August 25, 2026 - Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are not just ‘clashes’ or ‘riots’, but fit the definition of pogroms: organised and often state-backed attacks on a targeted minority.
Thursday, August 27, 2026
Palestinian boy shot during Israeli raid on UNRWA centre
WARNING: Distressing Scenes
UNRWA chief: Israel seeks to eliminate agency and Palestinian refugee issue
August 26, 2026 - UNRWA chief Christian Saunders says the seizure of its training centre in occupied East Jerusalem is part of Israel’s efforts to eliminate the agency. He tells Al Jazeera that UNRWA is ‘not planning on going anywhere’.
Israeli settlers targeting Palestinian factories to force workers off land
Rising Israeli settler violence targets Palestinian industrial facilities across the occupied West Bank, aiming to paralyse the local economy and force mass displacement.
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| A bulldozer at the Ein Samia stone crusher shows severe damage after Israeli settlers infiltrated the site and set fire to heavy equipment [Screenshot/Al Jazeera] |
Economist Moayad Afanah said that industrial facilities in Area B and Area C of the occupied West Bank are being targeted “collectively and deliberately” by settlers. The recent attacks on the al-Junaidi dairy factories in the Tulkarem area appear to be part of this trend.
“The volume of financial losses is enormous, as burning a single bulldozer or excavator costs the investor hundreds of thousands of shekels [tens of thousands of dollars], which ultimately leads to exhausting the Palestinian economy and continuously depleting its resources and facilities,” Afanah told Al Jazeera. “Thus, these attacks succeed in creating an environment that repels investment and life.”
....the settlers’ deliberate sabotage of Palestinian industry is deepening the economic crisis in the West Bank where unemployment has already reached 29 percent.
More HERE
Palestinians demand return of 1,700 bodies held by Israel
August 26, 2026 - Hundreds of Palestinians held vigils across the occupied West Bank demanding the return of Palestinian bodies held by Israel, and information on missing people. The National Campaign to Retrieve Martyrs’ Bodies estimates more than 1,700 bodies are being held.
We Are Not Numbers: The genocide and a dream delayed
A young man’s dream of studying abroad and experiencing life beyond Gaza is shattered by war.
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| Filling water containers from the water truck that comes once a week to my neighborhood. Photo: Mohammed Basem Abu Qamar |
Mohammed Basem Abu Qamar (Gaza Strip) August 19, 2026
It’s 7 a.m. The sky is cloudy, with light coming through the clouds. I’m on Al-Rasheed Street, on my way to attend my first lecture ever as a medical student at Al-Azhar University. I’m riding an aqalaa — a cart being towed behind a car — an alternative that emerged during the war due to the lack of transportation. My eyes wander towards the sea. Relief fills my heart and I surrender to all around me: the jolts of the aqalaa, the buzzing sound of drones above us, the scattered homes along the way. I’m thinking about the last three years of my life, especially what happened to my long-held dream of studying abroad, a dream my brother Ibrahem has been able to fulfill.
I think back to that rainy day in October 2022. I woke up to the sound of Ibrahem packing his things to attend university in Turkey. I pulled myself out of bed and started to help him until the car arrived to take him to the airport. He stood at the door with tears in his eyes, hugging everyone goodbye, starting with my mother, then my sisters. When it was my turn, for a second we stared at each other, knowing we wouldn’t meet again for a long time. I hugged him while holding back my tears.
After a couple of days, he started to send me pictures and videos of his new life. One of the videos was a simple shot of him walking through his university campus. It was full of greenery and was so quiet that I could hear his footsteps. As simple as the video was, I felt as if it were from a different world, a world I wanted desperately to experience. Since then, my desire to travel abroad has grown even more passionate. I wanted to study abroad, try new experiences, meet people from different cultures.
Trying to hold on to hope
Just a year after Ibrahem left, my dream of studying medicine abroad — fed by watching YouTube videos of medical students from different parts of the world — was shattered. As I was settling into my second year of high school, the war began.
Even before October 7, 2023, I had been feeling anxious about my third and final year Tawjihi (high school exams). I had watched my brothers go through it and was aware of the enormous weight it carried. If I wanted to fulfill my dream of studying medicine, and possibly earning a scholarship, I knew I would have to keep my grades up.
In the beginning, I thought the war would last only a couple of months, and I would be able to continue my education as normal. But as time passed studying became harder and harder. At first, I decided to keep up with basic subjects like physics, mathematics, and chemistry with the help of my older sister. However, as the year drew to a close and the war only grew fiercer, it was confirmed that exams would be held electronically. I did my best, but with a weak WiFi connection and a lagging phone, I grew more anxious every day.
Then came the evacuation. We left our home in Al-Nuseirat for a tent in Rafah, leaving behind, among everything else, all of my books. But I held tight to one idea: that one day I would be exhausted, not from chopping wood and pinning down a tent against the wind, but from chasing my passion. That thought was enough to keep me going.
