violence in Masafer Yatta, have issued an urgent call for journalists and activists from the international community to flock to the West Bank. 'It's not easy for me to write this, but my community Masafer Yatta will be destroyed unless more activists and journalists don't urgently come and join us on the ground,' Adra wrote on X along with a video showing Israel settlers standing among the ruins of Khalet al-Daba'a. During one such visit led by Adra earlier this week, masked Israeli soldiers barred around 20 journalists from entering the villages. As the conversation draw to a close, Huraini thanks the international community for their support. But now, he says, as the community of Masafer Yatta looks ahead to a gloomy future: 'We need you here on the ground.' The IDF said: 'The mission of the IDF is to maintain the security of all residents of the area, and to act to prevent terrorism and activities that endanger the citizens of the State of Israel. 'Enforcement against illegal structures is carried out in accordance with the law, operational priorities, and subject to approval by the political echelon. The structures built in [Khalet al-Daba'a] and nearby areas were constructed illegally and were therefore demolished after the owners were given the opportunity to present their claims. 'The IDF monitors developments in the area and acts in accordance with regulations.' Israeli police were also contacted by The Independent.
BBC News
14 hours ago
- BBC News
Body of Thai hostage recovered from Gaza, Israel says
Israel has retrieved the body of a Thai national taken hostage during the Hamas-led attack in October 2023, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the body of Nattapong Pinta was retrieved during a special operation in the Rafah area of southern Gaza on Friday. The 35-year-old was working as an agricultural labourer in southern Israel when he was kidnapped. Mr Nattapong is likely to have been killed during his first months of captivity, an Israeli military official said. Before the operation, it was not known whether he was dead or comes after the Israeli army recovered the bodies of two Israeli Americans in Gaza earlier this week. Mr Nattapong was the married father of a young son, the military official said. He had been working at Kibbutz Nir Oz to support his family in Thailand when he was captured by a militant group called the Mujahideen Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that the mission to recover his body was launched following information from the interrogation of a "captured terrorist".After reports of his recovery on Saturday, the BBC tried to reach out to Mr Nattapong's wife. She did not answer the call but texted back with a picture of her son Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group said the recovery comes after "20 terrible and agonising months of devastating uncertainty".The group urged the Israeli government to reach an agreement with Hamas to free the remaining Nattapong is believed to be the last remaining Thai national abducted during the 7 October 2023 attack. Five Thai hostages were released during a ceasefire earlier this year - all of them Israeli army retrieved the bodies of an elderly couple, Judy and Gadi Haggai, in the Gazan city of Khan Younis on couple were killed at the same kibbutz and their bodies were also held by the Mujahideen Brigades, according to the launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led cross-border attack almost 20 months ago, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken 54 of those captured during the attack remain in captivity, including 31 the Israeli military says are least 54,677 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the territory's health ministry. Additional reporting by Thanyarat Doksone
