Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
May 20, 2025
U.N. Warns 14,000 Babies on Cusp of Death [in the next 48 hours] in Gaza as Food Supplies Start to Trickle In
May 20, 2025
The U.N. is warning 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in the next 48 hours without immediate aid. One hundred aid trucks have been approved for entry into Gaza today — far short of the number needed, but a big jump after fewer than 10 trucks were permitted to enter Gaza on Monday. The slow trickle of aid was the first food allowed into Gaza since Israel imposed a total blockade 11 weeks ago. A U.N. official called the limited supplies “a drop in the ocean” as the population of over 2 million is facing famine.
The leaders of Canada, France and the U.K. — all staunch allies of Israel — warned they could move to sanction Israel unless it halts its stepped-up offensive on Gaza and allows unfettered aid access. Separately, 23 of Israel’s allies signed a joint statement calling for a “full resumption of aid into Gaza immediately.”
Israeli forces continued to bombard Gaza overnight, killing at least 73 more Palestinians, including in Khan Younis, after the Israeli military ordered residents of the southern city to flee as it launched a major ground invasion and vowed to take control over the entire territory. Israel also attacked another school turned shelter in Gaza City.
Israeli Attacks on Gaza’s Beleaguered Hospitals Destroy Already Scarce Supplies
May 20, 2025
Israeli strikes on Gaza’s hospitals also continue. The World Health Organization on Monday condemned an attack on Nasser Hospital which destroyed one-third of a medical supplies warehouse. This is the hospital’s director, Dr. Atef Al-Hout.
Dr. Atef Al-Hout: “We now have nearly 30 patients in the intensive care unit, and I have seven patients who need intensive care in the emergency room that I can’t find space for. Until when will this silence continue? Until when will the Security Council stand idly by? Until when will the United Nations, the European Union and other institutions stand watching this situation?”
Houthi Fighters Launch “Naval Blockade” in Escalating Actions Against Israeli Genocide
May 20, 2025
Yemen’s Houthi movement announced Monday it is escalating its actions in support of Palestinians, and said it would impose a “naval blockade” on Israel’s Port of Haifa.
Yahya Sarea: “The armed forces will not hesitate, with Allah’s help, to take the necessary additional measures in support of our oppressed Palestinian people and their esteemed resistance.”
Palestinian American Student Denied Diploma After Protesting Israel’s Assault on Gaza
May 20, 2025
Another college graduate is being denied a diploma after speaking out for Palestinian rights. Palestinian American Sereen Haddad has been organizing at Virginia Commonwealth University with Students for Justice in Palestine. The group’s actions have been repeatedly targeted and repressed by VCU administration, including banning the use of sidewalk chalk to write messages on campus. This is Sereen Haddad.
Sereen Haddad: ”VCU claims to uplift marginalized voices, unless those voices call out genocide. And they claim to celebrate diversity, until that diversity challenges the status quo. And they claim to teach critical thinking, but punish those who think critically about empire, occupation and ethnic cleansing. VCU wants me to choose silence over justice and comfort over courage and a diploma over my people. I have lost over 200 family members in this ongoing genocide just in the last year and a half.”
Sereen’s father is Palestinian American doctor and leader Tariq Haddad, who last year refused to meet with then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken over the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s assault on Gaza. Click here to see our interview with Dr. Haddad.
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“The Suffering Is Beyond Description”: Report from Gaza as U.N. Warns 14,000 Babies Could Soon Die [in the Next 48 hours!]
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
May 20, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/5/20/ ... transcript
The U.N.'s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned Tuesday that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza over the next 48 hours if more aid does not enter the besieged territory. The warning comes as Israel expands its military assault, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to take control of the entire Gaza Strip. “The suffering is really beyond description,” says Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam's food security and livelihoods coordinator in Gaza, who speaks with Democracy Now! from Gaza City.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The U.N.’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher is warning 14,000 babies could die in Gaza over the next 48 hours if more aid does not enter the besieged Gaza Strip. Fletcher issued the warning during an interview on the BBC earlier today.
TOM FLETCHER: The situation is dire. The real test of the words will be whether we can get that aid in. We are there on the border right now. We have thousands of trucks ready to go. We know how to do this. We’ve done it before. And we are demanding that the world back us in pushing Israel to let us get in and reach those people who are starving right now.
ANNA FOSTER: And yesterday, it was five, five trucks of aid that went in, not fit for purpose in this case.
TOM FLETCHER: No, that’s a drop in the ocean. And let’s be clear, those five trucks are just sat on the other side of the border right now. They’ve not reached the communities they need to reach. And, you know, let me describe what is on those trucks. This is baby food, baby nutrition. There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them.
AMY GOODMAN: That was U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher on the BBC today.
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported two of the five aid trucks that entered Friday contain burial shrouds, not food. The group’s head, Ramy Abdu, said, quote, “[T]his isn’t food, it’s preparation for mass death. Gaza isn’t being fed. It’s being buried,” unquote.
This comes as Israel expands its military assault on Gaza, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to take full control of the entire Gaza Strip. Netanyahu’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has openly said Israel is, quote, “cleansing Gaza.”
In recent days, Israeli military attacks by air, land and sea have killed hundreds of Palestinians, including at least 73 Palestinians so far today. One Israeli strike today killed 22 Palestinians at a displacement shelter in Gaza City.
On Monday, Israel ordered the forced evacuation of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city. Displaced residents said they had nowhere to go.
MAGED AL-BAREEM: [translated] We are the residents of Bani Suheila. We don’t know where to go. We are innocent and unarmed civilians. We don’t know where to go. We want them to stop the war. We have no business in all what’s happening. May God take revenge.
REPORTER: [translated] Where are you taking your son now?
MAGED AL-BAREEM: [translated] He is my nephew. His father is a martyr. I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t know.
AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Gaza City, where we’re joined again by Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam’s food security and livelihoods coordinator in Gaza.
Mahmoud, welcome back to Democracy Now! We last spoke to you exactly a week ago from your office there in Gaza City. Since then, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has intensified. Palestinians are fleeing Khan Younis, the second-largest city in Gaza, and Israeli attacks killed hundreds of Palestinians over the weekend, including five journalists. Can you describe the situation at this point? As Israel is saying they are partially lifting the blockade, talk about what’s getting in, what’s getting out. How many trucks are needed to come into Gaza at this point?
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me again.
Unfortunately, the situation since our last meeting has been not even improved. It’s under [inaudible]. It’s deteriorating. And what’s happening right now in the Gaza is really heartbreaking. And the conditions of the families, of our families, of our friends, of the people here have become truly unbearable. And the suffering is really beyond description.
Yeah, I agree with you, there are some trucks. We are talking about five trucks coming into Gaza yesterday, but it’s merely a drop in the ocean compared to the overwhelming needs of the Gazans. Imagine, imagine that people here in Gaza are starving since more than 77 days due to the Israeli full blockade, without having any supplies in either food, medical or any humanitarian supplies, and now we are talking about just five trucks that it could be support in responding to this needs. Just before this full blockade, during the ceasefire phase, we used to have 600 trucks per day. So, now we are talking about five trucks. Even if it’s increased in the coming days, it could reach 30 trucks, but it’s nothing compared to the high needs of the people here in Gaza.
Just to give you also — and how is the situation on the ground? The people now are really suffering. Children are crying out in hunger, and even most of the time they are going to sleep hungry. The parents, the father, the mothers, are now preferring to be just die without having or seeing their children in such a position, and they didn’t have any power to help in that regards. This is what we are witnessing right now.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Mahmoud, ever since Israel ended the ceasefire, what has been the presence of Israeli soldiers within Gaza? Because, obviously, Benjamin Netanyahu keeps talking about a major offensive. To what degree is the Israeli military occupying major sections of Gaza?
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: You know, right now, in parallel to this, all these things happening, they are intensifying their offensive military operation in the Gaza Strip. As you already said, there is an evacuation orders for new areas of the Gaza Strip. The whole North governorate and the whole Khan Younis governorate are now under evacuation order. We are now talking more than 70% of the Gaza Strip under such no-go zones or evacuation orders.
And you can imagine the conditions of the people who have been displaced without having any belongings and without having any means of survival. These conditions is also as a priority, and we are expecting the worst is coming, as they are — all the night and over the day, they are just bombarding everywhere in the Gaza Strip, in the evacuated areas and even in crowded areas, in the shelters and makeshift camps, where it’s lacked the essentials for the people to survive in these situations. You can imagine the crowdness that nowadays in the Gaza Strip, where a lot of people are crowded in tiny places. And this is lack any essentials for public health, for food, for any survival means in that time.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: On Friday, President Trump told reporters, quote, “A lot of people are starving in Gaza,” and he said he wanted to help reduce the suffering. But what has the United States actually done, from what you can tell, in terms of relieving the suffering of the Palestinians there?
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: Unfortunately, we were expecting more during this visit, to be honest, in reaching a permanent and last ceasefire. But, unfortunately, until now, we didn’t have anything.
During the last few days, we have an increasing international pressure, which was good. After 19 months of this suffering of the people in Gaza Strip, we are seeing some people are really making some pressure to the Israelis. And this is why we are afraid that this is limited gesture of having some aids in. It’s likely made under this pressure, and it’s not a genuine step from the Israeli side towards resolving this humanitarian catastrophe.
What we are looking for right now is to make this pressure and to hold Israel accountable to this full blockade, inhuman and — inhuman blockade, so they can open these borders, and we can, as humanitarian agencies, can work in supporting those people in need. And also, at the same times while we are asking for this opening of the borders, we are asking for a ceasefire, because the people are really exhausted during the last 19 months of having constant fear and having all this displacement times for the people. So we need this opening for the borders. We need to have this ceasefire that could be last and could be permanent ceasefire, so we can, as agencies, can provide the support for the people.
The Americans and the Israelis now, they are providing and introducing a new mechanism for aid, and which is, as we have reiterated, that it is not in line with the international humanitarian law. It’s excluding the elderly and the sick, the people with disabilities. We, as organization, U.N. agencies and international NGOs, we have the infrastructure in place, and we have a rigorous system in that regards, and we have our operation in place, so it’s no need to reinvent a new tool or mechanism. All that is needed is to allow the organizations to work freely in supporting the people in need, without enforcing the people to go to militarized zones to get their supplies from, which is unprotected and inhuman for the world. And it’s just to reiterate that Israeli is organizing and instrumentalizing the aid as a tool of control.
AMY GOODMAN: Your response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that Israel is going for total victory in Gaza?
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: What is the meaning of total victory of Gaza? Is the meaning of total victory that we are killing hundreds of people on a daily basis? Are we — are our total victory is to displace the people multiple times? Nowadays people are — some people, some families have been displaced for more than 20 times. You can imagine what’s the meaning of displacement. I’m sure that most of the people already seen some pictures and scenes where the elderly people are enforced to flee their places, walking on the streets in a very weak infrastructure and trying to evacuate from those areas without having any belongings or without having any means.
So, what does the total victory mean? The total victory is to support the people, is to be accountable for the international humanitarian law, not the breaches or violating or continuing this offensive military operation on the Gazans and on the innocent people, innocent people here in Gaza Strip, all the peoples who are being killed. And you are seeing that most of the people who were killed are children and women. And this is not that like the victory could be.
AMY GOODMAN: Mahmoud Alsaqqa, we want to thank you so much for being with us, Oxfam’s food security and livelihoods coordinator in Gaza, joining us now from Gaza City.
When we come back, a new exposé from the news outlet +972. Its headline, “'Render it unusable': Israel’s mission of total urban destruction.” We’ll go to Tel Aviv. Stay with us.
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Making Gaza Unlivable: Israel Intensifies Attacks as Netanyahu Vows to Seize All of Gaza
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
May 20, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/5/20/ ... transcript
A damning new report reveals how Israel is systematically making Gaza unlivable. The independent news outlet +972 Magazine has spoken to Israeli soldiers who describe how they have been using bulldozers and explosives to intentionally flatten Gaza.
In the southern city of Rafah, 73% of buildings are completely destroyed, with only about 4% of the infrastructure remaining undamaged. “The real aim is to make it impossible for the Palestinians to return to these areas,” says Meron Rapoport, co-author of the +972 Magazine report.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
We turn now to a new report that reveals how Israel is trying to make Gaza unlivable. It’s been well documented that Israeli airstrikes account for mass casualties. Now the independent news outlet +972 Magazine has spoken to Israeli soldiers who reveal new details about how they’ve been systematically using bulldozers and explosives to flatten Gaza from the ground. For example, Gaza’s Government Media Office says the Israeli army has destroyed at least 90% of residential neighborhoods in the southern city of Rafah.
The +972 report features videos Israeli soldiers shared online, like this one by Avraham Zarviv, who operates a D9 armored bulldozer. His nickname is “Flattener of Jabalia” — the northern town of Jabaliya in Gaza. In this video, he uses his camera to show a flattened landscape in Rafah.
AVRAHAM ZARVIV: [translated] Very good, Givati Brigade, very good. Yes, Rafah. “Rafah, end,” as they say. There will be no more battle in Rafah, because there will be no more Rafah. The nation of Israel lives.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined in Tel Aviv by Meron Rapoport, editor and writer at the independent Israeli news site Local Call and a columnist at +972 Magazine, where his new piece with Oren Ziv is headlined “'Render it unusable': Israel’s mission of total urban destruction.”
Meron, welcome back to Democracy Now! Why don’t you lay out what you found and these — the access you had, well, because they post them online publicly, to these Israeli soldiers’ actual video accounts themselves of what they’re doing in Gaza?
MERON RAPOPORT: I think that Gaza is being destroyed, and is already destroyed. This is not really new. We know that. We know that there are very few buildings standing in Rafah. What we have discovered in this investigation, Oren Ziv and I, is that this is a premeditated — that most of it is premeditated, that this is the routine work of soldiers today, or in the last year, or maybe more than a year, since the beginning of 2024. The routine work is to destroy, that this is what they are doing as a routine army service. They go out in the morning. They either accompany bulldozers or a unit that is responsible for explosives. They go, choose buildings and flatten them in a systematic way, and that the aim is quite — it is being said to them — of course, this is not official orders coming from the general headquarters of the Israeli army, but this is very bluntly told — they are being told, and they are themselves very proud of it, that the real aim is to make it impossible for the Palestinian to return to these areas. We have seen that now in these days in Rafah. In Rafah, we are telling that 4% of the buildings in Rafah are unhurt, undamaged. Only 4%, a city of 210,000, 200,000 people before the war. So, it is a systematic thing. It is not done by — it’s not during battle. It’s not even a result of airstrikes, although, of course, airstrikes are responsible for some of the damage. It is a planned thing. And in this, I think it is unprecedented.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Meron, you open your piece quoting a soldier you identify only as “Y.,” and he describes the demolition methods — and I’m quoting you — you write, quote, “I secured four or five bulldozers [from another unit], … they demolished 60 houses per day.” Six-oh. “A one or two story house, they take down within an hour; a three or four-story house takes a bit longer. … The official mission was to open a logistical route for maneuvering, but in practice, the bulldozers were simply destroying homes.” So, this is — to reiterate what you said, this is not in the process of a battle. This is supposedly after, let’s say, there’s been a battle or conflict, what the Israeli soldiers are doing. So, this is total ethnic cleansing of an entire territory, is effectively what they’re doing, isn’t it?
MERON RAPOPORT: Effectively, yes. Of course, this goes into some gray zone in the international law, what is called domicide, the destruction of whole urban areas. It is not officially a crime against humanity. It is certainly against the laws of war to destroy buildings that have nothing to do with military action. But, yes, I think this — there is no doubt that the intention here is ethnic cleansing. The intention here is to make these cities — Rafah, Jabaliya, the Netzarim Corridor, for the moment — maybe we are seeing something new in the next days — but to make these areas completely impossible — it will be completely impossible for the population to come back, because there is nothing left. And it is being said quite openly by the soldiers, by the videos that they air themselves, by soldiers who spoke to us. It is quite clear that this is the intention.
Now, the IDF, in its official response to us, said that, “No, this is a part of operational — there’s operational needs that require this demolitions of houses, and this has to do only with operational needs, houses or buildings where there were — they shoot at Israeli soldiers, or there were explosives. Hamas planted explosives in these houses.” But what we are seeing is so clear. And again, Netanyahu, Prime Minister Netanyahu himself, said that “We are destroying house by house so they will have nowhere to come back to.” Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, said just yesterday that “We are not leaving even one stone standing.” So, it’s very clear that the IDF reaction is not based on reality.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And did you discover any moral qualms among some of the Israeli soldiers that you interviewed about this practice?
MERON RAPOPORT: Yes, of course. The soldiers that talked with us didn’t feel — didn’t feel good or felt very bad with what they were doing. This is the reason they talked to us. We talked about it with about 10 soldiers.
But they also said that this is such a routine now for Israeli soldiers that they don’t really — that most of the soldiers do not pay much attention, because this is the routine. This is what they do. There’s very little real fighting. And one soldier who spent three months in the Netzarim Corridor said that he had very, very little real fighting in all these three months. And the routine work was to, if there were enough explosives, because sometimes there were not enough explosives, but if there were enough explosives, they would go in the morning, choose between five, 10 houses to demolish, and this is the routine work. So, the soldiers really were very used to it. And, of course, there were these soldiers that were politically motivated, right-wing soldiers, that really rejoiced in the fact that these Palestinian will have nowhere to return to. But this is not the main, I would say, atmosphere. The atmosphere is: “This is the work we are doing, and we just do it. That’s what we are sent for.”
AMY GOODMAN: Meron Rapoport, I wanted to ask you about Microsoft’s support for Israel. The Associated Press reports that Microsoft has now acknowledged “it sold advanced artificial intelligence and cloud computing services to the Israeli military during the war in Gaza and aided in efforts to locate and rescue Israeli hostages,” unquote. Microsoft confirmed this in an unsigned blog post. On Monday, a Microsoft worker who’s a member of the No Azure for Apartheid disrupted Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote address at the company’s flagship Build event in Seattle, Washington.
NO AZURE FOR APARTHEID MEMBER: Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians? How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure? As a Microsoft worker, I refuse to be complicit in this genocide!
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted, Meron, to get your response to these developments and what we know about Microsoft’s role, as you’ve edited reports by +972 on Microsoft, including one in January headlined “Leaked documents expose deep ties between Israeli army and Microsoft,” in a piece that was written by Yuval Abraham, who won the Oscar for being a co-director of the film No Other Land, Meron.
MERON RAPOPORT: Yes, it seems that this is — of course, there was this report by Yuval, and then there was a previous report quoting mainly Israeli sources, open sources, the head of a unit that is responsible for computing in the Israeli army, that she said that they received essential help to the Israeli war machine from these big three cloud companies, Azure and other — so, this is — and we had these documents that we revealed, that Yuval revealed later on. So, the relationship is certainly very close, and it does seem that this creates problems for Microsoft internally, and maybe externally and internally. We have to see. We have maybe other reports coming. I think this story is not over.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Meron Rapoport, you have — the United Nations reported in March that from March 2025 since the beginning of 2024, Israel has demolished 463 buildings in the West Bank as part of military activity, and it’s displaced nearly 40,000 Palestinians from several cities in the West Bank. Could you talk about that? And also, you’ve reported that in Lebanon, Israel used similar demolition operations?
MERON RAPOPORT: It does seem that this has become really part of the Israeli war, the way, the modus operandi of Israeli army: destruction per se, not during fighting. We have seen that in Lebanon. We had reports in our investigation in which a soldier was told in advance that what he’s going to do is to destroy the Shiites’ villages in Lebanon, even before he came in. So, it didn’t have anything — it didn’t have direct relation to the fightings. And it seems that this —
AMY GOODMAN: Meron, we have 30 seconds.
MERON RAPOPORT: — way of action — it seems that this way of action is being copied and employed in the West Bank, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you so much for being with us, Meron Rapoport, editor and writer at the independent Israeli news site Local Call and a columnist at +972 Magazine. We’ll link to your new article, “'Render it unusable': Israel’s mission of total urban destruction.” Meron was speaking to us from Tel Aviv.
Coming up, Palestinian student Mohsen Mahdawi graduates from Columbia University three weeks after he was released from a Vermont prison after being targeted by the Trump administration. Stay with us.
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From a Palestinian Refugee Camp to Columbia: Mohsen Mahdawi Graduates After Being Jailed by Trump
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
May 20, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/5/20/ ... transcript
Columbia University activist and student Mohsen Mahdawi graduated on Monday — after he was released from ICE jail late last month. As he crossed the stage, students erupted in thunderous applause. Democracy Now! spoke with Mahdawi after the ceremony. “I am coming here to be in the middle of this fire because I am a peacemaker, because I am a firefighter,” says Mahdawi, who plans to attend Columbia University’s graduate School of International and Public Affairs in the fall.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report.