Survival is taking over dreaming
Almost a year and a half into the war, I found myself facing Tawjihi, the exams I had been dreading.
I always woke up early to start studying. One day, I woke up at 5 a.m, prayed Fajr, and looked through the window at the sky. The air felt serene and full of life — it always does at dawn, right after Al-Fajr prayer. The sky was covered with mauve clouds. I took a deep breath to clear my mind for studying.
I opened my mathematics equations, played Fairuz’s morning songs softly on my phone, her angelic voice soothing the deep-seated sorrow of war, and started solving the problems one by one.
About two hours later, the horn of the water truck reverberated through the walls. Even though it always came at random times, it seemed much earlier than usual. I was still buried in my notebook. I dropped my pen, and glanced through the window to make sure it was the water truck. It was. I muttered to myself, “Grab all the water containers,” and chased after the truck to have any chance of filling them. I chased the truck for about 200 meters.
As I joined the line, I spotted two of my friends and Tawjihi classmates, Hamed and Ahmad, already in line. They too had been studying when the horn pulled them away. The scene was complete chaos: water splashing everywhere, children screaming, old men carrying heavy containers filled with water. I looked at Ahmad with a small smile on my face; he smiled back, nudging Hamed to look at me, too.
After we’d filled our gallons, I carried mine back up to the third floor. Later, we walked together under a sky that couldn’t decide between clouds and light, accompanied by a cool, gentle breeze.
“How is your studying going?” Hamed asked.
“It’s going well,” I replied, in a tone too dry to be convincing. We both knew what the answer really meant, but perhaps he only asked to break the strange silence. Then I went off script. “But you know what the hardest part is?”
They both looked at me, waiting.
“It’s creating motivation when nothing allows for it. It doesn’t make sense to study harder than before the war, without school, without tutors, where every day I have to prioritize chasing a water truck over studying. None of us even know the date of our Tawjihi exams, or whether we’ll be able to sit them at all. And you know my dream of studying abroad — now it’s less likely than ever.”
After a moment of resigned silence, they agreed with what I’d said, even though it was devastating to state out loud how cruel the reality is. But they seemed relieved, maybe because there was a sort of companionship in sharing the weight of suffering together.
Then Ahmad added, quietly, “But keep your trust in God, and keep hope high.”
Hope, a double-edged sword, is getting heavier to carry
In the midst of war, ambition becomes a luxury. When you are reduced to mere survival, there isn’t much room for dreams. The first six months of war were my hardest, not due to worse circumstances, but to hope. Hope the genocide would end. Hope the borders would open. Hope food would enter Gaza.
Hope keeps you waiting for something better and makes you deny the harshness of reality. It’s a dangerous tool, one that can burn you from within. Dreams almost stopped entering my mind. Not because they lost their purpose, but because it felt useless and painful to hold onto them any longer.
Back on Al-Rasheed Street, the aqalaa still rattling beneath me, the sea to my right and nothing but rubble to my left, I realize I’ve never lost my dream of studying abroad. I am filled with regret and sorrow, almost to the point that I forget to breathe. My mind finally cools down; I take a heavy breath and exhale while the wind crashes against my face. My thoughts slip into words: I wish I had gone to study abroad before the war started.
During the war, my brother always called to check on us. On one of those calls, he asked me, “Why do you seem skinnier?”
I didn’t answer, but I understood the gap between us. It didn’t matter how much empathy he had — he was unable to truly understand the situation we were in without experiencing it himself. A part of me also wanted to be like him, to be unable to imagine hunger, to not know what fear is.
The other side of loss
But this time the wish feels different. This time it’s not to pursue ambitions or dreams, only to feel safe and stable again. Maybe my mind is redefining what’s possible. After many failures, my goals are much simpler now. Or maybe my mind is tricking me into moving forward and continuing to thrive. Many things could have led to this transition, but does it matter anymore?
This is life, and here I am, facing it. At this moment, it feels big and full of possibilities, and I feel I was limiting myself before, punishing and preventing myself from enjoying life by holding onto that dream. It may come true, or it may not — it doesn’t matter.
I haven’t lost hope yet. As I said, it’s a dangerous tool, but what do we live for without it? It’s what creates our story. I am thankful for the opportunity to study at Al-Azhar University, and am filled with hope that one day I will chase my postponed dream to study abroad.
I step out of the aqalaa, heading to my first lecture.
It’s 7 a.m. The sky is cloudy, with light coming through the clouds. I’m on Al-Rasheed Street, on my way to attend my first lecture ever as a medical student at Al-Azhar University. I’m riding an aqalaa — a cart being towed behind a car — an alternative that emerged during the war due to the lack of transportation. My eyes wander towards the sea. Relief fills my heart and I surrender to all around me: the jolts of the aqalaa, the buzzing sound of drones above us, the scattered homes along the way. I’m thinking about the last three years of my life, especially what happened to my long-held dream of studying abroad, a dream my brother Ibrahem has been able to fulfill.
