Palestine

Every Palestinian born in the West Bank before the start of the occupation in 1967 has witnessed the extent to which Israel has transformed the landscape through spatial planning, military closures, and settlement, infrastructure and road construction. Sixty years on, what used to be a straightforward journey from point A to point B within the West Bank has become an arduous and frequently hazardous undertaking.

As a foreigner living in the West Bank in the 1980s and visiting it off and on ever since, this transformation revealed itself in incremental leaps and bounds, on each occasion provoking a shock of recognition mixed with consternation at how things looked the same but different.

I remember driving from Jerusalem to Ramallah in the 1980s, for example. The two cities were linked by a single highway with an Israeli army checkpoint at Qalandia refugee camp. To get to my destination would take me from 20 minutes to half an hour, at most, depending on traffic and the mood of the soldiers that day.

Fast forward to 2000. I had not visited for several years on the day I took my rental car along the old road out of Jerusalem. Ten minutes into my journey and not having taken any turns, I suddenly found myself inside an Israeli settlement, a suburb of occupied East Jerusalem.

Backtracking, I discovered that the way to Ramallah now required leaving the main highway for a lesser road. I proceeded. Yet before another 10 minutes had passed, I ended up at the entrance to another Israeli settlement, this time in the occupied West Bank, having again missed the relevant exit.

Looking back at those days, I now remember such unexpected forced deviations as annoyances that barely consumed additional time. Today, by contrast, travelling from Jerusalem to Ramallah can take an hour, or hours, as the army slows down or holds up traffic at all the available access points to Ramallah at will.

For Palestinians, the experience is 10 times worse. Ever growing in number and impact, Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement have come in various types. One class includes army checkpoints, both stationary and mobile, on West Bank arteries, makeshift earthen embankments blocking roads to villages and refugee camps, and steel gates that the army can close and open via remote control.

A second category involves access to occupied East Jerusalem and Israel, which is possible only by obtaining a permit from the military authorities. This affects Palestinians wishing to visit Islam’s and Christianity’s holy sites as well as those employed inside Israel.

And a third category of restrictions concerns West Bank Palestinians’ ability to travel abroad via the Allenby Bridge border crossing with Jordan.

Movement restrictions intensified after the October 2023 Hamas attacks on southern Israel. Their cumulative impact has been to fragment Palestinian society and the way it functions. They have disrupted the economy, in particular.

A combination of military no-go zones and settler violence has made the 61 percent of the West Bank that constitutes Area C, where most agricultural lands are located, increasingly inaccessible.

Curbs on movement have affected trade, raising the cost of commerce when transport is delayed at checkpoints and perishable goods spoil.

Imports and exports also face impediments, harming a Palestinian economy that is heavily dependent on trade with Israel and the outside world (representing roughly 67 percent of its GDP).

Restricted hours at Allenby and an untransparent, elastic definition of “dual-use” goods cause costly delays for imports, stymying development. Traders’ inability to meet their Israeli counterparts in person forces them to use intermediaries at additional expense.

Movement restrictions have created their own self-perpetuating cat-and-mouse dynamic as Palestinians find ways to circumvent them and the army imposes additional curbs, forcing people to pursue evermore inventive bypass tactics. But their clever manoeuvring may carry additional costs or even risks to their lives.

Take, for example, efforts by Palestinians – desperate to put food on the table – to illegally cross into Israel for work. Some have been shot dead when breaching Israel’s separation barrier while others have been detained.

In the months before October 2023, about 193,000 West Bank and Gaza workers were employed in Israel or Israeli settlements, mainly in construction and agriculture, contributing 20 to 25 percent to the Palestinian GDP.

Israel stopped workers from crossing the Green Line on the heels of the Hamas attack, citing security concerns, even though it has offered no evidence that Palestinian workers employed in Israel in any way played a role in the events of October 2023. Since then, the number of those permitted to go to their Israeli jobs is estimated at a mere 44,000, mostly in skilled professions.

The loss of what may be a family’s primary income has been calamitous, affecting about 750,000 people (based on an average family size of five) in a population of about 3.3 million. Meanwhile, an economic downturn has further swelled the ranks of the West Bank unemployed. Poverty rates have shot up.

Movement restrictions have also disrupted family networks, limiting participation in large gatherings, such as weddings and funerals, as extended families are spread throughout the West Bank. Curbs on movement additionally complicate access to emergency or specialised medical care and even to education. Since October 2023, Palestinian institutions of higher education have reduced in-class teaching as students have faced repeated delays – often of unpredictable length – in coming to school. Online classes can only partially compensate for this disruption.

What purpose do the myriad movement restrictions serve? Palestinians often describe their experience of navigating army checkpoints as a humiliation and a form of harassment, an effort by Israeli soldiers to both show who is boss and make the population’s life difficult. Many Palestinians see in soldiers’ conduct a way of taking revenge for the Hamas attacks.

Yet by increasing the occupation’s severity, checkpoints and other restrictions on Palestinians’ movement could well have the opposite effect of triggering greater violence and thus making Israel and its citizens, including those residing in illegal settlements, not more but less secure.

While the Israeli army might argue that a certain checkpoint at a given location and time is justified on the grounds of maintaining security, in their ubiquity and seeming arbitrariness, these restrictions have, over the years, gone far beyond what could reasonably be termed a security rationale.

A motive other than maintaining security must, therefore, be at play. It is not hard to find one when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out a two-state solution and champions annexing the occupied West Bank to Israel while some members of his cabinet, like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself, openly espouse policies that would encourage West Bank Palestinians to emigrate.

Whatever the declared policy, the compounding impact of Israel’s movement restrictions has been to break up the West Bank into smaller zones that the Israeli army and intelligence apparatus can more easily penetrate and control. Palestinian politics remains vibrant in these localities (elections to West Bank municipal councils were held most recently this past April) while national politics and governance have eroded, partly as a result of obstacles to movement.

And Israel has been able to suppress, for now, armed resistance to the occupation, which has assumed an increasingly local character. The army made short work of small armed groups like the Lions’ Den, for example. These had emerged five years ago in the northern West Bank, spontaneously and largely uncoordinated between localities.

Yet even as Israel splits Palestinian society into separate enclaves, it has found no effective answer to Palestinians’ enduring aspirations to free themselves from the military occupation. To the contrary, it is sowing the seeds for further resistance through its annexationist agenda and unremittingly punitive actions.

A version of this article appeared first on Al Jazeera Arabic’s website. 

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

As Israel gears up to hold elections in October, a dramatic surge in settlement activity has heightened concerns that the settler movement is stepping up efforts to cement its grip on the occupied West Bank, in stark defiance of international law.

Last week, the United Nations warned that attacks by Israeli settlers – often carried out alongside Israeli forces – and the creation of illegal settlements and outposts had hit “an all-time high”.

The uptick comes as members of Israel’s hard right seek to ratchet up the political temperature ahead of the crucial polls. It also follows a parliamentary term during which Israel moved to entrench control over the West Bank deeper within the machinery of the state, shifting authority from military administration to civilian institutions, accelerating settlement planning and expanding infrastructure.

However, the Religious Zionist Party of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – the man widely credited as pushing the settler project to the forefront of Israeli political debate – is suggested by numerous opinion polls to be far from certain to even meet the electoral threshold for the post-election Knesset.

This has prompted what analysts describe as a desperate scramble to promote the settlement mission while consolidating the support of the settler minority that Smotrich grew up within.

