Palestinian

Masafer Yatta, occupied West Bank – Awdah Hathaleen was standing by a fence in the Umm al-Kheir community centre when he was shot in the chest by an Israeli settler on Monday.

The beloved 31-year-old activist and father of three fell to the ground as people rushed over to try to help him. Then an ambulance came out of the nearby illegal settlement of Carmel and took him away.

Israeli authorities have refused to release his body for burial, simply telling his family on Monday night that he had died, depriving them of the closure of laying him to rest immediately, as Islam dictates.

Mourning

Under the scorching sun of the South Hebron Hills, the people of Umm al-Kheir were joined by anti-occupation activists from all over the world – gathered in silence to mourn Awdah, who was a key figure in non-violent resistance against settler violence in Masafer Yatta.

They came together in the same yard where Awdah was standing when he was shot to death by Israeli settler Yinon Levi, who later said, “I’m glad I did it,” according to witnesses.

Rocks had been laid in a circle around Awdah’s blood on the ground, mourners stopping there as if paying their respects.

Around the circle, the elders sat in silence, waiting for news that didn’t arrive on whether Awdah’s body would be returned by the Israeli army.

There is a feeling of shock that Awdah, out of all people, was the one murdered in cold blood, his cousin Eid Hathaleen, 41, told Al Jazeera about his “truly beloved” relative.

“There was [nobody] who contributed as much to the community in Umm al-Kheir as Awdah,” Alaa Hathaleen, 26, Awdah’s cousin and brother-in-law, said.

“I can’t believe that tomorrow I will wake up and Awdah won’t be here.”

Awdah had three children – five-year-old Watan, four-year-old Muhammad, and seven-month-old Kinan – and he loved them above everything else in the world, several of his friends and relatives told Al Jazeera.

“He was a great father,” Alaa said. “The children would go to him more than to their mother.”

Awdah got married in 2019, Jewish Italian activist Micol Hassan told Al Jazeera over the phone. “His wedding was a beautiful occasion in 2019. We organised cars that came from all over Palestine [for it].

“He loved his children so much,” she continued. “Every time he put them to sleep, they cried and asked where their daddy was.”

Hassan, who has been barred from returning to the occupied West Bank by Israeli authorities, also fondly recalled how much Awdah loved coffee and how she would bring him packs of Italian coffee whenever she was able to get to Umm al-Kheir.

Awdah also loved football, playing it every chance he got, even though Umm al-Kheir’s facilities are badly degraded and all the villagers have is a paved yard with dilapidated goalposts.

In fact, Awdah’s last breaths were on that same battered football pitch, possibly the one place in the village where he spent the most time.

No matter how bad settler attacks were, Alaa said, Awdah would sit down with him and discuss their projections and hopes for his favourite team, Spanish side Real Madrid.

“His love for Real Madrid ran in his veins,” Alaa added. “Maybe if they knew how much he loved them, Real Madrid would speak about Masafer Yatta.”

Peaceful activist and ‘radical humanist’

Awdah has been an activist since he was 17 years old, working to stop the Israeli attempts to expel the villagers of Masafer Yatta from their homes and lands.

He hosted countless visiting activists who came to the occupied West Bank to support Palestinian activists and villagers, helping them understand the situation on the ground and embracing their presence with his trademark hospitality.

Perhaps his most famous such collaboration was his work with Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, who co-directed No Other Land, a documentary film that won an Oscar award this year.

Everyone who spoke to Al Jazeera remembers him as the kindest person, with a brave, peaceful heart.

He was “tayyeb, salim”, they said, using the Arabic words for “kind” and “peaceful”.

Awdah would tell anyone who came to Umm al-Kheir that he didn’t choose to be an activist; it just happened, Hassan told Al Jazeera, adding that he welcomed everyone, regardless of faith or citizenship.

“He was a radical humanist,” she said.

“He wanted the occupation to end without suffering,” said Alaa, adding that Awdah always thought about what the future would bring for his children and others.

He chose to become an English teacher because of that, Eid told Al Jazeera. He wanted the village children to grow up educated and able to tell the world their story in English, so they could reach more people.

“He taught all his students to love and welcome everyone regardless of their faith and origin,” said Eid.

A group of his students – he taught English from grades one through nine in the local school – huddled together in the community centre yard among the mourners, remembering their teacher.