We end today’s show on the campus of Columbia University, where graduation ceremonies are being held this week. On Monday, Palestinian student Mohsen Mahdawi walked across the stage to receive his GS diploma from the Columbia University School of General Studies. Students erupted in thunderous applause. There was a standing ovation.
ANNOUNCER: Mohsen Mahdawi.
CROWD: [cheering]
AMY GOODMAN: Mohsen Mahdawi’s path to graduation was not an easy one. In mid-April, he was arrested in Vermont when he appeared for what he had been told was his naturalization interview. After the interview, he was taken away by armed, masked and hooded federal agents.
Mohsen moved to Vermont from the occupied West Bank in 2014, where he lived in al-Faraa, a Palestinian refugee camp. At Columbia University, he was co-president of Columbia’s Palestinian Students Union and served as president of Columbia University’s Buddhist Association for two years.
Mohsen is one of several students who have been detained by the Trump administration. His former classmate Mahmoud Khalil is still locked up in Louisiana since early March. Mohsen Mahdawi spent two weeks in a Vermont prison before a federal judge in Vermont ordered him released on bail. The judge, Geoffrey Crawford, compared the recent detentions of immigrant student protesters to the Red Scare and the Palmer Raids.
Crawford ruled Mahdawi should stay in Vermont but could come to New York for educational purposes. When the government objected to him crossing Vermont lines to come to New York, the judge responded, Mohsen Mahdawi could travel to New York to attend his graduation at Columbia. The judge went on to write, quote, “During his time in New York State, Mr. Mahdawi is permitted to move freely and conduct his daily activities normally including, but not limited to, meeting with elected officials, speaking with and being interviewed by members of the press and media, speaking at public events, attending protests,” the judge wrote.
On Friday, Mohsen appeared in our Democracy Now! studio for his first live interview since being released from prison. Well, on Monday, I met up with Mohsen again and spoke to him just after he graduated.
MOHSEN MAHDAWI: My name is Mohsen Mahdawi, and I just graduated from the School of General Studies.
AMY GOODMAN: And how do you feel? Talk about walking up on the stage and your thoughts today.
MOHSEN MAHDAWI: A mix of feelings, some conflicting feelings. There is a strong sense of joy that I am able to come to this university all the way from a refugee camp, to survive the war, to be able to continue holding on hope, to climb the wall, the 30-foot wall, on a constructed ladder, and come down by a rope, to make it to America in order to be able to fulfill my uncle’s dreams, which is, education is hope, and education is light. So there is joy in that.
There is sadness that my uncle is not here to witness this. And there is sadness that my family, my parents, could not leave the West Bank and come and see this moment. And there is sadness that there are no universities left in Gaza where students can experience such a joy, where hope can be harnessed in universities.
And there is joy that also the Trump administration and this unjust government that tried to keep me in prison — I am on university campus, not in prison. I am in my graduation clothes, not in my prison clothes. And I am celebrating here around a buffet, not having the 20 minutes prepared meal in the prison.
So, if this is something, this is the hope that I gift, the light that I gift to the American people, to the good American people who have supported me, to the Vermonters, to the people who fought for justice. It’s a hope that democracy is functioning, the justice system that gave me the order to be here is in place, and that our fight for justice, our fight for peace, is a fight for humanity, not only for the Palestinian people.
AMY GOODMAN: The judge rebuked the government when they said you couldn’t travel over state lines from Vermont, where you were just released from jail, to your graduation. Can you explain what he said?
MOHSEN MAHDAWI: Judge Crawford has been a person who’s holding the scale of justice very firmly. This is what I am fighting for. Justice and peace go hand in hand. This is what I want. And Judge Crawford has granted me to come to New York City to participate in events, in protest. That’s my free speech right, First Amendment right in this country. And he has granted me the chance to be with the community that I love. And they love me, and I love them. You saw how they cheered me up. It doesn’t matter what the Trump administration is saying and accusing me of. Columbia University gave the answer. And it comes from the students and from the professors, not from senior administration or from unjust government or unjust laws.
AMY GOODMAN: You got a standing ovation when you graduated. Can you talk about how you felt at that point?
MOHSEN MAHDAWI: I felt honored and humbled. I felt that the inner child who has suffered, and the story of many other children who are suffering and who have suffered, is being seen and acknowledged. And I felt that people stood up for justice, for peace, for human rights and for international law. This is my message, a message of peace, a message for justice.
AMY GOODMAN: What did you think of the valedictory, the valedictorian, who referenced the number of people who are not here at graduation?
MOHSEN MAHDAWI: He’s a brave — he’s a very brave man. And you have to keep in mind that he comes from an Irish heritage, from resilience, from resistance, from understanding injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, as Martin Luther King have said.
What this university is doing is ridiculous. They are suspending students. They are expelling students just for protesting against the war. What kind of values these universities would have, if it doesn’t allow itself to align with international law and human rights? What worth our degrees? You see the names of philosophers. You see the names of philosophers engraved on buildings in these universities, the most significant ones, Law Library and Butler Library. What is the point if we are studying those philosophers, and we are just not bringing those theories into action — justice, education, interconnectedness, peace, harmony, empathy, forgiveness? This university is a betrayal to all of those values. And what it’s doing here is degradating and destroying the democratic system, that depends on votes, on sharing voices, and they’re telling the students and the professors, “You don’t matter.” But the students’ voice is much louder than the money that the university receives.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re standing next to SIPA, the school you hope to go to in the fall. Do you think you’ll be able to? You’re in an immigration proceeding now, even though you were going towards naturalization and U.S. citizenship.
MOHSEN MAHDAWI: Look, I plan on attending SIPA. There are many obstacles: obstacles with the immigration system, obstacle with the federal justice system, and an obstacle with this university that refused to give me a scholarship. They gave me zero funding, even though they accepted me based on merit. But I tell them that I am coming here to be in the middle of this fire, because I am a peacemaker, because I am a firefighter. And I will come here to study international affairs, focusing on diplomacy and security, and focusing on conflict resolution and peacemaking. This is the story of hope, from a refugee camp to Columbia.
AMY GOODMAN: “From a refugee camp to Columbia.” Palestinian student activist Mohsen Mahdawi, speaking after graduating from Columbia University on Monday, just three weeks after a federal judge had him released from a Vermont prison. During his interview, Mohsen Mahdawi referenced the valedictorian address by the Irish student Peter Gorman.
PETER GORMAN: Good morning to the 2025 graduates of the School of General Studies. And congratulations! I cannot say how shocked and honored I was to find myself as your valedictorian this year. It begs a question: How does one speak to these people I found myself graduating alongside, the incredible depth and breadth of experience out here? How does one speak in these times, to people whose Columbia experience has been defined by personal and political struggle, by protest and by the university’s response to it? We’ve been challenged not just to learn, but to act. In making that decision, some of us have paid a price. As we graduate, we should remember that this is the first time since 1968 that a Columbia graduating class has been reduced by suspension for political protest, and the first time since Robert Burke in 1936 that a Columbia class has been reduced by expulsion for political protest.
AMY GOODMAN: Excerpts of Peter Gorman giving his valedictory address at Columbia University on Monday. After the ceremony, I spoke to Palestinian American student activist, who also just graduated, Maryam Alwan.
MARYAM ALWAN: I was arrested and suspended for the first encampment. And actually, I was wearing a Columbia shirt when I was arrested, and that was the last time that I wore the Columbia logo. And now I’m wearing it again now that I’m graduating. I honestly did not think that I would graduate, given the level of repression against pro-Palestinian students. So, it’s a really powerful moment for me. But at the same time, I feel almost guilty, because so many are not able to graduate, not only the students who have been disciplined at Columbia, but also the students in Gaza who have been killed. And so, I wanted to do everything I can to show that I’m sticking with them.
AMY GOODMAN: As the reception went on, outside the gates of Columbia University, dozens of Columbia professors lined up to hold a vigil around the continued detention of Mahmoud Khalil and other students. This is Columbia Medical School public health, biostatistics professor Melanie Wall.
MELANIE WALL: I’m Melanie Wall, professor of biostatistics in the Department of Psychiatry in the Medical Center at Columbia University. The students who have been protesting, and we don’t think that the government should, you know, keep this case for antisemitism being the excuse for why that our grants are being taken away, and that we have many different things that we’re wanting the university to do in terms of self-governance. We are wanting them to not take over the University Senate. We’re wanting them to allow faculty be part of the choice of the next university president. We want to protect students and scholars being able to protest. And we want all those things, as well as we want them to fight back against the Trump administration to get our — to keep our grants. And so, it’s not a medical campus —
AMY GOODMAN: That was Columbia University biostatistics professor Melanie Wall.
And that does it for our show. Democracy Now! is currently accepting applications for a director of technology to lead our broadcast, digital and IT operations. You can learn more and apply at democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman — this is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org — with Juan González, for another edition of Democracy Now!
U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
Re: U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
by admin » Tue May 20, 2025 5:36 pm
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Re: U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
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Israeli MP Forcefully Removed After Calling Out Own Country for ‘Killing Babies as a Hobby’
DawnNews English
May 23, 2025 #news #latestnews #dawnnewsenglish
Israeli MP Ayman Odeh was forcefully removed from the Knesset podium after condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza, accusing his own government of killing children and committing war crimes.
Transcript
An Arab-Israeli lawmaker was removed
from the Knesset podium during a speech to
parliament on the Wednesday May 21st
after a shouting match with coalition
members which he criticized to prolong
the Gaza war for political
win in his speech about the Nakba or
catastrophe marked by Palestinians to
commemorate the loss of their land after
the 1948 war at the birth of the state
of Israel Ayman Odeh addressed lawmakers
from the coalition who kept interrupting
his speech:
DawnNews English
May 23, 2025 #news #latestnews #dawnnewsenglish
Israeli MP Ayman Odeh was forcefully removed from the Knesset podium after condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza, accusing his own government of killing children and committing war crimes.
Transcript
An Arab-Israeli lawmaker was removed
from the Knesset podium during a speech to
parliament on the Wednesday May 21st
after a shouting match with coalition
members which he criticized to prolong
the Gaza war for political
win in his speech about the Nakba or
catastrophe marked by Palestinians to
commemorate the loss of their land after
the 1948 war at the birth of the state
of Israel Ayman Odeh addressed lawmakers
from the coalition who kept interrupting
his speech:
[Ayman Odeh] After a year and a half of a war
in which you killed 19,000
children you there is no political win
you feel there is no political win
that's why you go crazy why are you
going crazy why are you weak why are you
sad why are you not happy why because
there is no political win
- admin
- Site Admin
- Posts: 37494
- Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:21 am
by admin » Mon Jun 02, 2025 11:30 pm
Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 02, 2025
Israel Accused of Opening Fire on Palestinians Waiting for Aid in Gaza, Killing at Least 31 People
Jun 02, 2025
Health officials and witnesses in Gaza say at least 31 people were killed Sunday when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds headed to an Israeli-controlled aid distribution point near Rafah. Over 170 people were wounded. Israel denied responsibility. This is a Palestinian woman named Asmaa Abu Salah speaking in a hospital room next to her brother-in-law, who had been shot while trying to get aid.
Asmaa Abu Salah: “You can see his condition. He’s between life and death. He went for food and drinks for his children. His children need food. They say, 'We want food, Dad.' This is the most difficult word. As you can see, here he is.”
The attack came a day after the U.N. humanitarian agency called Gaza “the hungriest place on Earth,” and accused Israel of “drip feeding food into an area on the verge of catastrophic hunger.”
Israel Demolishes Only Dialysis Facility in Gaza Amid Ongoing Destruction of Health Infrastructure
Jun 02, 2025
Israel is continuing to attack medical facilities and doctors in Gaza. Earlier today, Israel destroyed the only facility for kidney dialysis patients in northern Gaza. Drop Site News is reporting an Israeli attack killed Dr. Aya Al-Madhoon, who was nine months pregnant. The attack near Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah also killed her husband. Meanwhile, a funeral was held Sunday for Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar, who died from injuries from an Israeli attack last week that also killed nine of his children.
Hamas Submits Ceasefire Proposal Demanding Complete End to Israel’s Attacks
Jun 02, 2025
Negotiations continue over a possible ceasefire. Over the weekend, Hamas submitted its response to a proposal by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas is offering to release 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in return for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners. Hamas is also seeking a complete end to Israel’s attacks and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, but Witkoff has called Hamas’s response “totally unacceptable.”
Suspect in Custody over Incendiary Attack on Boulder, Colorado, Event for Israeli Hostages
Jun 02, 2025
In Boulder Colorado, authorities have arrested a man accused of using a makeshift flamethrower and another incendiary device to attack a crowd of people taking part in a weekly walk to honor Israeli hostages in Gaza. Eight people were injured with burns. Two of the victims were flown to a burn unit in Aurora, Colorado. The victims ranged in age from 52 to an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor. The attack occurred near Boulder’s courthouse on Sunday. The FBI said the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism.
Mark Michalek: “This attack happened at a regularly scheduled weekly peaceful event. Witnesses are reporting that the subject used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary device into the crowd. … The suspect was heard to yell 'Free Palestine' during the attack. The subject has been identified as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, and he’s 45 years old.”
Gaza Freedom Flotilla Sets Sail from Italy One Month After First Vessel Came Under Attack
Jun 02, 2025
A group of 12 activists have set sail from a Sicilian port in Italy carrying aid for Gaza. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition had initially planned to sail from Malta last month, but the group’s ship was damaged in a drone attack. Passengers on board the flotilla include the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
*************************
Ex-Israeli Negotiator Daniel Levy: Netanyahu Wants “Permanent War” in Gaza, Not a New Ceasefire
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 02, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/2/i ... transcript
We get an update on ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel from former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy. The latest proposal, mediated by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, “walks back the commitment for a permanent ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal and allowing in of humanitarian aid.” It’s a bad deal for the Palestinians that will allow Israel to continue its ethnic cleansing of Gaza, says Levy. Meanwhile, families of Israeli hostages are protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s delays in securing a deal as he works toward “permanent war” and the eventual annexation of Gaza. “None of this would be possible if so much of the Israeli media and society was not mobilized in support of this, and none of that would be possible if Israel wasn’t treated with impunity.” Levy also responds to the latest massacre of Palestinians at an aid site operated by the U.S.-Israeli aid initiative, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show with Gaza ceasefire talks, which are underway after Israeli military tanks opened fire Sunday and killed at least 30 Palestinians near Rafah in southern Gaza as they were waiting for aid. More than 170 others were wounded. Israel has denied responsibility. The aid site is operated by the U.S.-Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. This is a witness named Ibrahim Abu Saud, who described the attack to Al Jazeera.
IBRAHIM ABU SAUD: [translated] They said there was aid, and we were supposed to enter at 5:30. We were advancing toward the Al-Alam roundabout near the sea, and there was a lot of gunfire. The quadcopters came and said there was no aid today. At 6:00, the tanks were firing, but no one was doing anything to the Israelis.
AMY GOODMAN: Soon we’ll go to Gaza to talk more about the attack with a doctor who treated survivors and with a local NGO coordinator, but first we get an update on how negotiations are continuing over a possible ceasefire.
Over the weekend, Hamas submitted its response to a proposal by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas is offering to release 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in return for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners. Hamas is also seeking a complete end to Israel’s war on Gaza and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, but Witkoff has called Hamas’s response “totally unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, in the United States, authorities in Boulder, Colorado, have arrested a man accused of using a makeshift flamethrower and another incendiary device to attack a crowd of people taking part in a weekly walk honoring Israeli hostages in Gaza. Eight people were injured with burns, at least one in critical condition. The FBI said the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism.
For more, we’re joined in London by Daniel Levy, president of the U.S./Middle East Project, a former Israeli peace negotiator under Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin.
Daniel, welcome back to Democracy Now! First, if you can talk about where the ceasefire proposal stands right now?
DANIEL LEVY: Good to be back, Amy, although the circumstances continue and worsen in terms of how dire they are.
That ceasefire diplomacy, first of all, let’s be very clear, this doesn’t have to be a partial release of the Israelis being held. That’s a modality that the Israeli side has pushed for, instead of being willing to bring a total, definitive end to this, all the Israelis living and dead out, a full cessation, full withdrawal, etc. It’s important to remember that the agreement reached at the very beginning of Trump’s term, if people cast their minds back, Israelis being held were released. There were six weeks of a largely respected — not entirely on the Israeli side — ceasefire. That arrangement was that one would segue from a first phase into subsequent phases of releases towards a permanent ceasefire. Israel broke that ceasefire. It not only broke that ceasefire, but it launched probably the most barbaric of its assaults over the ensuing weeks, if one measures that in terms of the degree of the blockade and starvation regime imposed on Gaza. Talks resumed.
Where are we? The U.S. did something which should have been obvious all along, and further shame on the Biden administration that it didn’t do this. It spoke directly through envoys to Hamas. Adam Boehler, the hostage envoy, and subsequently someone called Bishara Bahbah, has been in direct talks with the Hamas leadership conducting these talks. They apparently reached an arrangement. That arrangement was apparently then rewritten at Israel’s assistance, put American stars and stripes on it and repackaged as an American proposal put forward by Witkoff. That seems to be Witkoff playing the regular game of America putting forward Israeli positions. That’s, if you like, channeling his inner Biden or Blinken. That proposal — let’s be very clear: That proposal walks back the commitment for a permanent ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal and allowing in of humanitarian aid.
Now, given that the Israeli prime minister is basically telling us the following, that his government is telling us the following: “We can have a pause, we can get some of the Israelis back, and then we will resume our” — I’ll use the word — ’genocide.'” They don't quite say it, but they say everything that constitutes a genocide, that they will continue the ethnic cleansing, the squeezing of Palestinians into smaller areas in Gaza, the plans for resettlement, the killing, the destruction. By the way, they’re also pursuing similar goals in the West Bank. So, Netanyahu is saying, “You give us back some, and then your people can rest. Our soldiers can rest. Our troops can rest for 60-odd days. And then we’ll double down and make it even worse.” That is not a deal anyone should accept. The ball is now back in Witkoff and Netanyahu’s court. From what we’ve seen so far, one shouldn’t be hopeful. But that’s where we stand, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to what happened on Saturday in the streets of Tel Aviv, Israeli protesters demanding an immediate ceasefire and release of remaining hostages. This is Yotam Cohen, brother of hostage Nimrod Cohen.
YOTAM COHEN: We are facing moral bankruptcy. Netanyahu is abandoning our loved ones in captivity and crushing the Israeli ethos upon which we were raised, for which, for his own political motives, we are left with no other option but to turn to the United States special envoy to the Middle East. Please, Mr. Witkoff, if the hostage deal outline is accepted, place a comprehensive deal on the table immediately, one that will end the war and ensure the return of all remaining hostages. Don’t let Netanyahu torpedo this deal and resume the fighting, the fighting that will cause the living hostages their lives.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the brother of hostage Nimrod Cohen. Also at the protest Saturday in Tel Aviv was protester Amram Zahavi.
AMRAM ZAHAVI: And usually I want to apologize to the world to be a Jew and Israeli in a country that behaves like the Germany, the Nazis in 1940. I say that Israel is now a complete copy of what happened in Germany and the atrocity and the genocide that Israel is doing in Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Israeli protester Amram Zahavi. If you can respond, one, to the family member of a hostage and to these Israeli protesters in the streets? And does that put pressure on Netanyahu?
DANIEL LEVY: I wish I could tell you that it puts the requisite level of pressure on Netanyahu. So, what we have, Amy, is a situation where many of the families of the Israelis still being held, and of those who have been released already, and their supporters have taken to the streets because they have clarity on this, that the person preventing this deal — not as Witkoff tells us, Hamas, just like Blinken and Biden told us, but it’s Netanyahu who’s preventing a deal, because he wants a permanent war. You now have a former Israeli prime minister acknowledging what the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, so much of the world has acknowledged for so many months, which is that Israel is committing war crimes. This is what former Prime Minister Olmert has said. You have 1,500-plus Israeli academics who have written to the heads of the universities, saying they must distance themselves from the war crimes that Israel is committing.
In the meantime, much of the Israeli official political opposition is against Netanyahu for a variety of reasons but is not calling out the crimes that are being committed, is not opposing his war. And Netanyahu sees his best political path as continuing the war, and he also sees that this is the fulfillment of the ideological vision of trying to permanently remove the Palestinians. Israel set up a directorate. I’ll give you the name of it. It’s the Directorate for the Voluntary Emigration of Gaza Residents, headed by a colonel, Yaakov Blitstein, inside the Defense Ministry. Now, there’s nothing voluntary about trying to get rid of people when you’re starving and kettling them into ever smaller areas.