Speaking at a meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party in late July, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz boasted that, under the governing coalition and Smotrich’s supervision, Israel had approved the establishment of 104 illegal settlements and some 160 settlement farms in the West Bank since coming to power in 2022, according to Israeli media.

In August of last year, Smotrich announced the creation of the E1 settlement project, linking occupied East Jerusalem with the existing settlement of Maale Adumim, located several kilometres to the east – a proposal which, Smotrich bragged, “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”.

The race to settle

Smotrich, who made increased administrative control over the West Bank a condition for supporting Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition in 2022, has undertaken a series of measures to expand the influence of settlers within policymaking.

In 2023, he established his influential Settlements Administration agency within the Ministry of Defence – which oversees the West Bank’s occupation. And last month, he legally embedded the agency within the ministry, making it harder to reverse any of the decisions taken under its watch.

Israeli political analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg said it is “hard to imagine” that Netanyahu “won’t come up with some kind of imaginative ploy to keep him and the far right on the ticket”, referring to Smotrich.

“He has very strong support within the settlements and the ideological far-right,” Flaschenberg added, “but that might not be enough in and of itself to get him securely past the threshold. He’s being squeezed between the populism of [far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir and what many people in the lower middle class see as the security of Netanyahu.”

Keeping the hard right

Allied to Smotrich is a prime minister who observers describe as facing not simply an electoral battle, but an existential battle for both his freedom – as a consequence of his long-running corruption trial – and legacy, should the independent inquiry into his failings ahead of the Hamas-led attack of 2023 go ahead.

Given the stakes, some analysts have suggested the incumbent was far from ready to gamble on losing the support of Israel’s hard right and settler movement by condemning the increasing levels of violence in the West Bank.

“We saw him come out on US TV and concede that there may have been a few incidents in the West Bank, but nothing serious,” Chatham House’s Yossi Mekelberg said of Netanyahu’s response to the widespread violence that has swept the West Bank in recent weeks.

“He needs the hard right and settlers’ support, if not for him individually, then at least for his bloc.”

While Netanyahu may feel he has room to manoeuvre over the hugely controversial issue of ultra-Orthodox conscription, no such margin existed within the hard right and settlers. Ultra-Orthodox parties, a key component in the 2022 coalition government, have made the exemption of their constituents from the draft – which almost all Israeli adults are eligible for – a pillar of their political campaigning in recent years.

“Netanyahu knows that the ultra-Orthodox will likely stay with him,” added Mekelberg. “The settlers are more binary. You’re either for them or against,” he said.

Cresting the wave

Irrespective of electoral tactics, the consequences for people living in the occupied West Bank have been catastrophic. In July alone, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, there were 2,256 attacks against Palestinians and their property: 1,458 by the Israeli army and 798 by settlers.

After Yair Golan, leader of the opposition Democrats party, offered a rare criticism of the settler “extremism” which triggered the latest round of violence, Katz accused him of spreading a “blood libel”.

According to leaks of the same meeting in Hebrew-language media, other ministers present called for a harsher response to any resistance from Palestinians, and for the military to be given even greater freedom to shoot at them.

“As the election gets closer, we’re seeing an even greater increase in the violence that’s been escalating ever since October 2023,” said Yair Dvir, of the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

“It’s important to add this isn’t just the scale of the violence, but also its brutality and the participation of the Israeli state – both the soldiers and the political support they’re receiving.”

More than 100 Palestinians whose bodies were trapped beneath rubble for nearly three years have been laid to rest in Gaza City, in one of the largest mass funerals held in the enclave since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began.

Thousands of people gathered on Tuesday to bury the remains of 112 members of the Abu Sharia and al-Hasayna families after rescue teams recovered their bodies from the site of a November 2023 Israeli attack in the Sabra neighbourhood.

According to Palestinian officials, the November 22, 2023 attack killed 308 members of the two families, including 40 children, 30 women and seven people with disabilities.

Rescue teams recently recovered more than 100 bodies from the site, allowing families to hold funeral prayers and burials. Palestinian authorities say about 157 people remain missing, either still beneath the rubble or otherwise unaccounted for.

Rows of coffins draped in Palestinian flags were carried through Gaza City as mourners gathered for the funeral. Large banners bearing photographs of the victims were displayed alongside calls for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza that began in October 2023.

‘Exceptional and painful scene’

The Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza described the funeral as one of the largest held in the territory during the war, with spokesman Mahmoud Basal posting on X that Gaza was “set for an exceptional and painful scene”.

He said the funeral procession reflected the scale of the human losses suffered by Palestinian families who have waited years to bury their relatives.

The funeral also prompted an outpouring of grief from Palestinian researchers, activists and human rights advocates, many of whom said it symbolised the suffering of families still waiting to recover loved ones buried beneath the rubble.

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, described the funeral as potentially being “the largest funeral in Palestinian history”.

Palestinian researcher Mahmoud Hamed al-Aila said Gaza was “extracting the bodies of its children from under the rubble after years of genocide”.

“What heart can bear this pain?” he asked.

Activist Mohammed Haniyah said dozens of other bodies have decomposed or are still missing under the rubble.

Another activist, Ali Abo Rezeq, said the procession turned “massacre statistics into coffins and shrouds”, highlighting that some families searched through the rubble with their bare hands because of the shortages of heavy equipment.

Online bloggers, including Malik Al-Shanbari and Khaled Safi, viewed the funeral not merely as a burial ceremony, but as a “renewed testament to the scale of the tragedy left behind by the war”.

Ramy Abdu, chairman of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, said around 200 members of the Abu Sharia family are still believed to be beneath the rubble, and that their remains may have decomposed.

The funeral also highlighted the fate of thousands of other Palestinian families who are still waiting to recover the remains of their relatives believed to be missing beneath the rubble across Gaza.

The funeral was held amid ongoing Israeli violations of a “ceasefire” agreement in October. As of Monday, continued Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,250 Palestinians and injured 4,110 others.

The so-called ceasefire deal was signed after more than two years of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed at least 73,375 Palestinians and wounded at least 174,220, most of them women and children.

About 90 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure has also been damaged or destroyed during the genocide.

Meanwhile, the Assembly of Palestinian Clans and Families called on the Western-backed Board of Peace to accelerate efforts to recover bodies still trapped beneath the rubble, clear the debris and support the reconstruction of Gaza.

It said the burial of 112 Palestinians may have marked the end of the long wait for some families, but it did not end the search for thousands of others still missing.

Thousands of Palestinians have taken part in a mass funeral in Gaza City for 112 members of the Hassayna and Abu Sharia families, whose remains were recently recovered from beneath the rubble nearly three years after an Israeli air raid.

Mourners gathered on Tuesday as bodies wrapped in Palestinian flags were carried through the streets of the besieged city before burial, in what local media described as one of the largest funerals since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023.

Gaza’s civil defence said its crews spent two weeks excavating a destroyed residential building in the Sabra neighbourhood, eventually retrieving the remains of 112 people, including at least 40 children.

The families were killed in an Israeli strike in November 2023 that flattened their homes.

Relatives used the funeral to renew accusations that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza and demanded international investigations into the attack and the hundreds of bodies still believed to be buried under rubble across the territory.

Second-quarter revenue jumped 93 percent but Palantir’s ties to Israel and role in military technology are controversial.

United States artificial intelligence and data analytics giant Palantir Technologies has reported “otherworldly” quarterly results, sending its shares more than 14 percent higher in after-hours trading, as its growth shows no signs of slowing despite mounting criticism over its close ties to the US and Israeli governments and concerns about its growing role in artificial intelligence and warfare.