“He would always try to make classes fun,” said Mosab, nine years old.

“He made us laugh,” added his classmate Mohammed, 11.

Murdered by a raging settler

Umm al-Kheir is one of more than 30 villages and hamlets in the West Bank’s Masafer Yatta, a region that, more than any, has seen the consequences of the expansion of settlements and violence linked to it.

The incident that led up to Awdah’s killing began the day before, recounted activist Mattan Berner-Kadish, who had been in Umm al-Kheir providing protective presence to the Palestinian community.

A digger was to be delivered to the illegal settlement, and the villagers had agreed to coordinate the passage of the machinery with the settlers, to prevent any damage to village infrastructure.

But the settler driving the machinery ran over a water pipe and began rolling over other infrastructure, threatening to roll into the town and cause more damage.

When villagers gathered to try to stop the machinery, the operator used the digger’s claw to hit one of them in the head, dropping him to the ground, semi-conscious.

Awdah was 10-15 metres (30-50 feet) away from the altercation, standing in the community centre yard, looking on.

In the chaos, gunshots started ringing out, and Berner-Kadish saw Yinon Levi shooting at people. Amid the screams and panic, he realised that Awdah had been shot.

An Israeli settler just shot Odeh Hadalin in the lungs, a remarkable activist who helped us film No Other Land in Masafer Yatta. Residents identified Yinon Levi, sanctioned by the EU and US, as the shooter. This is him in the video firing like crazy. pic.twitter.com/xH1Uo6L1wN

— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) July 28, 2025

He tried to calm Levi down, telling him that he had directly shot someone and likely killed him. To which Levi responded: “I’m glad I did it.”

Berner-Kadish also tried to talk to the Israeli soldiers who arrived on the scene, only to hear from three of them that they wished they had been the ones to shoot Awdah.

Following the murder, the Israeli army arrested five men from the Hathaleen family. On Tuesday, the Israeli army closed the area around Umm al-Kheir, restricting any access to it.

Also on Tuesday, Levi was released to house arrest by Israeli courts, which charged him with negligent homicide.

Levi was sanctioned by Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States for violent attacks on Palestinians.

The five Hathaleen men arrested after Awdah was killed are still in Israeli custody, Alaa told Al Jazeera.

Weeping, he fretted: “What if [the Israelis] return [Awdah’s] body and they can’t pay their last tribute to them?”

‘All the kids are hungry. We are hungry.’

This is a day in the life of a Palestinian family in Gaza, living through Israel’s policy of starvation. Video shows the challenges they face as they try to find a meal from a charity kitchen during a widespread famine.

More than 200 lawmakers in the United Kingdom have called on the British government to recognise a Palestinian state, as pressure mounts on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to take concrete action amid Israel’s war on Gaza.

Some 221 MPs from across the political spectrum signed an open letter on Friday calling on Starmer’s Labour government to recognise a Palestinian state in advance of a United Nations conference on Palestine next week.

“We are expectant that the outcome of the conference will be the UK Government outlining when and how it will act on its long-standing commitment on a two-state solution; as well as how it will work with international partners to make this a reality,” the letter reads.

“Whilst we appreciate the UK does not have it in its power to bring about a free and independent Palestine, UK recognition would have a significant impact due to our historic connections and our membership on the UN Security Council, so we urge you to take this step.”

Parliamentarians from nine political parties were among the signatories, Labour MP Sarah Champion said, including Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, SNP, and the Greens.

The letter comes as public anger is growing in the UK and around the world over Israel’s continued bombardment and blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has spurred a deadly starvation crisis.

221 MPs, from 9 parties, have sent a joint letter to the Prime Minister & Foreign Secretary urging them to recognise Palestine as a state now pic.twitter.com/b2hbX2XCGR

— Sarah Champion (@SarahChampionMP) July 25, 2025

It also comes a day after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would recognise the State of Palestine at the UN in September.

“Consistent with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the State of Palestine,” Macron said in a social media post on Thursday.

“I will make this solemn announcement before the United Nations General Assembly this coming September. The urgent priority today is to end the war in Gaza and to bring relief to the civilian population.”

Macron’s announcement drew the ire of Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the move “rewards terror”.

But Netanyahu has faced widespread condemnation for Israel’s continuing assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians since it began in October 2023.