I think back to that rainy day in October 2022. I woke up to the sound of Ibrahem packing his things to attend university in Turkey. I pulled myself out of bed and started to help him until the car arrived to take him to the airport. He stood at the door with tears in his eyes, hugging everyone goodbye, starting with my mother, then my sisters. When it was my turn, for a second we stared at each other, knowing we wouldn’t meet again for a long time. I hugged him while holding back my tears.
After a couple of days, he started to send me pictures and videos of his new life. One of the videos was a simple shot of him walking through his university campus. It was full of greenery and was so quiet that I could hear his footsteps. As simple as the video was, I felt as if it were from a different world, a world I wanted desperately to experience. Since then, my desire to travel abroad has grown even more passionate. I wanted to study abroad, try new experiences, meet people from different cultures.
Trying to hold on to hope
Just a year after Ibrahem left, my dream of studying medicine abroad — fed by watching YouTube videos of medical students from different parts of the world — was shattered. As I was settling into my second year of high school, the war began.
Even before October 7, 2023, I had been feeling anxious about my third and final year Tawjihi (high school exams). I had watched my brothers go through it and was aware of the enormous weight it carried. If I wanted to fulfill my dream of studying medicine, and possibly earning a scholarship, I knew I would have to keep my grades up.
In the beginning, I thought the war would last only a couple of months, and I would be able to continue my education as normal. But as time passed studying became harder and harder. At first, I decided to keep up with basic subjects like physics, mathematics, and chemistry with the help of my older sister. However, as the year drew to a close and the war only grew fiercer, it was confirmed that exams would be held electronically. I did my best, but with a weak WiFi connection and a lagging phone, I grew more anxious every day.
Then came the evacuation. We left our home in Al-Nuseirat for a tent in Rafah, leaving behind, among everything else, all of my books. But I held tight to one idea: that one day I would be exhausted, not from chopping wood and pinning down a tent against the wind, but from chasing my passion. That thought was enough to keep me going.
Survival is taking over dreaming
Almost a year and a half into the war, I found myself facing Tawjihi, the exams I had been dreading.
I always woke up early to start studying. One day, I woke up at 5 a.m, prayed Fajr, and looked through the window at the sky. The air felt serene and full of life — it always does at dawn, right after Al-Fajr prayer. The sky was covered with mauve clouds. I took a deep breath to clear my mind for studying.
I opened my mathematics equations, played Fairuz’s morning songs softly on my phone, her angelic voice soothing the deep-seated sorrow of war, and started solving the problems one by one.
About two hours later, the horn of the water truck reverberated through the walls. Even though it always came at random times, it seemed much earlier than usual. I was still buried in my notebook. I dropped my pen, and glanced through the window to make sure it was the water truck. It was. I muttered to myself, “Grab all the water containers,” and chased after the truck to have any chance of filling them. I chased the truck for about 200 meters.
As I joined the line, I spotted two of my friends and Tawjihi classmates, Hamed and Ahmad, already in line. They too had been studying when the horn pulled them away. The scene was complete chaos: water splashing everywhere, children screaming, old men carrying heavy containers filled with water. I looked at Ahmad with a small smile on my face; he smiled back, nudging Hamed to look at me, too.
After we’d filled our gallons, I carried mine back up to the third floor. Later, we walked together under a sky that couldn’t decide between clouds and light, accompanied by a cool, gentle breeze.
“How is your studying going?” Hamed asked.
“It’s going well,” I replied, in a tone too dry to be convincing. We both knew what the answer really meant, but perhaps he only asked to break the strange silence. Then I went off script. “But you know what the hardest part is?”
They both looked at me, waiting.
“It’s creating motivation when nothing allows for it. It doesn’t make sense to study harder than before the war, without school, without tutors, where every day I have to prioritize chasing a water truck over studying. None of us even know the date of our Tawjihi exams, or whether we’ll be able to sit them at all. And you know my dream of studying abroad — now it’s less likely than ever.”
After a moment of resigned silence, they agreed with what I’d said, even though it was devastating to state out loud how cruel the reality is. But they seemed relieved, maybe because there was a sort of companionship in sharing the weight of suffering together.
Then Ahmad added, quietly, “But keep your trust in God, and keep hope high.”
Hope, a double-edged sword, is getting heavier to carry
In the midst of war, ambition becomes a luxury. When you are reduced to mere survival, there isn’t much room for dreams. The first six months of war were my hardest, not due to worse circumstances, but to hope. Hope the genocide would end. Hope the borders would open. Hope food would enter Gaza.
Hope keeps you waiting for something better and makes you deny the harshness of reality. It’s a dangerous tool, one that can burn you from within. Dreams almost stopped entering my mind. Not because they lost their purpose, but because it felt useless and painful to hold onto them any longer.