None of this would be possible if so much of the Israeli media and society was not mobilized in support of this, and none of that would be possible, Amy, if Israel wasn’t treated with impunity externally. Of course, the U.S. leads that, but beyond it, we’re now hearing words. We’re now hearing much more relevant rhetoric from Israel’s Western allies, but we’re not seeing the commensurate actions. We’re not seeing Europeans, Canadians, others imposing an arms embargo, seizing Israeli foreign assets. We’re not seeing Israel isolated from international sport. As long as there is impunity, these crimes will continue.
There are people who say, Amy, that you have this tension between America first and Israel first inside Trump world, that the kind of cultural war of Palestine-Israel fought domestically — so, what’s being done with universities, with funding, with foreign students — by the way, we, of course, see the extremely courageous and very on-point messages in some of the commencement speeches. But that domestic deployment of Israel-Palestine is a little different from the geopolitical management, where the Trump administration have not gone along with Israel’s position on Iran, on the continuing to strike the Houthis — they did, and then they stopped — on Syria sanctions. They visited — he visited the Gulf, but not Israel. So, there is — there is some cracks there. There are some divisions. Unfortunately, what you don’t have is any acknowledgment of Palestinian humanity from this administration, but it is an administration talking to Hamas that conceivably could still put forward a ceasefire plan, but that will depend on much more pressure. That’s not where they are today, and that’s not the zeitgeist that we’re seeing.
AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, because we’re going to a doctor in Gaza, and you could imagine these hospitals are incredibly busy, I wanted to get your comment on Israel’s denial that it was involved in the killing of at least 30 Palestinians who went to get aid, who were told by quadcopters that they can go to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to get aid, and then were gunned down. Israel is saying it wasn’t them, the Israeli military, who did that. And also what happened in Boulder, this man, shirtless, with some kind of flamethrower, burning eight Americans who were standing in vigil for Israeli hostages?
DANIEL LEVY: So, let me touch on that first. Of course, any attack on people exerting their right to protest, to rally anywhere, certainly including in the U.S., including in Boulder, Colorado, that’s a criminal act. That person should have the full force of the law brought against them. There’s no question in terms of condemning what was done there. I don’t see how anyone could condemn that but think it’s OK that in another part of the world a country shoots people who are desperately trying to get some aid and starves and besieges a population of 2 million-plus civilians. So, that’s the Boulder situation.
Look, in terms of the Israeli denials, we understand that approximately 75 Palestinians have been killed in the under a week that this new authority has been functioning. I call it genocide profiteering, a private company distributing aid. Israel has denied. We’ve been here before, right, Amy? It’s not our first rodeo. Israel immediately issues its denial, comes up with some spurious counterclaim, hopes the news cycle moves on. In the end, we find out that the denials were worth precisely nothing. One has to acknowledge that the media has been banned from there. If Israel wanted to get its story out, let the media in. And if the media took itself seriously, then it would point that out — the mainstream media, I’m not talking about Democracy Now!, of course. There are citizen journalists who you can always turn to. There are people on the ground. You’re about to do that. So, there’s no credibility to that, to that claim.
But if I may, one point on this Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, so-called, there is a mechanism to get aid to the people in Gaza. It’s tried and tested. It’s through the U.N. and other aid delivery systems that work according to humanitarian principles. Israel’s claim that Hamas has been siphoning off that aid, and that’s how it stays in power, has been repeated. It’s spurious. It has not been proven. What Israel is doing here by creating these zones, by making announcements on quadcopters, by sending people across great distances in Gaza, and then shooting those people, it is a layer of cruelty that tears at the very humanity of all of us, yet another layer of cruelty. And even if the Palestinians aren’t what keeps you awake at night, we should be clear that what Israel is establishing here in terms of undermining the fundamentals of global principles of humanitarian assistance should matter to everyone, just as the way Israel has used AI — Lavender, they called it — robotics in such appalling ways in their strikes in Gaza, and just as genocidal actions and narratives have been normalized. We have to bring an end to it. You’re about to hear the horrors of what is going on on the ground. Everyone must redouble their efforts to end this. Stop genocide, end apartheid, sanctions now.
AMY GOODMAN: Daniel Levy, I want to thank you for being with us, president of the U.S./Middle East Project, former Israeli peace negotiator under Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin.
**************************
British Surgeon in Gaza Reports on Rafah Massacre as Dozens of Palestinians Killed Waiting for Aid
June 02, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/2/g ... transcript
Health officials and witnesses in Gaza say at least 31 people were killed Sunday when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds headed to an Israeli-controlled aid distribution point near Rafah. Over 170 people were wounded. Israel denied responsibility. Dr. Victoria Rose, a volunteer surgeon in Gaza who treated some of the massacre’s survivors, decries the ongoing violence of the Israeli military upon the besieged territory’s civilian population. “There are hundreds and thousands of children needlessly dying, children being blown up, children being starved and children dying of otherwise preventable illnesses … it’s a mass destruction of an entire population, and we can’t stand by and let this happen any longer.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.
Health officials and witnesses in Gaza say at least 31 people were killed Sunday when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds headed to an Israeli-controlled aid distribution point near Rafah. Over 170 people were wounded. Israel has denied responsibility. This is a Palestinian woman named Asmaa Abu Salah speaking in a hospital room next to her brother-in-law, who had been shot while trying to get aid.
ASMAA ABU SALAH: [translated] You can see his condition. He’s between life and death. He went for food and drinks for his children. His children need food. They say, “We want food, Dad.” This is the most difficult word. As you can see, here he is.
AMY GOODMAN: The attack came a day after the U.N. humanitarian agency described Gaza as “the hungriest place on Earth” and accused Israel of, quote, “drip feeding food into an area on the verge of catastrophic hunger,” unquote.
We’re joined in Gaza now by two guests. We begin with Dr. Victoria Rose, a British senior plastic and reconstructive surgeon with the National Health Service in Britain, who’s volunteered in three medical missions to Gaza since October 7, 2023. She’s joining us now from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where she’s been treating patients injured in the attack near that aid distribution center in Rafah.
Dr. Rose, thank you for joining us again. Can you explain what the injuries were, who you saw that came out of that attack, as people were told by quadcopters to go to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to get aid?
DR. VICTORIA ROSE: So, it apparently started very early in the morning, because we woke up to it. What had happened is the center doesn’t open until — I think it’s 7:00 or 8:00, and a lot of the Palestinians had tried to get there as early as they could to get to the front of the queue, so that the crowds were gathering at about 2 a.m. There was apparently shooting of the crowds, as they were unable to control them. And then we started to receive the casualties here at Nasser from about 9:00 ’til about 12:00. We received 28 people who were dead, and then a further five died in the emergency department. And then we had 200 people with gunshot wounds, mainly to their abdomen and upper body, but we are still today working through some of the lower limb injuries from gunshot wounds.
We’re not actually that near this GHF aid distribution center. It’s at Rafah. And we know that the ICRC and MSF Belgium field hospitals are closer than Nasser, and they did take a lot of the casualties, as well. In fact, we’re still very much on the edge of the red zone, so to get to us from al-Mawasi is quite an undertaking. So, the people that did make it to us sort of risked their lives to get to us as it is.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about how the food crisis, the level of hunger in starvation in Gaza is making it harder for the wounded to heal, or the condition of the people, even those that are shot?
DR. VICTORIA ROSE: Yes. So, malnutrition takes on very quickly. You notice it immediately with muscle wasting and fat reserve loss. In the children we’re seeing, they’re much smaller than their Western counterparts. But wound healing is an essential — it requires essential nutrients and vitamins. So, if you’re not getting those in your diet, your cell turnover slows, and you can’t actually heal. And we’re definitely seeing that, particularly in the children.
Some of the wounds we see are quite dirty. They’ve been inflicted by bomb injuries. They’re often being bombed in their tents. Obviously, there’s no good sanitation here, and the [inaudible] is contaminated. So they’re dirty wounds to start with. And what we’re finding is we’re trying to clean them. We’re doing what we would call a debridement, which is removing all the unhealthy tissue, and we’re washing them. And infection is setting in almost immediately. And that is another issue of malnutrition, in that your immune system is immediately depressed, and you do not have the power to fight off simple infections, that coupled with the fact that we are out of medication here. We only have three types of antibiotic left. We have — 47% of our essential drug list here at Nasser is completely out of stock. So we don’t actually have the medicines we need to treat these infections, and the population don’t have the reserves they need to fight these infections.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about, since you’ve been on three missions there since October 2023, how difficult is it to get into Gaza to do this lifesaving work?
DR. VICTORIA ROSE: It’s virtually impossible at the moment. Since the Rafah border closed in May of last year, all entry and exit into Gaza is controlled by COGAT. They’re the coordination of activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. They’re a branch of, essentially, the IDF. And they denote who to can come in and who can leave. They’ve set out a huge number of regulations about traveling into Gaza. And as it stands now, you are only allowed in if you stay for a minimum of one month. You are only allowed to bring one suitcase with you that weighs 23 kilograms. You have to have your own evacuation plan, which means that you have to have a safe house in Gaza, and you have to have a driver 24 hours a day at your disposal. You also have to have your own satellite phone, Garmin. And right now you have to bring all of your own food for the month that you’re in and all your own water for three days. So, it’s really quite difficult to get in.
There used to be 25 seats on the bus, and the bus would come in on a Tuesday and then come in on a Thursday, and the exit would be the same day. What we’ve seen since the ceasefire broke down is the constant canceling of the convoys and denial of entry. So, when you apply for a seat on the convoy, you’re given access or approval by the WHO and the United Nations two weeks before the convoy leaves, and then COGAT get the final say the night before you go. So, we will fly to Amman. We know that the WHO and the United Nations have placed us in hospitals in Gaza and are aware of what they’re doing. And then, at some point the night before we’re about to get on the bus, we are given an approval or a denial. Our entire team from IDEALS charity was denied entry in February with no explanation. But luckily, when we came back in May, we split into smaller groups, and we’ve managed to get in this time.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to finally ask you about the MSF report that came out yesterday, Médecins Sans Frontières, Doctors Without Borders, the humanitarian aid site, when the people were told by quadcopters, “Go get food at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Rafah,” and then, as they moved in, they were shot. It quotes 24-year-old Mohammad Daghmeh saying, “I was shot at 3:10 a.m. As we were trapped, I bled constantly until 5 a.m. There were many other men with me. One of them tried to get me out. He was shot in the head and died on my chest. We had gone there for nothing but food — just to survive, like everyone else.” How typical is this, Dr. Victoria Rose?
DR. VICTORIA ROSE: That’s the same story that I’ve heard from two patients that I’ve treated today, that they were just going to get food and that they were shot at as they were trying to get away. It’s exactly the same story.
AMY GOODMAN: What would change the situation on the ground? You’ve come from Britain. The prime minister of Britain, Starmer, Canada, France, they have said they’re talking about some kind of embargo on Israel, but that hasn’t happened.
DR. VICTORIA ROSE: I think we need it now. I think what’s going on here is a humanitarian crisis. There are hundreds and thousands of children needlessly dying, children being blown up, children being starved and children dying of otherwise preventable illnesses if this war wasn’t going on. This is not a targeting of a terrorist organization. It’s a mass destruction of an entire population, and we can’t stand by and let this happen any longer. It’s unimaginable to think how much worse this is going to get if we don’t do something now.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Victoria Rose, thank you for being with us, British surgeon at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza.
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Harvard Commencement Speakers: Despite Crackdown, “Students Will Keep Speaking Up” for Palestine
June 02, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/2/u ... transcript
Zehra Imam, commencement speaker for Harvard Divinity School, where she spoke out in support of Palestine.
It’s graduation season in the United States, and many brave students are taking the opportunity to demonstrate support for Palestinian rights despite an ongoing campus crackdown on pro-Palestine speech. We play excerpts from commencement and graduation addresses at MIT and Harvard and are joined by a student who spoke at Harvard Divinity School’s graduation ceremony. Zehra Imam, a Muslim associate chaplain at MIT, recounts the collaborative, interfaith process of writing her speech with Christian and Jewish classmates and explains why she decided to quote students from Gaza in her address. “This is a moment that calls for courage,” Imam says.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.
We end today’s show looking at the university protest movement nationwide as students deliver commencement speeches over the weekend, many focusing their remarks on denouncing Israel’s relentless war on Gaza and their university’s complicity in attempting to silence their voices. On Friday, the Indian American class president at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Megha Vemuri, was barred from attending her graduation ceremony, after she gave a commencement speech on Friday — on Thursday, when she wore a red-and-white keffiyeh and said MIT students would never support a genocide, praising them for continuing to protest despite quote, “threats, intimidation and suppression coming from all directions, especially,” she said, “your own university officials.” This is part of her speech.
MEGHA VEMURI: The Israeli occupation forces are the only foreign military that MIT has research ties with. This means that Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people is not only aided and abetted by our country, but our school. As scientists, engineers, academics and leaders, we have a commitment to support life, support aid efforts and call for an arms embargo and keep demanding now, as alumni, that MIT cuts the ties.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, at Harvard University, down the road in Cambridge, faculty joined students in calling for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza. This is professor of law Andrew Crespo addressing the 2025 Harvard Law School graduating class last week, commending students for standing up to the Trump administration’s crackdown on universities and education.
ANDREW MANUEL CRESPO: In an endless barrage, our government has tried to crush Harvard University, the very symbol of higher education in the world, and, more simply than that, our home. Our scientists and international students have been taken hostage, our research bankrupted, our community terrorized, all in an effort to try to change the way that we teach, the questions we ask and the answers we offer. From climate change to vaccines to the study of race and inequality in our country’s past and present, they want us to shut up, or, worse, they want us to say only what they want to hear. This, too, is what authoritarianism looks like. In the face of it, fear is rational, but courage is essential. And to your great credit, you, the class of 2025, have taught us time and again what true courage looks like.
AMY GOODMAN: Harvard Law School professor Andrew Crespo also criticized his own university’s response to the wave of pro-Palestine peaceful protests on campus.
ANDREW MANUEL CRESPO: We, your university, have not always learned well the lessons you were trying to teach. Harvard deserves praise for taking a stand to defend its academic independence. It is just as important for Harvard to use that independence to protect the academic freedoms, including the rights to study, publish, teach and, yes, protest of everyone on our campus without exception, especially when our messages are politically inconvenient. In this respect, whether in denying degrees to peaceful protesters or suspending hundreds of students and some teachers from our libraries, or firing the faculty directors of our Center for Middle Eastern Studies in what The New York Times called, quote-unquote, “an offering to the Trump administration,” I fear sometimes our university has too often exhibited acquiescence when courage was called for. Sooner rather than later, I am confident we will learn the lessons you tried to teach us, for our own sake and for the sake of this democracy.
AMY GOODMAN: Harvard Law professor Andrew Crespo was speaking after winning the 2025 Albert M. Sacks-Paul A. Freund Award for Teaching Excellence at Harvard. He was addressing the graduating class of the Harvard Law School.
In a minute, we’ll be joined by Zehra Imam, a new graduate of the Harvard Divinity School, where she delivered the commencement address last week. She’s also a Muslim associate chaplain at MIT. She spoke out in support of Palestine in her remarks.
ZEHRA IMAM: Class of 2025, Palestine is waiting for us to arrive. And you must be courageous enough to rise to the call, because Palestine will keep showing up in our living rooms until we are ready to meet its gaze.
AMY GOODMAN: Zehra Imam was wearing a keffiyeh on her head. She held a Palestinian flag as she addressed the commencement ceremony at Harvard Divinity School. Zehra Imam joins us now for more. She’s also a Muslim associate chaplain at MIT, just down the road.
Zehra, congratulations on your graduation from Harvard Divinity School. Can you elaborate on your comments?
ZEHRA IMAM: Yeah. First, thanks for having me on the show, Amy.
What I was talking about in my speech is the fact that this is a moment that calls for courage, not just on part of the student body, but the administration and all college campuses, beyond — Harvard and beyond. We are seeing that last year Alan Garber got booed at commencement, and this year he got a standing ovation for celebrating international students. But what if those international students are Palestinian, and they come to a place like Harvard, where, you know, I took a class called — on Israel-Palestine, and that class no longer exists at Harvard? I also went to Palestine through Harvard Divinity School. That program no longer exists at Harvard Divinity School. The three teachers who taught that class are no longer at Harvard. So, what kind of a place is Harvard for its Palestinian students who are coming in and for its pro-Palestinian students who are protesting at Harvard? So, that’s what I was calling attention to.
I was also calling attention to the fact that I have worked with students in Gaza who I was in conversation with as I was working on this speech, and they are living their history’s worst nightmares. And there are parts of the speech that I didn’t even put in that I want to share right now, which are that I felt truly that I’m in touch with the Anne Franks of our time, but we can still change the ending. And I say that because just yesterday I saw Anne Frank’s great cousin come on a video, and he called for the Jewish community, for the Germans or the international community to stop the war crimes that are happening and taking place in Gaza and all across Palestine. So, that’s what I was calling attention to in bringing up Palestine in my speech.
AMY GOODMAN: Zehra, you wrote your speech along with two other students, one Christian, the other Jewish? You are Muslim?
ZEHRA IMAM: Correct, and we each wrote our respective parts. We each gave input to one another. We had other students look over the speech. I personally not only brought in students from — I had a lot of quotes from students from Gaza that, you know, some I brought in, some I couldn’t. But I was in conversation. But, yeah, it was a group effort, not because we agreed with everything we were saying, but because it was important to be in solidarity with one another in a moment when the world is extremely divided. And I think we wanted to show what it means to be in community with one another. So, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: So, let me ask you — you’re also an associate chaplain at MIT. I wanted to get your comment on the Indian American class president at MIT, Megha Vemuri, who was barred from attending her graduation ceremony after she gave a commencement speech the day before around Palestine. Your thoughts?
ZEHRA IMAM: I think Megha is incredibly brave, and as are all the students at MIT and on college campuses who are standing up for Palestine. Yeah, everything she said really speaks to the heart and soul of the student movements, which are going to be undeterred. And that was clear in her speech. Students will keep speaking up for Palestine and for liberation across college campuses. So, I am really proud of Megha for having — finding the right words and really being very courageous.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you for being with us. Did you get your diploma after you gave your commencement address, Zehra Imam?
ZEHRA IMAM: I did, you know, and I — so, I mean, I have it so far, so I don’t have any —
AMY GOODMAN: Well, even though Megha —
ZEHRA IMAM: — haven’t faced any challenges with that yet.
AMY GOODMAN: Even though Megha Vemuri was not allowed to attend her graduation, MIT did bestow upon her her diploma, unlike NYU, that took away the diploma of a young student who spoke out in his graduation address. That does it for our show. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 02, 2025
ISRAELI PROTESTER AMRAM ZAHAVI: And usually I want to apologize to the world to be a Jew and Israeli in a country that behaves like the Germany, the Nazis in 1940. I say that Israel is now a complete copy of what happened in Germany and the atrocity and the genocide that Israel is doing in Gaza.
Israel Accused of Opening Fire on Palestinians Waiting for Aid in Gaza, Killing at Least 31 People
Jun 02, 2025
Health officials and witnesses in Gaza say at least 31 people were killed Sunday when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds headed to an Israeli-controlled aid distribution point near Rafah. Over 170 people were wounded. Israel denied responsibility. This is a Palestinian woman named Asmaa Abu Salah speaking in a hospital room next to her brother-in-law, who had been shot while trying to get aid.
Asmaa Abu Salah: “You can see his condition. He’s between life and death. He went for food and drinks for his children. His children need food. They say, 'We want food, Dad.' This is the most difficult word. As you can see, here he is.”
The attack came a day after the U.N. humanitarian agency called Gaza “the hungriest place on Earth,” and accused Israel of “drip feeding food into an area on the verge of catastrophic hunger.”
Israel Demolishes Only Dialysis Facility in Gaza Amid Ongoing Destruction of Health Infrastructure
Jun 02, 2025
Israel is continuing to attack medical facilities and doctors in Gaza. Earlier today, Israel destroyed the only facility for kidney dialysis patients in northern Gaza. Drop Site News is reporting an Israeli attack killed Dr. Aya Al-Madhoon, who was nine months pregnant. The attack near Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah also killed her husband. Meanwhile, a funeral was held Sunday for Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar, who died from injuries from an Israeli attack last week that also killed nine of his children.
