Israel criticized over plight of Palestinian hunger striker

Protesters take part in a demonstration outside the ICRC headquarters in Gaza City in support of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. (AFP)
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Updated 29 August 2022
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Israel criticized over plight of Palestinian hunger striker

  • Wife of prisoner appeals to international organizations, Abbas to intervene

RAMALLAH: Pictures and a video message posted by Palestinian hunger striker Khalil Al-Awawdeh have shocked Palestinian public opinion and the EU, which criticized Israel’s continued detention of him without trial.

Al-Awawdeh’s message came three days before 4,600 Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons began an open hunger strike to protest their poor conditions in detention.

West Bank cities are showing support for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons this week, with Palestinians holding a sit-in in front of the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross there.

Dalal Al-Awawdeh, the wife of the prisoner, appealed to international organizations and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to intervene and urgently release her husband.

Al-Awawdeh, held for more than 170 days, said in his video message: “No to administrative detention, no to administrative detention.”

“We are a people whose cause is just, and it will remain just, and we will remain against administrative detention, even if the flesh and skin melt and the bones vanish, even if the lives are gone,” he said.

“Be confident that we are the rightful owners and that our cause is just, no matter how high the price paid.”

Dalal Al-Awawdeh spoke to Arab News from inside the Israeli Assaf Harofeh Hospital where her husband is in intensive care.

She said that Al-Awawdeh “screams with his thin body to expose this criminal occupation and to tell the world that this prisoner was arrested without charge or trial and only wants freedom.”

Al-Awawdeh was arrested on Dec. 27, 2021 on charges of incitement via Facebook.

The Israeli military court released him on Jan. 5, 2022 because the charges against him had not been proven. However, the Israeli military prosecutor intervened, demanding that Al-Awawdeh be transferred to administrative detention.

It is expected that the Israeli military authorities will release Al-Awawdeh on Oct. 2. However, there is no guarantee that his administrative detention will not be extended so he has decided to continue the hunger strike until his release is confirmed.

The recent Israeli military operation against the Gaza Strip was halted with Egyptian efforts in exchange for the urgent release of Al-Awawdeh.

But the Israeli authorities stalled in implementing the agreement and only temporarily suspended Al-Awawdeh’s detention to allow him to receive medical care.

Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti told Arab News that anyone who saw photographs of Al-Awawda would be stunned by his poor condition.

He said that the detainee’s health was in danger and warned of a risky situation in the Palestinian territories if Al-Awawda died in an Israeli prison.

“Israel wants to break the will of the prisoners by breaking the will of return. But I say that this is the battle of the Palestinian people and not the battle of Al-Awawdeh alone,” Barghouti said.

There are 4,600 Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli prisons, detained in 23 Israeli prisons and detention centers.

The figure includes 730 administrative detainees held without trial, based on a secret file submitted by the Shin Bet to the Public Prosecution and the Israeli military judge. It also includes 175 children, 32 women, 600 patients and elderly detainees, the oldest of whom is Fuad Al-Shobaki, aged 82.

There are 250 prisoners who have spent more than 20 years in Israeli detention.

There are 25 prisoners who were detained before the signing of the Oslo agreement between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel. The most important of them are Karim and Maher Younis, who have spent 42 years in detention.

While 1,385,000 Palestinian students went to their classrooms on Monday, 175 children did not because they were held in Israeli prisons.


Israeli strikes kill 2 in south Lebanon

Updated 5 sec ago
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Israeli strikes kill 2 in south Lebanon

Lebanon’s health ministry said a man wounded “in an Israeli enemy drone strike targeting his bulldozer” and another injured in a strike on a motorcycle both died in hospital
Israeli military said they “eliminated... a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force“

BEIRUT: Israeli strikes in south Lebanon on Thursday killed two people, the Lebanese health ministry said, with the Israeli army saying its raids targeted Hezbollah operatives.

In statements carried by the official National News Agency, Lebanon’s health ministry said a man wounded “in an Israeli enemy drone strike targeting his bulldozer” and another injured in a strike on a motorcycle both died in hospital.

The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces “eliminated... a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force” in the Baraasheet area, referring to the Iran-backed group’s elite unit, and an operative from “Hezbollah’s observation force” in Beit Lif.

Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, particularly in the south, since a November 27 ceasefire meant to end over a year of hostilities that left Hezbollah severely weakened.

Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the area.

Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops but has kept them in five locations in south
Lebanon that it deems strategic.

On Tuesday, the health ministry said three people were killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in south Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh district.

The Israeli military said it killed the head of a currency exchange firm who worked with Hezbollah to transfer funds for the Iran-backed group’s “terrorist activities.”