Palantir Technologies reported a revenue of $1.94bn for the second quarter, up 93 percent from a year earlier, and raised its forecast annual revenue to between $8.15bn and $8.158bn, up from $7.65bn to $7.662bn earlier. It said strong demand from both commercial customers and government agencies drove the surge.

“This quarter was otherworldly: our US commercial revenue grew 149 percent year-over-year, our overall revenue grew 93 percent year-over-year,” Chief Executive Alex Karp said. “Demand for AI sovereignty has now been unleashed.”

In a letter to shareholders, Karp wrote: “Our business is compounding at a rate and scale that we have never before witnessed.”

Palantir holds multibillion-dollar contracts with US government agencies, including the US Army. Revenue from its US government business rose 90 percent year on year to $809m, even as the company has faced growing opposition over its role in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which critics say has resulted in unlawful deportations and killings.

Founded in 2003 by technology entrepreneurs including Karp and multi-billionaire Peter Thiel, Palantir opened its first office in Israel in 2015 and has since expanded its work with the Israeli military.

Following what Palantir described as a “strategic partnership” with Israel in January 2024, the company significantly expanded its operations supporting Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and operations in the occupied West Bank.

According to Open Intel, a platform tracking corporate involvement in the genocidal war on Gaza, Palantir has actively recruited former members of Israel’s elite Unit 8200 cyberintelligence division. The group says Palantir’s software integrates intercepted communications, satellite imagery and other datasets to help generate military targeting lists for Israeli forces.

In a statement to Al Jazeera earlier this year, Palantir UK reiterated the company’s support for Israel.

The company has also secured major contracts with the United Kingdom’s government. In January, the UK’s Ministry of Defence awarded Palantir a $323m (240-million-pound) contract. A separate $444m (330-million-pound) NHS contract awarded in November 2023 has also attracted criticism, with campaigners raising concerns about the handling of sensitive health data and the heavy redaction of contract documents.

Palantir has also faced scrutiny over its vision for the future of artificial intelligence. In The Technological Republic, a recent book co-authored by Karp and the company’s head of corporate affairs, Nicholas W Zamiska, the authors argue that technology companies have a responsibility to build advanced military AI capabilities. Critics have described the philosophy as a form of “techno-fascism”.

Al Jazeera has contacted Palantir for comment.

Venezuela’s devastating June 24 double earthquake has had major implications for the country’s foreign policy and geopolitical alignment. Days after the disaster, a diplomatic-military mission arrived from Israel. 

Former President Hugo Chávez severed ties with Tel Aviv in 2009. Both he and his successor Nicolás Maduro were stalwart supporters of the Palestinian cause, repeatedly excoriating Israel for its colonial occupation, war crimes, and genocide.

In contrast, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez held two public meetings with the Israeli team, which included multiple IDF officers, praised its members as “highly trained and professional,” and thanked them for their work.

Tel Aviv is poised to play an important role alongside Washington in post-earthquake reconstruction planning, while the formal reestablishment of diplomatic relations appears imminent.  In light of this tectonic geopolitical shift, we investigate the main officials and NGOs spearheading the Zionist infiltration of Venezuela.

Israeli state functionaries

Brigadier General Elad Edri was one of the highest-profile figures in the Israeli mission to Venezuela. In a July 7 meeting with Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, Edri was pictured presenting a slideshow titled “Project for Future Reconstruction.”

Edri, who serves as Chief of Staff of the IDF Home Front Command, reportedly led field inspections of damaged structures, provided guidance on debris removal, and eventually secured an extension of the Israeli deployment. He had previously participated in IDF missions following the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the 2017 Mexico earthquake, and the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Florida.

In his military career, Edri took part in the failed Israeli invasion of Lebanon (2006), as well as multiple “mowing-the-grass” operations in the Gaza Strip, including “Cast Lead” (2008-09) and “Protective Edge” (2014), in which Tel Aviv employed its infamous “Dahiyeh Doctrine” of carpet bombing densely populated urban centers. Chávez famously denounced “Cast Lead” as “genocide” and cut diplomatic ties in 2009. 

In 2015, Edri moved to the IDF Home Front Command which, despite presenting itself as a civil defense unit, has played an active role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in addition to shielding the settler colony as it continues its genocidal wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

Edri assumed the leadership of the Home Front Command’s Rescue and Training Brigade. This unit entered Gaza in 2024 and was reported to have participated in combat operations against civilian targets. More recently, the brigadier general led preparation efforts ahead of the US-Israeli war against Iran in February.

Roni Kaplan was born in Uruguay in 1982 and relocated to Israel in 2003. After completing his mandatory military service, he has mostly served as an IDF spokesperson, particularly for Spanish-language outlets. 

Kaplan is also the founder of Huellas del Cielo and Conexión Israel, two organizations focused on fostering ties between Israel and Latin America through educational trips and pilgrimages to occupied Jerusalem.

He was one of the most visible spokespersons in the Venezuela delegation. Always in uniform, Kaplan and his team reportedly provided a “dashboard” for Venezuelan authorities to classify damaged buildings in La Guaira. In an interview with private news network Venevisión, Kaplan claimed the Israeli mission had arrived to “give hope and lend a helping hand to the Venezuelan people.”

Behind the humanitarian façade, Kaplan has spent years amplifying Tel Aviv’s Goebbelian propaganda, from blaming civilian deaths on Hamas “human shields” to pretending that Israeli bombings are “preemptive and precise.” Despite overwhelming evidence, Kaplan has denied that Israel is committing genocide and imposing mass starvation on the Palestinian people.

In May 2026, a coalition of Uruguayan social movements filed a legal complaint against the IDF official, accusing him of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The petitioners argued the country’s authorities have a responsibility to investigate Kaplan.

A career diplomat who spent part of his youth in Venezuela, Yoed Magen was the first official to announce the Israeli mission to the South American country, citing contacts with high-level figures in the Venezuelan government. The diplomatic-military team that arrived on July 1 was received by Félix Plasencia, who was later named Foreign Minister.

Magen was recently appointed as Israeli ambassador to Mexico, having previously served in Panama, Colombia, Uruguay, and Paraguay. He was also a policy advisor for the IDF.

In interviews and op-eds, including for leading private Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional, Magen has been an unapologetic proponent of US-Israeli genocide. 

Magen has endorsed collective punishment, saying that Palestinians should “suffer” for supporting Hamas. He has claimed that Israel only launches “precise” attacks against Hamas, despite widespread evidence of systematically targeting civilians. Magen additionally amplified the blood libel campaign falsely accusing the anti-colonial resistance movement of mass rape and burning settler families on October 7.

Most recently, he has endorsed both US-Israeli wars against Iran, calling them “preemptive” operations against “existential threats.”

Para-state agents

Brigadier General (res.) and weapons contractor Yossi Pinto was present in a July 21 meeting with Acting President Rodríguez to mark the end of Israel’s post-earthquake mission in the country. He reportedly presented a “system” to help Venezuelan authorities assess thousands of structures damaged by the earthquakes.

A career IDF officer, Pinto participated in multiple Israeli wars and occupation missions, including the thwarted 2006 invasion of Lebanon as well as Operations “Cast Lead” (2008-09) and “Protective Edge” (2014) in Gaza. He has a documented record of war crimes and human rights violations.