Back on Al-Rasheed Street, the aqalaa still rattling beneath me, the sea to my right and nothing but rubble to my left, I realize I’ve never lost my dream of studying abroad. I am filled with regret and sorrow, almost to the point that I forget to breathe. My mind finally cools down; I take a heavy breath and exhale while the wind crashes against my face. My thoughts slip into words: I wish I had gone to study abroad before the war started.
During the war, my brother always called to check on us. On one of those calls, he asked me, “Why do you seem skinnier?”
I didn’t answer, but I understood the gap between us. It didn’t matter how much empathy he had — he was unable to truly understand the situation we were in without experiencing it himself. A part of me also wanted to be like him, to be unable to imagine hunger, to not know what fear is.
The other side of loss
But this time the wish feels different. This time it’s not to pursue ambitions or dreams, only to feel safe and stable again. Maybe my mind is redefining what’s possible. After many failures, my goals are much simpler now. Or maybe my mind is tricking me into moving forward and continuing to thrive. Many things could have led to this transition, but does it matter anymore?
This is life, and here I am, facing it. At this moment, it feels big and full of possibilities, and I feel I was limiting myself before, punishing and preventing myself from enjoying life by holding onto that dream. It may come true, or it may not — it doesn’t matter.
I haven’t lost hope yet. As I said, it’s a dangerous tool, but what do we live for without it? It’s what creates our story. I am thankful for the opportunity to study at Al-Azhar University, and am filled with hope that one day I will chase my postponed dream to study abroad.
I step out of the aqalaa, heading to my first lecture.
A note from the owner of this blog: I have read the book "We Are Not Numbers" and highly recommend it. One thing I noticed however, which was glaringly obvious, was that all the young authors who contributed to the book had either managed to leave Palestine or were trying to leave Palestine. This tells me that, unfortunately, the Zionist campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people may be working.
Israeli Court Makes OUTRAGEOUS Ruling In Nun Attack Case
August 26, 2026 - Yona Schreiber, an Israeli settler who brutally assaulted a nun in Jerusalem, has been acquitted of his charges. Ana Kasparian discusses on The Young Turks.
Thursday, August 20, 2026
Funeral for 50 Palestinians recovered from Gaza rubble
A funeral has been held in Gaza for 50 Palestinians whose bodies were recently recovered from the rubble of Israeli attacks. Israel continues to block heavy machinery needed to clear debris, despite its entry being a condition of the ceasefire deal.
Israel’s Escalating Tactic of Dispossession in the West Bank
Israeli settlers and soldiers are besieging three families in their homes in the village of Qusra as part of a growing attack on Palestinian communities in Area B of the occupied West Bank.
August 20, 2026 - For the 12th consecutive day, three Palestinian families, comprising 10 people, including two young children, have been trapped inside their homes in the occupied West Bank, besieged and terrorized by dozens of armed Israelis—both settlers and soldiers. The family members have been stuck in separate homes, unable to shelter together or attend to their basic needs, with food supplies running dangerously low and without access to cooking gas or a fridge.
The latest Israeli siege targeted a small cluster of Palestinian homes that sit atop a hill on the edge of the village of Qusra, in the southern part of the Nablus governorate in the northern West Bank.
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| Israeli soldiers and settlers have been besieging three Palestinian families in their homes in the village of Qusra in the occupied West Bank since August 9. Photo on August 14, 2026 by Issam Rimawi/Anadolu via Getty Images. |
While the siege on the three families has garnered international media attention and statements of condemnation, the attack is not the first of its kind, but rather a more prominent example of a growing tactic by Israeli settlers and soldiers working in tandem to dispossess Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank. The attacks are increasingly focused on Palestinian communities in Area B, a designation under the Oslo Accords where the Palestinian Authority is nominally in charge of civil administration while Israel retains security control.
More HERE
Thursday, August 13, 2026
Israel Removes Genocide Evidence
August 13, 2026 - Israel is removing evidence of its genocide in Gaza, says UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese. She says it needs to stop before it’s too late.
A new Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor report found that nearly 100 Israeli trucks are leaving Gaza every day filled with tonnes of rubble from Israel’s bombardment.
A Journalist Grows Up from "We Are Not Numbers"
Two of her heroes have been killed, but Gaza’s youngest photojournalist isn’t giving up.
Written by Manar el-Sheikh
November 18, 2018
A teenaged girl carried a camera as she approached the field by the border to photograph protesters in Gaza’s Great Return March. She gathered her hair with a red tie and began to run, surrounded by the smoke of burning tires, heading toward the two young men about to scale the fence. She was intent only on capturing the scene in a photo. It was like something out of a Hollywood movie, with the heroine conquering her fear to follow her dreams and serve her people.
The heroine of this story is Menna Murad Qudiah, 14, a girl with deep brown eyes and smooth, rosy skin. She lives in Khuza'a—the site of one of the worst attacks of the 2014 Israeli war against Gaza—and is the youngest journalist to report on the historic, nonviolent protest calling for the right of Palestinians to return to their ancestral homeland.