Israel’s blockade of the enclave has caused a deepening humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations and top human rights groups reporting that many Palestinian children are now suffering from severe malnutrition and at risk of death.

In a statement on Friday, Starmer said “the appalling scenes in Gaza are unrelenting”.

“The continued captivity of hostages, the starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, the increasing violence from extremist settler groups, and Israel’s disproportionate military escalation in Gaza are all indefensible,” he said.

But Starmer stopped short of announcing plans to recognise a Palestinian state, instead saying he was working “on a pathway to peace in the region”.

“That pathway will set out the concrete steps needed to turn the ceasefire so desperately needed, into a lasting peace,” he said.

“Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that. But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.”

Reporting from a protest outside Starmer’s residence in London on Friday afternoon, Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic said demonstrators expressed “outrage” at the British government’s stance amid the dire situation in Gaza.

“Many of them feel powerless, so one of the only things they can do is gather here, make as much noise as they can, and hope that it will be noticed by the people in power,” she said.

“They want Keir Starmer to do more with the power that he has, and with the influence that he has, to put an end to this.”

In addition to recognising a Palestinian state, the British government has faced growing calls to sanction Israel and impose an arms embargo against the country.

Veselinovic said Starmer is in “a difficult diplomatic situation” as he prepares to meet United States President Donald Trump, who was travelling to Scotland on Friday.

She explained that Macron’s announcement added pressure on the UK, which is a close ally of both France and the US, to also recognise a Palestinian state, but noted that Trump has criticised the French president’s move.

“It does seem like a gulf is emerging here over what the European stance is overall, which is much more aligned with what UN aid agencies are saying is going on on the ground in Gaza, and the American position, which seems to nearly 100 percent back whatever is the Israeli government’s version of events is,” she said.

“And in the middle of that is Keir Starmer, who wants to maintain good relations with both sides.”

France will officially recognise a Palestinian state in September, President Emmanuel Macron has said.

In a post on X, Macron said the formal announcement would be made at a session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“The urgent need today is for the war in Gaza to end and for the civilian population to be rescued. Peace is possible. We need an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” he wrote.

Palestinian officials welcomed Macron’s decision, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move “rewards terror” following Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack in Israel.

In his Thursday post on X, Macron wrote: “True to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the State of Palestine.

“We must also guarantee the demilitarisation of Hamas, and secure and rebuild Gaza.

“Finally, we must build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability, and ensure that by accepting its demilitarisation and fully recognising Israel, it contributes to the security of all in the Middle East. There is no alternative.”

Macron also attached a letter to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas confirming his decision.

Responding to Macron’s announcement, Abbas’ deputy Hussein al-Sheikh said “this position reflects France’s commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state”, according to the AFP news agency.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu wrote in a post on X: “We strongly condemn President Macron’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the 7 October massacre.

“A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel – not to live in peace beside it. Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel,” Netanyahu added.

Hamas said France’s decision was a “positive step in the right direction” and urged all countries of the world “to follow France’s lead”.

Currently, the State of Palestine is recognised by more than 140 of the 193 member states of the UN.

A few European Union countries, including Spain and Ireland, are among them.

But Israel’s main supporter, the US, and its allies including the UK have not recognised a Palestinian state.

In a statement on Thursday, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he will hold an “emergency call” with French and German leaders on Friday to discuss “what we can do urgently to stop the killing”.

Statehood is an “inalienable right of the Palestinian people”, Starmer said, adding that a ceasefire would “put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution”.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry praised France’s decision, saying it “reaffirms the international community’s consensus on the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state”.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 59,106 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble since then.

Earlier on Thursday, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) said that one in five children in Gaza City was now malnourished and cases were increasing every day.

More than 100 international aid organisations and human rights groups have also warned of mass starvation in the Gaza Strip – pressing for governments to take action.

Israel, which controls the entry of all supplies into the Palestinian territory, has repeatedly said that there is no siege, blaming Hamas for any cases of malnutrition.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

President Emmanuel Macron says France will formally recognise the State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly.

France will recognise Palestine as a state, President Emmanuel Macron has said.

Macron said in a post on X on Thursday that he will formalise the decision at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

“The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved,” he wrote.

“In keeping with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine,” Macron wrote.

