Israel has always punitively killed the families of leaders and resistance figures as collective punishment. It is a sign of Israel’s inability to extract a military victory on the ground.
The U.S. and Israel intensify preparations for a potential Iranian strike in response to Iran’s Damascus consulate attack. Meanwhile, Hamas has conditioned a ceasefire and prisoner swap on the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza.
Walid Daqqah saw the “little prison” where he spent most of his life mirrored in the “big prison” that housed the rest of his people. His challenge to us and to himself was to free ourselves from the prison inside of us.
Since October 7, my friend Aseel watched as her community in Jenin refugee camp became a target of Israeli attack. “They have even been aggressive toward the infrastructure, as though every inch of our city was resisting them,” she said.
Israeli forces conducted a four-hour long raid in the norther Jordan valley, killing three Palestinians. Residents say one of the targets of the raid was a resistance fighter and commander of a local battalion called the Tubas Brigade.
The Israeli army is now killing resistance fighters in the Jenin Brigade using drones after several failed assassination attempts by Israeli special forces on the ground, an associate of the Jenin Brigade told Mondoweiss.
Armed resistance in the West Bank had been concentrated in larger cities, but since October 7 it is spreading. “Resistance in Azzun used to be non-armed,” a resident of the small town tells Mondoweiss. “Then everything changed after October 7.”
Those who say that Israel knew about the plans for October 7 all along are repackaging an old colonial trope which believes that the natives are too docile, too submissive, too cowardly, and too inferior to revolt against their oppressors.
Some of Palestine’s allies seem more comfortable with Palestinians as victims of Israel’s colonial rule than agents of their own liberation. Palestinians need support when they fight, not only when they die.
Hamas rejects Blinken’s visit to Ramallah, saying there are “no differences between Israel and the Americans,” as U.S. and UK naval forces shoot down 21 Yemeni drones over the Red Sea. Meanwhile, Corbyn is set to join South Africa’s ICJ delegation.