Palestine Forever
marwan
- June 26, 2026
The picture is telling. Its itched by Rabab Sabanah, a Palestinian painter……………
The Story Behind The War on Iran
- June 25, 2026
By Ismail Al-Sharif
Whenever the United States moved closer to improving relations with Iran, the war criminal [Benjamin] Netanyahu would call for a war, relying on repeated claims that Tehran was seeking to acquire a nuclear bomb to use against him. However, these claims were never supported by conclusive evidence. Iran consistently denied seeking nuclear weapons, granted UN inspectors complete freedom to inspect its nuclear facilities, and its Supreme Leader issued a religious edict prohibiting the production of nuclear weapons.
Under President Obama, things seemed to be moving toward de-escalation. In 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed, under which Iran committed to a framework for peaceful uranium enrichment, without any mention of Israel’s nuclear arsenal. Germany and France were tasked with monitoring the Iranian nuclear program through established monitoring and verification mechanisms. In return, the economic sanctions imposed on Iran were supposed to be partially eased. However, this commitment was not fulfilled.
The sanctions continued to tighten their grip on the Iranian people, and the war criminal Netanyahu continued his intense pressure on Washington to withdraw from the agreement, while also continuing assassinations targeting Iranian scientists.
For years, the nuclear weapons narrative was used as a pretext for targeting Iran, while the real objective to seek regime change there because of Tehran’s support for Hezbollah and Hamas. Despite the widespread destruction inflicted on these two movements, attempts to eliminate them have failed.
The major shift came with Trump’s rise to power in 2017, when he tore up the nuclear agreement and reignited tensions. This move was accompanied by a broad media campaign against Iran that focused on internal issues, particularly women’s rights, and accusations of Mossad infiltration into Iran to instigate unrest similar to what occurred in Ukraine, Armenia, and Georgia.
These movements became known as “color revolutions,” where the CIA encouraged affiliated organizations to adopt specific colors as symbols of protest; pink in Georgia and orange in Ukraine, in an attempt to replicate the same model in Iran. This strategy relies on exploiting genuine grievances to ignite unrest, then co-opting the protests, infiltrating their ranks, and pushing them toward escalation, so that they are met with government repression. The resulting public anger is then redirected toward a path aimed at overthrowing the government and installing one loyal to the United States.
With Biden assuming the presidency in 2021, succeeding Trump, the momentum toward a direct military confrontation with Iran diminished, but sanctions remained in place, and negotiations did not resume. Today, with Trump back on the scene, the Israeli entity sees the moment as opportune to reopen the issue.
The “maximum pressure” campaign led to a sharp decline in the Iranian economy, and thousands of impoverished people and students took to the streets to protest living conditions. With the intervention and support of Mossad and the CIA, some protests escalated into violent clashes, met with a harsh security response that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of protesters and police officers. These events were quickly used as a new pretext for escalating tensions with Iran.
Once the government regained control, the warmongers reverted to their initial argument: the claim of a military nuclear program, a scenario reminiscent of what happened in Iraq when allegations of weapons of mass destruction were used as justification for the invasion, before their non-existence was proven. Demands then intensified for halting the Iranian missile program, which, if implemented, would render Tehran unable to defend itself against Israel.
Israel does not tolerate the existence of a regional power challenging its hegemony. It seeks to expand its influence and topple any regime it perceives as a challenge. From this perspective, Iran is not the final target; attention is also turning to Türkiye. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett described Turkey as the “new Iran” during his address to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, calling for the weakening of other regional powers after Iran and asserting that defense alone is insufficient to guarantee protection, whether with or without European support.
His speech also included mentions of countries like Egypt, Qatar, and Pakistan as potential adversaries, within a strategy based on waging continuous wars. This approach aligns with what is described as the American expansionist approach, articulated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Munich Security Conference in clearly expansionist language and colonialist terms, aimed at consolidating the Israeli entity’s hegemony over the region within a broader distribution of roles in the global balance of power.
The war criminal Netanyahu has finally succeeded in dragging the United States into a confrontation with Iran. Just as the fall of Iraq constituted a turning point that disrupted the Arab-Israeli balance of power, opening the door to a wave of unrest and revolutions, and leading to the disintegration of the regional order and the escalation of sectarian conflicts; If Iran falls, it will not be a passing or isolated event, but a pivotal turning point leading to complete Zionist hegemony over the region, a hegemony that will not stop at the borders of Iran, but will later extend to other countries.
This opinion appeared in the Arabic Addustour newspaper.
Israel Violates Gaza Ceasefire 3338 Times, Kills 1027
- June 24, 2026
CROSSFIREARABIA – Israeli occupation forces continued, Wednesday, to violate the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip through strikes and gunfire in different areas in the east and south of the Strip. Israeli warplanes continue to roam the skyline of Gaza while striking at different areas as it did on a school in the Tuffah neigborhood in northeast Gaza. Since 10 October, 2025, Israeli violated the ceasefire 3338 times resulting in the deaths of 1027 Palestinians and the injury of 3208 civilians according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Israel Deliberately Targeted Palestinian Children, Resulting in Genocide Atrocity – UN Commission of Inquiry
- June 24, 2026
Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide and atrocity crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank, a UN independent commission of inquiry said in its latest report released on Tuesday.
“The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.