The Pinto-commanded Duchifat Battalion and Kfir Brigade were caught beating and abusing Palestinian prisoners, which they filmed on their own phones in 2008. The two units have been accused of widespread unlawful killings and torture. Later, at the head of the Binyamin Brigade in the West Bank, Pinto took part in efforts to evict Palestinians from their lands, killing and maiming dozens of children (2014).

From 2018 to 2020, he commanded the IDF’s Search and Rescue Brigade. After passing to reservist status, Pinto also assumed a “land maneuver manager” role in Rafael, one of Israel’s largest weapons manufacturers and a major supplier of battlefield systems in the current genocide in Gaza and Lebanon.

An Orthodox rabbi, Yosef Garmon arrived in Venezuela leading the delegation from the ZAKA NGO (more below). As a fluent Spanish speaker, he has been a prominent Zionist spokesperson and religious organizer throughout Latin America. As an IDF reservist, he served in multiple Israeli wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, and re-enlisted after Israel launched its latest operation in October 2023.

As president of the so-called “Humanitarian Coalition,” Garmon has widely promoted Israeli hasbara for Latin American publics. In Venezuela, he joined right-wing student organizations to deliver aid to affected communities. Garmon’s organization pledged to maintain a long-term presence in the Caribbean nation beyond the immediate relief actions.

In his media appearances, the Orthodox rabbi has likewise provided cover for Tel Aviv and Washington’s ongoing colonial holocausts, blaming mass civilian casualties from IDF bombings on Hezbollah and Hamas. He has also rejected Israeli responsibility for mass hunger in Gaza and regurgitated the debunked mass rape hoax to justify the atrocities.

Garmon has denied that Israel is committing genocide and framed its wars as a fight in service of “humanity” against “barbarism.”

Zionist NGOs

ZAKA is an Israeli volunteer organization founded in 1995, primarily known for its emergency response and search-and-rescue operations. Though it presents itself as an independent NGO, it operates as a civil extension of Israel’s emergency services, working directly with the police, military, and government.

ZAKA is a male-only, ultra-Orthodox religious group with no medical training, but it has deployed internationally following natural disasters such as the 2023 earthquakes in Turkey and severe flooding in Texas in 2025. After the 2026 earthquake in Venezuela, a team led by rabbi Yosef Garmon (see above) reportedly delivered medical aid to affected families in La Guaira.

Furthermore, ZAKA has long functioned as a “humanitarian” conduit for Israeli disinformation. One of its members, Yossi Landau, was one of the main sources behind the fake stories about beheaded babies and sexual violence during the October 7, 2023, Al-Aqsa Flood operation. ZAKA has also been shameless about leveraging such hoaxes into lucrative fundraising opportunities.

Despite claiming to focus on “saving and honoring lives,” ZAKA has applauded Israeli military operations, including attacks against hospitals.

As Israel’s highest-profile humanitarian NGO, IsraAID is pivotal to soft power initiatives aimed at laundering Tel Aviv’s international image. It has deployed in several disasters worldwide, including in Japan, Kenya, and Puerto Rico.

Following the double earthquake in Venezuela, IsraAID brought in a team from neighboring Colombia that reportedly delivered humanitarian assistance to affected communities in La Guaira.

In close coordination with Israeli occupation forces, IsraAID entered the Gaza Strip in early 2024 amid efforts to displace UNRWA and local authorities and subject millions of Palestinians to an “architecture of starvation.”

IsraAID CEO Yotam Polizer has repeated “mass rape” blood libel accusations against the Palestinian resistance.

Non-profit SmartAID and private contractor Magen teamed up to send a search-and-rescue team to Venezuela following the June 24 double earthquake.

Founded by Shachar Zahavi, a former co-founder of IsraAID, SmartAID presents itself as an organization integrating technology into humanitarian aid, including solar panels, water purification systems, and other relief solutions. Highlighting its philanthropic purposes, SmartAID has deployed on-the-ground teams after the 2023 earthquake in Turkey and the 2021 earthquake in Haiti.

At the same time, SmartAID has entered Gaza alongside the Israeli occupation forces, setting up shelters and food distribution as part of Israel’s efforts to displace Palestinian authorities and UNRWA in the course of its extermination campaign.

Magen, founded by IDF Colonel Eran Magen, is deeply embedded with the Israeli military and is the premier provider of disaster management training to Israeli government, armed forces, and civilian organizations. Colonel Magen led the IDF’s Home Front Command’s Search and Rescue Unit during the 2006 Lebanon War.

Also on the ground in Venezuela was World Central Kitchen (WCK), serving meals to displaced families, rescue workers, and volunteers in the days after the earthquake. WCK was founded after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Based in the US and with close ties to US authorities, it has been instrumental to US foreign policy goals in places like Gaza and Ukraine.

The organization drew scrutiny after coordinating with Israeli occupation forces to bring aid into Gaza in early 2024 while Israel blocked relief efforts from other organizations, particularly UNRWA. WCK’s arrival was sponsored by the UAE and announced by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who alongside Netanyahu is under ICC indictment for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare.”

At the same time that it targeted flotillas bringing much-needed aid to Gaza, Israel actively coordinated WCK’s efforts. The relationship was strained in April 2024 when Israeli forces bombed a WCK convoy, killing seven workers.

The organization’s founder, Spanish-American celebrity chef José Andrés, has consistently parroted Israel’s “self-defense” narrative and blasted the Spanish government for referring to Israeli actions as “genocide.” The attack against the WCK convoy led Andrés to question Israeli operations.

Netanyahu and board director Maldenov meet amid tensions over Gaza disarmament roadmap and recent Israeli attacks.

The US-led Board of Peace has said that an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza will only take place after the disarmament of Hamas is complete, following a meeting between the body’s director, Nickolay Mladenov, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The meeting on Monday in West Jerusalem came as Israeli politicians signalled their displeasure with the deal, announced by US President Donald Trump last Thursday.

“Contrary to inaccurate reports, we note that the withdrawal of the [Israeli military] beyond the Yellow Line will take place only once decommissioning is complete, as Hamas committed to the mediators,” the Board of Peace, established by Trump in January to oversee the administration of Gaza after Israel’s genocidal war, said. “This applies to light weapons, heavy weapons, and the tunnels alike.”

The “Yellow Line” is the term used to refer to the demarcation line behind which Israeli forces continue to base themselves in Gaza.

“The goal is clear and is not in question: the complete decommissioning of weapons in the Strip and the transition away from rule by the gun to civilian governance,” the Board of Peace added in a social media post after the meeting.

For its part, Hamas has insisted that the deal will not be implemented unless Israel implements its part of the agreement.

During the talks, Mladenov urged Netanyahu to stop attacks on Gaza, two people familiar with the meeting told The Associated Press news agency. Israel has steadfastly refused to do so, despite an October 2025 “ceasefire”, since which it has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians, including more than 36 after the disarmament deal was announced.

Israel has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians in Gaza since its genocidal war began in October 2023.

Before the meeting, Netanyahu’s office said that the version of the agreement made public “does not reflect Israel’s positions”, and that its concerns had been shared with the US.

Members of the Israeli prime minister’s far-right government have already signalled that they want to backtrack on the deal.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the agreement was “completely different” to the one the Israeli government had approved, and demanded a new vote “immediately”.

Israel has repeatedly flouted agreements and has been accused of being unwilling to make concessions during negotiations. The latest reversal comes despite a push from Trump to secure a deal, but months ahead of an Israeli election in which the government is under pressure from its base to demonstrate it has achieved total victory in Gaza.

