Palestinians in Gaza are fleeing Khan Younis after the Israeli military issued expulsion orders for the besieged territory’s second-largest city. This comes as Israel’s bombardment of Gaza intensifies, killing hundreds of Palestinians over the weekend, including at least five journalists. Health facilities have been under constant attack. Israel on Sunday announced the start of a renewed ground invasion it calls Operation Gideon’s Chariots. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said Sunday that Israel would allow limited food supplies into Gaza as the population of more than 2 million faces famine after 11 weeks of a total Israeli blockade, but there are few details about when such aid shipments could arrive. Gaza’s Health Ministry confirms Israel has killed at least 53,300 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, a death toll believed to be a vast undercount.

“The situation, as anyone who’s following the news can see, is thoroughly apocalyptic,” says Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani. “There is not only an unprecedented siege, but also an unprecedented intensification of Israel’s genocidal military campaign in the Gaza Strip.” Rabbani also stresses that any progress on aid, lifting the siege or reaching a ceasefire is dependent on the Trump administration using its leverage over Israel. “It will take no more than a phone call from Washington,” he says.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Israel’s security cabinet has approved a long-awaited ceasefire deal with Hamas. If finalized, the ceasefire is expected to go into effect on Sunday. “The main challenge will be the second phase, and here there are many, many problems on the horizon,” says Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, who stresses the importance of also freeing the thousands of Palestinians held by Israel. “Again and again, Israelis always think that they are the only victims.” The announcement comes in the final week of U.S. President Joe Biden’s term as Israel prepares for the incoming Trump administration. “The only reason that Israel did not agree to this text until this week is because it didn’t have to worry about U.S. pressure,” says Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani, who explains why the limited agreement will not shift politics in Israel and Palestine. “I believe Netanyahu will do everything possible, with the collusion of certain Trump officials, to try to scuttle it after the first phase.”

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Dutch Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabbani discusses the violence that broke out last week between visiting Israeli soccer fans and pro-Palestinian protesters in Amsterdam. The Dutch authorities made over 60 arrests, and at least five people were hospitalized as a result of the clashes, which local and international leaders were quick to brand as antisemitic, even though observers in Amsterdam have said it was Israeli hooligans who instigated much of the violence. Rabbani says that while it’s common for rival teams’ fans to get into skirmishes, what happened in Amsterdam was different. “What we’re talking about here in Amsterdam is not a clash between the hooligans of two opposing sides, but rather these Israeli thugs attacking people who, in principle, had nothing to do with the game, and then afterwards being confronted by their victims,” Rabbani says.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

President Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies in Gaza a “mistake” and urged Israel to call for a temporary ceasefire to allow in more aid in a televised interview on Tuesday. While Israel has pledged to open new aid crossings, the U.N. said on Tuesday that there has been “no significant change in the volume of humanitarian supplies entering Gaza,” and the Biden administration has not actually changed its policies or withheld any arms transfers to Israel. “Words are cheap, and statements are a dime a dozen,” says Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani, who explains Israel can safely ignore statements if policy remains unchanged. “What really matters is not what these people say, but what they do.” Rabbani also speaks about the United Nations considering Palestinian statehood, ongoing negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire, and Israel attacking the Iranian Consulate in Syria.

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Dutch Palestinian policy analyst Mouin Rabbani says Israel is using the Hamas attack of October 7 as a pretext to carry out its “long-standing ambition” to push Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip. He notes Israeli officials started proposing mass displacement of civilians to Egypt and other countries almost immediately after fighting began, and that this reflects Zionist policy since even before the founding of the state of Israel. “Ethnic cleansing, or what Zionists would call transfer, is intrinsic to Zionist and later Israeli policy towards the Palestinians from the very outset,” says Rabbani, co-editor of Jadaliyya and host of the Connections podcast. His latest piece for Mondoweiss is headlined “The long history of Zionist proposals to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

At around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, June 14, a group of men ambushed Nadim, a correspondent for privately owned website Banglanews24 and broadcaster Ekattor TV, while he was traveling home on his motorcycle in the Bakshiganj area in the Jamalpur district of northern Mymensingh division, according to news reports, security footage of the incident published by Ekattor TV, and a witness account by Al Mujaheed, a journalist present at the scene.

A group of 15 to 20 men dragged Nadim to a dark alley, where they severely beat him and left him unconscious before he was taken to the hospital by bystanders. The journalist died the next day from excessive blood loss caused by a severe head injury.

Nadim’s family believes he was targeted in retaliation for his May 2023 series of reports for Banglanews24 about Mahmudul Alam Babu, chair of a local government unit and member of the ruling Awami League party, according to those reports. Babu denied any involvement in the attack.