“I will solemnly announce this at the United Nations General Assembly
in September this year,” he added.

This is a developing story…

Two Palestinian teenage boys have been killed by Israeli forces in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency, in the latest deadly violence in the territory continuing in tandem with Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

The bodies of 15-year-old Ahmad Ali Asaad Ashira al-Salah and 17-year-old Muhammad Khaled Alian Issa, who were killed at dawn, were withheld by the Israeli army, the report said, adding that two more children were also injured in the gunfire.

The deadly incident came as Israeli forces arrested at least 25 Palestinians in multiple raids across the occupied West Bank, according to Wafa.

The arrests include 10 Palestinians in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron; two in the town of Idhna, west of Hebron; three in the town of Dura al-Qari, north of Ramallah; one in the city of Ramallah; five in the village of al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah; and four in the city of Nablus.

‘Making Palestinian lives impossible’

Since the start of the war on Gaza, Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank has escalated dramatically, with near-daily reports of mass arrests, killings and Israeli settler attacks, often supported by Israeli soldiers. Settlers have been rampaging with impunity, attacking and killing Palestinian civilians and burning their properties and olive groves.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 948 Palestinians have been killed in the territory by Israeli soldiers since October 7, 2023. Of that figure, at least 204 are children.

Meanwhile, from the beginning of 2024 until the end of June 2025, more than 2,200 Israeli settler attacks were reported, resulting in more than 5,200 Palestinian injuries, according to OCHA figures. In that same period, nearly 36,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced across the occupied West Bank due to Israeli military operations, settler violence or home demolitions carried out by the Israeli government.

The Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank is part of the Israeli government’s strategy for preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, according to Amjad Abu El Ezz, a lecturer of international relations at the Arab American University.

The increased number of killings, and the destruction of Palestinian homes and vehicles by Israeli settlers in coordination with the Israeli army, aim to encourage Palestinians to leave their land, Abu El Ezz told Al Jazeera from Ramallah.

Israel is weakening the governing Palestinian Authority, “making Palestinian lives impossible”, while at the same time “building Israeli facts on the ground” to prevent the Palestinians from building their own state, he added.

“We are talking about more than 700,000 Israeli settlers. They have weapons, they are acting as an army in parallel to the Israeli army,” Abu El Ezz said.

On Wednesday, Israel’s parliament approved a symbolic measure calling for the annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Knesset lawmakers voted 71-13 in favour of the motion on Wednesday, a non-binding vote which calls for “applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley” – the Israeli terms for the area.

The motion, advanced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, is declarative and has no direct legal implications, though it could place the issue of annexation on the agenda of future debates in the parliament.

The Palestinian Mujahideen Movement has called the Israeli parliament’s non-binding vote on the annexation of the occupied West Bank a “dangerous escalation”.

In a statement on Telegram, the group said the move was a “clear disregard for the international community” and a way for Israel to implement “its criminal plans targeting the land of Palestine and its people”.

The West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, has been under Israeli occupation since 1967. Since then, Israeli settlements have expanded exponentially, despite being illegal under international law and, in the case of settlement outposts, Israeli law.

Israel has bombed Gaza’s only Catholic church – the latest religious site hit in the war.

Hundreds of mosques were also damaged or destroyed, and cemeteries were obliterated, too.

In the occupied West Bank, attacks on Christians and Muslims are increasing.

Why is this happening?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Reverend Mitri Raheb – Lutheran pastor and president of Dar al-Kalima University

Moataz El Fegiery – Vice president of EuroMed Rights

Michael Lynk – Professor emeritus in the Faculty of Law at Western University

Israeli forces have shot and killed a Palestinian child in the occupied West Bank amid more violent raids by soldiers and settlers, and as Israeli authorities position to confiscate more land.

Local Palestinian sources reported on Friday that 13-year-old Amr Ali Qabha was hit with live ammunition in a street in Yabad, located south of Jenin, and was denied medical treatment as soldiers prevented ambulances from reaching him.

Qabha’s father also tried to reach him, but was severely beaten and detained by Israeli soldiers, according to the Wafa news agency, which said the child was pronounced dead at the hospital after an ambulance was finally able to get him there.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed across the occupied West Bank since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023. Of that figure, at least 204 were children.