Menna’s main love is photography, thanks to her Uncle Ihab, a journalist who allowed her to experiment with his camera when she was just 4 years old. But she has many talents:fashion design, poetry recitation, acting and playing piano. Menna is a born performer: She played in a piano recital at the Al-Qattan Center in Gaza City, and her Uncle Ihab filmed her as she sang and recited patriotic poems on the roof of her home during the 2014 Israeli assault. Her deep, yet soft, voice was interrupted by the sound of missiles and raids, but she never stopped singing.
Menna was eager to participate as soon as word of the Great Return March spread, and she smiles broadly as she recalls how she couldn't sleep the night before the first day of the protest, almost as if she was about to go on a school trip. She wasn’t afraid, she says; she was excited. She was a regular participant after that, attending with members of her family: her father, brothers, sometimes her grandfather—and, of course, Uncle Ihab.
An editor for a Saudi Arabian newspaper and a member of the International Federation of Journalists, Ihab long acted as a mentor to Menna. Because he believes in her flair for photography, he lends her his own camera. Her father also is faithful supporter. Even though he does not receive his salary for months at a time, he pays for her to take workshops in journalism.
Detecting that I was wondering about the effect of the protests on her studies, Menna raised her right eyebrow and shook her index finger, admonishing, “Don't worry; I won first place in a contest sponsored by the Ministry of Education for beginning broadcasters.” And then there was a challenge by her history teacher: He asked her to answer three difficult questions, and she answered them all. She turned her room upside down searching for her school schedule to show me. And like any normal early teen, she had decorated it with Hello Kitty stickers.
One day at the protest, Menna inhaled tear gas, causing her eyes, nose and throat to sting and swell. A volunteer paramedic, 21-year-old Razan al-Najjar, rushed to her aid. Later, Menna learned that Razan had been shot by an Israeli sniper while coming to the aid of a protester.
And then there was Yasser Murtaja. It was the morning of April 4 when Menna met Murtaja, a well-known and loved journalist covering the protests. He kindly let her look into the lens of his very sophisticated camera and showed her how to use it. When Menna showed him her own photos of the protesters, he raised his eyebrows in appreciation, and said her work was equal to those of professional photographers. Then, he suggested making a film about her youthful skill and bravery. When she heard his words, her heart soared.
On the day they were scheduled to shoot the short film, Menna told Yasser she needed to finish early because she had homework to do. He smiled and said, "Your camera and your books will scare the soldiers more than any weapons, so do your homework." Instead, he filmed her as she completed her assignments. Sadly, however, the documentary had to be completed by other crew members from the Ain Media Production Company, where Yasser worked. Yasser was shot by an Israeli sniper while covering the second Friday of the Great Return March—a wound that resulted in his death on April 6. He left behind his son, many friends—and his camera. Her mother told me Menna couldn't cry in front of her father and brothers;instead, when she heard the news, she escaped to her room to sob.
Her emotions were still raw when her teacher criticized Murtaja in class because she thought he had not worn a protective vest. Menna raised her hand to speak and corrected the teacher, insisting that he indeed wore his flak jacket. Her teacher challenged her, asking, "How do you know?" Menna replied that she went to the protest daily and was in fact the youngest journalist covering the Great Return March. The entire class, including the teacher, laughed at her in disbelief. Menna left the class in tears.
This incident at first made Menna feel like giving up. But she knew if she didn’t believe in herself, no one else would. She remembered Yasser playing the funny clown, snatching her camera and then fleeing. She remembered the ululating call of the men when they dragged down the barbed-wire fence that penned her people in. She recalled her interview with an old, Bedouin woman, who had been born in Bir al-Saba and forcibly displaced by Israeli gangs in 1948, forcing her to live in Gaza's camps. She had promised this old woman to keep smiling, because a smile is a gesture of defiance, telling Israeli snipers they won’t defeat the Palestinians of Gaza.
Menna believes in the saying, "Success is a simple measurement of the commitment, sacrifice and pain one endures to achieve a dream." So, she continues to work toward her dream of becoming a professional journalist. She now works for an online radio station in Khan Younis, saving money to buy her own camera.
And when Menna met the old, Bedouin woman once again, the first thing she did was to hug her and say, "Thank you for saving me.”
November 18, 2018
A teenaged girl carried a camera as she approached the field by the border to photograph protesters in Gaza’s Great Return March. She gathered her hair with a red tie and began to run, surrounded by the smoke of burning tires, heading toward the two young men about to scale the fence. She was intent only on capturing the scene in a photo. It was like something out of a Hollywood movie, with the heroine conquering her fear to follow her dreams and serve her people.
