Gaza

Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank were celebrating the freshly implemented ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas when Israeli police stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque and attacked Palestinian worshipers. Israeli police complicated the terms of the ceasefire when they stormed the mosque just hours after it went into effect, firing tear gas and stun grenades at the worshipers after Friday prayers. Hundreds of Palestinians had gathered at Al Aqsa Mosque to pray and celebrate the ceasefire. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, the police wounded about 20 people in the attack.

Gaza-based journalist Motasem A. Dalloul provides Red Lines host Anya Parampil with a frontline view of Israel’s attack and details his own travails as he and his family weather the bombardment...

Human Rights My Grandparents Lived Through the Nakba. Now It’s Happening Again. Economy & Labor COVID Has Catalyzed a Wave of Tenant Organizing That Was Long Overdue Human Rights Israeli Bombs Destroy Gaza Media Center, Take Out AP, Al Jazeera and Others Immigration Trump Officials Used Secret Terrorism Unit to Question Lawyers at Border Politics & Elections Pharma-Backed Dark Money Group Attacks House Democrats’ Lower Drug Pricing Plan Politics & Elections The Death of Democracy Looks Nearer Than Ever Israeli bombs destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press, Al Jazeera and other media outlets on Saturday, the latest step by Israel to silence reporting from Gaza amid its military bombardment. The Israeli air raid totally demolished the structure. The 11-storey residential building called Al-Jalaa has now collapsed. pic.twitter.com/VUFxxJCuW3 — Arwa Ibrahim (@arwaib) May 15, 2021 Live Al Jazeera video showed the 11-story al-Jalaa building, which also houses a number of residences and other offices, crashing to the ground after being bombed as dust and debris flew into the air. The strike came just hours after another Israeli bombing of a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza City killed at least eight Palestinian children and two women from an extended family, in the deadliest single strike of Israel’s current assault. AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt has released the following statement: We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza. They have long known the location of our bureau and knew journalists were there. We received a warning that the building would be hit. We are seeking information from the Israeli government and are engaged with the U.S. State Department to try to learn more. This is an incredibly disturbing development. We narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life. A dozen AP journalists and freelancers were inside the building and thankfully we were able to evacuate them in time. The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today. Al Jazeera’s Safwat al-Kahlout, reporting from Gaza City, said he had worked at the building for 11 years, and often did live reports from its roof. “I have been covering lots of events from this building,” he said. “We have lots of good memories with our colleagues.” It was not immediately made clear why the building was targeted by Israel. “Now, no one can understand the feeling of the people whose homes have been destroyed by such kind of air attacks,” al-Kahlout said. “It’s really difficult to wake up one day and then you realize that your office is not there with all the career experiences, memories that you’ve had.” If journalistic solidarity means anything whatsoever, it should mean, at the bare minimum, unreservedly speaking out about Israel wiping out the building housing media organisations such as Associated Press and Al-Jazeera pic.twitter.com/0rBdIt7dhU — Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) May 15, 2021 BREAKING: Israel airstrike flattens building housing Associated Press, Al Jazeera offices. Latest: https://t.co/6uVfDHJhk0 📷 Ashraf Abu Amrah / Reuters 📷 Mohammed Salem / Reuters pic.twitter.com/O0S1GcSP6e — MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 15, 2021 This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Successive Israeli governments have been trying for years to push Palestinians out of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and the latest round of Israeli attacks fall in line with that goal. But to understand the roots of the current escalation — and the possible threat of all-out war — one must examine the U.S.-backed, foundational Israeli government policy of using strategies of “terror and expulsion” in an effort to expand its territory by killing and displacing Palestinians, says Noam Chomsky, in this exclusive interview for Truthout.