The United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) said on Friday that at least 14 Palestinian deaths and 355 injuries were recorded in the West Bank last month, while there were at least 129 Israeli settler attacks resulting in Palestinian casualties or property damage.

According to OCHA figures, between the beginning of 2024 and the end of June 2025, more than 2,200 Israeli settler attacks were reported, resulting in more than 5,200 Palestinian injuries.

In that same period, nearly 36,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced across the West Bank due to Israeli military operations, settler violence or home demolitions carried out by the Israeli government.

Ongoing raids and harassment

The deadly incident on Friday came as Israeli soldiers continued their raids across the occupied territory that were accompanied by arrests, and assisted settlers in their attacks aimed at driving Palestinians from their lands.

In Jenin’s village of Raba, Israeli forces fired tear gas at Palestinians, including children, who were protesting against the confiscation of their land and property.

In the town of Dura, located south of Hebron, five Palestinians were detained after a raid that included the ransacking of several homes.

Six more were arrested in Qalqiliya’s village of Kafr Laqif, with another two taken from the village of Sir in the same district.

A Palestinian man was arrested in Bethlehem after being summoned by Israeli intelligence to the Gush Etzion settlement. Two people were taken during a raid on Nablus, with one shot and wounded before his arrest. Another arrest was reported in the Askar refugee camp.

In the village of Umm Safa near Ramallah, Israeli soldiers destroyed a main water pipeline, which left about 1,000 residents without water.

In the neighbourhood of Beit Hanina in occupied East Jerusalem, families living in a residential building were forced to leave in preparation for the demolition of their homes. The Palestinian families were among those forced to demolish the buildings themselves after an order by Israeli authorities, because the municipality would fine them more if it demolishes the building.

Armed Israeli settlers launched a violent attack earlier on Friday in the village of al-Malih in the northern Jordan Valley, located northeast of the occupied territory. They killed at least 117 sheep belonging to Palestinians, stole more livestock and vandalised tents and other property, according to Wafa.

Israel’s plan to divide future Palestinian state

Israeli authorities are planning to illegally confiscate more Palestinian land as well, despite international criticism.

The United Kingdom on Friday opposed Israel’s announcement of its intention to renew plans for construction in the E1 area in the occupied West Bank, a move that would split the Palestinian territory.

“The UK strongly opposes the announcement by the central planning bureau of Israel’s Civil Administration to reintroduce the E1 settlement plan, frozen since 2021,” said a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson.

The plan would include the construction of more than 3,000 houses to the east of Jerusalem, dividing a future Palestinian state in two, read the statement, and “marking a flagrant breach of international law”.

US Democratic Senators Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch, Jeff Merkley and Chris Van Hollen issued a joint statement on Friday condemning Israel’s longstanding plan to destroy and force out Palestinian communities in Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills.

Amid frequent attacks by settlers and troops in the area, Israeli authorities are advancing with plans to turn the Masafer Yatta area into an “open fire” zone for their military.

Letter demands that London act now to halt ‘erasure and annexation’ of Palestinian land before it’s too late.

Nearly 60 lawmakers in the United Kingdom have written to Foreign Secretary David Lammy this week, calling out Israel’s plans for the “ethnic cleansing” of Gaza and demanding the country immediately recognise Palestine as a state.

The 59 lawmakers, all from the governing Labour Party, criticised Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s plans to force Gaza’s 2.1 million Palestinians into a so-called “humanitarian city” – likened by some analysts to a concentration camp – built on the ruins of Rafah.

The letter, sent to Lammy on Thursday and made public on Saturday, cited Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard as saying Palestinians were being pushed to the southern tip of Gaza “in preparation for deportation outside the strip”, slamming the move as “ethnic cleansing”.

They urged the foreign secretary to stop Israel’s “operational plan for crimes against humanity”. It also called on London to follow the lead of French President Emmanuel Macron, who recently announced an intent to recognise a Palestinian state, so as not to undermine its own policy in support of a two-state solution.

Dozens of Labour MPs have signed letter calling on @FCDOGovUK Secretary David Lammy to take concrete action on #Gaza including immediate recognition of #Palestine

Here it is in full, though more MPs signing up by the minute

Thanks @LFPME for coordinating, government must heed pic.twitter.com/fOxiylKKVi

— Rupa Huq MP (@RupaHuq) July 12, 2025

Reporting from London, Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego said Macron had given calls to formally recognise Palestine as a state “extra heft” during his three-day state visit to the UK this week.