WHO delivers its first medical aid to Gaza since March 2

Updated 56 sec ago
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WHO delivers its first medical aid to Gaza since March 2

  • WHO chief says nine truckloads are 'a drop in the ocean' of Gaza's needs
  • Shipment of supplies, plasma and blood will be distributed among hospitals in the Palestinian territory

GENEVA: The World Health Organization said Thursday that it had delivered its first medical shipment into Gaza since March 2, adding though that the nine truckloads were “a drop in the ocean.”
Wednesday’s shipment of supplies, plasma and blood will be distributed among hospitals in the Palestinian territory in the coming days, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
Israel imposed a total blockade on the Gaza Strip on March 2. More than two months later, it began allowing some food in, but no other aid items until now.
Tedros said nine trucks carrying essential medical supplies, 2,000 units of blood and 1,500 units of plasma were delivered via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, “without any looting incident, despite the high-risk conditions along the route.”
“These supplies will be distributed to priority hospitals in the coming days,” Tedros said.
“The blood and plasma were delivered to Nasser Medical Complex’s cold storage facility for onward distribution to hospitals facing critical shortages, amid a growing influx of injuries, many linked to incidents at food distribution sites.”
Last week the WHO said only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were minimally to partially functional, with the rest unable to function at all.
Tedros said four WHO trucks were still at Kerem Shalom and more were on their way toward Gaza.
“However, these medical supplies are only a drop in the ocean. Aid at scale is essential to save lives,” he said.
“WHO calls for the immediate, unimpeded and sustained delivery of health aid into Gaza through all possible routes.”
Israel began allowing supplies to trickle in at the end of May following its more than two-month total blockade, but distribution has been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a new US- and Israel-backed food distribution system, began handing out food in Gaza on May 26.
But the UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF — an officially private effort with opaque funding — over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
Israel is pressing its bombardment of the territory in a military offensive it says is aimed at defeating the militant group Hamas, whose unprecedented October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.


The families of hostages held in Gaza hope for their own ceasefire after truce in Israel-Iran war

Updated 28 min 56 sec ago
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The families of hostages held in Gaza hope for their own ceasefire after truce in Israel-Iran war

  • “Now it’s the time to pressure them and tell them, look, you are on your own. No one is coming to your help. This is it,” Berman said
  • “The achievements in Iran are important and welcome, enabling us to end the war from a position of strength with Israel holding the upper hand,” said the Hostages Families Forum

OR AKIVA, Israel: Liran Berman hasn’t had much to keep hopeful over the 629 days of his twin brothers’ captivity in Gaza. Ceasefire deals have collapsed, the war has dragged on, and his siblings remain hostages in the Palestinian enclave.

But the war between Israel and Iran, and the US-brokered ceasefire that halted 12 days of fighting, have sparked fresh hope that his brothers, Gali and Ziv, may finally return home.

With Iran dealt a serious blow over nearly two weeks of fierce Israeli strikes, Berman believes Hamas, armed and financed by Iran, is at its most isolated since the war in Gaza began, and that might prompt the militant group to soften its negotiating positions.

“Now it’s the time to pressure them and tell them, look, you are on your own. No one is coming to your help. This is it,” Berman said. “I think the dominoes fell into place, and it’s time for diplomacy to reign now.”

A long nightmare for the families of hostages

During their Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Most have been freed in ceasefire deals, but 50 remain captive, less than half of them believed to still be alive.

The war has killed over 56,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says more than half of the dead were women and children.

The families of hostages have faced a 20-month-long nightmare, trying to advocate for their loved ones’ fates while confronted with the whims of Israeli and Hamas leaders and the other crises that have engulfed the Middle East.

Israel’s war with Iran, the first between the two countries, pushed the hostage crisis and the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza to the sidelines. Hostage families again found themselves forced to fight for the spotlight with another regional conflagration.

But as the conflict eases, the families are hoping mediators seize the momentum to push for a new ceasefire deal.

“The achievements in Iran are important and welcome, enabling us to end the war from a position of strength with Israel holding the upper hand,” said the Hostages Families Forum, a grassroots organization representing many of the hostage families.

“To conclude this decisive operation against Iran without leveraging our success to bring home all the hostages would be a grave failure.”

Netanyahu may have more room to maneuver

It’s not just a diminished Iran and its impact on Hamas that gives hostage families hope. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, riding a wave of public support for the Iran war and its achievements, could feel he has more space to move toward ending the war in Gaza, something his far-right governing partners oppose.

Hamas has repeatedly said it is prepared to free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war in Gaza. Netanyahu says he will only end the war once Hamas is disarmed and exiled, something the group has rejected.

Berman said the ceasefire between Israel and Iran has left him the most optimistic since a truce between Israel and Hamas freed 33 Israeli hostages earlier this year. Israel shattered that ceasefire after eight weeks, and little progress has been made toward a new deal.

The Israeli government team coordinating hostage negotiations has told the families it now sees a window of opportunity that could force Hamas to be “more flexible in their demands,” Berman said.

Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’ is in disarray

Over the past four decades, Iran built up a network of militant proxy groups it called the ” Axis of Resistance ” that wielded significant power across the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and militias in Iraq and Syria.

