CrossFireArarbia

Israel Denies Entry of French Journalist

CrossFireArabia
June 12, 2026

Israel on Thursday denied entry to a French journalist and deported her to Paris over her criticism of Israel’s two-year genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Communications Minister Amichai Chikli said in a post on US social media company X that French journalist Alice Froussard was leaving Ben Gurion Airport and returning to France.

“I am pleased to announce that Alice Froussard, the pro-Hamas French journalist who believes the Oct. 7 massacre should be viewed in context, is leaving Ben Gurion Airport on her way back to Paris,” Chikli wrote.

According to Israeli news website The Times of Israel, the Foreign Ministry said Froussard arrived in Israel on Thursday for work but was stopped and placed on a return flight to France.

The ministry claimed that investigators found that the journalist had made a series of statements deemed hostile to Israel, including describing Israeli military operations in Gaza as a “massacre,” accusing Israel of apartheid and allegedly justifying the Oct. 7, 2023 events.

Froussard did not immediately comment on her deportation or the allegations against her.

According to The Times of Israel, Froussard has spent the past six years living and working in Jerusalem and Ramallah and has worked for several French media outlets, including Radio France Internationale (RFI), France Culture, Le Figaro, TV5 Monde and Mediapart.

The report said the French Embassy in Israel expressed strong dissatisfaction with the decision according to Anadolu.

Israel has deported and barred entry to several foreign journalists and activists in recent months over criticism of Israeli policies and actions.

The Israeli army has killed nearly 73,000 people and injured over 173,000 others, mostly women and children, in a brutal offensive in Gaza since October 2023, that has also caused widespread destruction to 90% of the enclave’s civilian infrastructure.

News

Dr Hussam Abu Safiya: Before and After

CrossFireArabia
June 11, 2026

Activists on social media circulated a photo on Wednesday of imprisoned Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, during his appearance before an Israeli military court.

The photo clearly showed signs of his deteriorating health. Abu Safiya appeared to have lost a significant amount of weight, with visible signs of extreme exhaustion and emaciation, along with his long beard. This comes amidst reports from his family and human rights organizations that he is being subjected to torture, ill-treatment, and medical neglect in Israeli prisons.

Abu Safiya’s last public appearance was in February 2025, when an Israeli television channel broadcast footage of him in chains being violently led by Israeli soldiers inside a prison while being interrogated by Israeli intelligence officers.

Abu Safiya’s family had previously warned of the continued deterioration in his health, confirming that he was being subjected to torture and ill-treatment, in addition to significant weight loss due to the harsh conditions of his detention.

Abu Safiya is considered one of the most prominent medical professionals in the Gaza Strip. He garnered widespread attention during the war for his insistence on continuing his work at Kamal Adwan Hospital despite the bombing and siege. He was the last to leave the hospital after it was stormed by the occupation forces, having refused to evacuate it while large numbers of wounded and sick people remained inside during the large-scale attack launched by the occupation on the northern Gaza Strip in what became known as the “Generals’ Plan.”

News

Israeli Attacks on Christians Spike to 88 Cases

CrossFireArabia
June 11, 2026

By Dr Marwan Asmar

The year 2026 maybe the worst experienced by Christians experienced in the occupied territories as the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.

A latest study by the Religious Freedom Data Center (RFDC) reported there have been 88 reported cases of attacks and harassment on Christians carried out in the Palestinian territories so far this year.

It points out 63 attack cases were carried out in the second quarter of this year alone which would mean 2026 is set to register a new record of abuse against Christians.

This is far higher than that of 2025 which stood at 181 cases.

The violations include spitting incidents and verbal insults, and vandalism of cemeteries, gravestones, statues, and crosses. This is in addition to racist graffiti and desecration of Christian religious sites. Most of these acts are concentrated in the Old City of Jerusalem, Mount Zion, and the vicinity of the Armenian Patriarchate.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/966328405876006

The RFDC was set up 2023 in Jerusalem to combat the growing anti-Christian harassment and violence in Israel, particularly in the Old City of Jerusalem that grew in the last years from extremist rightwing Jewish religious nationalists and settlers who are left free to roam the city under the protection of the Israeli army.