In an address on Tuesday to the UK’s Parliament, he had said the move was a matter of “absolute urgency” and the “only path to peace”, calling on the country to help create the “political momentum” for a two-state solution.

Gallego pointed out that Lammy had on Tuesday criticised the controversial US-backed GHF sites at Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

“It’s not doing a good job. Too many people are close to starvation. Too many people have lost their lives,” Lammy had said.

Three out of the enclave’s four GHF sites, which have sidelined Gaza’s vast UN-led aid delivery network, are located in southern Gaza, effectively forcing starving Palestinians towards Israel’s new “humanitarian city” in Rafah.

On Friday, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that 819 Palestinians have been killed while waiting for food – 634 in the vicinity of GHF sites, which have been operational since late May. On Saturday, 34 more were killed near a GHF site in Rafah.

Lammy had also said that the UK could take further action against Israel if a ceasefire deal to end the war in the Palestinian territory does not materialise. But he stressed that London wants to recognise Palestine as part of a concrete move towards the two-state solution, not just as a symbolic gesture.

The lawmakers welcomed the Labour government’s calls for a ceasefire, its suspension of arms licenses to Israel, and its sanctioning of hardline Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, but said the “desperation and seriousness” of the situation in Gaza required more action.

“We cannot leave actions in our back pocket while the situation facing Palestinian civilians reaches critical and existential levels,” said the letter, which was organised by Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, co-chaired by lawmakers Sarah Owen and Andrew Pakes.

“By not recognising [Palestine] as a state, we … set an expectation that the status quo can continue and see the effective erasure and annexation of Palestinian territory,” it added.

The Times of Israel reported this week that an international conference aiming to resuscitate the two-state solution was postponed to July 28-29 after plans to hold it last month were derailed by the 12-day Iran-Israel war.

July 11 (UPI) — Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for 104 days has filed a complaint against the administration of President Donald Trump for $20 million.

“It was a very, very dehumanizing experience, for someone who was not accused of any crime, whatsoever,” Khalil told CNN. He is a green card holder who had no formal criminal or civil charges against him.

His administrative complaint, which is a precursor to a federal lawsuit, alleges that he was falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted and smeared as an anti-Semite. The U.S. government tried to deport him because of his leadership of campus protests at Columbia University.

His arrest felt like a kidnapping, he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. He was on his way home from dinner with his wife Noor Abdalla, who was pregnant at the time. Agents followed him into the lobby of his apartment building, and they threatened his wife with arrest if she didn’t separate from him, he said. The ICE agents did not have a warrant for the arrest.

The government held Khalil, 30, in an ICE facility in Louisiana, alleging he supports Hamas. The administration hasn’t shown any evidence of this, and Khalil’s legal team has rejected it.

“(The complaint) is just the first step of accountability, that this administration has to pay for what it’s doing against me or against anyone who opposes their fascist agenda,” Khalil told NBC News Thursday.

Khalil, a recent graduate of Columbia, has said he either wants $20 million or an apology from the administration.

“My goal is not self-enrichment. I don’t want this money just because I need money. What I want is actual accountability. Real, real accountability against the injustices that happened against me with the malicious prosecutions that I was targeted for all this.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has said it acted properly.

“The Trump Administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and damages property,” DHS posted on X before his release in June. “An immigration judge has already vindicated this position. We expect a higher court to do the same.”

The complaint names the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the State Department. He filed it under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The immigration case against him continues in the courts.

The Center for Constitutional Rights is representing Khalil. It said he would use the money to “help others similarly targeted by the Trump administration and Columbia University.”

July 9 (UPI) — The United States has sanctioned an independent investigator of human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, in latest move by the Trump administration targeting critics of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Francesca Paola Albanese, the 48-year-old Italian-born U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, was sanctioned by the State Department on Wednesday.

The sanctions come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, D.C., and follow the publication of a recent report by Albanese calling for punitive measures to be imposed against Israel over what she describes as its “genocide” of the Palestinian people, while criticizing dozens of businesses for profiting off the conflict.

The State Department issued its secondary sanctions on the grounds of Albanese’s support of the ICC.