The heroine of this story is Menna Murad Qudiah, 14, a girl with deep brown eyes and smooth, rosy skin. She lives in Khuza'a—the site of one of the worst attacks of the 2014 Israeli war against Gaza—and is the youngest journalist to report on the historic, nonviolent protest calling for the right of Palestinians to return to their ancestral homeland.
Menna’s main love is photography, thanks to her Uncle Ihab, a journalist who allowed her to experiment with his camera when she was just 4 years old. But she has many talents:fashion design, poetry recitation, acting and playing piano. Menna is a born performer: She played in a piano recital at the Al-Qattan Center in Gaza City, and her Uncle Ihab filmed her as she sang and recited patriotic poems on the roof of her home during the 2014 Israeli assault. Her deep, yet soft, voice was interrupted by the sound of missiles and raids, but she never stopped singing.
Menna was eager to participate as soon as word of the Great Return March spread, and she smiles broadly as she recalls how she couldn't sleep the night before the first day of the protest, almost as if she was about to go on a school trip. She wasn’t afraid, she says; she was excited. She was a regular participant after that, attending with members of her family: her father, brothers, sometimes her grandfather—and, of course, Uncle Ihab.
An editor for a Saudi Arabian newspaper and a member of the International Federation of Journalists, Ihab long acted as a mentor to Menna. Because he believes in her flair for photography, he lends her his own camera. Her father also is faithful supporter. Even though he does not receive his salary for months at a time, he pays for her to take workshops in journalism.
Detecting that I was wondering about the effect of the protests on her studies, Menna raised her right eyebrow and shook her index finger, admonishing, “Don't worry; I won first place in a contest sponsored by the Ministry of Education for beginning broadcasters.” And then there was a challenge by her history teacher: He asked her to answer three difficult questions, and she answered them all. She turned her room upside down searching for her school schedule to show me. And like any normal early teen, she had decorated it with Hello Kitty stickers.
One day at the protest, Menna inhaled tear gas, causing her eyes, nose and throat to sting and swell. A volunteer paramedic, 21-year-old Razan al-Najjar, rushed to her aid. Later, Menna learned that Razan had been shot by an Israeli sniper while coming to the aid of a protester.
And then there was Yasser Murtaja. It was the morning of April 4 when Menna met Murtaja, a well-known and loved journalist covering the protests. He kindly let her look into the lens of his very sophisticated camera and showed her how to use it. When Menna showed him her own photos of the protesters, he raised his eyebrows in appreciation, and said her work was equal to those of professional photographers. Then, he suggested making a film about her youthful skill and bravery. When she heard his words, her heart soared.
On the day they were scheduled to shoot the short film, Menna told Yasser she needed to finish early because she had homework to do. He smiled and said, "Your camera and your books will scare the soldiers more than any weapons, so do your homework." Instead, he filmed her as she completed her assignments. Sadly, however, the documentary had to be completed by other crew members from the Ain Media Production Company, where Yasser worked. Yasser was shot by an Israeli sniper while covering the second Friday of the Great Return March—a wound that resulted in his death on April 6. He left behind his son, many friends—and his camera. Her mother told me Menna couldn't cry in front of her father and brothers;instead, when she heard the news, she escaped to her room to sob.
Her emotions were still raw when her teacher criticized Murtaja in class because she thought he had not worn a protective vest. Menna raised her hand to speak and corrected the teacher, insisting that he indeed wore his flak jacket. Her teacher challenged her, asking, "How do you know?" Menna replied that she went to the protest daily and was in fact the youngest journalist covering the Great Return March. The entire class, including the teacher, laughed at her in disbelief. Menna left the class in tears.
This incident at first made Menna feel like giving up. But she knew if she didn’t believe in herself, no one else would. She remembered Yasser playing the funny clown, snatching her camera and then fleeing. She remembered the ululating call of the men when they dragged down the barbed-wire fence that penned her people in. She recalled her interview with an old, Bedouin woman, who had been born in Bir al-Saba and forcibly displaced by Israeli gangs in 1948, forcing her to live in Gaza's camps. She had promised this old woman to keep smiling, because a smile is a gesture of defiance, telling Israeli snipers they won’t defeat the Palestinians of Gaza.
Menna believes in the saying, "Success is a simple measurement of the commitment, sacrifice and pain one endures to achieve a dream." So, she continues to work toward her dream of becoming a professional journalist. She now works for an online radio station in Khan Younis, saving money to buy her own camera.
And when Menna met the old, Bedouin woman once again, the first thing she did was to hug her and say, "Thank you for saving me.”
Settler terror attacks in West Bank said to surge by 63% in first half of 2026
Security establishment figures show 660 ‘nationalistic’ attacks in six months, up from 405 in prior year, with increase in Palestinian casualties; attacks on Israeli forces rise by 50%
August 10, 2026 - The number of serious incidents of “nationalistic crime” committed by extremist Jewish settlers in the West Bank surged by 63 percent during the first half of 2026 compared to the same period last year, the Kan public broadcaster reported Monday, citing security establishment figures.