Nun Violently Attacked

Last April a nun at the French Biblical and Archaeological School in the Old City was violently attacked. As shown by a CCTV camera the attacker came at the nun from behind, shoving her violently to the ground and kicking her.

Two months later a priest from the Latin Patriarchate was attacked outside a restaurant near the Damascus Gate of the Holy City. Eye-witness reports show the priest was cornered, repeatedly spat at, and insulted verbally by three Jewish men.

The incident was reported on the 4th of June by the RFDC. The victim, Father Firas Abedrabbo, a parish priest of the Latin Church in Ein Arik, near Ramallah, was assaulted after his lunch with friends.

His name was reported in the media unlike the 48-year-old French nun who also worked as a researcher at the Archaeological School. Her name was never released to protect her identity, it was reported.

Dr Marwan Asmar is a writer based in Amman and is the editor of www.crossfirearabia.com

Uncategorized

UN Red Alert Lebanon

CrossFireArabia
June 10, 2026

The UN on Tuesday warned that an Israeli displacement order for Lebanon’s port city of Tyre will affect nearly 44,000 people, as peacekeepers recorded dozens of airspace violations and hundreds of firing incidents across southern Lebanon.

Pointing to the “deteriorating” situation in Tyre amid repeated Israeli displacement orders and continued strikes, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said at a news conference: “The displacement order issued by Israel today for the entire city of Tyre, including all neighborhoods and Palestinian refugee camps, will affect nearly 44,000 people, many who were already displaced.”

On the military front, UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeepers yesterday observed “intensive ground and air activities” by Israeli forces across the UNIFIL’s area of operations, Haq said, citing armored movements, large-scale engineering and demolition works, sustained logistical traffic, and airstrikes.

“UNIFIL detected 48 violations of Lebanese airspace by Israel and nine airstrikes conducted by IDF fighter aircraft, as well as one separate incident of sustained machine-gun fire from an IDF helicopter, during which approximately 100 rounds were fired toward Bint Jubayl,” he said.

Total overflight time reached approximately 85 hours, with air activity particularly concentrated in the vicinity of Bint Jubayl, Tyre, and Deir Siriane, Haq said.

Peacekeepers also reported 446 trajectories fired from Israeli forces’ positions, “both south of the Blue Line and within the mission’s area of operations,” he said.

Israeli attacks have continued despite a fragile ceasefire that took effect April 17 and was later extended until early July.

More than 3,660 people have been killed and over 11,300 injured since Israel expanded its military campaign in Lebanon on March 2, while more than 1 million people have been displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.

Aoun also urged stronger EU support for Lebanon, particularly for the army, security institutions and the economy. He said Lebanon’s efforts to prevent the flow of Syrian refugees toward Europe should be matched by greater assistance from the bloc. Anadolu

Culture

Last Wedding in Tantura

CrossFireArabia
June 10, 2026

Tantura was a Palestinian fishing village of around 1,500 residents located south of Haifa. On May 22–23, 1948, during the Nakba, the village was captured and ethnically cleansed by the Alexandroni Brigade. Testimonies and historical accounts indicate that more than 200 unarmed villagers and disarmed fighters were massacred and buried in mass graves.

Tantura symbolizes far more than the destruction of a single village. It represents the violent interruption of ordinary Palestinian life in 1948: homes abandoned, families torn apart, futures stolen, and entire communities turned into memory overnight.

Yet even in loss, Palestinians continue to insist on dignity, memory, and survival. It is also a reminder that our love for one another, and for our land, remains stronger than displacement and erasure.
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Last wedding in Tantura (العرس الاخير في الطنطورة), acrylic and oil on canvas, 2022