The Trump administration sanctioned the ICC last month after the court opened an investigation into the actions of U.S. personnel in Afghanistan and issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on allegations of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in their widespread, systematic assault on Gaza.

Albanese has called on countries to comply with the ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said her support of the ICC is “a gross infringement on the sovereignty” of the United States and Israel, as neither party is a member of the international court.

“The United States has repeatedly condemned and objected to the biased and malicious activities of Albanese that have long made her unfit for service as a special rapporteur,” Rubio said in a statement.

He also chastised her recent report for naming dozens of companies that she described as complicit in and profiting from Israel’s war.

“While life in Gaza is being obliterated and the West Bank is under escalating assault, this report shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many,” the report states, while urging the ICC to investigate and prosecute corporate executives complicit in the conflict.

Rubio said the report makes “extreme and unfounded accusations.”

“We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty,” he said.

“The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare, to check and prevent illegitimate ICC overreach and abuse of power, and to protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”

Without directly mentioning the sanctions, Albanese said on X that “on this day more than ever: I stand firmly and convincingly on the side of justice, as I have always done.”

“I come from a country with a tradition of illustrious legal scholars, talented lawyers and courageous judges who have defended justice at great cost and often with their own life. I intend to honor that tradition,” she said.

Amnesty International rebuked the United States’ sanctions as “a shameless and transparent attack on the fundamental principles of international justice.”

“Following the recent sanctions against the International Criminal Court, the measures announced today are a continuation of the Trump administration’s assault on international law and its efforts to protect the Israeli government from accountability at all costs,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said in a statement.

“They are the latest in a series of Trump administration policies seeking to intimidate and silence those that dare speak out for Palestinians’ human rights.”

The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when the Iran-backed militant group killed 1,200 people and took another 251 hostage during a surprise attack on Israel.

In the 21 months since, Israel has destroyed Gaza and killed more than 57,600 Palestinians and injured more than 137,000 others.

At least 50 Palestinian families from a Bedouin community in the occupied West Bank have fled their homes, following repeated assaults and harassment from Israeli settlers under the protection of Israeli forces, according to media reports and a local rights group.

Thirty Palestinian families were forcibly displaced on Friday morning from the Arab Mleihat Bedouin community, northwest of Jericho, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, while 20 others were displaced on Thursday.

Before the forced displacement, the community was home to 85 families, numbering about 500 people.

A Palestinian rights group, the Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights, said the families were forced to leave after years trying to defend themselves “without any support”. Attacks by Israeli forces and Israelis from illegal settlements have surged across the occupied West Bank since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023.

Alia Mleihat told Wafa that her family was forced to flee to the Aqbat Jabr refugee camp, south of Jericho, after armed settlers threatened her and other families at gunpoint.

Separately, Mahmoud Mleihat, a 50-year-old father of seven from the community, told the Reuters news agency that they could not take it any more, so they decided to leave.

“The settlers are armed and attack us, and the [Israeli] military protects them. We can’t do anything to stop them,” he said.

Hassan Mleihat, director of the Al-Baidar Organization, said families in the community began dismantling their tents, following sustained provocation and attacks by Israeli settlers and the army.

Footage posted on social media and verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency showed trucks loaded with possessions driving away from the area at night.

Hassan told Wafa that the attacks also threatened to erase the community, and “open the way for illegal colonial expansion”.

‘We want to protect our children’

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has documented repeated acts of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in Mu’arrajat, near Jericho, where the Mleihat tribe lives.

In 2024, settlers armed with clubs stormed a Palestinian school, while in 2023, armed settlers blocked the path of vehicles carrying Palestinians, with some firing into the air and others hurling stones at the vehicles.

“We want to protect our children, and we’ve decided to leave,” Mahmoud said, describing it as a great injustice.

He had lived in the community since he was 10, Mahmoud said.

Alia Mleihat told Reuters the Bedouin community, which had lived there for 40 years, would now be scattered across different parts of the Jordan Valley, including nearby Jericho.

“People are demolishing their own homes with their own hands, leaving this village they’ve lived in for decades, the place where their dreams were built,” she said, describing the forced displacement of 30 families as a “new Nakba”.

The Nakba, meaning “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes during 1948 at the birth of the state of Israel.

