As Israel's two-year war on Gaza has unfolded, Al Jazeera has told the story through its journalists on the ground, who've risked everything to bring the conflict to the world's attention. This three-part series chronicles the network's coverage and the personal toll on its staff, at least 10 of whom have been killed since the war began on October 7, 2023.
Live updatesLive updates, Southern Gaza witnesses raids, intensive artillery shelling as Israel continues its attacks, violating the ceasefire. The Israeli army has launched raids and intensive artillery shelling while carrying out demolitions in southern Gaza, our colleagues on the ground report. Hamas has recovered and handed over the body of an Israeli captive. Israel confirmed the delivery but has not yet verified the identity.
As a tenuous ceasefire was taking hold in mid-October, The Oaklandside sat down with Lujain Al-Saleh, an Oakland resident with family in Gaza, to find out what it's been like as a Palestinian American to witness so intimately the long two years of war in Gaza, which the United Nations determined, in September, was a genocide. After we spoke, Israel violated the ceasefire with airstrikes across Gaza that killed more than 100 people, including at least 46 children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Then in December as Israeli forces surrounded the hospital, an Israeli officer called Abu Safia and promised to relocate him and his staff to another hospital. But the promise was a lie. Instead, the paediatrician and neonatologist was abducted by Israeli forces. Ten months later, Abu Safia is still in detention as Israel has refused to include him in prisoner exchanges.
I'm a Christian man, and I'm just confused why there's this notion that we might owe Israel something or that they are our greatest ally or that we have to support this multi-hundred-billion dollar foreign aid package to Israel to cover this to quote Charlie Kirk ethnic cleansing in Gaza,
It remains unclear whether Arab and other states will be ready to commit troops, in part given the refusal of Palestinian Hamas militants to disarm as called for by the plan, while Israel has voiced concerns about the make-up of the force. While the Trump administration has ruled out sending US soldiers into the Gaza Strip, it has been speaking to Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and Azerbaijan to contribute to the multinational force.
The violence is much reduced. Yet Israeli forces have reportedly killed about 100 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more since the 10 October ceasefire began. Food aid supplies are still heavily restricted. The occupation continues, in Gaza and the West Bank. US officials fear prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his accomplices may renege on the deal, as in the past. Likewise, Hamas elements and rival gangs have kept fighting.
For many Americans, there might be a temptation to disbelieve the enormity of what has happened in the Gaza Strip. After all, it is a catastrophe funded by our money, made possible by our weapons, condoned by our government and carried out by one of our closest allies. It's little wonder that some want to downplay the damage. Their defense is to cast doubt on the numbers.
Anthony Aguilar takes centre stage to talk about the violence he witnessed as a security contractor with the notorious GHF in Gaza. The former US Army Special Forces lieutenant colonel details how the aid distribution sites operate and how the horrors that he saw forced him to resign after just 41 days. Since his return to the US, Aguilar has worked tirelessly to convince policymakers to end the US's involvement in Israel's two-year genocide.
Israel has returned the bodies of dozens more unidentified Palestinians to Gaza for burial in a mass grave in Deir el-Balah, with some badly mutilated and bearing marks of torture and execution. The Gaza Health Ministry reported on Wednesday that Israel transferred 30 more Palestinian bodies, raising the total returned under the ceasefire agreement to 195. Under the United States-brokered deal, Israel agreed to return the bodies of 15 Palestinians for each deceased Israeli captive that is returned.
The panel of 11 judges said on Wednesday that Israel is forced to support the relief efforts provided by the United Nations in the bombarded Gaza Strip and its entities. list of 3 itemsend of list It includes UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which Israel has banned from operating in Israel after accusing some of its staff of taking part in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.
The documentary, Ma Khafiya Aatham (Tip of the Iceberg), which aired on Monday, discloses previously unknown details about the killing of the Rajab family and others in the final days of January 2024. list of 4 itemsend of list Hind Rajab's final hours as she pleaded for help following the initial shelling that killed her uncle, aunt and three cousins in their car were widely circulated on social media after the attack.
This much needed pause in hostilities is providing children with the chance to sleep without the fear of drones above their heads, airstrikes on nearby buildings or fires breaking out in their tents. Families in Gaza are slowly returning to their neighbourhoods and trying to salvage what they can of their lives from the rubble. But crucially, what they are still not currently getting is full and sustainable access to aid supplies and vital services.
A few weeks ago, Soliman Zyad, a young health-care worker in northern Gaza, told me that his family was near starvation. On some days, he and his uncle AbdulKareem walked in search of food from 3 A.M. until the afternoon. "We swore we would not return home without finding flour," Zyad told me. "People were ready to risk their lives for a single sack."