The report refers to the period following Hamas’ invasion of Israel in late 2023, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and 250 taken hostage, and the subsequent war Israel waged against Gaza that has to date killed more than 70,000 Palestinians in the besieged and occupied territory.
“Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured, with continued disregard by Israel for the ceasefire and for the protection owed to Palestinian children under international law,” he said.
Read the full report here.
Unprecedented suffering
Last year, the commission concluded that “Israel had committed genocide against the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip, found that the intense scale and systematic nature of the Israeli military operations have continued, resulting in unprecedented death, injury and trauma of Palestinian children.”
Here are some findings in the commission’s latest report:
- Israel has killed 20,000 children and injured 44,000 more since 7 October 2023
- Severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation and the collapse of education and healthcare have erased childhood and will continue to affect children in Gaza throughout their lives
- Palestinian children have been arrested and subjected to torture and other severe forms of mistreatment in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, with no information on their whereabouts
- Israeli security forces have used sexual violence against children as part of the collective shaming and oppression, entrenched within a prolonged, ethnic, gendered and intergenerational pattern of occupation and hostilities
Chilling testimonies
The latest report, “The essence of childhood has been destroyed”: Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 7 October 2023, contains testimonies describing deliberate targeting and killing.
“There can be no doubt in anyone who reads today’s report that every international legal norm has been violated by the actions of the Israeli authorities towards Palestinian children and they need to be held accountable,” Commissioner Chris Sidoti said at a press conference in Geneva, citing cases from the report.
In one instance, a 14-year-old boy was shot by an Israeli military patrol as he was leaving his house, Mr. Sidoti said, explaining that the patrol had been in the area, but at the time there had been no fighting taking place.
“He was shot, badly injured and was lying on the ground,” Mr. Sidoti continued. “He was surrounded by a company of Israeli soldiers who were chatting and probably some of them smoking, over a period of 45 minutes, while this 14-year-old boy bled to death.”
Starvation and targeted attacks
Also highlighted in the report was the widespread devastation of critical infrastructure that served children. Israel’s targeting of neonatal and maternity care centres in Gaza have directly harmed the survival of newborns and Palestinians’ reproductive future.
In addition, starvation imposed by Israel through blockade and siege have further caused the death of Palestinian children and severely impacted the health of many others.
Dismantling and destruction of orphanages and education facilities in Gaza and the West Bank have obstructed cognitive, social and emotional care and development and disrupted the foundations of Palestinian society, the report stated.
They ‘will not simply recover overnight’
Palestinian children have suffered immense psychological harm, having been stripped of any sense of safety and future, according to the report. Such mental harm is an intergenerational condition, producing a distinctive “occupied psyche” in which the freedom to play, imagine, hope and develop an identity has been eroded.
“Even if the bombs and guns fall silent in Gaza and West Bank, Palestinian children will not simply recover overnight,” Mr. Muralidhar said. “The destruction of their health, education and development is irreversible.”
By targeting children, Israel is eroding the foundational structure of Palestinian society, weakening the demographic vitality and overall capacity of the Palestinian people to sustain and exercise its right to determine its future as a people.
“The protection, care and survival of Palestinian children are inseparable from the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination,” Mr. Muralidhar said. “By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future.”
Fresh calls for Israeli action
In its latest report, the independent commission called for Israel to cease committing violations and crimes against and affecting Palestinian children and for the end of Israel’s continuing presence in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in compliance with the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Having identified military units within the Israeli security forces responsible for killing and injuring of Palestinian children, the commission issued recommendations to Israel and to all Member States to ensure accountability for such crimes.
“The international community as a whole must uphold their international legal obligations and call for an end to the hostilities, for Israel to end its occupation and to prioritise accountability and access to justice for victims as an integral component of any political process, grounded in the meaningful participation of Palestinians, including children,” the commission stated.
Member States of the UN Human Rights Council established the commission in 2021 to “investigate, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021.”
Find out more about the commission here.
Hezbollah Chief: Israel ‘Has No Option’ But to Withdraw
- June 24, 2026
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naem Qassem said on Tuesday Israel “has no option” but to withdraw from Lebanese territory under a set timetable.
“The withdrawal must take place after the current ceasefire under a timetable,” Qassem said in a televised speech.
“Israel has no option but to withdraw completely from all Lebanese territory,” he stressed.
Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have repeatedly said that the army will not withdraw from territory occupied in southern Lebanon, despite a recently signed interim deal between Iran and the US, which calls for respect for Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Hezbollah chief said the Lebanese army will deploy “exclusively” south of the Litani River after the Israeli withdrawal.
“We will cooperate with the Lebanese army to the fullest extent within the framework of mutual security, as we have done previously,” he added.
Qassem’s statements came as Israel and Lebanon held a fifth round of direct negotiations in Washington on Tuesday. The talks follow four previous rounds between the two sides that began in April as part of a track aimed at ending the Israeli war in Lebanon.
Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 4,100 people and injured over 12,000 others since March 2, according to official Lebanese figures.
Israel continues to occupy areas in southern Lebanon, some held for decades and others seized during the 2023–2024 war.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Lebanon’s government-linked National Council for Scientific Research estimated the direct cost of damage to buildings in southern Lebanon from Israeli attacks exceeded $1.38 billion, with rubble estimated at around 3.1 million cubic meters. Anadolu