Mladenov criticised the strikes over the weekend, without directly naming Israel. “Achieving a lasting peace is hard but achievable if everyone makes their best efforts,” he wrote.

Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye, which mediated the disarmament deal, issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s targeting of civilians and healthcare facilities as a “flagrant violation of international law”.

Hamas said it and other Palestinian factions remained committed to the completion of the second phase of the ceasefire, and were awaiting a clear, official response from Mladenov and the mediators.

Dearborn, Michigan – Yemeni-American activist Samraa Luqman has no regrets about voting for President Donald Trump in 2024.

While the United States president has been a disappointment to Arab Americans in Michigan with his pro-war and anti-immigration policies, she stressed that it was untenable for the community to vote for Democrats as Israel’s genocide unfolded in Gaza.

“There had to be accountability for the genocide. We’re OK with what we voted for,” Luqman told Al Jazeera.

“I said from the beginning, I’m willing to live through another four years of Trump, that we expected him to be bad on our issues, but it was a pill we were willing to swallow in order to hold the Democratic Party accountable.”

Luqman is not alone.

Despite Trump’s staunchly pro-Israel policies and unpopular war on Iran, many say supporting Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in 2024 was out of the question, and it was the right choice for the community to break with the Democratic Party.

“I could not – with a good heart, good conscience – tell someone to vote for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump”, but the approach of “lesser of two evils” no longer works to sway Arab voters, Hussein Dabajeh, a prominent political strategist in the Detroit area, home to large Arab and Muslim communities, told Al Jazeera.

Democrats’ popularity amongst Arab Americans nosedived in 2024 as President Joe Biden ignored calls to compel a ceasefire in Gaza and continued to provide Israel with weapons and military aid as it killed tens of thousands in Palestine and Lebanon.

Then, Vice President Harris refused even to consider an arms embargo against Israel.

As a result of these policies, many Arab Americans, who had been reliable Democratic voters for years, ditched the party and refused to support Harris in her presidential bid.

Trump swept in, presented himself as a “peace” candidate, and his campaign forged ties with Arab community advocates.

Trump’s policies

At a rally in Michigan ahead of the 2024 vote, Trump brought local Muslim imams to the stage and praised the community.

The Republican leader also visited the predominantly Arab and Muslim Detroit suburb of Dearborn ahead of the election.

Trump ended up winning Michigan as many Arab voters in the Dearborn area refused to back Harris. Some voted for him, while others voted for a third party, left the top of the ticket blank, or skipped the election altogether.

According to an Al Jazeera analysis of election results in heavily Arab precincts in east Dearborn, about 45 percent of the votes went to Trump, 29 percent to Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and 16 percent to Harris.

As president, Trump allowed Israel to continue its attacks on Gaza and Lebanon and launched an unprovoked war against Iran that has sent petrol prices soaring.

He has also intensified the crackdown on Palestinian rights advocacy at home with a campaign to deport noncitizen student activists critical of Israel.

In February, he also terminated immigration protections for Yemeni nationals, sowing fear and uncertainty in a community where many leaders had endorsed him in 2024.

Asked how Arab Americans feel about Trump now, Dabajeh said: “They hate him. There’s no other way of putting it. I don’t think there is a single person I know that voted for Trump from the Arab and Muslim community specifically that looks at what Trump is doing and is happy with what he’s doing, or what he’s done.”

‘The genocide matured us’

Many Arab Americans stress that withholding support for Harris in 2024 was not out of love for Trump.

“No one understands the horrors of Trump’s policy more than us. We were his first victims in 2017,” said Amer Zahr, a comedian and Dearborn Board of Education trustee.

Shortly after starting his first term in 2017, Trump implemented a travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries.

“No one is more aware of the harm that Trump can cause than we are,” Zahr added. “But the genocide matured us in a way that we finally got to the point where we were willing to tell politicians ‘no’.”

As the election season returns to Michigan, Arab Americans once again find themselves at a political crossroads.

The community is rallying behind Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed – who had previously endorsed Harris – but some are keeping their political options open.

Luqman, the Yemeni activist, said she will certainly vote for El-Sayed and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib – who are outspoken critics of Israel – in the Democratic primary on Tuesday and in the general elections in November.

Luqman said Democratic voters’ support for progressive candidates will help the party regain credibility with Arab voters.

“Those are things that do bring the Democratic Party a little bit of relevance and credibility within our community,” Luqman told Al Jazeera.

“It has kind of brought the community back to centre, whereas they were kind of swinging to the right by a large margin.”

Palestine or bust

While some political commentators have been questioning why US support for Israel has become a decisive issue in US politics, particularly Democratic primaries, the answer in the Arab community is clear.

Advocates say domestic policy takes a backseat when their loved ones are being killed, and their hometowns are being wiped out by their own tax dollars via military aid to Israel.

“Gaza and Palestine and Middle Eastern issues have now become the forefront, the top of everybody’s issues, and it’s become a red line for my community,” Luqman said.

“So if you’re a Republican or Democrat and you hate AIPAC and you value Palestinians’ rights to self-determination, then you’re going to be getting our vote, regardless of what party you’re in,” she said, referencing the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobby group.

Zahr echoed that message.

“People want us not to be single-issue voters. In other words, they want us to forgo our main issue, get screwed on it, watch our families die because Trump’s bad, and accept all that,” he said.

“Well, we said ‘no’. The blood of the children of Gaza had to mean something.”

Zahr emphasised that Arab Americans are not alone in centring Palestine in their electoral choices, pointing to the defeats that pro-Israel incumbents have suffered across the map in this primary season.

“You’ve gotten to a point where if somebody says, ‘Stop bombing hospitals’, everyone knows you’re talking about Israel. That’s because of Israel. That’s not because of us. That’s because of what Israel did,” he told Al Jazeera.

“And so, people are keying into the truth. And when you learn the truth, something that comes along with that is you learn that you’ve been lied to, and you get angry. A lot of righteous anger is pushing a lot of this.”

Dabajeh, the political strategist, said that while Arab voters care about the economy, affordability and infrastructure – like all Americans – they cannot overlook US policy on Israel.

“Are we supposed to call our family members overseas and be like, ‘Listen, khalto [auntie], this guy over here that’s running for office might kill some of your neighbours, might kill some of your kids, but don’t worry about it, he’s going to take care of the flooding in our homes’?”

“It’s not going to work. We can’t do that.”

Islamophobia and racism

Republicans tried to court Arab and Muslim voters in 2024 and capitalise on the discontent over Gaza policies, but now, many conservatives have returned to demonising the community as an electoral strategy.

Weeks after he was elected, Trump endorsed Randy Fine, a Florida politician with a history of anti-Muslim statements, for Congress. Fine would go on to win and call for the “destruction” of all Muslims.

Meanwhile, Republican governors in Florida and Texas have designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a “terrorist” group.

In Michigan, Republican Congressman John James, who is running for governor, has also pledged to blacklist the group.

Luqman said James had spoken to community members and promised to engage voters in Dearborn before that announcement.

“There was a really big opportunity for the Republican Party to solidify the swing of the pendulum, if you will, and they lost that option. They really missed that opportunity,” she said.

Israelis head to the polls in October for the country’s first election since the war on Gaza began. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces mounting pressure over the October 7 attacks, corruption charges, international isolation, and divisions within his coalition.

Thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza are enduring extreme temperatures amid a heatwave. Families sheltering in makeshift plastic tents are using whatever means they can to cool down amid appalling living conditions.