Hamas Submits Ceasefire Proposal Demanding Complete End to Israel’s Attacks
Jun 02, 2025
Negotiations continue over a possible ceasefire. Over the weekend, Hamas submitted its response to a proposal by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas is offering to release 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in return for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners. Hamas is also seeking a complete end to Israel’s attacks and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, but Witkoff has called Hamas’s response “totally unacceptable.”
Suspect in Custody over Incendiary Attack on Boulder, Colorado, Event for Israeli Hostages
Jun 02, 2025
In Boulder Colorado, authorities have arrested a man accused of using a makeshift flamethrower and another incendiary device to attack a crowd of people taking part in a weekly walk to honor Israeli hostages in Gaza. Eight people were injured with burns. Two of the victims were flown to a burn unit in Aurora, Colorado. The victims ranged in age from 52 to an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor. The attack occurred near Boulder’s courthouse on Sunday. The FBI said the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism.
Mark Michalek: “This attack happened at a regularly scheduled weekly peaceful event. Witnesses are reporting that the subject used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary device into the crowd. … The suspect was heard to yell 'Free Palestine' during the attack. The subject has been identified as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, and he’s 45 years old.”
Gaza Freedom Flotilla Sets Sail from Italy One Month After First Vessel Came Under Attack
Jun 02, 2025
A group of 12 activists have set sail from a Sicilian port in Italy carrying aid for Gaza. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition had initially planned to sail from Malta last month, but the group’s ship was damaged in a drone attack. Passengers on board the flotilla include the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
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Ex-Israeli Negotiator Daniel Levy: Netanyahu Wants “Permanent War” in Gaza, Not a New Ceasefire
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 02, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/2/i ... transcript
We get an update on ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel from former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy. The latest proposal, mediated by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, “walks back the commitment for a permanent ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal and allowing in of humanitarian aid.” It’s a bad deal for the Palestinians that will allow Israel to continue its ethnic cleansing of Gaza, says Levy. Meanwhile, families of Israeli hostages are protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s delays in securing a deal as he works toward “permanent war” and the eventual annexation of Gaza. “None of this would be possible if so much of the Israeli media and society was not mobilized in support of this, and none of that would be possible if Israel wasn’t treated with impunity.” Levy also responds to the latest massacre of Palestinians at an aid site operated by the U.S.-Israeli aid initiative, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show with Gaza ceasefire talks, which are underway after Israeli military tanks opened fire Sunday and killed at least 30 Palestinians near Rafah in southern Gaza as they were waiting for aid. More than 170 others were wounded. Israel has denied responsibility. The aid site is operated by the U.S.-Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. This is a witness named Ibrahim Abu Saud, who described the attack to Al Jazeera.
IBRAHIM ABU SAUD: [translated] They said there was aid, and we were supposed to enter at 5:30. We were advancing toward the Al-Alam roundabout near the sea, and there was a lot of gunfire. The quadcopters came and said there was no aid today. At 6:00, the tanks were firing, but no one was doing anything to the Israelis.
AMY GOODMAN: Soon we’ll go to Gaza to talk more about the attack with a doctor who treated survivors and with a local NGO coordinator, but first we get an update on how negotiations are continuing over a possible ceasefire.
Over the weekend, Hamas submitted its response to a proposal by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas is offering to release 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in return for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners. Hamas is also seeking a complete end to Israel’s war on Gaza and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, but Witkoff has called Hamas’s response “totally unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, in the United States, authorities in Boulder, Colorado, have arrested a man accused of using a makeshift flamethrower and another incendiary device to attack a crowd of people taking part in a weekly walk honoring Israeli hostages in Gaza. Eight people were injured with burns, at least one in critical condition. The FBI said the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism.
For more, we’re joined in London by Daniel Levy, president of the U.S./Middle East Project, a former Israeli peace negotiator under Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin.
Daniel, welcome back to Democracy Now! First, if you can talk about where the ceasefire proposal stands right now?
DANIEL LEVY: Good to be back, Amy, although the circumstances continue and worsen in terms of how dire they are.
That ceasefire diplomacy, first of all, let’s be very clear, this doesn’t have to be a partial release of the Israelis being held. That’s a modality that the Israeli side has pushed for, instead of being willing to bring a total, definitive end to this, all the Israelis living and dead out, a full cessation, full withdrawal, etc. It’s important to remember that the agreement reached at the very beginning of Trump’s term, if people cast their minds back, Israelis being held were released. There were six weeks of a largely respected — not entirely on the Israeli side — ceasefire. That arrangement was that one would segue from a first phase into subsequent phases of releases towards a permanent ceasefire. Israel broke that ceasefire. It not only broke that ceasefire, but it launched probably the most barbaric of its assaults over the ensuing weeks, if one measures that in terms of the degree of the blockade and starvation regime imposed on Gaza. Talks resumed.
Where are we? The U.S. did something which should have been obvious all along, and further shame on the Biden administration that it didn’t do this. It spoke directly through envoys to Hamas. Adam Boehler, the hostage envoy, and subsequently someone called Bishara Bahbah, has been in direct talks with the Hamas leadership conducting these talks. They apparently reached an arrangement. That arrangement was apparently then rewritten at Israel’s assistance, put American stars and stripes on it and repackaged as an American proposal put forward by Witkoff. That seems to be Witkoff playing the regular game of America putting forward Israeli positions. That’s, if you like, channeling his inner Biden or Blinken. That proposal — let’s be very clear: That proposal walks back the commitment for a permanent ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal and allowing in of humanitarian aid.
Now, given that the Israeli prime minister is basically telling us the following, that his government is telling us the following: “We can have a pause, we can get some of the Israelis back, and then we will resume our” — I’ll use the word — ’genocide.'” They don't quite say it, but they say everything that constitutes a genocide, that they will continue the ethnic cleansing, the squeezing of Palestinians into smaller areas in Gaza, the plans for resettlement, the killing, the destruction. By the way, they’re also pursuing similar goals in the West Bank. So, Netanyahu is saying, “You give us back some, and then your people can rest. Our soldiers can rest. Our troops can rest for 60-odd days. And then we’ll double down and make it even worse.” That is not a deal anyone should accept. The ball is now back in Witkoff and Netanyahu’s court. From what we’ve seen so far, one shouldn’t be hopeful. But that’s where we stand, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to what happened on Saturday in the streets of Tel Aviv, Israeli protesters demanding an immediate ceasefire and release of remaining hostages. This is Yotam Cohen, brother of hostage Nimrod Cohen.
YOTAM COHEN: We are facing moral bankruptcy. Netanyahu is abandoning our loved ones in captivity and crushing the Israeli ethos upon which we were raised, for which, for his own political motives, we are left with no other option but to turn to the United States special envoy to the Middle East. Please, Mr. Witkoff, if the hostage deal outline is accepted, place a comprehensive deal on the table immediately, one that will end the war and ensure the return of all remaining hostages. Don’t let Netanyahu torpedo this deal and resume the fighting, the fighting that will cause the living hostages their lives.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the brother of hostage Nimrod Cohen. Also at the protest Saturday in Tel Aviv was protester Amram Zahavi.
AMRAM ZAHAVI: And usually I want to apologize to the world to be a Jew and Israeli in a country that behaves like the Germany, the Nazis in 1940. I say that Israel is now a complete copy of what happened in Germany and the atrocity and the genocide that Israel is doing in Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Israeli protester Amram Zahavi. If you can respond, one, to the family member of a hostage and to these Israeli protesters in the streets? And does that put pressure on Netanyahu?
DANIEL LEVY: I wish I could tell you that it puts the requisite level of pressure on Netanyahu. So, what we have, Amy, is a situation where many of the families of the Israelis still being held, and of those who have been released already, and their supporters have taken to the streets because they have clarity on this, that the person preventing this deal — not as Witkoff tells us, Hamas, just like Blinken and Biden told us, but it’s Netanyahu who’s preventing a deal, because he wants a permanent war. You now have a former Israeli prime minister acknowledging what the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, so much of the world has acknowledged for so many months, which is that Israel is committing war crimes. This is what former Prime Minister Olmert has said. You have 1,500-plus Israeli academics who have written to the heads of the universities, saying they must distance themselves from the war crimes that Israel is committing.
In the meantime, much of the Israeli official political opposition is against Netanyahu for a variety of reasons but is not calling out the crimes that are being committed, is not opposing his war. And Netanyahu sees his best political path as continuing the war, and he also sees that this is the fulfillment of the ideological vision of trying to permanently remove the Palestinians. Israel set up a directorate. I’ll give you the name of it. It’s the Directorate for the Voluntary Emigration of Gaza Residents, headed by a colonel, Yaakov Blitstein, inside the Defense Ministry. Now, there’s nothing voluntary about trying to get rid of people when you’re starving and kettling them into ever smaller areas.
None of this would be possible if so much of the Israeli media and society was not mobilized in support of this, and none of that would be possible, Amy, if Israel wasn’t treated with impunity externally. Of course, the U.S. leads that, but beyond it, we’re now hearing words. We’re now hearing much more relevant rhetoric from Israel’s Western allies, but we’re not seeing the commensurate actions. We’re not seeing Europeans, Canadians, others imposing an arms embargo, seizing Israeli foreign assets. We’re not seeing Israel isolated from international sport. As long as there is impunity, these crimes will continue.
There are people who say, Amy, that you have this tension between America first and Israel first inside Trump world, that the kind of cultural war of Palestine-Israel fought domestically — so, what’s being done with universities, with funding, with foreign students — by the way, we, of course, see the extremely courageous and very on-point messages in some of the commencement speeches. But that domestic deployment of Israel-Palestine is a little different from the geopolitical management, where the Trump administration have not gone along with Israel’s position on Iran, on the continuing to strike the Houthis — they did, and then they stopped — on Syria sanctions. They visited — he visited the Gulf, but not Israel. So, there is — there is some cracks there. There are some divisions. Unfortunately, what you don’t have is any acknowledgment of Palestinian humanity from this administration, but it is an administration talking to Hamas that conceivably could still put forward a ceasefire plan, but that will depend on much more pressure. That’s not where they are today, and that’s not the zeitgeist that we’re seeing.
AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, because we’re going to a doctor in Gaza, and you could imagine these hospitals are incredibly busy, I wanted to get your comment on Israel’s denial that it was involved in the killing of at least 30 Palestinians who went to get aid, who were told by quadcopters that they can go to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to get aid, and then were gunned down. Israel is saying it wasn’t them, the Israeli military, who did that. And also what happened in Boulder, this man, shirtless, with some kind of flamethrower, burning eight Americans who were standing in vigil for Israeli hostages?
DANIEL LEVY: So, let me touch on that first. Of course, any attack on people exerting their right to protest, to rally anywhere, certainly including in the U.S., including in Boulder, Colorado, that’s a criminal act. That person should have the full force of the law brought against them. There’s no question in terms of condemning what was done there. I don’t see how anyone could condemn that but think it’s OK that in another part of the world a country shoots people who are desperately trying to get some aid and starves and besieges a population of 2 million-plus civilians. So, that’s the Boulder situation.
Look, in terms of the Israeli denials, we understand that approximately 75 Palestinians have been killed in the under a week that this new authority has been functioning. I call it genocide profiteering, a private company distributing aid. Israel has denied. We’ve been here before, right, Amy? It’s not our first rodeo. Israel immediately issues its denial, comes up with some spurious counterclaim, hopes the news cycle moves on. In the end, we find out that the denials were worth precisely nothing. One has to acknowledge that the media has been banned from there. If Israel wanted to get its story out, let the media in. And if the media took itself seriously, then it would point that out — the mainstream media, I’m not talking about Democracy Now!, of course. There are citizen journalists who you can always turn to. There are people on the ground. You’re about to do that. So, there’s no credibility to that, to that claim.
But if I may, one point on this Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, so-called, there is a mechanism to get aid to the people in Gaza. It’s tried and tested. It’s through the U.N. and other aid delivery systems that work according to humanitarian principles. Israel’s claim that Hamas has been siphoning off that aid, and that’s how it stays in power, has been repeated. It’s spurious. It has not been proven. What Israel is doing here by creating these zones, by making announcements on quadcopters, by sending people across great distances in Gaza, and then shooting those people, it is a layer of cruelty that tears at the very humanity of all of us, yet another layer of cruelty. And even if the Palestinians aren’t what keeps you awake at night, we should be clear that what Israel is establishing here in terms of undermining the fundamentals of global principles of humanitarian assistance should matter to everyone, just as the way Israel has used AI — Lavender, they called it — robotics in such appalling ways in their strikes in Gaza, and just as genocidal actions and narratives have been normalized. We have to bring an end to it. You’re about to hear the horrors of what is going on on the ground. Everyone must redouble their efforts to end this. Stop genocide, end apartheid, sanctions now.
AMY GOODMAN: Daniel Levy, I want to thank you for being with us, president of the U.S./Middle East Project, former Israeli peace negotiator under Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin.
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British Surgeon in Gaza Reports on Rafah Massacre as Dozens of Palestinians Killed Waiting for Aid
June 02, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/2/g ... transcript
Health officials and witnesses in Gaza say at least 31 people were killed Sunday when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds headed to an Israeli-controlled aid distribution point near Rafah. Over 170 people were wounded. Israel denied responsibility. Dr. Victoria Rose, a volunteer surgeon in Gaza who treated some of the massacre’s survivors, decries the ongoing violence of the Israeli military upon the besieged territory’s civilian population. “There are hundreds and thousands of children needlessly dying, children being blown up, children being starved and children dying of otherwise preventable illnesses … it’s a mass destruction of an entire population, and we can’t stand by and let this happen any longer.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.
Health officials and witnesses in Gaza say at least 31 people were killed Sunday when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds headed to an Israeli-controlled aid distribution point near Rafah. Over 170 people were wounded. Israel has denied responsibility. This is a Palestinian woman named Asmaa Abu Salah speaking in a hospital room next to her brother-in-law, who had been shot while trying to get aid.
ASMAA ABU SALAH: [translated] You can see his condition. He’s between life and death. He went for food and drinks for his children. His children need food. They say, “We want food, Dad.” This is the most difficult word. As you can see, here he is.
AMY GOODMAN: The attack came a day after the U.N. humanitarian agency described Gaza as “the hungriest place on Earth” and accused Israel of, quote, “drip feeding food into an area on the verge of catastrophic hunger,” unquote.
We’re joined in Gaza now by two guests. We begin with Dr. Victoria Rose, a British senior plastic and reconstructive surgeon with the National Health Service in Britain, who’s volunteered in three medical missions to Gaza since October 7, 2023. She’s joining us now from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where she’s been treating patients injured in the attack near that aid distribution center in Rafah.
Dr. Rose, thank you for joining us again. Can you explain what the injuries were, who you saw that came out of that attack, as people were told by quadcopters to go to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to get aid?
DR. VICTORIA ROSE: So, it apparently started very early in the morning, because we woke up to it. What had happened is the center doesn’t open until — I think it’s 7:00 or 8:00, and a lot of the Palestinians had tried to get there as early as they could to get to the front of the queue, so that the crowds were gathering at about 2 a.m. There was apparently shooting of the crowds, as they were unable to control them. And then we started to receive the casualties here at Nasser from about 9:00 ’til about 12:00. We received 28 people who were dead, and then a further five died in the emergency department. And then we had 200 people with gunshot wounds, mainly to their abdomen and upper body, but we are still today working through some of the lower limb injuries from gunshot wounds.
We’re not actually that near this GHF aid distribution center. It’s at Rafah. And we know that the ICRC and MSF Belgium field hospitals are closer than Nasser, and they did take a lot of the casualties, as well. In fact, we’re still very much on the edge of the red zone, so to get to us from al-Mawasi is quite an undertaking. So, the people that did make it to us sort of risked their lives to get to us as it is.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about how the food crisis, the level of hunger in starvation in Gaza is making it harder for the wounded to heal, or the condition of the people, even those that are shot?
DR. VICTORIA ROSE: Yes. So, malnutrition takes on very quickly. You notice it immediately with muscle wasting and fat reserve loss. In the children we’re seeing, they’re much smaller than their Western counterparts. But wound healing is an essential — it requires essential nutrients and vitamins. So, if you’re not getting those in your diet, your cell turnover slows, and you can’t actually heal. And we’re definitely seeing that, particularly in the children.
Some of the wounds we see are quite dirty. They’ve been inflicted by bomb injuries. They’re often being bombed in their tents. Obviously, there’s no good sanitation here, and the [inaudible] is contaminated. So they’re dirty wounds to start with. And what we’re finding is we’re trying to clean them. We’re doing what we would call a debridement, which is removing all the unhealthy tissue, and we’re washing them. And infection is setting in almost immediately. And that is another issue of malnutrition, in that your immune system is immediately depressed, and you do not have the power to fight off simple infections, that coupled with the fact that we are out of medication here. We only have three types of antibiotic left. We have — 47% of our essential drug list here at Nasser is completely out of stock. So we don’t actually have the medicines we need to treat these infections, and the population don’t have the reserves they need to fight these infections.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about, since you’ve been on three missions there since October 2023, how difficult is it to get into Gaza to do this lifesaving work?
DR. VICTORIA ROSE: It’s virtually impossible at the moment. Since the Rafah border closed in May of last year, all entry and exit into Gaza is controlled by COGAT. They’re the coordination of activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. They’re a branch of, essentially, the IDF. And they denote who to can come in and who can leave. They’ve set out a huge number of regulations about traveling into Gaza. And as it stands now, you are only allowed in if you stay for a minimum of one month. You are only allowed to bring one suitcase with you that weighs 23 kilograms. You have to have your own evacuation plan, which means that you have to have a safe house in Gaza, and you have to have a driver 24 hours a day at your disposal. You also have to have your own satellite phone, Garmin. And right now you have to bring all of your own food for the month that you’re in and all your own water for three days. So, it’s really quite difficult to get in.
There used to be 25 seats on the bus, and the bus would come in on a Tuesday and then come in on a Thursday, and the exit would be the same day. What we’ve seen since the ceasefire broke down is the constant canceling of the convoys and denial of entry. So, when you apply for a seat on the convoy, you’re given access or approval by the WHO and the United Nations two weeks before the convoy leaves, and then COGAT get the final say the night before you go. So, we will fly to Amman. We know that the WHO and the United Nations have placed us in hospitals in Gaza and are aware of what they’re doing. And then, at some point the night before we’re about to get on the bus, we are given an approval or a denial. Our entire team from IDEALS charity was denied entry in February with no explanation. But luckily, when we came back in May, we split into smaller groups, and we’ve managed to get in this time.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to finally ask you about the MSF report that came out yesterday, Médecins Sans Frontières, Doctors Without Borders, the humanitarian aid site, when the people were told by quadcopters, “Go get food at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Rafah,” and then, as they moved in, they were shot. It quotes 24-year-old Mohammad Daghmeh saying, “I was shot at 3:10 a.m. As we were trapped, I bled constantly until 5 a.m. There were many other men with me. One of them tried to get me out. He was shot in the head and died on my chest. We had gone there for nothing but food — just to survive, like everyone else.” How typical is this, Dr. Victoria Rose?
DR. VICTORIA ROSE: That’s the same story that I’ve heard from two patients that I’ve treated today, that they were just going to get food and that they were shot at as they were trying to get away. It’s exactly the same story.
AMY GOODMAN: What would change the situation on the ground? You’ve come from Britain. The prime minister of Britain, Starmer, Canada, France, they have said they’re talking about some kind of embargo on Israel, but that hasn’t happened.
DR. VICTORIA ROSE: I think we need it now. I think what’s going on here is a humanitarian crisis. There are hundreds and thousands of children needlessly dying, children being blown up, children being starved and children dying of otherwise preventable illnesses if this war wasn’t going on. This is not a targeting of a terrorist organization. It’s a mass destruction of an entire population, and we can’t stand by and let this happen any longer. It’s unimaginable to think how much worse this is going to get if we don’t do something now.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Victoria Rose, thank you for being with us, British surgeon at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza.
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Harvard Commencement Speakers: Despite Crackdown, “Students Will Keep Speaking Up” for Palestine
June 02, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/2/u ... transcript
Zehra Imam, commencement speaker for Harvard Divinity School, where she spoke out in support of Palestine.
It’s graduation season in the United States, and many brave students are taking the opportunity to demonstrate support for Palestinian rights despite an ongoing campus crackdown on pro-Palestine speech. We play excerpts from commencement and graduation addresses at MIT and Harvard and are joined by a student who spoke at Harvard Divinity School’s graduation ceremony. Zehra Imam, a Muslim associate chaplain at MIT, recounts the collaborative, interfaith process of writing her speech with Christian and Jewish classmates and explains why she decided to quote students from Gaza in her address. “This is a moment that calls for courage,” Imam says.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.