Hamas may have envisioned the Oct. 7, 2023, attack as a catalyst that would see other Iranian-sponsored militants attack Israel. While Hezbollah and the Houthis launched projectiles toward Israel, the support Hamas had counted on never fully materialized. In the past two years, many of those Iranian proxies have been decimated, changing the face of the Middle East.

US President Donald Trump’s involvement in securing a ceasefire between Israel and Iran has also given many hostage families hope that he might exert more pressure for a deal in Gaza.

“We probably need Trump to tell us to end the war in Gaza,” Berman said.

Inseparable twins who remain in captivity

Gali and Ziv Berman, 27, were taken from their homes in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, on the border with Gaza, during the Oct. 7 attack. Seventeen others were also abducted there; of those, only the Berman twins remain captive.

The family has heard from hostages who returned in the previous deal that, as of February, the brothers were alive but being held separately.

Liran Berman said that’s the longest the two have ever spent apart. Until their abduction, they were inseparable, though they are very different, the 38-year-old said.

In Kfar Aza, the twins lived in apartments across from each other. Gali is more outgoing, while Ziv is more reserved and shy with a sharp sense of humor, their brother said. Gali is the handyman who would drive four hours to help a friend hang a shelf, while Ziv would go along and point to where the shelf needed to go.

The war with Iran, during which Iranian missiles pounded Israeli cities for 12 days, gave Liran Berman a sense of what his brothers have endured as bombs rained down on Gaza, he said.

“The uncertainty and the fear for your life for any moment, they are feeling it for 20 months,” he said. “Every moment can be your last.”


Netanyahu asks court to postpone corruption trial summons: lawyer

Updated 49 min 3 sec ago
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Netanyahu asks court to postpone corruption trial summons: lawyer

  • US President Donald Trump called for the case against the Israeli prime minister to be canceled altogether
  • Israel’s opposition leader warned Trump against interfering in Israel’s internal affairs

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked a court on Thursday to postpone his testimony in his long-running corruption trial, after US President Donald Trump called for the case to be canceled altogether.
In a filing to the tribunal, Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad said the premier’s testimony should be delayed in light of “regional and global developments.”
“The court is respectfully requested to order the cancelation of the hearings in which the prime minister was scheduled to testify in the coming two weeks,” the filing said.
It said Netanyahu was “compelled to devote all his time and energy to managing national, diplomatic and security issues of the utmost importance” following a brief conflict with Iran and during ongoing fighting in Gaza where Israeli hostages are held.
Trump on Wednesday described the case against Netanyahu as a “witch hunt.”
In a message on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the Netanyahu trial “should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero,” after the end of a 12-day war with Iran.
Netanyahu on Thursday thanked Trump for his “heartfelt support for me and your incredible support for Israel and the Jewish people.”
“I look forward to continue working with you to defeat our common enemies, liberate our hostages and quickly expand the circle of peace,” Netanyahu wrote on X, sharing a copy of Trump’s Truth Social post.
Israel’s opposition leader warned Trump against interfering in Israel’s internal affairs.
“We are thankful to President Trump, but... the president should not interfere in a judicial trial in an independent country,” Yair Lapid said in an interview with news website Ynet.
Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
In the trial that has been delayed many times since it began in May 2020, Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing.
In a first case, Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are accused of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewelry and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favors.
In two other cases, Netanyahu is accused of attempting to negotiate more favorable coverage in two Israeli media outlets.


Jordan condemns Israeli settlers’ ‘terror attacks’ on Palestinian villages in West Bank

Updated 26 June 2025
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Jordan condemns Israeli settlers’ ‘terror attacks’ on Palestinian villages in West Bank

  • Foreign ministry spokesman says Jordan ‘rejects these attacks and the escalation of settler terrorism against the Palestinian people’

LONDON: Jordan on Thursday condemned “terror attacks” by Israeli settlers that resulted in the killing of four Palestinians in two towns in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

 The Ministry of Foreign and Expatriates Affairs blamed the Israeli forces for the settlers’ “terrorist attacks” in the village of Kafr Malik, where three Palestinians were killed by soldiers and several others injured during clashes between residents and settlers.

Sufian Qudah, the foreign ministry spokesman, said Jordan “rejects these attacks and the escalation of settler terrorism against the Palestinian people.”

He said that Israeli government policies incite violence against Palestinians and give settlers “the impunity” to carry out “more crimes against the Palestinian people.”

He reaffirmed Jordan’s call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an end to the ongoing Israeli attacks on the coastal enclave since late 2023.

On Wednesday, four Palestinians were killed in two separate incidents in the occupied West Bank, including three in the village of Kafr Malik and a 15-year-old boy, Rayan Tamer Houshiyeh, who was shot by Israeli troops in Al-Yamoun, northwest of Jenin.

In a separate incident, 13-year-old Ammar Mutaz Hamayel succumbed to his injuries on Monday after being shot by Israeli forces. Hamayel was from Kafr Malik, which has a population of about 2,500 Palestinians. The village is 17 kilometers northeast of Ramallah and is surrounded by the Israeli settlement of Kokhav HaShahar.