Residents searching through the rubble of an Israeli strike in western Gaza City recovered the body of an unborn baby after the attack killed a pregnant woman, her husband and their five-year-old son.

On Thursday, United States President Donald Trump announced that Hamas had agreed to disarm and move to the next phase of the ceasefire deal in Gaza. The announcement was received positively by various regional actors while the US president characterised it as a “historic agreement”.

The problem is that the disarmament is unlikely to take place. That is because Hamas has made clear that it has conditioned relinquishing its weapons on Israel abiding by its obligations under the agreement, which the latter has failed to do since it was reached in October. The Board of Peace, the body tasked with overseeing the ceasefire and Gaza’s reconstruction, has done nothing to pressure it into compliance.

This is one of the many failures of this body, which has very little to show for its six-month existence. It lacks the power, financing, enforcement mechanisms and legal standing within the international legal system to fulfil its self-declared mandate. Rather than creating a pathway towards de-escalation, it has created an appearance of diplomatic progress that provides political cover for the continuation of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

The only way to move forward is for the board to be abandoned and responsibility returned to the United Nations.

Achieving nothing

The Board of Peace was established under Article 9 of Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, announced in October. Its mandate is to oversee a temporary Palestinian technocratic body that would manage Gaza and an International Stabilization Force (ISF) of multinational peacekeepers. In theory, the board would supervise Gaza’s reconstruction and Israel’s gradual withdrawal. In practice, it has not achieved any progress on either of these processes.

Despite lofty promises from the Trump administration about transforming Gaza into a modern urban landscape, there has been no movement in that direction. The majority of the population still lives in abhorrent conditions in tents.

Last month, the board scaled down the reconstruction plan to a pilot project near Rafah, close to the Egyptian border, which is under the control of the Palestinians who collaborate with Israel. Israel would vet the Palestinians who are allowed to stay in that development.

Worse still, the board is trying to give itself the right to confiscate Palestinian properties or use them “free of charge”. This signals its willingness to serve as a facade for continuing Israeli theft of Palestinian land.

An Israeli withdrawal – the other major process the board should oversee – has been all but forgotten. Instead, Israel has continued to kill Palestinians in regular bombardments and encroach on more and more Palestinian land.

Since the ceasefire began in October, Israel has killed more than 1,100 Palestinian civilians. It has continued to carry out demolitions of Palestinian homes and to move its “Yellow Line”, expanding its control to about 70 percent of Gaza’s territory, up from 53 percent at the start of the ceasefire.

The Board of Peace has taken no action in response to these Israeli colonial practices and has not issued any public statements condemning them.

Meanwhile, the board has framed Palestinians as responsible for the lack of progress. Its high representative, Nickolay Mladenov, has described Hamas as the “principal obstacle” to implementing the ceasefire despite no recorded Palestinian attacks since its beginning.

This one-sided scrutiny reveals the board’s function: not peacemaking but providing cover for the ongoing occupation.

The Board of Peace has also maintained arrangements that allow Israel to control the flow of aid into Gaza. Although Trump’s plan stipulates that neither Hamas nor Israel should interfere with the entry and distribution of assistance, the Israeli military continues to determine both the quantity and type of assistance allowed into the Gaza Strip.

Major European countries and China have declined to join the Board of Peace. States that initially signalled a willingness to contribute to the ISF have since frozen or withdrawn their commitments.

This lack of confidence is also reflected in funding failures. Despite initial pledges of $10bn from the US and a further $7bn from other countries, the World Bank account established for the board reportedly has received no funds. Instead, it has relied on a few million dollars deposited into a private JP Morgan account, much of which has been spent on salaries and administrative overhead rather than reconstruction or civilian protection.

The return of the UN

Perhaps the starkest sign of the failure of the Board of Peace is that it is seeking to give itself immunity from prosecution. In a draft resolution, the board appears to pursue protections for its members and administrative bodies, including the Office of the High Representative, Palestinian technocrats, international military forces and nonresident contractors.

In other words, the board wants to operate above the law. The goal is clear: impose a foreign governance structure that obscures Israeli colonisation of Gaza behind an international body.

The continuing existence of such a body is an international disgrace, and it needs to end.

The appropriate response is a collective push by states that support the two-state solution and the peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to bring the process back to the United Nations umbrella. Palestinian factions should be at the forefront of this effort.

The UN should assume responsibility and transfer any relevant functions away from the board to established UN bodies.

Critics may counter that the UN has failed to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for more than seven decades. That is true. But its umbrella offers an international legal framework that anchors action in international law and readily identifies violations. That provides structure and legal levers the Palestinians can use to continue pushing for their rights.

What is more, there is a dedicated UN agency – UNRWA – that deals with Palestinian refugee problems and is best equipped to handle the vast challenges of a displaced and impoverished population. The return of UNRWA is important not only as a service-provision body but also as an entity that protects the rights and status of Palestinian refugees.

The UN and its associated bodies have established accountability and transparency mechanisms that can minimise the misuse of resources needed for rebuilding Gaza. While ending the occupation depends on the political will of the world’s foremost powers, the UN umbrella maintains the legal status of Gaza as occupied territory and protects the rights of the occupied population.

The UN can also play a role in the deployment of the ISF. The force should be deployed not just in Gaza but also the West Bank to protect Palestinians from settler attacks. Giving the ISF a UN mandate would encourage more countries to contribute to its creation and help build a wider coalition of countries invested in the stabilisation and protection of Gaza and the West Bank. This could be a preliminary step that sets up Israel’s withdrawal from these occupied territories.

The international community must act now. The Board of Peace must be abandoned, and all responsibility for Gaza must be transferred back to the UN system. The UN must be empowered to take the lead in any future arrangements.

Continuing to maintain the current situation in Gaza means the continuation of Palestinian suffering and the deepening of uninhabitability, in effect paving the way for the forced displacement of Palestinians from their land. What is urgently needed is a UN-led mechanism that is immediately enforceable and grounded in international law.

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

In the Musa family home in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, for three siblings, the announcement of this year’s high school examination results on July 24 reflected a long journey of determination.

Despite the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Sama, Abdullah and Nada Musa had focused all their attention on their Tawjihi, a series of exams that decide Palestinian high school students’ academic future, to insulate their futures from incessant hardships and uncertainty.

Their trepidation turned into a family celebration when all three found out that they had passed their exams with flying colours. Sama scored 97.5 percent, Abdullah 94.6 percent, and Nada, 94.4 percent.

Sama Musa, who achieved the highest grade among the siblings, said the path to academic success was “exceptional and difficult”.

“Thank God for everything. I expected a higher grade, but the circumstances determined the result we achieved,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Even psychologically, a person did not have the energy to continue, but I challenged all circumstances so I could make my family happy and achieve the grade I had dreamed of for years.”

Educational challenges

The path was particularly demanding for Abdullah and Nada, who could not attend private lessons due to their physical disabilities, so the family arranged for teachers to come to their home.

Their mother, Hind Muhanna, says years of care and support had played a role in their children achieving exceptional grades. “Thank God, we worked very hard for them, and today I am reaping the fruits of their success. Our efforts did not go to waste,” she told Al Jazeera.

“We always made them feel that they were better than everyone else. From kindergarten through school, everyone who knew them would ask me: ‘What is the secret behind their confidence?’”

Nada Musa acknowledged that their parents’ support was a key motivation to push them towards achieving high grades.

“Thank God, because of my parents I was able to challenge all difficulties. They supported me at every step and never fell short,” she said.