We end today’s show looking at the university protest movement nationwide as students deliver commencement speeches over the weekend, many focusing their remarks on denouncing Israel’s relentless war on Gaza and their university’s complicity in attempting to silence their voices. On Friday, the Indian American class president at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Megha Vemuri, was barred from attending her graduation ceremony, after she gave a commencement speech on Friday — on Thursday, when she wore a red-and-white keffiyeh and said MIT students would never support a genocide, praising them for continuing to protest despite quote, “threats, intimidation and suppression coming from all directions, especially,” she said, “your own university officials.” This is part of her speech.
MEGHA VEMURI: The Israeli occupation forces are the only foreign military that MIT has research ties with. This means that Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people is not only aided and abetted by our country, but our school. As scientists, engineers, academics and leaders, we have a commitment to support life, support aid efforts and call for an arms embargo and keep demanding now, as alumni, that MIT cuts the ties.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, at Harvard University, down the road in Cambridge, faculty joined students in calling for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza. This is professor of law Andrew Crespo addressing the 2025 Harvard Law School graduating class last week, commending students for standing up to the Trump administration’s crackdown on universities and education.
ANDREW MANUEL CRESPO: In an endless barrage, our government has tried to crush Harvard University, the very symbol of higher education in the world, and, more simply than that, our home. Our scientists and international students have been taken hostage, our research bankrupted, our community terrorized, all in an effort to try to change the way that we teach, the questions we ask and the answers we offer. From climate change to vaccines to the study of race and inequality in our country’s past and present, they want us to shut up, or, worse, they want us to say only what they want to hear. This, too, is what authoritarianism looks like. In the face of it, fear is rational, but courage is essential. And to your great credit, you, the class of 2025, have taught us time and again what true courage looks like.
AMY GOODMAN: Harvard Law School professor Andrew Crespo also criticized his own university’s response to the wave of pro-Palestine peaceful protests on campus.
ANDREW MANUEL CRESPO: We, your university, have not always learned well the lessons you were trying to teach. Harvard deserves praise for taking a stand to defend its academic independence. It is just as important for Harvard to use that independence to protect the academic freedoms, including the rights to study, publish, teach and, yes, protest of everyone on our campus without exception, especially when our messages are politically inconvenient. In this respect, whether in denying degrees to peaceful protesters or suspending hundreds of students and some teachers from our libraries, or firing the faculty directors of our Center for Middle Eastern Studies in what The New York Times called, quote-unquote, “an offering to the Trump administration,” I fear sometimes our university has too often exhibited acquiescence when courage was called for. Sooner rather than later, I am confident we will learn the lessons you tried to teach us, for our own sake and for the sake of this democracy.
AMY GOODMAN: Harvard Law professor Andrew Crespo was speaking after winning the 2025 Albert M. Sacks-Paul A. Freund Award for Teaching Excellence at Harvard. He was addressing the graduating class of the Harvard Law School.
In a minute, we’ll be joined by Zehra Imam, a new graduate of the Harvard Divinity School, where she delivered the commencement address last week. She’s also a Muslim associate chaplain at MIT. She spoke out in support of Palestine in her remarks.
ZEHRA IMAM: Class of 2025, Palestine is waiting for us to arrive. And you must be courageous enough to rise to the call, because Palestine will keep showing up in our living rooms until we are ready to meet its gaze.
AMY GOODMAN: Zehra Imam was wearing a keffiyeh on her head. She held a Palestinian flag as she addressed the commencement ceremony at Harvard Divinity School. Zehra Imam joins us now for more. She’s also a Muslim associate chaplain at MIT, just down the road.
Zehra, congratulations on your graduation from Harvard Divinity School. Can you elaborate on your comments?
ZEHRA IMAM: Yeah. First, thanks for having me on the show, Amy.
What I was talking about in my speech is the fact that this is a moment that calls for courage, not just on part of the student body, but the administration and all college campuses, beyond — Harvard and beyond. We are seeing that last year Alan Garber got booed at commencement, and this year he got a standing ovation for celebrating international students. But what if those international students are Palestinian, and they come to a place like Harvard, where, you know, I took a class called — on Israel-Palestine, and that class no longer exists at Harvard? I also went to Palestine through Harvard Divinity School. That program no longer exists at Harvard Divinity School. The three teachers who taught that class are no longer at Harvard. So, what kind of a place is Harvard for its Palestinian students who are coming in and for its pro-Palestinian students who are protesting at Harvard? So, that’s what I was calling attention to.
I was also calling attention to the fact that I have worked with students in Gaza who I was in conversation with as I was working on this speech, and they are living their history’s worst nightmares. And there are parts of the speech that I didn’t even put in that I want to share right now, which are that I felt truly that I’m in touch with the Anne Franks of our time, but we can still change the ending. And I say that because just yesterday I saw Anne Frank’s great cousin come on a video, and he called for the Jewish community, for the Germans or the international community to stop the war crimes that are happening and taking place in Gaza and all across Palestine. So, that’s what I was calling attention to in bringing up Palestine in my speech.
AMY GOODMAN: Zehra, you wrote your speech along with two other students, one Christian, the other Jewish? You are Muslim?
ZEHRA IMAM: Correct, and we each wrote our respective parts. We each gave input to one another. We had other students look over the speech. I personally not only brought in students from — I had a lot of quotes from students from Gaza that, you know, some I brought in, some I couldn’t. But I was in conversation. But, yeah, it was a group effort, not because we agreed with everything we were saying, but because it was important to be in solidarity with one another in a moment when the world is extremely divided. And I think we wanted to show what it means to be in community with one another. So, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: So, let me ask you — you’re also an associate chaplain at MIT. I wanted to get your comment on the Indian American class president at MIT, Megha Vemuri, who was barred from attending her graduation ceremony after she gave a commencement speech the day before around Palestine. Your thoughts?
ZEHRA IMAM: I think Megha is incredibly brave, and as are all the students at MIT and on college campuses who are standing up for Palestine. Yeah, everything she said really speaks to the heart and soul of the student movements, which are going to be undeterred. And that was clear in her speech. Students will keep speaking up for Palestine and for liberation across college campuses. So, I am really proud of Megha for having — finding the right words and really being very courageous.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you for being with us. Did you get your diploma after you gave your commencement address, Zehra Imam?
ZEHRA IMAM: I did, you know, and I — so, I mean, I have it so far, so I don’t have any —
AMY GOODMAN: Well, even though Megha —
ZEHRA IMAM: — haven’t faced any challenges with that yet.
AMY GOODMAN: Even though Megha Vemuri was not allowed to attend her graduation, MIT did bestow upon her her diploma, unlike NYU, that took away the diploma of a young student who spoke out in his graduation address. That does it for our show. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.
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Re: U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
by admin » Thu Jun 05, 2025 3:13 am
Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 04, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/4/headlines
Israel Kills 95 Palestinians Across Gaza in a Day; 18 Killed in Bombing of School Turned Shelter
Jun 04, 2025
Officials in Gaza say Israeli attacks over the past day have killed at least 95 Palestinians and injured 440 others. Among the dead are 18 people, including children, killed when Israel bombed a school housing displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis. The airstrike came hours after Israeli planes dropped leaflets ordering people in Khan Younis to leave their homes and head west.
Alaa Ali: “Honestly, there isn’t a single centimeter in the Gaza Strip that’s truly safe. But some areas are relatively safer than others. The Israelis call it a safe zone, but in reality it’s not. Every day or two, you see them hitting a tent here or a house there, even a person in a car. There’s no safe place in this country.”
Separately, an Israeli strike hit the roof of an administrative building at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, setting off fear and confusion among medical staff and patients.
Shadowy Gaza “Humanitarian” Group Suspends Operations After Massacres at Aid Sites
Jun 04, 2025
The U.S.- and Israeli-backed private organization Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it was suspending aid distribution for one day to address security concerns. Israel’s military warned Palestinians that roads leading to the aid distribution centers will be considered “combat zones.” This comes after three days of attacks on Palestinians at aid sites that killed 102 people and left nearly 500 others wounded. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for a prompt and impartial investigation into each of the attacks, which he says could constitute a grave breach of international law and a war crime. This is a spokesperson for the U.N. human rights chief.
Jeremy Laurence: “The willful impediment of access to food and other life-sustaining relief supplies for civilians may constitute a war crime. The threat of starvation, together with 20 months of killing of civilians and destruction on a massive scale, repeated forced displacements, intolerable, dehumanizing rhetoric and threats by Israel’s leadership to empty the Strip of its population, also constitute elements of the most serious crimes under international law.”
Israel Resumes Attacks on Syrian Military Infrastructure with Daraa Airstrikes
Jun 04, 2025
Syrian officials have condemned Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian province of Daraa, which they say caused “heavy human and material losses.” Israel launched the strikes Tuesday after officials said they tracked two projectiles fired from Syria into open ground in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. After the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel waged a monthslong campaign of airstrikes that destroyed much of Syria’s military infrastructure.
ICE Detains Wife and Five Children of Man Who Attacked Colorado March for Israeli Hostages
Jun 04, 2025
Federal immigration authorities have detained the wife and five children of the suspect accused of using a makeshift flamethrower and another incendiary device to attack a crowd of people taking part in a weekly walk to honor Israeli hostages in Gaza. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday they face expedited deportation after the Trump administration revoked their visas. Noem also said DHS is investigating whether the family knew of the attack or provided any support.
Judge Enjoins Trump Administration from Denying Gender-Affirming Care to Trans Prisoners
Jun 04, 2025
Federal prisons must keep providing gender-affirming hormone care and protections to transgender people, after a federal judge on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction blocking one of Trump’s anti-trans executive orders. The ACLU welcomed the “critical ruling,” saying in a statement, “This administration’s cruelty towards transgender people disregards their rights under the Constitution. The denial of medically necessary health care, including gender-affirming health care, to people in prison is a violation of their fundamental constitutional rights.”
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“Death Traps”: U.S.-Israeli Aid Scheme Paused in Gaza After 100+ Palestinians Killed While Waiting for Food
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 04, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/4/i ... transcript
Officials in Gaza say over 100 Palestinians have been killed during recent Israeli attacks on people waiting at aid sites. An additional 500 are wounded. Following the series of deadly attacks, the shadowy U.S.-Israeli humanitarian aid operation is shutting down for a day, and Israel’s military warned Palestinians that roads leading to the aid distribution centers will be considered “combat zones.” The United Nations has called for a prompt and impartial investigation into each of the attacks. The U.S.-Israeli aid system is “more about the humiliation and the control of the people” than feeding Palestinians, says Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam’s food security and livelihoods coordinator in Gaza, who joins us from Gaza City.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Officials in Gaza say Israeli attacks over the past day have killed at least 95 Palestinians and injured 440 others. At least 18 of the dead are in Khan Younis following an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians.
Meanwhile, the new shadowy U.S.-, Israeli-backed aid operation has suspended aid distribution for a day to address what it called, quote, “renovation, reorganization and efficiency improvement work,” unquote. This comes after Palestinian officials accused Israel of repeatedly attacking Palestinians headed to the aid sites. The attacks killed 102 people, left nearly 500 others wounded.
The dead included a mother named Reem Zaidan, who was shot while waiting for aid in western Rafah. On Tuesday, her children and other mourners gathered for her funeral procession in Khan Younis. This is Reem Zaidan’s 16-year-old daughter Tahrir.
TAHRIR ZAIDAN: [translated] In the highest paradise, mom — we’ll see her in the highest paradise, God willing. … She put on her abaya and veil, took a sack of flour and a bag with her, hoping to fill them with canned food. For five days, she’s been going for nothing.
AMY GOODMAN: And this is Reem Zaidan’s 15-year-old son Ahmed describing how his mother was fatally shot while trying to get aid.
AHMED ZAIDAN: [translated] We haven’t eaten in two months. Everything has been under siege. Of course, we were going to go get aid. Today, my mother was telling my brother, “Lean over. Lower your head. Do what I’m doing.” My brother turned his head. Then a bullet went into her head.
AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Gaza City, where we’re joined by Mahmoud Alsaqqa, the Oxfam food security and livelihoods coordinator in Gaza.
Welcome back to Democracy Now! In a moment, we’re going to be going to the ship that’s trying to make its way to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza. We’ll be speaking with the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. But can you, Mahmoud, tell us what’s happening on the ground and the latest with this closing of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation set up by Israel, backed by the U.S., that took over the, what, three or four sites — it built them — instead of the 400 that were on the ground around Gaza?
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having me again.
In fact, the situation on the ground is extremely chaotic. And it’s as we have warned before about this, especially with this aid distribution mechanism. In fact, what is happening in these new militarized distribution points, it’s more about the humiliation and the control of the people. We are seeing the people — thousands of people are standing from the early hours in the morning to secure something to their starving children. And in such cases, it’s rare even to get actually the supplies. And now they are facing the issue of returning home alive. So, we are considering these points as death traps, and we are seeing shooting of starving people near to these sites, especially what’s happened in Rafah, as per your reporting, deaths. It’s horrifying, and many people have lost their lives in these sites.
So, these sites are controlled by private actors. It’s located in military zones, in military conflict areas. So, they didn’t even consider any things related to that, to the human beings and dignity. And what was exposed — expected to have from these sites is contradicts again and nothing achieved in terms of addressing the high and the overwhelming needs of the people here in Gaza.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Mahmoud, the other organizations, aid organizations, that have been on the ground since this conflict began, has the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation had any kind of communication or coordination with the existing groups?
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: No, no. You know, our position from the first, that we were against such a mechanism, because we have the system in place. We have the system of the U.N. and the international NGOs that exist in place and which has proven its effectiveness since the 19 months, and even the improvement was noticed during the ceasefire period, where we were able to reach more and more vulnerable people. And this is vulnerable people who are not accessing even this distribution — the new GHO distribution points. And we have this multisectoral assistance. What we are having now in these distribution points is just food, and the people in need for a multisectoral assistance that we were even and we were trying to provide, this including the medical supplies, the clean water, shelter materials and all these things. And these things are now ignored within this mechanism. And we are trying all the time to abide to the international humanitarian law and to preserving the dignity of those people, which is — this mechanism strips the people of dignity, and this is why we are seeing all this humiliation of the people.
In summary, this mechanism is dehumanizing the people, and it’s really dangerous. People are losing their lives there. And it’s ineffective in reaching the people, especially the vulnerable people. And we have our mechanism in place and active, so there’s no need even for this mechanism at all.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And is Israel allowing any supplies in for the existing mechanism of aid groups in Gaza?
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: Yeah, as you know, after the international community pressure on Israel after 12 weeks of a full blockade, on the 21st of March, they allowed a trickle of aid to come in. But it still have this over control on this aid that are coming, and it’s very limited quantities that are coming. And even it’s limited for food supplies and some nutrition items, where the need is much more than this. On average, what we are receiving in Gaza Strip right now in this mechanism is around 50 trucks, 60 trucks, or even less, more. But it’s nothing compared to what we should have, and it’s not addressing the huge needs of the people here in the Gaza Strip.
So, even with these mechanisms, we are still seeing this happening, and the people are starving. And this is the question, that: Where is the problem? The problem is with this mechanism, is that it’s not efficient or effective. We need to have a smooth supply of the aid in order to be able to provide the services. And we succeeded in doing so in a previous period of time.
AMY GOODMAN: Mahmoud, the U.N. Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has reported that the number of Gaza’s children killed or injured by Israel since October 2023 has surpassed 50,000. In a statement, UNICEF wrote, “How many more dead girls and boys will it take? What level of horror must be livestreamed before the international community fully steps up, uses its influence, and takes bold, decisive action to force the end of this ruthless killing of children?” As we speak, people in London are forming a red line. They’re holding red banners fully around the British Parliament. While Britain and France and Canada have said they’re going to crack down on relations with Israel, these people are demanding that they stop arming Israel. Can you talk about what’s happening with the children on the ground at this point?
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: Yeah, the situation is deteriorating over time, especially with the vulnerable groups, including the children, you know? And according to the last food security and nutrition report, that we are expecting more worsening in the health of children, who are more affected by this shortages of all supplies in the Gaza Strip. And this is increasing, because we are seeing more displacement orders are in place, more intensifying of the military operations, and more displacement for the people to crowded people, so — to crowded places, so we are seeing the outbreak of diseases. And the health from — the health, public health, is deteriorating, and the health sector is collapsing, so we are expecting worse for the vulnerable groups, including the children.
So, this is why we have to save lives. We must go back to our work, reopening all the crossings, and lift the movement and the fuel restrictions for the people. And what we are seeing around the world nowadays, it’s really important and should be continued in order to hold Israel accountable to their — what they are doing right now, and also to reach this permanent ceasefire. Nowadays we are talking about permanent ceasefire, when we do not need a proposal to have such a few days and return back to the same area. We need a permanent ceasefire, so the people can breathe again and at least to have — to be able to recover from all these things that they are encountering and facing right now.
AMY GOODMAN: Mahmoud Alsaqqa, I want to thank you so much for being with us, Oxfam’s food security and livelihoods coordinator, speaking to us from Gaza.
When we come back, we go to the high seas to Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who’s attempting to sail to Gaza with about a dozen other people on a humanitarian aid boat organized by the Freedom Flotilla. She’ll join us from the boat. Back in 30 seconds.
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Greta Thunberg Speaks from Aid Ship Heading to Gaza Despite Israeli Threats: It’s My Moral Obligation
June 04, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/4/g ... transcript
As Gaza faces over three months of Israeli blockade, a group of 12 activists is sailing to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid. The Madleen ship was launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and initially planned to sail from Malta last month, but the group’s ship was damaged in a drone attack. The new mission includes the renowned Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who speaks with Democracy Now! live from the Madleen. “We deem the risk of silence and the risk of inaction to be so much more deadly than this mission,” says Thunberg.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
As Gaza faces more than three months of a near-total Israeli blockade, activists are heading there now on a ship to deliver humanitarian aid. The boat is called the Madleen, named after Gaza’s first fisherwoman, who ran her father’s fishing business after he was injured in a 2009 Israeli attack. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition initially planned to sail from Malta last month, but their ship was damaged after it was bombed by drones in international waters. At Sunday’s launch of the Madleen from the Italian port of Catania, actor Liam Cunningham, known for his role in the series Game of Thrones, spoke out in support of the effort.
LIAM CUNNINGHAM: My name is Liam. I’m from Ireland. The reason I’m here, as far as I’m concerned, the heart and soul of humanity is in Gaza. For me, this attack, this genocide, is not just on Palestinians. It is on the whole human race. These wonderful, brave people who are setting off on this boat, they are heroes. And also, the people of Gaza for the last 600 days are heroes. They are — in my mind, they will always be heroes.
AMY GOODMAN: A group of 12 activists are carrying the aid for Gaza, including the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who will join us from the Madleen ship in a minute. She spoke Sunday at the launch.
GRETA THUNBERG: A month after our latest attempt to go on with this mission, the boat was bombed twice. All evidence suggests Israel. And we are doing this because we have to keep our promise to the Palestinians to do everything in our power to protest against the genocide and to try to open up a humanitarian corridor.
AMY GOODMAN: Since setting sail, passengers on the flotilla have faced many threats, including from U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who wrote on X, quote, “Hope Greta and her friends can swim!” unquote. The Gaza Freedom Flotilla has also been shadowed by at least one military helicopter and have reported drones circulating the ship. This is Thiago Ávila.
THIAGO ÁVILA: Hello, everyone. This is a new alert. We can clearly see a drone right now to our left. It’s gaining on us a little bit. We share this alert, second alert of the night, the third day of our journey to Gaza to break the siege and create a people’s humanitarian corridor aboard the Madleen. Please share our location. We’ll be sending the exact coordinates.
AMY GOODMAN: In 2010, Israel conducted a deadly raid on another Gaza-bound aid ship, the Mavi Marmara. Israeli commandos stormed the boat in international waters, killing nine people. A 10th died after four years in a coma.
For more, we’re joined from the international waters by Greta Thunberg, the internationally renowned Swedish climate activist known for inspiring the global youth climate strike. In 2019, she received the Right Livelihood Award. She’s also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Greta is speaking to us aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s vessel Madleen, which is on this voyage from Sicily to Gaza, again, carrying lifesaving aid in an attempt to break Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip.
Greta, it’s really something to see you on that ship right now. Can you tell us why you’re taking this journey, extremely dangerous, and how you’re planning to challenge the Israeli blockade?