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| A Palestinian child inspects burned-out cars following an attack by extremist Israeli settlers on Palestinian homes in the village of Jalud, south of Nablus in the West Bank, August 4, 2026. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90) |
Such offenses are classified by Israeli security bodies as terrorism.
According to the report, 660 settler attacks were recorded in the first six months of 2026, up from 405 during the same period in 2025.
More HERE
Monday, August 10, 2026
Can Netanyahu defy Trump on his Gaza peace plan?
Can Netanyahu risk continuing to defy Trump?
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the U.S.-brokered 15-point peace plan for Gaza.
What are the consequences for Palestinians?
And what risks for Netanyahu in defying Donald Trump?
‘We have no one’: Palestinians react to Israel’s rejection of Gaza plan
For Gaza’s residents, Netanyahu’s declaration has reinforced doubts that any deal could bring lasting calm without Israeli withdrawal, reconstruction and guarantees the fighting will not resume.
August 10, 2026 - Palestinians in Gaza have reacted with a mix of scepticism and frustration to Israel’s rejection of a proposed 15-point plan aimed at ending the war and setting out a framework for the future.
 |
| Palestinians in Gaza are facing growing frustration and a loss of hope for the next phase, amid fears of renewed escalation [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] |
The United States-backed initiative includes provisions for a phased Israeli withdrawal, the gradual disarmament of Hamas, a Palestinian-led civilian administration and steps towards humanitarian aid and reconstruction.
But on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “rejected” the plan, saying its forces will not withdraw until Hamas is “genuinely disarmed”.
More HERE
Saturday, August 8, 2026
How Israel’s occupation fuels resistance
August 8, 2026 - Israel is trapped in a cycle it created. Occupation fuels resistance, and resistance is used to justify more occupation. Near Nablus, that cycle turned deadly yet again: five Palestinians killed as four new outposts were erected. Al Jazeera’s Leila Warah reports.
The Many Faces of Genocide
Heatwave in Gaza compounds Palestinian suffering
August 3, 2026 - 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.
Mass funeral held for 112 members of two Palestinian families
August 4, 2026 - Palestinians in Gaza held a mass funeral for 112 members of the Abu Sharia and al-Hasayna families, nearly three years after they were killed in an Israeli strike. More than 8,000 Palestinians are still believed to remain beneath the rubble across Gaza.
Monday, August 3, 2026
From the Mouths of the Oppressors
Zionism has always been based in the ideals of racial and religious bigotry. Since the inception of Zionism, its leaders in Europe and Israel have openly declared that their intentions were to launch and continue a campaign of genocide against the people of the Nation of Palestine; to exterminate or drive out all Arabs from Palestine so they can take the land for themselves. If you have any doubts about this, here are several quotes from those responsible for the genocide:
Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, said in 1895, “We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly”
Chaim Weizmann, a Zionist leader, the President of the Zionist Organization and the President of Israel from 1949-1952, said in 1920, “We will establish ourselves in Palestine whether you like it or not...You can hasten our arrival or you can equally retard it. It is however better for you to help us so as to avoid our constructive powers being turned into a destructive power which will overthrow the world.”
The Israeli Prime Minster Levi Eshkol said this about Gaza in 1967, “I want them all to go, even if they go to the moon. We’ll deprive Gaza of water, and the Arabs will leave.”
Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir said in 1969, “There is no such thing as a Palestinian people. It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist. How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to.”
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin said in 1982, "[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs."
Benyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, said in 1989, “Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon said in 1998, "It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands. Everybody has to move, run and grab as many Palestinian hilltops as they can to enlarge the Jewish settlements because everything we take now will stay ours...Everything we don't grab will go to them.”
Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion said in 1937, “We must expel the Arabs and take their place and if we have to use force, to guarantee our own right to settle in those places – then we have force at our disposal.” and again in 1948, he said, “We must expel Arabs and take their places. We must do everything to insure they never do return.”
Defense Minister of Israel Moshe Dayan said in 1969, “We came here to a country that was populated by Arabs and we are building here a Hebrew, a Jewish state; instead of the Arab villages. You even do not know the names of those villages, and I do not blame you because these villages no longer exist. There is not a single Jewish settlement that was not established in the place of a former Arab Village”
The Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces Raphael Eitan said 1983, “When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle.” He also said in 1983, “We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Israel. Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours.”
The Speaker of the Knesset Moshe Feiglin said in 2014, “What is required now is that we internalize the fact that Oslo [Accord] is finished, that this is our country - our country exclusively, including Gaza. There are no two states, and there are no two peoples. There is only one state for one people.” In 2016, he also said, “After the IDF completes the ‘softening’ of the targets with its fire-power, the IDF will conquer the entire Gaza, using all the means necessary to minimize any harm to our soldiers, with no other considerations… Gaza is part of our Land and we will remain there forever. Subsequent to the elimination of terror from Gaza, it will become part of sovereign Israel and will be populated by Jews. This will also serve to ease the housing crisis in Israel. The coastal train line will be extended, as soon as possible, to reach the entire length of Gaza.”