Israel’s military has not yet commented on the settler harassment faced by the Bedouin families or about the families leaving their community.

Asked about violence in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters on Monday that any acts of violence by civilians were unacceptable and that individuals should not take the law into their own hands.

Activists say Israeli settlement expansion has accelerated in recent years, displacing Palestinians, who have remained on their land under military occupation since Israel captured the occupied West Bank in the 1967 war.

Most countries consider Israeli settlements illegal and a violation of the Geneva Conventions, which ban settling civilians on occupied land.

It was a normal Teams meeting at the end of a busy week. Colleagues were discussing the hospital weekend plans. I was there too, nodding, half-present. My mind was elsewhere – on a message I’d sent earlier that morning to a friend in Gaza.

I glanced at my phone.

One tick.

WhatsApp users know the signs: one tick means the message was sent. Two ticks mean it was received. Two blue ticks, it was read.

For most people, it’s a minor delay. But when you’re texting a Palestinian friend in Gaza during a war, one tick carries a sense of dread.

Maybe his phone’s out of charge – normal in a place where power was cut off 20 months ago. Maybe there’s no service – Israel often cuts communication during attacks. But there’s a third possibility I don’t allow myself to think about, even though it’s the most likely outcome if you are living through a genocide.

Still one tick.

Back in the meeting. We wrap up. Plans are made and people start to think about their own weekend plans.

I glance again. Still one tick.

This is the curse of being Palestinian. Carrying the weight of your homeland, its pain, its people – while being expected to function normally, politely, professionally.

Then, I was told my Teams background was “potentially anti-Semitic.”

It was a still-life image: figs, olives, grapes, oranges, watermelon, and a few glass bottles. A quiet nod to my culture and roots. But in today’s climate, even fruit is political. Any symbol of Palestinian identity can now be interpreted as a threat.

Suddenly, I was being questioned, accused, and possibly facing disciplinary action. For a background. For being Palestinian.

Still one tick.

I felt silenced, humiliated, and exposed. How was my love for my culture, for art, for my people being twisted into something hateful? Why is my choice of virtual background more controversial than the devastating violence unfolding in real time?

This is not isolated. Many of us – Palestinians, or anyone else who cares about Palestine – are being challenged on our humanity across organisations, all driven by external pressure.

And then it happened. Two blue ticks.

My friend was alive. He messaged: they fled their home in the early hours of the morning. He carried his children, walked for hours, left everything behind. No food, no shelter. But alive.

How could I explain to him what had happened to me that day? That while he ran for his life, I was threatened with disciplinary action about a painting of fruit? That I was accused of racism for an image, while he was witnessing the destruction of entire families?

This is what it means to be Palestinian today. To constantly navigate a world that erases your humanity, silences your voice, distorts your identity. To be told your pain is political. Your joy is provocation. Your symbols are offensive.

I’ve worked in the NHS for 25 years. It’s more than a job – it’s part of who I am. And now, along with two colleagues, I’m taking legal action. Not for ourselves, but to protect the NHS from external political lobbying. To say, firmly and clearly, that our National Health Service should belong to its patients and its staff – not to those who seek to silence, intimidate or twist it into serving a toxic agenda.

What happened to me is not just unjust – it is unlawful. Speaking up against genocide is not only my moral responsibility as a human being, but also my right as a British citizen in a democratic society.

I don’t write this to compare my experience with my friend’s suffering. I write it to expose the absurdity, the cruelty, of how Palestinians are treated across the world. Whether under bombs or under suspicion, we are made to justify our existence.

It shouldn’t be this way.

Being Palestinian is not a crime. But too often, it feels like the world treats it as one.

The author is currently pursuing legal action, alongside two NHS colleagues, challenging, among other things, allegations of antisemitism.

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

Video shows an Israeli drone killing a Palestinian carrying a sack of flour in Gaza City. Israel has killed around 600 people trying to get food from sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been condemned as “an abomination” and “a death trap” by the United Nations.

In this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is Dr Gabor Mate, a retired physician, author and Holocaust survivor who has written extensively on trauma and child development, as well as Israel and Palestine.

Mate talks about the colonial foundations of Zionism, how living under it has traumatised Palestinians and the ways mainstream media distorts the realities on the ground in Gaza.

Phil Lavelle is a TV news correspondent at Al Jazeera.