Sohel Rana, officer-in-charge of the Bakshiganj police station, said six people had been arrested in connection with the attack, Prothom Alo reported Friday.

“We condemn the killing of Bangladeshi journalist Golam Rabbani Nadim in apparent retaliation for his reporting on a local politician,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Bangladesh authorities must ensure that all those involved in this attack are brought to justice and end the country’s appalling record of impunity pertaining to violence against journalists.”

Al Mujaheed said in his witness account that Babu was at the scene and directing the attackers from a distance. CPJ’s calls to Babu, who was reported to be in hiding as of Friday evening, did not connect. CPJ’s text message to Babu did not immediately receive a response.

Nadim’s May articles concerned issues in Babu’s marriage, including a press conference by a woman who alleged the politician secretly married her, then abused and divorced her. Nadim also posted about the allegations on Facebook.

In mid-May, Babu filed a complaint against Nadim under the Digital Security Act for that reporting. Hours before the attack, Nadim posted on Facebook that a court had dismissed the case.

The Rapid Action Battalion, a paramilitary unit of the Bangladesh police, has joined the probe into Nadim’s death. CPJ’s calls and messages to Rana and Khandaker Al Moyeen, director of the legal and media wing of the Rapid Action Battalion, did not immediately receive a reply.

Local press groups, the Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media and the Bakshiganj Press Club, both condemned the killing, saying Nadim, who was also vice president of the Jamalpur District Online Journalists Association, was targeted due to his reporting.

Al Mujaheed told CPJ via messaging app, and Raju, Nadim’s brother-in-law, told CPJ by phone separately that they were unable to immediately comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Iranian authorities have arrested at least 88 journalists since September 2022, when mass protests erupted across the country following the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, after morality police arrested her for allegedly violating the country’s conservative dress law.

Authorities have charged nearly all of those journalists with “spreading propaganda against the ruling system” and “colluding and acting against national security,” according to sources familiar with their cases who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

Under the Iranian penal code, convictions for that propaganda offense carry prison terms of up to one year, and the collusion charge can carry up to five years. However, at least five journalists have received sentences in excess of those legal maximums, including extra prison time, lashes from a whip, bans on working or leaving the country, or mandatory community service.

“Iranian authorities must drop all the dubious charges against journalists detained for covering protests in the country, and should free them immediately and unconditionally,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “By issuing heavy sentences against journalists, in some cases in excess of what the law allows, authorities are showing the lengths they are willing to go to silence the press.”

At least the following five journalists have received sentences in excess of the legal maximums for collusion or propaganda, and are free while their appeals are pending:

• Vida Rabbani, a freelance reporter and political commentator covering local news for various Tehran outlets, was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison for collusion and propaganda, according to a December report by the exile-run Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) and a tweet by her lawyer. Rabbani, who is already serving a 10-year sentence on unrelated charges, must serve a minimum of six years behind bars if that sentence is not changed on appeal, according to those sources.
• Aria Jaffari, a photojournalist for the semi-official state-run Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), was sentenced on December 26 to seven years in prison on propaganda and collusion charges, and was also sentenced to 74 lashes and a two-year ban on leaving the country, according to news reports.  
• Yalda Moaiery, a freelance photojournalist, was sentenced to six years in prison on both charges, and also received a two-year ban from leaving the country, a three-year ban from working as a journalist, and two-months of community service street cleaning, according to news reports from December and an Instagram post by Moaiery.
• Ahmadreza Halabisaz, a photojournalist, was reported in December to have been sentenced to five years in prison on both charges, and also received a two-year ban from practicing journalism, according to an Instagram post by Halabisaz and another source familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.
• Mehrnoosh Tafian, a freelance reporter, was sentenced to one year in prison for propaganda and also received a two-year ban on leaving the country, according to a December HRANA report and a source familiar with his case.

Journalists imprisoned in Iran have been frequently denied legal representation and due process, according to CPJ research. At least 36 journalists arrested for covering the protests have been released on bail, which local journalists speaking to CPJ on the condition of anonymity said was often set excessively high.

CPJ’s email to the Iran mission to the United Nations for comment, but did not receive any response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Our guests include: Mouin Rabbani, an independent analyst specialized in Palestinian affairs and the Arab-Israeli conflict; Noura Erakat, a human rights attorney and associate professor at Rutgers University; Lina Meruane, an author and professor at the Madrid branch of the New York University; and Yara Hawari, an academic, writer, and senior policy analyst at Al-Shabaka.

The post Palestine: Solidarity and Struggle w/ Mouin Rabbani, Noura Erakat, Lina Meruane, and Yara Hawari appeared first on Al-Shabaka.

This content originally appeared on Al-Shabaka and was authored by Yara Hawari.