Despite the students’ work and parents’ backing, the genocide in Gaza inevitably affected their academic year, so Abdullah was relieved that their grades reflected the family’s joint efforts.

“Thank God, it was a grade that reflected the effort and hard work. It was a very difficult year filled with displacement and hardships, but despite the pain, we were able to reach the top and achieve the goals we worked for,” he said.

In an environment that makes life for Palestinians unbearable, thousands of students in Gaza – including the three siblings – worked hard over the year to prepare themselves for the exams.

Palestinian Minister of Education Amjad Barham said about 89,000 students in the occupied West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip took the Tawjihi this year. Another 2,000 students sat for the exams in 46 other countries.

Barham said that more than 106,000 students in Gaza have taken the Tawjihi exams over the past three years, including 36,900 students in 2026. More than 1,100 students who were due to take the Tawjihi exams this year were killed by Israel.

Israel’s war on Gaza has also seen thousands of homes destroyed, schools bombed, roads uprooted, and educational resources barred from entering Gaza.

The United Nations said in November, shortly after a truce was announced for Gaza, that more than 97 percent of schools have been damaged or destroyed over the past two years of war.

Gaza’s educational system was on the verge of collapse, the UN added, with nearly 92 percent of education facilities requiring full reconstruction or major rehabilitation to become functional.

Teaching amid a genocide

Also behind the students’ success were teachers who continued their duties despite the exceptional circumstances.

Hanaa al-Sayed, a mathematics teacher, supported a number of Tawjihi students through classes at an educational centre in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, amid the destruction wrought by Israel.

Many students arrived at class carrying heavy psychological loads caused by the grief and trauma of losing family members. Her response to the situation was to treat them not just as her students, but also as children, with love and care.

“The students did not only need someone to explain the curriculum; they needed someone to listen to them and stand beside them,” she told Al Jazeera.

“I treated them as if they were my own daughters, trying to support them psychologically before teaching them mathematics.”

Inside the school, which also served as a shelter for displaced people, children sat on mats during lessons.

“There were no desks or chairs. The school was divided between Tawjihi students and displaced people, but despite that, we insisted on continuing education,” she said.

Palestinians have demonstrated a commitment to education despite the difficult circumstances they have faced over the past decades, and the Tawjihi results this year reflect this.

“What I saw from the students was something exceptional. They came to study despite everything around them because they believe education is their path to the future,” Hanaa said.

Some of her students who paused their education before the war have since returned to school.

“There were students who had lost hope of completing their education before the war, but they returned and decided to start again,” Hanaa said. “This reflects the level of determination and desire to achieve their dreams.”

Celebrations amid grief

While many students celebrated their Tawjihi results, this was also a time mixed with grief.

Tala Abu Sukkar, from the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, lost her mother, Salwa, in 2010 when she was just two years old. During the war on Gaza, she lost her older brother Yusuf, then her father, Mahmoud, followed by her sister and her four nephews and nieces. Tala now lives with her uncle, who became her main support carer after the loss of so many family members, and took her Tawjihi exams this year.

The final year of school was not only an academic challenge, but also a major psychological struggle as she tried to cope with the pain and grief that followed her throughout the year.

“I lost people who were part of my life. The hardest thing was continuing my path while carrying all this pain inside me, but I tried to stay strong and keep going,” she said.

“The Tawjihi period was one of the most difficult stages I have gone through. I was studying while trying to deal with grief, but I had a goal to succeed and achieve something that would make my family proud.”

When she received her certificate, achieving an average score of 86 percent, it was a moment mixed with joy and sadness.

“When the results appeared, I felt mixed emotions. I was happy that I succeeded, but I wished my father and my family members were with me to share this joy,” she said.

“My uncle has been my support after losing my family, and his presence beside me helped me continue and not give up.”

The stories of this year’s Tawjihi students in Gaza represent the determination of a generation to continue education and work towards a better future, despite great hardships.

Despite losing loved ones, changing learning environments and daily difficulties, students continued their journey with the support of loving family members and teachers.

The Tawjihi journey is a story of patience and determination but also shows how important education is to Palestinians’ lives. For the children of Gaza, schools remain a place of hope, care and ambition.

Strikes hit Gaza homes two days after US unveiled plan for Hamas disarmament, Israeli withdrawal.

Israeli forces have killed at least five Palestinians in strikes across the Gaza Strip.

At least two people were killed and several wounded in a strike on a house in central Deir el-Balah, while three others were killed in a strike on an apartment in northern Gaza City, according to local officials.

The strikes came on Sunday, two days after US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace published a 15-point roadmap for implementing last year’s Gaza ceasefire agreement, extending a pattern of continued Israeli strikes despite diplomatic breakthroughs.

The roadmap has yet to be implemented on the ground. Hamas has said it will hand over its weapons for storage only after Israel halts military operations and withdraws its forces in line with last year’s agreement. An Israeli official told the Reuters news agency there would be no withdrawal from current positions unless Hamas undergoes “genuine disarmament”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not publicly commented on the initiative, but far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called it unacceptable and said Israel should continue targeting Hamas leaders.

Former senior Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan, based in the United Arab Emirates, said Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a senior adviser on the US initiative, told him he was working with Israel to halt the attacks on Gaza. Dahlan said talks with Washington were continuing, and that the agreement’s success now depended on Israel fully ending its daily strikes.

Separately, Israeli strikes destroyed a medical supply warehouse in central Gaza on Saturday, leaving a crater 20 metres (66ft) wide and 10 metres (33ft) deep, part of a broader wave of attacks that has continued despite the ceasefire push.

Seven Palestinians, including two children, have been detained by Israeli forces in overnight and predawn raids across the West Bank, according to Palestinian local sources.

Israeli settlers separately assaulted a Palestinian man and his wife on their own farmland on Saturday.

The couple was attacked in the al-Zarqa area of Beitillu, northwest of Ramallah, when a group of settlers stormed the farm where they were working, leaving both with injuries and bruising that required hospital treatment.

The latest settler attacks and raids by Israeli forces are a single day’s snapshot of activity now unfolding “in every direction” across the occupied West Bank, said Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah.

Odeh said Israeli military jeeps were roaming constantly through Ramallah on Saturday, as soldiers used tear gas inside a supermarket in the city. This level of everyday disruption, she said, has become difficult to separate from the settlement expansion driving it.

Settlers have erected another illegal outpost this week, Odeh added, the 12th such construction in the past seven days alone.

The military raids that produced Saturday’s detentions spanned three governorates at once. In Tubas, forces searched a family home in the town of Tammun and detained a 16-year-old; in Nablus, four Palestinians were picked up in predawn raids on the villages of Urif, Einabus and Burqa; and in Bethlehem, a second 16-year-old was detained in Wadi Fukin, with another man held at the Container Checkpoint.

In the nearby town of Asira ash Shamaliya, troops went further still, storming dozens of homes overnight and converting one house into a makeshift field interrogation centre, security sources told Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Further south, in Khashem al-Daraj near Hebron, Israeli forces chased down and detained 11 workers, beating them in the process, according to local activist Osama Makhamreh.

Israeli settlers, meanwhile, were active on parallel fronts.

In Surif, near Hebron, residents from the Bat Ayin outpost set fire to one car, damaged another, and sprayed racist graffiti on a house, the town’s mayor, Hazem Ghneimat, said.

