This week, a dozen activists, including Greta Thunberg, set sail in the Madleen, a small ship loaded with food and medical aid, destined for Gaza. The Israeli government has already threatened to attack the vessel if it attempts to reach Gaza, making clear its willingness to target even nonviolent humanitarian missions. The Madleen carries crutches, which the Israeli government has refused to allow into Gaza, along with baby formula, and a 3D-printed prosthetic limb for a child, among other aid. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition has a live tracker on their website where you can follow the ship’s location.
We also learned that Israel has been arming and protecting a criminal gang led by Yasser Abu Shabab, which has been looting aid shipments and reportedly assisting Israeli military operations. The group’s violence has deepened the crisis for civilians, sowing fear and instability in areas where people are already fighting to survive. Members of Abu Shabab’s own family issued a public statement denouncing him and calling for his execution. We ran an important exposé yesterday that examines the Hamas unit created during the war to fight this group, and we show how Abu Shabab is implicated in Israel’s plan to use aid as bait to lure Palestinians into concentration camps in Rafah ahead of their forcible displacement. These revelations make it impossible to pretend that the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is a byproduct of war. It is part of the Israeli government’s strategy to forcibly displace the population, and it’s using aid and local collaborators to implement it.
Our reporting documented the total erasure of a Palestinian Bedouin community in the West Bank following violent settler attacks; another massacre at a U.S.-run aid distribution center in Gaza; and the Israeli government’s announcement of 22 new illegal settlements as it moves to formalize annexation of the West Bank. We also published a personal profile of Leqaa Kordia, a Columbia University student imprisoned for her pro-Palestine activism, and a particularly odious former U.S. State Department spokesperson acknowledged that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza while he lied about it in briefings.
We also want to remind you that our next Frontlines Briefing is coming up soon. This special donor-exclusive event will feature a live conversation with Mitchell Plitnick and Michael Arria about the escalating attacks on Palestine solidarity organizing, from censorship and smear campaigns to arrests and criminal charges. If you already support Mondoweiss, we look forward to seeing you there. If not, make a donation today (below 👇🏼) to reserve your spot and support the journalism that makes these conversations possible.
In solidarity,
Dave Reed, Publisher
Must read: Inside the Hamas unit fighting Israeli-armed gangs that loot aid and facilitate displacement in Gaza
Faris Giacaman & Tareq Hajjaj: Netanyahu admits Israel is arming gangs and clan members in Gaza to counter Hamas’s influence, and new evidence shows Israel is using them to loot aid and implement its displacement plan. In response, the Hamas government set up the “Arrow Unit.”
Catch-up
🇵🇸 Qassam Muaddi: After being forced out of their homes by violent Israeli settlers, the Bedouin community of Maghayer al-Deir joins a growing list of Palestinian Bedouins whose villages have been taken over by settlers since October 7, 2023.
🇧🇦 Craig Mokhiber: In the face of genocide and global inaction, the Gaza Tribunal recognizes that the challenge of justice falls to people, to legitimate resistance, to acts of solidarity, to civil society, to social movements, and to people of conscience everywhere.
☪️ Saleema Gul: The animal sacrifice of Eid al-Adha reminds us of Prophet Ibrahim’s readiness to give up what he loved most for the sake of God. Today, the Muslim world refuses to sacrifice our comfort or stability, and so we offer up Gaza for slaughter instead.
🕋 Ayah Aboelela: Today, most Muslims would be surprised to learn that Palestine was once a central part of the Hajj journey for Muslims around the Middle East and Asia. After the Nakba and Israel’s occupation of Palestine, the Hajj pilgrimage was changed forever.
🇵🇸 Tareq Hajjaj: The Israeli army has killed over 100 Palestinians at the U.S.-run aid distribution centers in Gaza in under two weeks. By now, it follows a predictable script, either denying the massacre or claiming soldiers fired on “suspicious” individuals.
🏗️ Qassam Muaddi: Israel’s decision last week to create 22 new settlements in the West Bank was reported as somewhat uneventful news in the media. The reality is, however, that it’s the latest in a series of moves to cement Israeli control of the occupied territory.
🏛️ Omar Suleiman: The Trump administration has imprisoned several students over their activism for Palestine. While many of their names are known to us, one Columbia University student’s story has gone underreported. Her name is Leqaa Kordia, and this is her story.
🇺🇸 Michael Arria: Former State Department spokesman Matthew Miller says Israel has ‘without doubt’ committed war crimes in Gaza. During his tenure under Biden, Miller had become representative of the administration’s defense of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
🇵🇸 Tareq Hajjaj: Another U.S.-run aid center was the site of a massacre in southern Gaza after Israeli forces opened fire on civilians. “The Americans and Israelis set a huge trap for us to lure us here and kill us,” an eyewitness told Mondoweiss.
If the IDF were to kill Greta Thunberg, it would be a shot heard around the world. The worry is that they are stupid and brutal enough to go ahead and do it.
The AFSC Weekly Reader dispelled any notion that there is enough food domestically available in Gaza. Don’t waste your breath trying to condemn the Friends Society for being Pro-Hamas. The Quakers work for a just, peaceful, and sustainable world free of violence, inequality, and oppression. The organization and its partners have only been able to supply 4,000 meals a day, just a drop in the bucket for the over 2 million persons who are starving:
“As the hunger crisis deepens in Gaza, our team is doing all that they can to deliver humanitarian relief despite extraordinary obstacles. In recent weeks, AFSC and partners have provided over 4,000 meals daily to displaced Palestinians.
Since March 2, the Israeli government has blocked aid— food, medicine, and other vital supplies—from entering Gaza as it continues its extensive bombing. Our efforts grow more urgent by the day as more people face starvation and supplies dwindle.
In late May, an organization staffed by security forces and created by Israel and the U.S. attempted to distribute aid while experienced global humanitarian organizations were denied access to Gaza. This is an extraordinary breach of humanitarian practice. Also, the Israeli military recently opened fire on starving people waiting for food, killing at least 30 people at these militarized sites.”
See: Finding ways to deliver lifesaving aid to Gaza.
Here in Israel, there are various ideas regarding the detained “Madleen” activists:
1. Release them. In exchange for our 55 kidnapped hostages.
2. Allow them into Gaza. Just don’t let them leave. Ever.
3. Red-carpet, VIP treatment : take them on a tour of the Gaza Envelope, have them meet victims and survivors of Oct.7 and survivors of Hamas captivity.