GRETA THUNBERG: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, as you said, we are doing this mission following one month after our last attempt. Boat Conscience was bombed and disabled. So, that’s why we are trying again, because we cannot afford to give up. There is simply too much at stake. And in times of injustice, as we are seeing now the genocide and blockade happening, we have to do everything we can to demand an end to these atrocities and war crimes committed by Israel.
And for me personally, I happen to have a platform for some reason, and then it is my moral obligation to use that platform. And if my presence on this boat can make a difference, if that can show in any way that the world has not forgotten about Palestine, and to try once again to attempt to break the siege and open up a humanitarian corridor and deliver the extremely needed humanitarian aid, then that is a risk I am willing to take.
And it’s something that we just simply have to do. We cannot just sit, sit around and do nothing and watch this like live-streamed genocide unfold in front of our very eyes. So we are doing this because we are human beings who care about justice. And when our complicit governments fail to step up, it falls on us, unfortunately, to do so.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Greta, could you talk about how you see the issue of Palestinian freedom connecting to or intersecting with the issue that you’re best known for, which is climate change activism?
GRETA THUNBERG: Yeah. For me, there is no way of distinguishing the two. We cannot have climate justice without social justice. The reason why I am a climate activist is not because I want to protect trees. I’m a climate activist because I care about human and planetary well-being, and those are extremely interlinked. For example, when we see the genocide in Gaza, of course, there are some very obvious links, that ecocide, environmental destruction is a very common method used in war and to oppress people.
But also, it should be much simpler than that. No matter what the cause of the suffering is, whether that is CO2, whether that is bombs, whether that is state repression or other forms of violence, we have to stand up against that source of suffering. And if we pretend to care about the environment, if we pretend to care about the climate and our children’s future, without seeing and acknowledging and fighting against the suffering of all marginalized people today, then that is an extremely racist approach to justice that excludes the majority of the world’s population.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what is the mood aboard the ship? You have participants from Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, and you yourself are Swedish. What’s the mood there?
GRETA THUNBERG: The mood on board the ship is — I would say that our spirits are very high, and we are very determined to continue. So far, we have won over one of the major predicted obstacles, which is to be stuck in port due to the bureaucratic warfare that has been very strong, especially in the past. And the fact that we have gotten over that and that we are out sailing now and that we have gotten quite a far bit is already a victory in itself.
And, of course, this mission is — includes many risks, and we have done many risk assessments. But, of course, we deem the risk of silence and the risk of inaction to be so much more deadly than this mission, of course. And we are 12 peaceful volunteers who are not carrying weapons. We are carrying food, medical supplies and sanitary products and other very needed humanitarian aid into Gaza following the blockade. And we will meet whatever is thrown at us with nonviolence in any scenario. So, we are trying to prepare and to maximize our safety and the success of this mission as much as we can.
AMY GOODMAN: Greta, as you attempt to bring in baby formula, medical kits, flour, prosthetics for kids with amputations, the Israeli military has threatened to block the Freedom Flotilla. The Israeli army says it’s prepared to raid your ship. We know what happened to the Mavi Marmara with the Israeli raid and the killing of nine activists on board. Ultimately, a 10th died. So, are you seeing drones? How are you prepared to deal?
GRETA THUNBERG: Yeah, yeah, we are seeing drones. Last night, there were two different moments where there were drones circulating above us. And we are — we have safety procedures that we will use, and we have different scenarios that we are prepared for to try to maximize our safety in a nonviolent way. So, we are trying to do our very best. And it shows quite a bit that peaceful volunteers who are carrying humanitarian aid necessary for survival is being threatened to be raided, intercepted or attacked. I think that says quite a lot about the priorities and approaches of Israel right now.
But we must also remember that this mission is not about us. It is not about the voyage or the people on board. This mission is about Palestine. It is about the genocide, the occupation, ethnic cleansing and the other methods of war and oppression that are being used by Israel against the Palestinians. And we do not only need humanitarian aid to be let into Gaza. We do not only need a ceasefire. We need an end to the occupation.
AMY GOODMAN: How do you plan to break the military blockade around Gaza?
GRETA THUNBERG: Sorry. What did you say?
AMY GOODMAN: How do you plan to break the military blockade around Gaza?
GRETA THUNBERG: We are planning to continue sailing until we cannot sail anymore. It is very difficult to predict what scenario it will be, but as far as we know, we are planning to continue, to continue as we are now.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what is your message to folks around the world, especially to young people who, throughout —
GRETA THUNBERG: Yeah.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: — the advanced countries, seem to have much more interest and dedication to ending the war in Gaza?
GRETA THUNBERG: My message is that right now international law is failing us. International institutions, our governments are failing us. Media, our companies are all failing us. Or “failing us” is a diplomatic way of saying that our system seems to be designed in a way that is built upon exploitation and oppression of people. And so, there’s no one to turn to. There’s no one we can turn to to rescue the situation, but it falls on us to step up, to continue flooding the streets, to continue organizing, boycotting, to speak up on all platforms to try to send a clear message that we will not stand for what is happening right now.
AMY GOODMAN: According to Al Jazeera, Greta, they’re saying, according to flight radar, which tracks aircraft movements, an Israel-made Hellenic Coast Guard drone, IAI Heron UAV, hovered over the Madleen ship. The drone’s deployment was confirmed by the Greek Ministry of Defense. We’re speaking to you from the United States, where the —
GRETA THUNBERG: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: — South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham wrote on X, “Hope Greta and her friends can swim!” Your response?
GRETA THUNBERG: We can swim very well. It says a lot about their priorities, that in the face of genocide and systematic starvation of 2 million people, lawmakers, elected officials, whose responsibility should be to serve the people and to protect the people, that they, rather than ending their complicity in genocide and the massive slaughtering of civilians, are focusing on mocking people who are at least trying to do their bit. I think that says everything we need to know about their priorities.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, your message to Palestinians who perhaps have read about or heard about your voyage, are awaiting your arrival? What is your message to them?
GRETA THUNBERG: My message to them would be that we stand behind you in every step of the way. We are standing in solidarity with you. We see you. And I am also — my deepest apologies on behalf of the outside world, especially the Western world, that we continue to betray you and that more people are not stepping up. But I promise that at least we here will try our very best to stand up for you —
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Greta —
GRETA THUNBERG: — as well, and to support you in your struggle.
AMY GOODMAN: Greta, we wish you all safety. Greta Thunberg, internationally —
GRETA THUNBERG: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: — renowned Swedish climate activist who inspired the global youth climate strike. She’s won the Right Livelihood Award, has also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was speaking to us aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s vessel Madleen, which is on a voyage from Sicily to Gaza carrying lifesaving aid in an attempt to break Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip. It’s day three of what they expect to be a seven-day trip. We’ll continue to follow it.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 04, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/4/headlines
Israel Kills 95 Palestinians Across Gaza in a Day; 18 Killed in Bombing of School Turned Shelter
Jun 04, 2025
Officials in Gaza say Israeli attacks over the past day have killed at least 95 Palestinians and injured 440 others. Among the dead are 18 people, including children, killed when Israel bombed a school housing displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis. The airstrike came hours after Israeli planes dropped leaflets ordering people in Khan Younis to leave their homes and head west.
Alaa Ali: “Honestly, there isn’t a single centimeter in the Gaza Strip that’s truly safe. But some areas are relatively safer than others. The Israelis call it a safe zone, but in reality it’s not. Every day or two, you see them hitting a tent here or a house there, even a person in a car. There’s no safe place in this country.”
Separately, an Israeli strike hit the roof of an administrative building at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, setting off fear and confusion among medical staff and patients.
Shadowy Gaza “Humanitarian” Group Suspends Operations After Massacres at Aid Sites
Jun 04, 2025
The U.S.- and Israeli-backed private organization Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it was suspending aid distribution for one day to address security concerns. Israel’s military warned Palestinians that roads leading to the aid distribution centers will be considered “combat zones.” This comes after three days of attacks on Palestinians at aid sites that killed 102 people and left nearly 500 others wounded. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for a prompt and impartial investigation into each of the attacks, which he says could constitute a grave breach of international law and a war crime. This is a spokesperson for the U.N. human rights chief.
Jeremy Laurence: “The willful impediment of access to food and other life-sustaining relief supplies for civilians may constitute a war crime. The threat of starvation, together with 20 months of killing of civilians and destruction on a massive scale, repeated forced displacements, intolerable, dehumanizing rhetoric and threats by Israel’s leadership to empty the Strip of its population, also constitute elements of the most serious crimes under international law.”
Israel Resumes Attacks on Syrian Military Infrastructure with Daraa Airstrikes
Jun 04, 2025
Syrian officials have condemned Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian province of Daraa, which they say caused “heavy human and material losses.” Israel launched the strikes Tuesday after officials said they tracked two projectiles fired from Syria into open ground in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. After the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel waged a monthslong campaign of airstrikes that destroyed much of Syria’s military infrastructure.
ICE Detains Wife and Five Children of Man Who Attacked Colorado March for Israeli Hostages
Jun 04, 2025
Federal immigration authorities have detained the wife and five children of the suspect accused of using a makeshift flamethrower and another incendiary device to attack a crowd of people taking part in a weekly walk to honor Israeli hostages in Gaza. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday they face expedited deportation after the Trump administration revoked their visas. Noem also said DHS is investigating whether the family knew of the attack or provided any support.
Judge Enjoins Trump Administration from Denying Gender-Affirming Care to Trans Prisoners
Jun 04, 2025
Federal prisons must keep providing gender-affirming hormone care and protections to transgender people, after a federal judge on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction blocking one of Trump’s anti-trans executive orders. The ACLU welcomed the “critical ruling,” saying in a statement, “This administration’s cruelty towards transgender people disregards their rights under the Constitution. The denial of medically necessary health care, including gender-affirming health care, to people in prison is a violation of their fundamental constitutional rights.”
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“Death Traps”: U.S.-Israeli Aid Scheme Paused in Gaza After 100+ Palestinians Killed While Waiting for Food
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 04, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/4/i ... transcript
Officials in Gaza say over 100 Palestinians have been killed during recent Israeli attacks on people waiting at aid sites. An additional 500 are wounded. Following the series of deadly attacks, the shadowy U.S.-Israeli humanitarian aid operation is shutting down for a day, and Israel’s military warned Palestinians that roads leading to the aid distribution centers will be considered “combat zones.” The United Nations has called for a prompt and impartial investigation into each of the attacks. The U.S.-Israeli aid system is “more about the humiliation and the control of the people” than feeding Palestinians, says Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam’s food security and livelihoods coordinator in Gaza, who joins us from Gaza City.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Officials in Gaza say Israeli attacks over the past day have killed at least 95 Palestinians and injured 440 others. At least 18 of the dead are in Khan Younis following an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians.
Meanwhile, the new shadowy U.S.-, Israeli-backed aid operation has suspended aid distribution for a day to address what it called, quote, “renovation, reorganization and efficiency improvement work,” unquote. This comes after Palestinian officials accused Israel of repeatedly attacking Palestinians headed to the aid sites. The attacks killed 102 people, left nearly 500 others wounded.
The dead included a mother named Reem Zaidan, who was shot while waiting for aid in western Rafah. On Tuesday, her children and other mourners gathered for her funeral procession in Khan Younis. This is Reem Zaidan’s 16-year-old daughter Tahrir.
TAHRIR ZAIDAN: [translated] In the highest paradise, mom — we’ll see her in the highest paradise, God willing. … She put on her abaya and veil, took a sack of flour and a bag with her, hoping to fill them with canned food. For five days, she’s been going for nothing.
AMY GOODMAN: And this is Reem Zaidan’s 15-year-old son Ahmed describing how his mother was fatally shot while trying to get aid.
AHMED ZAIDAN: [translated] We haven’t eaten in two months. Everything has been under siege. Of course, we were going to go get aid. Today, my mother was telling my brother, “Lean over. Lower your head. Do what I’m doing.” My brother turned his head. Then a bullet went into her head.
AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Gaza City, where we’re joined by Mahmoud Alsaqqa, the Oxfam food security and livelihoods coordinator in Gaza.
Welcome back to Democracy Now! In a moment, we’re going to be going to the ship that’s trying to make its way to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza. We’ll be speaking with the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. But can you, Mahmoud, tell us what’s happening on the ground and the latest with this closing of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation set up by Israel, backed by the U.S., that took over the, what, three or four sites — it built them — instead of the 400 that were on the ground around Gaza?
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having me again.
In fact, the situation on the ground is extremely chaotic. And it’s as we have warned before about this, especially with this aid distribution mechanism. In fact, what is happening in these new militarized distribution points, it’s more about the humiliation and the control of the people. We are seeing the people — thousands of people are standing from the early hours in the morning to secure something to their starving children. And in such cases, it’s rare even to get actually the supplies. And now they are facing the issue of returning home alive. So, we are considering these points as death traps, and we are seeing shooting of starving people near to these sites, especially what’s happened in Rafah, as per your reporting, deaths. It’s horrifying, and many people have lost their lives in these sites.
So, these sites are controlled by private actors. It’s located in military zones, in military conflict areas. So, they didn’t even consider any things related to that, to the human beings and dignity. And what was exposed — expected to have from these sites is contradicts again and nothing achieved in terms of addressing the high and the overwhelming needs of the people here in Gaza.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Mahmoud, the other organizations, aid organizations, that have been on the ground since this conflict began, has the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation had any kind of communication or coordination with the existing groups?
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: No, no. You know, our position from the first, that we were against such a mechanism, because we have the system in place. We have the system of the U.N. and the international NGOs that exist in place and which has proven its effectiveness since the 19 months, and even the improvement was noticed during the ceasefire period, where we were able to reach more and more vulnerable people. And this is vulnerable people who are not accessing even this distribution — the new GHO distribution points. And we have this multisectoral assistance. What we are having now in these distribution points is just food, and the people in need for a multisectoral assistance that we were even and we were trying to provide, this including the medical supplies, the clean water, shelter materials and all these things. And these things are now ignored within this mechanism. And we are trying all the time to abide to the international humanitarian law and to preserving the dignity of those people, which is — this mechanism strips the people of dignity, and this is why we are seeing all this humiliation of the people.
In summary, this mechanism is dehumanizing the people, and it’s really dangerous. People are losing their lives there. And it’s ineffective in reaching the people, especially the vulnerable people. And we have our mechanism in place and active, so there’s no need even for this mechanism at all.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And is Israel allowing any supplies in for the existing mechanism of aid groups in Gaza?
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: Yeah, as you know, after the international community pressure on Israel after 12 weeks of a full blockade, on the 21st of March, they allowed a trickle of aid to come in. But it still have this over control on this aid that are coming, and it’s very limited quantities that are coming. And even it’s limited for food supplies and some nutrition items, where the need is much more than this. On average, what we are receiving in Gaza Strip right now in this mechanism is around 50 trucks, 60 trucks, or even less, more. But it’s nothing compared to what we should have, and it’s not addressing the huge needs of the people here in the Gaza Strip.
So, even with these mechanisms, we are still seeing this happening, and the people are starving. And this is the question, that: Where is the problem? The problem is with this mechanism, is that it’s not efficient or effective. We need to have a smooth supply of the aid in order to be able to provide the services. And we succeeded in doing so in a previous period of time.
AMY GOODMAN: Mahmoud, the U.N. Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has reported that the number of Gaza’s children killed or injured by Israel since October 2023 has surpassed 50,000. In a statement, UNICEF wrote, “How many more dead girls and boys will it take? What level of horror must be livestreamed before the international community fully steps up, uses its influence, and takes bold, decisive action to force the end of this ruthless killing of children?” As we speak, people in London are forming a red line. They’re holding red banners fully around the British Parliament. While Britain and France and Canada have said they’re going to crack down on relations with Israel, these people are demanding that they stop arming Israel. Can you talk about what’s happening with the children on the ground at this point?
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: Yeah, the situation is deteriorating over time, especially with the vulnerable groups, including the children, you know? And according to the last food security and nutrition report, that we are expecting more worsening in the health of children, who are more affected by this shortages of all supplies in the Gaza Strip. And this is increasing, because we are seeing more displacement orders are in place, more intensifying of the military operations, and more displacement for the people to crowded people, so — to crowded places, so we are seeing the outbreak of diseases. And the health from — the health, public health, is deteriorating, and the health sector is collapsing, so we are expecting worse for the vulnerable groups, including the children.
So, this is why we have to save lives. We must go back to our work, reopening all the crossings, and lift the movement and the fuel restrictions for the people. And what we are seeing around the world nowadays, it’s really important and should be continued in order to hold Israel accountable to their — what they are doing right now, and also to reach this permanent ceasefire. Nowadays we are talking about permanent ceasefire, when we do not need a proposal to have such a few days and return back to the same area. We need a permanent ceasefire, so the people can breathe again and at least to have — to be able to recover from all these things that they are encountering and facing right now.
AMY GOODMAN: Mahmoud Alsaqqa, I want to thank you so much for being with us, Oxfam’s food security and livelihoods coordinator, speaking to us from Gaza.
When we come back, we go to the high seas to Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who’s attempting to sail to Gaza with about a dozen other people on a humanitarian aid boat organized by the Freedom Flotilla. She’ll join us from the boat. Back in 30 seconds.
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Greta Thunberg Speaks from Aid Ship Heading to Gaza Despite Israeli Threats: It’s My Moral Obligation
June 04, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/4/g ... transcript
As Gaza faces over three months of Israeli blockade, a group of 12 activists is sailing to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid. The Madleen ship was launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and initially planned to sail from Malta last month, but the group’s ship was damaged in a drone attack. The new mission includes the renowned Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who speaks with Democracy Now! live from the Madleen. “We deem the risk of silence and the risk of inaction to be so much more deadly than this mission,” says Thunberg.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
As Gaza faces more than three months of a near-total Israeli blockade, activists are heading there now on a ship to deliver humanitarian aid. The boat is called the Madleen, named after Gaza’s first fisherwoman, who ran her father’s fishing business after he was injured in a 2009 Israeli attack. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition initially planned to sail from Malta last month, but their ship was damaged after it was bombed by drones in international waters. At Sunday’s launch of the Madleen from the Italian port of Catania, actor Liam Cunningham, known for his role in the series Game of Thrones, spoke out in support of the effort.
LIAM CUNNINGHAM: My name is Liam. I’m from Ireland. The reason I’m here, as far as I’m concerned, the heart and soul of humanity is in Gaza. For me, this attack, this genocide, is not just on Palestinians. It is on the whole human race. These wonderful, brave people who are setting off on this boat, they are heroes. And also, the people of Gaza for the last 600 days are heroes. They are — in my mind, they will always be heroes.
AMY GOODMAN: A group of 12 activists are carrying the aid for Gaza, including the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who will join us from the Madleen ship in a minute. She spoke Sunday at the launch.
GRETA THUNBERG: A month after our latest attempt to go on with this mission, the boat was bombed twice. All evidence suggests Israel. And we are doing this because we have to keep our promise to the Palestinians to do everything in our power to protest against the genocide and to try to open up a humanitarian corridor.
AMY GOODMAN: Since setting sail, passengers on the flotilla have faced many threats, including from U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who wrote on X, quote, “Hope Greta and her friends can swim!” unquote. The Gaza Freedom Flotilla has also been shadowed by at least one military helicopter and have reported drones circulating the ship. This is Thiago Ávila.
THIAGO ÁVILA: Hello, everyone. This is a new alert. We can clearly see a drone right now to our left. It’s gaining on us a little bit. We share this alert, second alert of the night, the third day of our journey to Gaza to break the siege and create a people’s humanitarian corridor aboard the Madleen. Please share our location. We’ll be sending the exact coordinates.
AMY GOODMAN: In 2010, Israel conducted a deadly raid on another Gaza-bound aid ship, the Mavi Marmara. Israeli commandos stormed the boat in international waters, killing nine people. A 10th died after four years in a coma.
For more, we’re joined from the international waters by Greta Thunberg, the internationally renowned Swedish climate activist known for inspiring the global youth climate strike. In 2019, she received the Right Livelihood Award. She’s also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Greta is speaking to us aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s vessel Madleen, which is on this voyage from Sicily to Gaza, again, carrying lifesaving aid in an attempt to break Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip.
Greta, it’s really something to see you on that ship right now. Can you tell us why you’re taking this journey, extremely dangerous, and how you’re planning to challenge the Israeli blockade?
GRETA THUNBERG: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, as you said, we are doing this mission following one month after our last attempt. Boat Conscience was bombed and disabled. So, that’s why we are trying again, because we cannot afford to give up. There is simply too much at stake. And in times of injustice, as we are seeing now the genocide and blockade happening, we have to do everything we can to demand an end to these atrocities and war crimes committed by Israel.