Later on Saturday, three young Palestinian men were assaulted with pepper spray on the road between al-Mughayyir and Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, after settlers rammed their vehicle with an all-terrain vehicle – an attack that village council head Amin Abu Aliya said has become almost a daily occurrence along that stretch of road.

In Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, Israeli authorities forced three residents to demolish their own homes rather than face the fines and costs of a state-led demolition, which, Palestinians say, is a practice used routinely to sidestep Israel’s near-total refusal to grant them building permits.

Saturday’s events fit a pattern that rights monitors have been documenting for months. Palestinian sources recorded more than 11,000 attacks by Israeli forces and settlers across the West Bank in the first half of this year alone, with Hebron, Ramallah and Nablus the worst affected.

The figures echo recent United Nations warnings – including from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has said settler violence and forced displacement are accelerating alongside plans to expand and legalise outposts, all of which the UN maintains have no legal validity under international law.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham added his own criticism on Saturday, calling the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Palestine “unacceptable” and saying his government was weighing further measures on Israeli settlements, including possible restrictions on arms exports.

An Israeli air strike has destroyed a warehouse full of medical supplies for Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, according to hospital staff. The Israeli army had no immediate comment.

United States President Donald Trump has been triumphal since the announcement that Palestinian group Hamas had agreed to hand over its weaponry in Gaza.

But the terms of Thursday’s disarmament agreement also stipulate that Israel should withdraw from the Palestinian enclave, and gradually transfer power to a Palestinian administration – conditions that have been met with a frosty reception by Israeli politicians and in the Israeli press.

The Israeli government has yet to officially comment, but one unnamed senior Israeli official told reporters on Friday that, despite “various publications” reporting “diplomatic progress in the Gaza Strip”, there would be no withdrawal from Israel’s current positions within Gaza before what it determines to be “the genuine disarmament of Hamas”.

Trump, for his part, has said that Israel was “very happy” with the deal.

Electoral suicide

Many Israelis continue to espouse a hard line towards Palestinians in Gaza after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, which was launched from the territory. That is despite Israel subsequently conducting a genocidal war on Gaza, killing more than 73,000 Palestinians and destroying the enclave.

A May poll found that 82 percent of Jewish Israeli respondents supported the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in Gaza – the same poll found that 56 percent of respondents supported the expulsion of Palestinian citizens of Israel from their homes too.

Another poll, a month later, found that 64 percent of those surveyed believed there were “no innocents” among the Palestinians in Gaza.

And many Israeli politicians – including government ministers – have said that illegal Jewish settlements, akin to the ones dividing the occupied West Bank, will soon come to Gaza.

The prospect, therefore, of an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and steps towards the enclave’s reconstruction are unpalatable to many Israelis, with politicians quick to condemn the disarmament agreement.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir denounced it as “unacceptable”.

“A commitment to stop the assassinations of [Hamas’s] murderers is tantamount to agreeing to Hamas organising for the next massacre,” Ben-Gvir wrote on social media. “The assassinations in Gaza must continue, the encouragement of emigration must happen. Israel must win.”

The term “encouragement of emigration” is widely regarded as referring to ethnic cleansing.

Politicians regarded as centrists, such as former chief of staff and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leading rival in the coming election, Gadi Eisenkot, were equally sceptical. He said that any deal that stopped short of the war’s objectives – the destruction of Hamas’s military-political power – was a total failure.

“Nearly three years have passed since the morning of October 7,” Eisenkot wrote, “and Hamas has renewed its strength with a number of terrorists similar to the evening of October 6.”

Politics of peace

Netanyahu has yet to comment, but US-Israeli pollster and consultant Dahlia Scheindlin suggested the stakes are high for the prime minister with an election only a few months away.

Netanyahu’s likely best chance of avoiding a jail sentence if he is found guilty of numerous corruption charges rests on him winning the October elections.

But the opposition are currently leading in many polls, and may be able to gain enough seats to form a government.

“Netanyahu’s considerations have nothing to do with public trauma [from the October 7 attack],” Scheindlin said, and everything to do with politics. “He will care primarily – probably exclusively – about what his current coalition partners think.”

Withdrawing from Gaza was out of the question, Scheindlin said, adding that whatever gambit Netanyahu undertook to maintain his coalition and encourage right-wing voters to support him had to be accomplished without further alienating his allies in the US, who appear to have grown increasingly frustrated with him.

“[Netanyahu] will not want to be seen by Trump and the Americans as undermining any possible moves towards implementing this agreement. And so, therefore, he might manage some very symbolic moving of the Israeli army within Gaza,” she said.

One tactic, Scheindlin suggested, could be for the Israeli military to withdraw back to the positions it was supposed to be in as part of the October 2025 ceasefire agreement. Israel has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians since that agreement, and also repeatedly expanded the territory under its control, ignoring the deal.

Keeping Trump happy

Managing US expectations of Israel is likely to be a problem, not just for Netanyahu, but for all of the politicians vying for leadership of the country.

One anonymous US official has already said that Trump would be “very, very disappointed” if Israel did not adhere to the disarmament agreement.

“Netanyahu already faces an uphill battle in forming any government, more so if he agrees to this,” said Dov Waxman, professor of Israel studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Netanyahu has previously been able to sidestep requirements placed on Israel when it comes to Gaza, maintaining unity within his far-right coalition, with some members repeatedly threatening to bring the government down if the war ended without Hamas’s total defeat.

He may be silent on the latest deal for now, but he will eventually have to speak.

“That could be a real problem,” Waxman said, “because, if he criticises the deal, he risks angering Trump who – though he hasn’t endorsed him [in the Israeli election] yet – he must be hoping will deliver him some kind of present during the election cycle, whether that’s a further call for his pardon or normalisation with Saudi Arabia, maybe both. But he has to keep Trump on his side.”

And while the Israeli public has grown sceptical that Israeli security remains at the forefront of the Trump administration’s priorities, the need for the US security umbrella is accepted by the vast majority of the public and political establishment, elements of which have seized upon any potential fracturing in it as a means to criticise Netanyahu.

“Netanyahu has shown himself to be very good in the past at handling these kinds of things,” Nimrod Goren, president and founder of Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, said.

“He’ll make sure Trump gets his announcement, his signing ceremony and all the optics are in place, but I don’t see him withdrawing from Gaza,” Goren said.

“I think the idea of him withdrawing goes further than just public opinion,” the Israeli analyst added. “It goes against his whole philosophy, ideology and worldview: that Israel needs to be present beyond its borders and everywhere bad intentions could be turned into action. If anything, I see him escalating in the build-up to the election rather than discussing withdrawal.”

Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed at least two Palestinians and wounded at least 10 others, hours after Hamas agreed to a draft peace deal drawn up by US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. The agreement would have Hamas disarm in phases, matched by Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Why is Israel arming illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank? As settler attacks reach record levels, the government has distributed more than 100,000 assault rifles to Israelis. Al Jazeera’s Leila Warah reports on what that means for Palestinians on the ground.

Hamas has agreed to gradually disarm in Gaza as part of Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan. The US president called the deal ‘historic’. Here’s what we know.

Al Jazeera visited the occupied West Bank village of Sinjil, where Israeli earth mounds, metal barriers and road closures have blocked all main entrances. Residents say the restrictions have left the village effectively cut off, making even routine journeys difficult and potentially deadly.

Dozens of Israeli soldiers have abandoned their weapons and walked out of the Sde Teiman military base in a dispute with a senior commander reportedly trying to restore discipline. Soldiers at the base have long been accused of flagrant violations of laws, including torture of Palestinian detainees.