Israel Koenig, the author of “The Koenig Memorandum" that called for the Judaization of the Galilee, or Northern Israel, said in 1977, “We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (referring to getting rid of Palestinian Israelis) said in 2015, “Anyone who’s with us should be given everything – up to half the kingdom. Anyone who’s against us, there’s nothing to do – we should raise an axe and cut off his head.”
Rabbi Yaacov Perrin said in 1920, “One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail”
Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin when he was a General in the IDF said in 1948, “We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of woodcutters and waiters”
Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said in 2014, “The entire Palestinian people is the enemy. Destroy Palestine, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure. Kill Palestinian mothers of little snakes.”
Prime Minister of Israel Moshe Sharett said in 1955, “This state of Israel has no international obligations, no economic problems, the question of peace is non-existent. It must calculate its steps narrow-mindedly and live by the sword .... It must invent non-existent dangers, and to do this it must adopt the method of provocation and retaliation.”
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in 2001, “Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that. I want to tell you something very clear: don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.”
"Benny Morris, a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University said in 2004, “The great American democracy could not have been achieved without the extermination of the Indians. There are cases in which the general and final good justifies difficult and cruel deeds that are carried out in the course of history."
Chaim Weizmann, a Zionist leader, the President of the Zionist Organization and the President of Israel from 1949-1952, said in 1920, “We will establish ourselves in Palestine whether you like it or not...You can hasten our arrival or you can equally retard it. It is however better for you to help us so as to avoid our constructive powers being turned into a destructive power which will overthrow the world.”
The Israeli Prime Minster Levi Eshkol said this about Gaza in 1967, “I want them all to go, even if they go to the moon. We’ll deprive Gaza of water, and the Arabs will leave.”
Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir said in 1969, “There is no such thing as a Palestinian people. It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist. How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to.”
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin said in 1982, "[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs."
Benyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, said in 1989, “Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon said in 1998, "It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands. Everybody has to move, run and grab as many Palestinian hilltops as they can to enlarge the Jewish settlements because everything we take now will stay ours...Everything we don't grab will go to them.”
Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion said in 1937, “We must expel the Arabs and take their place and if we have to use force, to guarantee our own right to settle in those places – then we have force at our disposal.” and again in 1948, he said, “We must expel Arabs and take their places. We must do everything to insure they never do return.”
Defense Minister of Israel Moshe Dayan said in 1969, “We came here to a country that was populated by Arabs and we are building here a Hebrew, a Jewish state; instead of the Arab villages. You even do not know the names of those villages, and I do not blame you because these villages no longer exist. There is not a single Jewish settlement that was not established in the place of a former Arab Village”
The Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces Raphael Eitan said 1983, “When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle.” He also said in 1983, “We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Israel. Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours.”
The Speaker of the Knesset Moshe Feiglin said in 2014, “What is required now is that we internalize the fact that Oslo [Accord] is finished, that this is our country - our country exclusively, including Gaza. There are no two states, and there are no two peoples. There is only one state for one people.” In 2016, he also said, “After the IDF completes the ‘softening’ of the targets with its fire-power, the IDF will conquer the entire Gaza, using all the means necessary to minimize any harm to our soldiers, with no other considerations… Gaza is part of our Land and we will remain there forever. Subsequent to the elimination of terror from Gaza, it will become part of sovereign Israel and will be populated by Jews. This will also serve to ease the housing crisis in Israel. The coastal train line will be extended, as soon as possible, to reach the entire length of Gaza.”
Israel Koenig, the author of “The Koenig Memorandum" that called for the Judaization of the Galilee, or Northern Israel, said in 1977, “We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (referring to getting rid of Palestinian Israelis) said in 2015, “Anyone who’s with us should be given everything – up to half the kingdom. Anyone who’s against us, there’s nothing to do – we should raise an axe and cut off his head.”
Rabbi Yaacov Perrin said in 1920, “One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail”
Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin when he was a General in the IDF said in 1948, “We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of woodcutters and waiters”
Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said in 2014, “The entire Palestinian people is the enemy. Destroy Palestine, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure. Kill Palestinian mothers of little snakes.”
Prime Minister of Israel Moshe Sharett said in 1955, “This state of Israel has no international obligations, no economic problems, the question of peace is non-existent. It must calculate its steps narrow-mindedly and live by the sword .... It must invent non-existent dangers, and to do this it must adopt the method of provocation and retaliation.”
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in 2001, “Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that. I want to tell you something very clear: don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.”
"Benny Morris, a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University said in 2004, “The great American democracy could not have been achieved without the extermination of the Indians. There are cases in which the general and final good justifies difficult and cruel deeds that are carried out in the course of history."
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