And for me personally, I happen to have a platform for some reason, and then it is my moral obligation to use that platform. And if my presence on this boat can make a difference, if that can show in any way that the world has not forgotten about Palestine, and to try once again to attempt to break the siege and open up a humanitarian corridor and deliver the extremely needed humanitarian aid, then that is a risk I am willing to take.
And it’s something that we just simply have to do. We cannot just sit, sit around and do nothing and watch this like live-streamed genocide unfold in front of our very eyes. So we are doing this because we are human beings who care about justice. And when our complicit governments fail to step up, it falls on us, unfortunately, to do so.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Greta, could you talk about how you see the issue of Palestinian freedom connecting to or intersecting with the issue that you’re best known for, which is climate change activism?
GRETA THUNBERG: Yeah. For me, there is no way of distinguishing the two. We cannot have climate justice without social justice. The reason why I am a climate activist is not because I want to protect trees. I’m a climate activist because I care about human and planetary well-being, and those are extremely interlinked. For example, when we see the genocide in Gaza, of course, there are some very obvious links, that ecocide, environmental destruction is a very common method used in war and to oppress people.
But also, it should be much simpler than that. No matter what the cause of the suffering is, whether that is CO2, whether that is bombs, whether that is state repression or other forms of violence, we have to stand up against that source of suffering. And if we pretend to care about the environment, if we pretend to care about the climate and our children’s future, without seeing and acknowledging and fighting against the suffering of all marginalized people today, then that is an extremely racist approach to justice that excludes the majority of the world’s population.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what is the mood aboard the ship? You have participants from Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, and you yourself are Swedish. What’s the mood there?
GRETA THUNBERG: The mood on board the ship is — I would say that our spirits are very high, and we are very determined to continue. So far, we have won over one of the major predicted obstacles, which is to be stuck in port due to the bureaucratic warfare that has been very strong, especially in the past. And the fact that we have gotten over that and that we are out sailing now and that we have gotten quite a far bit is already a victory in itself.
And, of course, this mission is — includes many risks, and we have done many risk assessments. But, of course, we deem the risk of silence and the risk of inaction to be so much more deadly than this mission, of course. And we are 12 peaceful volunteers who are not carrying weapons. We are carrying food, medical supplies and sanitary products and other very needed humanitarian aid into Gaza following the blockade. And we will meet whatever is thrown at us with nonviolence in any scenario. So, we are trying to prepare and to maximize our safety and the success of this mission as much as we can.
AMY GOODMAN: Greta, as you attempt to bring in baby formula, medical kits, flour, prosthetics for kids with amputations, the Israeli military has threatened to block the Freedom Flotilla. The Israeli army says it’s prepared to raid your ship. We know what happened to the Mavi Marmara with the Israeli raid and the killing of nine activists on board. Ultimately, a 10th died. So, are you seeing drones? How are you prepared to deal?
GRETA THUNBERG: Yeah, yeah, we are seeing drones. Last night, there were two different moments where there were drones circulating above us. And we are — we have safety procedures that we will use, and we have different scenarios that we are prepared for to try to maximize our safety in a nonviolent way. So, we are trying to do our very best. And it shows quite a bit that peaceful volunteers who are carrying humanitarian aid necessary for survival is being threatened to be raided, intercepted or attacked. I think that says quite a lot about the priorities and approaches of Israel right now.
But we must also remember that this mission is not about us. It is not about the voyage or the people on board. This mission is about Palestine. It is about the genocide, the occupation, ethnic cleansing and the other methods of war and oppression that are being used by Israel against the Palestinians. And we do not only need humanitarian aid to be let into Gaza. We do not only need a ceasefire. We need an end to the occupation.
AMY GOODMAN: How do you plan to break the military blockade around Gaza?
GRETA THUNBERG: Sorry. What did you say?
AMY GOODMAN: How do you plan to break the military blockade around Gaza?
GRETA THUNBERG: We are planning to continue sailing until we cannot sail anymore. It is very difficult to predict what scenario it will be, but as far as we know, we are planning to continue, to continue as we are now.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what is your message to folks around the world, especially to young people who, throughout —
GRETA THUNBERG: Yeah.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: — the advanced countries, seem to have much more interest and dedication to ending the war in Gaza?
GRETA THUNBERG: My message is that right now international law is failing us. International institutions, our governments are failing us. Media, our companies are all failing us. Or “failing us” is a diplomatic way of saying that our system seems to be designed in a way that is built upon exploitation and oppression of people. And so, there’s no one to turn to. There’s no one we can turn to to rescue the situation, but it falls on us to step up, to continue flooding the streets, to continue organizing, boycotting, to speak up on all platforms to try to send a clear message that we will not stand for what is happening right now.
AMY GOODMAN: According to Al Jazeera, Greta, they’re saying, according to flight radar, which tracks aircraft movements, an Israel-made Hellenic Coast Guard drone, IAI Heron UAV, hovered over the Madleen ship. The drone’s deployment was confirmed by the Greek Ministry of Defense. We’re speaking to you from the United States, where the —
GRETA THUNBERG: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: — South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham wrote on X, “Hope Greta and her friends can swim!” Your response?
GRETA THUNBERG: We can swim very well. It says a lot about their priorities, that in the face of genocide and systematic starvation of 2 million people, lawmakers, elected officials, whose responsibility should be to serve the people and to protect the people, that they, rather than ending their complicity in genocide and the massive slaughtering of civilians, are focusing on mocking people who are at least trying to do their bit. I think that says everything we need to know about their priorities.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, your message to Palestinians who perhaps have read about or heard about your voyage, are awaiting your arrival? What is your message to them?
GRETA THUNBERG: My message to them would be that we stand behind you in every step of the way. We are standing in solidarity with you. We see you. And I am also — my deepest apologies on behalf of the outside world, especially the Western world, that we continue to betray you and that more people are not stepping up. But I promise that at least we here will try our very best to stand up for you —
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Greta —
GRETA THUNBERG: — as well, and to support you in your struggle.
AMY GOODMAN: Greta, we wish you all safety. Greta Thunberg, internationally —
GRETA THUNBERG: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: — renowned Swedish climate activist who inspired the global youth climate strike. She’s won the Right Livelihood Award, has also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was speaking to us aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s vessel Madleen, which is on a voyage from Sicily to Gaza carrying lifesaving aid in an attempt to break Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip. It’s day three of what they expect to be a seven-day trip. We’ll continue to follow it.
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Re: U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
by admin » Tue Jun 10, 2025 8:19 pm
Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 09, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/9/headlines
Israel Intercepts Gaza-Bound Flotilla Carrying Greta Thunberg & Other Activists
Jun 09, 2025
Israeli Navy commandos have intercepted a boat carrying activists with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition who were attempting to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila issued this warning just before Israeli forces raided the ship, the Madleen, in international waters about 100 nautical miles from Gaza.
Thiago Ávila: “Everyone, we are under attack. Please sound the alarm. They are throwing a lot of substances and objects on us. Quadcopters, the most dangerous ones. … Right now they are jamming our comms. They are saying random stuff just to jam our communication. They are doing this so that we cannot get help.”
Passengers on the ship included the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who recorded this message before the Israeli raid.
Greta Thunberg: “My name is Greta Thunberg, and I am from Sweden. If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel. I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.”
Israeli forces are now bringing the boat to the Israeli port city of Ashdod. U.N. special rapporteur Francesca Albanese condemned the Israeli raid on the ship. She wrote online, “While Madleen must be released immediately, every Mediterranean port should send boats with aid, solidarity, and humanity to Gaza. They shall sail together — united, they will be unstoppable. Breaking The Siege is a legal duty for states, and a moral imperative for all of us.” We will have more on this story later in the program.
More Palestinians Fatally Shot Attempting to Get Aid in Gaza
Jun 09, 2025
In Gaza, hungry Palestinians are continuing to be shot dead while attempting to get aid. On Sunday, Al Jazeera reports at least five people were killed and more than 70 wounded after Israeli forces opened fire near an aid site. More than 130 Palestinians have been killed near aid sites over the past two weeks since the launch of a shadowy U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid operation.
On Sunday, Palestinians gathered in Khan Younis for the funeral of Khaled Doghmah, a father of five who was fatally shot while trying to feed his family. This is his aunt Salwah.
Salwah Doghmah: “He was going to get food for his children and himself, to make them live, feed them because they don’t have a pinch of flour at home. They can’t find food to eat. He was going to get aid to sustain his house, to feed them. He was walking there, on his way. He did not reach the distribution site and was shot.”
*****************************************
“Kidnapped in Int’l Waters”: Israel Intercepts Gaza-Bound Aid Ship, Detains Greta Thunberg & Others
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 9, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/9/m ... transcript
Eleven peace activists and one journalist on board the Gaza Freedom Flotilla ship, the Madleen, were detained by Israeli soldiers as their ship carrying vital humanitarian aid for starving Palestinians approached Gaza. The ship was intercepted by Israeli forces in the middle of the night in international waters. Its supplies were seized and communications jammed. The unarmed activists will likely be transported to Israeli detention or “immediately deported,” says Ann Wright, a U.S. military veteran who has participated in four Freedom Flotilla journeys and now serves on the steering committee of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. She calls on citizens of countries around the world to push for the activists’ release and an end to Israel’s war on Gaza.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
Human rights groups around the world are condemning Israel’s attack on the Freedom Flotilla ship called the Madleen. They’re saying it’s a war crime. The ship was sailing to Gaza with vital humanitarian aid for Palestinians, who are being starved by Israel’s strict blockade since early March, with 11 activists and one journalist on board. Israeli soldiers in the early hours of Monday — they have not, the activists, been heard of or located since. Those detained include the renowned Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg; Thiago Ávila, who we just heard, from Brazil; Yasemin Acar from Germany — she was scheduled to join us on today’s broadcast, before she and the rest of the group were forcibly taken by the Israeli Navy. Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla on international waters at approximately 3:00 this morning, some 110 nautical miles from Gaza.
This is Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila describing the moments before Israeli forces boarded the ship.
THIAGO ÁVILA: Everyone, we are under attack. Please sound the alarm. They are throwing a lot of substances and objects on us. Quadcopters, the most dangerous ones. … Right now they are jamming our comms. They are saying random stuff just to jam our communication. They are doing this so that we cannot get help.
AMY GOODMAN: And this is an Israeli soldier ordering the ship to stop sailing toward Gaza.
ISRAELI SOLDIER: The maritime zone off the coast of Gaza is closed to naval traffic as part of a legal naval blockade. If you wish to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, you are able to do so through the Port of Ashdod via the established channels and distribution centers.
AMY GOODMAN: Israeli quadcopters intercepted and attacked the group of activists, spraying a white chemical-like substance on the ship, the activists said, which hurt their eyes. Signals were jammed. Disturbing audio was broadcast to interfere with communication over the radio system. Israeli soldiers on speed boats then boarded the Madleen. Israeli soldiers are also heard on video footage demanding the crew throw their mobile phones into the sea. The unarmed activists were then detained by Israeli forces, the Madleen, the ship, seized. The ship’s humanitarian aid, including baby formula, food, medical supplies, have been confiscated. The group of activists, who had been at sea for over a week since departing from Sicily on June 1st, shared these prerecorded messages after Israel’s attack.
BAPTISTE ANDRÉ: My name is Baptiste André from France. If you are seeing this video, we have been visited at sea, and I have been kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces, of forces of a country complicit in the Israel genocide of Palestinians. I appeal to my own comrades, friends, family to put pressure on the French government to demand my release as soon as possible.
GRETA THUNBERG: My name is Greta Thunberg, and I am from Sweden. If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel. I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.
MARCO VAN RENNES: [translated] My name is Mark Van Rennes, and I come from the Netherlands. If you see this video, we have been abducted in international waters by the Israeli occupation army, or by an army helping Israel commit genocide against the Palestinian people. I call on the Dutch government to push for my release and that of all other peaceful activists.
PASCAL RAYMOND MAURIERAS: [translated] Hello. My name is Pascal Raymond Maurieras. I’m French. If you are seeing this video, it means we have been intercepted by the Israeli army or one of their complicit allies of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. I’m requesting my comrades, family and friends ensure that the French government intervenes with the Israeli authorities, demanding my release from prison as soon as possible.
REVA SEIFERT VIARD: So, my name is Reva Seifert Viard. I’m from France. If you see this video, it means that we got intercepted by the Israeli forces or complicits, and we may be in a very bad situation now. So, I do ask our comrades, to our family, friends to please share this video and put pressure on the French government so that we could be, with my friends, released, and also, of course, that this genocide ends.
RIMA HASSAN: [translated] Hi, everyone. My name is Rima Hassan. I’m French Palestinian, aboard the humanitarian vessel going to Gaza. If you’re seeing this video now, it’s because we’ve been stopped by the Israeli army or their complicit allies. We count on your mobilization to put pressure on the French government to demand our release.
SERGIO TORIBIO: OK, my name is Sergio Toribio from Spain. If you are seeing this video, we have been intercepted at sea, and I have been kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces or a force of a country complicit in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. I appeal to all my comrades, friends, family to put pressure on the Spain government to demand my release as soon as possible.
HÜSEYIN ŞUAYB ORDU: My name is Hüseyin Şuayb Ordu from Turkey. If you are seeing this video, it means that we have been intercepted at sea, and I have been kidnapped by IOF. I appeal to all my comrades, friends, family to put pressure on the Turkish government, government to demand my release as soon as possible.
THIAGO ÁVILA: Hi, everyone. I’m Thiago Avila. I’m a Brazilian citizen, member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. And if you’re watching this video, it means that I’ve been detained or kidnapped by Israel or another complicit force around the Mediterranean on our way to Gaza to break the siege. And in this case, I urge you to pressure my government and my comrades’ governments for us to be released out of prison and for to break relations with Israel, to end the genocide and then the siege that Israel putting the Palestinian people on. We count on you right now.
YASEMIN ACAR: My name is Yasemin Acar, and I am from Germany. If you’re seeing this video, we have been intercepted at sea and kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces or by one of its allies complicit and actively participating in the genocide of Palestinians. I appeal to my comrades, friends and family to put pressure on the German government and to ask for my release as soon as possible.
YANIS MHAMDI: [translated] Hello. My name is Yanis Mhamdi, a journalist from Blast Media. And if you’re seeing this video, I’ve been detained by the Israeli forces while performing my role as a journalist. I therefore ask my colleagues and the French government to expedite my release and to return my camera equipment.
AMY GOODMAN: The journalists and activists are being transported to Israel’s port city of Ashdod, where it’s believed they’ll be taken to an Israeli prison. Al Jazeera is reporting, “Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has instructed prison authorities to prepare separate cells for the activists from the Madleen ship at Givon Prison in Ramla, where they will be held before being deported,” unquote.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition had initially planned to sail from Malta last month, but the group’s ship was damaged in a drone strike that left four volunteers injured.
For more, we go to Ann Wright for an update, senior member of the Gaza flotilla steering committee, in close contact with the Madleen. She herself was part of four Gaza Freedom Flotillas, twice imprisoned by the Israeli military. She’s a 29-year U.S. Army, Army Reserves veteran who retired as a colonel, is a former U.S. diplomat who resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the War in Iraq.
Ann, thanks so much for being with us. We only have two minutes. Can you give us the latest update? We watched those videos. They said, “If you’re seeing this video, we have been taken.”
ANN WRIGHT: Well, thank you so much, and for playing all of those videos of the brave, courageous 12 that were on that ship.
They were taken from the Madleen, put on a Navy ship within 30 minutes after the Israeli Navy stopping them. They’re still on that ship, as far as we know. They should be arriving, probably within the hour, into the Port of Ashdod. And we’re getting information from the immigration authority there that they may be deported immediately rather than going into the prison. That’s something our lawyers, Adalah, who are Palestinian lawyers that are in Palestine '48, that are confirming with us. So, it may be that some of them don't go to Givon Prison.
We thank everyone for their support. There are other things that are happening in the region — the global march to Cairo, the Tunis Soumoud march. There are so many things people can do to keep Gaza and the West Bank in their mind. You can have your own Gaza Freedom Flotilla in any water that’s close to your house and put a little Palestinian flag on a boat in a mud puddle even. It’s solidarity that we need right now for the people of Gaza. And we will be sending more boats in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, and very, very soon. So, thank you all for the support, and let’s make sure this genocide and ethnic cleaning that the Israelis are doing in Gaza and the West Bank ends now. Pressure on our governments, whether they be the U.S., French, German, Sweden, Brazil, Turkey, Spain, the Netherlands, that were on that boat, and we will have a U.S. citizen on this next boat.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Ann, we just have a few seconds, but the Turkish government, immediately the Foreign Ministry declared Israel a terrorist state and demanded the freedom of its two nationals that were on this boat. What about other governments?
ANN WRIGHT: Well, the other governments have been silent so far, but that’s where citizen pressure comes in. So, call the foreign ministries of all of those countries and put press pressure on, and put — don’t forget the old United States of America, the most complicit country in the genocide of Gaza. So, it’s up to us as citizens to keep the pressure on. We’ve got citizens that are out in front of the United Nations every day on the hunger strike, and they’re going to be going to the national missions of each of those countries that have citizens on the Madleen.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you, Colonel Ann Wright. She is a senior member of the Gaza flotilla steering committee, in close contact with the Madleen volunteers. That does it for our show. She’s wearing a T-shirt that says “break the siege.” I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 09, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/9/headlines
Israel Intercepts Gaza-Bound Flotilla Carrying Greta Thunberg & Other Activists
Jun 09, 2025
Israeli Navy commandos have intercepted a boat carrying activists with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition who were attempting to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila issued this warning just before Israeli forces raided the ship, the Madleen, in international waters about 100 nautical miles from Gaza.
Thiago Ávila: “Everyone, we are under attack. Please sound the alarm. They are throwing a lot of substances and objects on us. Quadcopters, the most dangerous ones. … Right now they are jamming our comms. They are saying random stuff just to jam our communication. They are doing this so that we cannot get help.”
Passengers on the ship included the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who recorded this message before the Israeli raid.
Greta Thunberg: “My name is Greta Thunberg, and I am from Sweden. If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel. I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.”
Israeli forces are now bringing the boat to the Israeli port city of Ashdod. U.N. special rapporteur Francesca Albanese condemned the Israeli raid on the ship. She wrote online, “While Madleen must be released immediately, every Mediterranean port should send boats with aid, solidarity, and humanity to Gaza. They shall sail together — united, they will be unstoppable. Breaking The Siege is a legal duty for states, and a moral imperative for all of us.” We will have more on this story later in the program.
More Palestinians Fatally Shot Attempting to Get Aid in Gaza
Jun 09, 2025
In Gaza, hungry Palestinians are continuing to be shot dead while attempting to get aid. On Sunday, Al Jazeera reports at least five people were killed and more than 70 wounded after Israeli forces opened fire near an aid site. More than 130 Palestinians have been killed near aid sites over the past two weeks since the launch of a shadowy U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid operation.
On Sunday, Palestinians gathered in Khan Younis for the funeral of Khaled Doghmah, a father of five who was fatally shot while trying to feed his family. This is his aunt Salwah.
Salwah Doghmah: “He was going to get food for his children and himself, to make them live, feed them because they don’t have a pinch of flour at home. They can’t find food to eat. He was going to get aid to sustain his house, to feed them. He was walking there, on his way. He did not reach the distribution site and was shot.”
*****************************************
“Kidnapped in Int’l Waters”: Israel Intercepts Gaza-Bound Aid Ship, Detains Greta Thunberg & Others
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 9, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/9/m ... transcript
Eleven peace activists and one journalist on board the Gaza Freedom Flotilla ship, the Madleen, were detained by Israeli soldiers as their ship carrying vital humanitarian aid for starving Palestinians approached Gaza. The ship was intercepted by Israeli forces in the middle of the night in international waters. Its supplies were seized and communications jammed. The unarmed activists will likely be transported to Israeli detention or “immediately deported,” says Ann Wright, a U.S. military veteran who has participated in four Freedom Flotilla journeys and now serves on the steering committee of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. She calls on citizens of countries around the world to push for the activists’ release and an end to Israel’s war on Gaza.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
Human rights groups around the world are condemning Israel’s attack on the Freedom Flotilla ship called the Madleen. They’re saying it’s a war crime. The ship was sailing to Gaza with vital humanitarian aid for Palestinians, who are being starved by Israel’s strict blockade since early March, with 11 activists and one journalist on board. Israeli soldiers in the early hours of Monday — they have not, the activists, been heard of or located since. Those detained include the renowned Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg; Thiago Ávila, who we just heard, from Brazil; Yasemin Acar from Germany — she was scheduled to join us on today’s broadcast, before she and the rest of the group were forcibly taken by the Israeli Navy. Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla on international waters at approximately 3:00 this morning, some 110 nautical miles from Gaza.
This is Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila describing the moments before Israeli forces boarded the ship.
THIAGO ÁVILA: Everyone, we are under attack. Please sound the alarm. They are throwing a lot of substances and objects on us. Quadcopters, the most dangerous ones. … Right now they are jamming our comms. They are saying random stuff just to jam our communication. They are doing this so that we cannot get help.
AMY GOODMAN: And this is an Israeli soldier ordering the ship to stop sailing toward Gaza.
ISRAELI SOLDIER: The maritime zone off the coast of Gaza is closed to naval traffic as part of a legal naval blockade. If you wish to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, you are able to do so through the Port of Ashdod via the established channels and distribution centers.
AMY GOODMAN: Israeli quadcopters intercepted and attacked the group of activists, spraying a white chemical-like substance on the ship, the activists said, which hurt their eyes. Signals were jammed. Disturbing audio was broadcast to interfere with communication over the radio system. Israeli soldiers on speed boats then boarded the Madleen. Israeli soldiers are also heard on video footage demanding the crew throw their mobile phones into the sea. The unarmed activists were then detained by Israeli forces, the Madleen, the ship, seized. The ship’s humanitarian aid, including baby formula, food, medical supplies, have been confiscated. The group of activists, who had been at sea for over a week since departing from Sicily on June 1st, shared these prerecorded messages after Israel’s attack.
BAPTISTE ANDRÉ: My name is Baptiste André from France. If you are seeing this video, we have been visited at sea, and I have been kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces, of forces of a country complicit in the Israel genocide of Palestinians. I appeal to my own comrades, friends, family to put pressure on the French government to demand my release as soon as possible.
GRETA THUNBERG: My name is Greta Thunberg, and I am from Sweden. If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel. I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.
MARCO VAN RENNES: [translated] My name is Mark Van Rennes, and I come from the Netherlands. If you see this video, we have been abducted in international waters by the Israeli occupation army, or by an army helping Israel commit genocide against the Palestinian people. I call on the Dutch government to push for my release and that of all other peaceful activists.
PASCAL RAYMOND MAURIERAS: [translated] Hello. My name is Pascal Raymond Maurieras. I’m French. If you are seeing this video, it means we have been intercepted by the Israeli army or one of their complicit allies of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. I’m requesting my comrades, family and friends ensure that the French government intervenes with the Israeli authorities, demanding my release from prison as soon as possible.
REVA SEIFERT VIARD: So, my name is Reva Seifert Viard. I’m from France. If you see this video, it means that we got intercepted by the Israeli forces or complicits, and we may be in a very bad situation now. So, I do ask our comrades, to our family, friends to please share this video and put pressure on the French government so that we could be, with my friends, released, and also, of course, that this genocide ends.
RIMA HASSAN: [translated] Hi, everyone. My name is Rima Hassan. I’m French Palestinian, aboard the humanitarian vessel going to Gaza. If you’re seeing this video now, it’s because we’ve been stopped by the Israeli army or their complicit allies. We count on your mobilization to put pressure on the French government to demand our release.
SERGIO TORIBIO: OK, my name is Sergio Toribio from Spain. If you are seeing this video, we have been intercepted at sea, and I have been kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces or a force of a country complicit in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. I appeal to all my comrades, friends, family to put pressure on the Spain government to demand my release as soon as possible.
HÜSEYIN ŞUAYB ORDU: My name is Hüseyin Şuayb Ordu from Turkey. If you are seeing this video, it means that we have been intercepted at sea, and I have been kidnapped by IOF. I appeal to all my comrades, friends, family to put pressure on the Turkish government, government to demand my release as soon as possible.
THIAGO ÁVILA: Hi, everyone. I’m Thiago Avila. I’m a Brazilian citizen, member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. And if you’re watching this video, it means that I’ve been detained or kidnapped by Israel or another complicit force around the Mediterranean on our way to Gaza to break the siege. And in this case, I urge you to pressure my government and my comrades’ governments for us to be released out of prison and for to break relations with Israel, to end the genocide and then the siege that Israel putting the Palestinian people on. We count on you right now.
YASEMIN ACAR: My name is Yasemin Acar, and I am from Germany. If you’re seeing this video, we have been intercepted at sea and kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces or by one of its allies complicit and actively participating in the genocide of Palestinians. I appeal to my comrades, friends and family to put pressure on the German government and to ask for my release as soon as possible.
YANIS MHAMDI: [translated] Hello. My name is Yanis Mhamdi, a journalist from Blast Media. And if you’re seeing this video, I’ve been detained by the Israeli forces while performing my role as a journalist. I therefore ask my colleagues and the French government to expedite my release and to return my camera equipment.
AMY GOODMAN: The journalists and activists are being transported to Israel’s port city of Ashdod, where it’s believed they’ll be taken to an Israeli prison. Al Jazeera is reporting, “Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has instructed prison authorities to prepare separate cells for the activists from the Madleen ship at Givon Prison in Ramla, where they will be held before being deported,” unquote.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition had initially planned to sail from Malta last month, but the group’s ship was damaged in a drone strike that left four volunteers injured.
For more, we go to Ann Wright for an update, senior member of the Gaza flotilla steering committee, in close contact with the Madleen. She herself was part of four Gaza Freedom Flotillas, twice imprisoned by the Israeli military. She’s a 29-year U.S. Army, Army Reserves veteran who retired as a colonel, is a former U.S. diplomat who resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the War in Iraq.
Ann, thanks so much for being with us. We only have two minutes. Can you give us the latest update? We watched those videos. They said, “If you’re seeing this video, we have been taken.”
ANN WRIGHT: Well, thank you so much, and for playing all of those videos of the brave, courageous 12 that were on that ship.
They were taken from the Madleen, put on a Navy ship within 30 minutes after the Israeli Navy stopping them. They’re still on that ship, as far as we know. They should be arriving, probably within the hour, into the Port of Ashdod. And we’re getting information from the immigration authority there that they may be deported immediately rather than going into the prison. That’s something our lawyers, Adalah, who are Palestinian lawyers that are in Palestine '48, that are confirming with us. So, it may be that some of them don't go to Givon Prison.
We thank everyone for their support. There are other things that are happening in the region — the global march to Cairo, the Tunis Soumoud march. There are so many things people can do to keep Gaza and the West Bank in their mind. You can have your own Gaza Freedom Flotilla in any water that’s close to your house and put a little Palestinian flag on a boat in a mud puddle even. It’s solidarity that we need right now for the people of Gaza. And we will be sending more boats in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, and very, very soon. So, thank you all for the support, and let’s make sure this genocide and ethnic cleaning that the Israelis are doing in Gaza and the West Bank ends now. Pressure on our governments, whether they be the U.S., French, German, Sweden, Brazil, Turkey, Spain, the Netherlands, that were on that boat, and we will have a U.S. citizen on this next boat.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Ann, we just have a few seconds, but the Turkish government, immediately the Foreign Ministry declared Israel a terrorist state and demanded the freedom of its two nationals that were on this boat. What about other governments?
ANN WRIGHT: Well, the other governments have been silent so far, but that’s where citizen pressure comes in. So, call the foreign ministries of all of those countries and put press pressure on, and put — don’t forget the old United States of America, the most complicit country in the genocide of Gaza. So, it’s up to us as citizens to keep the pressure on. We’ve got citizens that are out in front of the United Nations every day on the hunger strike, and they’re going to be going to the national missions of each of those countries that have citizens on the Madleen.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you, Colonel Ann Wright. She is a senior member of the Gaza flotilla steering committee, in close contact with the Madleen volunteers. That does it for our show. She’s wearing a T-shirt that says “break the siege.” I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
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Re: U.S. Backing Has Given Israel License to Kill & Maim
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Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 10, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/10/headlines
Israeli Attacks Kill 60+ People in Gaza, Including More Palestinians Awaiting Aid
Jun 10, 2025
In Gaza, at least 60 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since Monday. In southern Gaza, Israeli forces opened fire on a group of families walking to an aid site, killing at least 20 Palestinians and injuring over 100 others. At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, health workers say they’ve been overwhelmed with cases of people attacked while seeking aid. This is Dr. Mohamed Sakr.
Dr. Mohamed Sakr: “Daily, we receive many martyrs and wounded people from the U.S. food distribution centers located in Rafah. Most of the martyrs and the wounded who arrive at Nasser Medical Complex, their injuries are in the upper part of their body, especially the chest and head area. Unfortunately, the situation is tragic. Daily, we receive dozens of martyrs and wounded.”
Israeli Attack Kills 3 Paramedics, Another Journalist During Gaza Rescue Operation
Jun 10, 2025
At least three Palestinian paramedics were also killed in Israeli strikes while attempting to rescue wounded families from an Israeli airstrike on a home in Gaza City. Their names were Hussein Abu Faisal, Wael Al-Attar and Bara Afana. The journalist Moamen Abu Al-Auf was also killed in that attack — the 227th media worker killed in Gaza over the past 20 months.
This all comes as a U.N. commission says Israeli attacks on Gaza’s schools, religious and cultural sites amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israel Launches Strikes on Yemen’s Hodeidah
Jun 10, 2025
Israel launched overnight strikes on Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, a key port for the entry of humanitarian aid. Israeli officials have also threatened to impose an aerial and naval blockade in response to ongoing Houthi attacks on Israel and Israel-linked vessels, which the group launched in response to Israel’s relentless war on Gaza.
Israel Deports 4 Freedom Flotilla Activists; Another 8 Refused Voluntary Deportation
Jun 10, 2025
Israel has formally placed under arrest eight of the 12 international activists from the Gaza Freedom Flotilla after they refused to sign a voluntary deportation order. One of those arrested is Rima Hassan, French Palestinian member of the European Parliament. Earlier today, Israel deported other Freedom Flotilla passengers, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Massive protests erupted in France Monday in response to Israel’s raid of the Madleen in international waters as the ship attempted to deliver food and medicine to besieged Palestinians in Gaza. Five of the Madleen’s passengers were French.
Global March to Gaza, Tunisian Convoy Head Toward Rafah Crossing to Break Siege
Jun 10, 2025
More international activists are making their way toward Gaza, this time by land, in an effort to break the Israeli siege. On Sunday, a Tunisian-led road convoy of activists, lawyers and medical professionals started the journey from Tunis toward the Rafah crossing in Egypt. This is organizer Wael Naouar.
Wael Naouar: “This march is not a train or a plane. It is a protest or an independent, mobile Maghrebian popular gathering, which will stop in many countries and at many stations in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt. It will speak to people, speak about the Palestinian right, mobilize people and, more than that, will remind everyone that Palestine is not just on social media or in another planet, but it is at days’ walking distance, so the Arab people should remember that we are one land, one people.”
Hundreds of activists from around the world are expected to converge in Cairo this week, before making the journey by foot to Rafah as part of the Global March to Gaza. One of the high-profile participants will be Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, South African member of Parliament and the grandson of Nelson Mandela. We’ll speak to another participant, former Biden administration official Hala Rharrit, later in the broadcast.
***************************************
“A Show of Human Solidarity”: Ex-U.S. Diplomat to Join Global March to Gaza to Break Israel’s Siege
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 10, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/10/ ... transcript
Activists from around the world are planning a Global March to Gaza on June 15 in support of Palestinians enduring the Israeli blockade. The first Biden State Department diplomat to publicly resign over Gaza policy, Hala Rharrit, plans to attend the march along with thousands of others who will walk from Cairo to the Rafah border. “Silence does not ensure that we will be OK,” says Rharrit. “It’s quite the opposite. Silence ensures the injustice spreads.” Rharrit had served as the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department. She joins us from Dubai as she prepares for the march.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org.
We end today’s show with an update on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Israel has formally placed eight of the 12 international activists on the flotilla under arrest, after they refused to sign a voluntary deportation order, including Rima Hassan, French Palestinian member of the European Parliament. Israel has already deported four other Freedom Flotilla passengers, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who’s just arrived in Paris. The flotilla was challenging the Israeli siege on Gaza. The March to Gaza to the Rafah border crossing in Egypt is about to start this week, demanding a total end to the Gaza siege.
For more, we go to Dubai, where we’re joined by Hala Rharrit, who’s preparing to join that Global March to Gaza. She’s an 18-year career diplomat who resigned from the State Department over the Biden administration’s Gaza policy.
Hala, welcome back to Democracy Now! In these last minutes that we have, if you can talk about that leap from being a top-level State Department official to now marching from Cairo to the Rafah border, and what you’re hoping to achieve?
HALA RHARRIT: Amy, thank you so much for having me. It’s such a pleasure to be back with you.
Well, fundamentally, justice anywhere is a threat to all of us, whether it’s in Los Angeles or El Salvador, where we’ve just heard your segments — and bless your show for covering these issues — or in Gaza. Silence does not protect us. Silence does not ensure that we will be OK. It’s quite the opposite. Silence ensures the injustice spreads.
I dedicated my entire adult life to diplomacy because I’m fundamentally a peacemaker, but, unfortunately, I saw, after 20 years, almost 20 years of service, that there is some institutionalized corruption within our government that profits from war at all costs, that profits from genocide.
And at this point, when we’re seeing starvation, absolute starvation of civilians in Gaza, while they are simultaneously being bombarded, words are no longer enough. I’ve been on your show. I’ve done interviews with you. I’ve done interviews on dozens, if not hundreds, of networks across the world. At this point, we need action.
That’s why I’m joining over 3,000 other human beings that want to help their fellow human beings. From over 50 countries, we’re going to arrive to Cairo on Thursday, and then go to el-Arish the next day, and then walk from el-Arish to Rafah in a show of human solidarity, because we cannot live in a world where we, as human beings, accept other human beings being forcibly starved.
AMY GOODMAN: Hala Rharrit, we have to leave it there, but we’d like to ask you to stay so we can do a post-show and post it online at democracynow.org. Hala Rharrit is participating in the Gaza walk from Cairo to Rafah. She’s an 18-year career diplomat who resigned from the State Department over the Biden administration’s Gaza policy. She was the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 10, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/10/headlines
Israeli Attacks Kill 60+ People in Gaza, Including More Palestinians Awaiting Aid
Jun 10, 2025
In Gaza, at least 60 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since Monday. In southern Gaza, Israeli forces opened fire on a group of families walking to an aid site, killing at least 20 Palestinians and injuring over 100 others. At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, health workers say they’ve been overwhelmed with cases of people attacked while seeking aid. This is Dr. Mohamed Sakr.
Dr. Mohamed Sakr: “Daily, we receive many martyrs and wounded people from the U.S. food distribution centers located in Rafah. Most of the martyrs and the wounded who arrive at Nasser Medical Complex, their injuries are in the upper part of their body, especially the chest and head area. Unfortunately, the situation is tragic. Daily, we receive dozens of martyrs and wounded.”
Israeli Attack Kills 3 Paramedics, Another Journalist During Gaza Rescue Operation
Jun 10, 2025
At least three Palestinian paramedics were also killed in Israeli strikes while attempting to rescue wounded families from an Israeli airstrike on a home in Gaza City. Their names were Hussein Abu Faisal, Wael Al-Attar and Bara Afana. The journalist Moamen Abu Al-Auf was also killed in that attack — the 227th media worker killed in Gaza over the past 20 months.
This all comes as a U.N. commission says Israeli attacks on Gaza’s schools, religious and cultural sites amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israel Launches Strikes on Yemen’s Hodeidah
Jun 10, 2025
Israel launched overnight strikes on Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, a key port for the entry of humanitarian aid. Israeli officials have also threatened to impose an aerial and naval blockade in response to ongoing Houthi attacks on Israel and Israel-linked vessels, which the group launched in response to Israel’s relentless war on Gaza.
Israel Deports 4 Freedom Flotilla Activists; Another 8 Refused Voluntary Deportation
Jun 10, 2025
Israel has formally placed under arrest eight of the 12 international activists from the Gaza Freedom Flotilla after they refused to sign a voluntary deportation order. One of those arrested is Rima Hassan, French Palestinian member of the European Parliament. Earlier today, Israel deported other Freedom Flotilla passengers, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Massive protests erupted in France Monday in response to Israel’s raid of the Madleen in international waters as the ship attempted to deliver food and medicine to besieged Palestinians in Gaza. Five of the Madleen’s passengers were French.
Global March to Gaza, Tunisian Convoy Head Toward Rafah Crossing to Break Siege
Jun 10, 2025
More international activists are making their way toward Gaza, this time by land, in an effort to break the Israeli siege. On Sunday, a Tunisian-led road convoy of activists, lawyers and medical professionals started the journey from Tunis toward the Rafah crossing in Egypt. This is organizer Wael Naouar.
Wael Naouar: “This march is not a train or a plane. It is a protest or an independent, mobile Maghrebian popular gathering, which will stop in many countries and at many stations in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt. It will speak to people, speak about the Palestinian right, mobilize people and, more than that, will remind everyone that Palestine is not just on social media or in another planet, but it is at days’ walking distance, so the Arab people should remember that we are one land, one people.”
Hundreds of activists from around the world are expected to converge in Cairo this week, before making the journey by foot to Rafah as part of the Global March to Gaza. One of the high-profile participants will be Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, South African member of Parliament and the grandson of Nelson Mandela. We’ll speak to another participant, former Biden administration official Hala Rharrit, later in the broadcast.
***************************************
“A Show of Human Solidarity”: Ex-U.S. Diplomat to Join Global March to Gaza to Break Israel’s Siege
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
June 10, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/10/ ... transcript
Activists from around the world are planning a Global March to Gaza on June 15 in support of Palestinians enduring the Israeli blockade. The first Biden State Department diplomat to publicly resign over Gaza policy, Hala Rharrit, plans to attend the march along with thousands of others who will walk from Cairo to the Rafah border. “Silence does not ensure that we will be OK,” says Rharrit. “It’s quite the opposite. Silence ensures the injustice spreads.” Rharrit had served as the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department. She joins us from Dubai as she prepares for the march.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org.
We end today’s show with an update on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Israel has formally placed eight of the 12 international activists on the flotilla under arrest, after they refused to sign a voluntary deportation order, including Rima Hassan, French Palestinian member of the European Parliament. Israel has already deported four other Freedom Flotilla passengers, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who’s just arrived in Paris. The flotilla was challenging the Israeli siege on Gaza. The March to Gaza to the Rafah border crossing in Egypt is about to start this week, demanding a total end to the Gaza siege.
For more, we go to Dubai, where we’re joined by Hala Rharrit, who’s preparing to join that Global March to Gaza. She’s an 18-year career diplomat who resigned from the State Department over the Biden administration’s Gaza policy.
Hala, welcome back to Democracy Now! In these last minutes that we have, if you can talk about that leap from being a top-level State Department official to now marching from Cairo to the Rafah border, and what you’re hoping to achieve?
HALA RHARRIT: Amy, thank you so much for having me. It’s such a pleasure to be back with you.
Well, fundamentally, justice anywhere is a threat to all of us, whether it’s in Los Angeles or El Salvador, where we’ve just heard your segments — and bless your show for covering these issues — or in Gaza. Silence does not protect us. Silence does not ensure that we will be OK. It’s quite the opposite. Silence ensures the injustice spreads.
I dedicated my entire adult life to diplomacy because I’m fundamentally a peacemaker, but, unfortunately, I saw, after 20 years, almost 20 years of service, that there is some institutionalized corruption within our government that profits from war at all costs, that profits from genocide.
And at this point, when we’re seeing starvation, absolute starvation of civilians in Gaza, while they are simultaneously being bombarded, words are no longer enough. I’ve been on your show. I’ve done interviews with you. I’ve done interviews on dozens, if not hundreds, of networks across the world. At this point, we need action.
That’s why I’m joining over 3,000 other human beings that want to help their fellow human beings. From over 50 countries, we’re going to arrive to Cairo on Thursday, and then go to el-Arish the next day, and then walk from el-Arish to Rafah in a show of human solidarity, because we cannot live in a world where we, as human beings, accept other human beings being forcibly starved.
AMY GOODMAN: Hala Rharrit, we have to leave it there, but we’d like to ask you to stay so we can do a post-show and post it online at democracynow.org. Hala Rharrit is participating in the Gaza walk from Cairo to Rafah. She’s an 18-year career diplomat who resigned from the State Department over the Biden administration’s Gaza policy. She was the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department.
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