Gaza Archives - CrossFireArarbia

Aid Flotilla: Activists Subjected to Torture

CrossFireArabia
June 4, 2026

Italians who took part in a humanitarian aid flotilla for Gaza said Wednesday that when the Israeli army attacked them last month in the Mediterranean in violation of international law, they abducted some activists, and subjected them to ill-treatment amounting to torture.

“This time, the Israeli army responded to the flotilla much more violently” than in past humanitarian efforts, Antonio La Piccirella, who took part in the Global Sumud Flotilla’s 2026 Spring Mission, told a press conference in Rome.

“There were two attacks, one of them off the coast of Europe. In the attack between Italy and Greece, they abducted two of our members, further violating international law. The other intervention was carried out in broad daylight and lasted for one-and-a-half days.”

La Piccirella said Israel last year allocated $180 million to anti-flotilla propaganda in order to fight them and build up a sense of “impunity,” and that this year they spent far more, some $760 million.

This propaganda was carried out through disinformation and aimed to create communities sympathetic to Israel in Europe and the US, he said.

Emphasizing that they would continue to take action in the future, La Piccirella said: “We are concerned with actions against the naval blockade of Palestine (and promoting) humanitarian aid, and international law.

“The international situation is constantly changing, and so is our strategy. So we repeat that we will definitely continue to do something,” he said.

Forced to kneel and be humiliated

Italian journalist Alessandro Mantovani, who also took part in the spring mission, stressed that after being detained he was not even allowed to say that he was a journalist.

“From the very beginning, we were beaten and forced into humiliating positions. When we were taken to their military ships, we were pushed down face-first onto the deck, tied up, then forced to kneel and kept in the same extremely uncomfortable position for hours. When we were brought to the ship that we all called the prison ship, we were systematically beaten,” he said.

The face-down positions he described fit video footage posted online by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, in which the activists were forced to kneel and were subjected to abusive language, mistreatment which drew fierce criticism from numerous countries.

Mantovani said he still has problems with his jaw because of the blows he received and that his jaw may have been dislocated.

The Italian journalist said the Israeli army treated Turkish activists especially badly.

“I think I can say that the Turks were treated even worse than the others; torture also has a geopolitical dimension,” he said.

Turkish leaders have been at the international forefront of condemning Israel’s genocide in Gaza as well as the famine and near-starvation of its populace due to a long-standing blockade of food, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies. The blockade was due to be relaxed in recent months, but many rights groups and international observers say the situation has improved little if at all.

Mantovani pointed out that the Global Sumud Flotilla was detained at night during its first voyage last year, while during this latest voyage it was detained in broad daylight.

He stressed that the Israeli army was not ashamed to show that it attacked unarmed people with weapons. Anadolu

Features

In The Grip of Starvation: Israel Will Not Let Gaza Rest!

CrossFireArabia
June 2, 2026

Gaza Government Media Office Advisor Taysir Muhaysin warned of a gradual return to famine in the Gaza Strip as a result of continued Israeli policies restricting aid entry and other basic necessities.

He told the Sanad News Agency the amount of aid entering Gaza by truck does not exceed 27% of that stipulated in the last ceasefire agreement.

Muhaysin stated the Israeli policy of reducing aid is not limited to food and humanitarian supplies, but extends to fuel, including diesel, gasoline, and cooking gas, which is an essential commodity for Palestinian families to manage their daily lives and prepare whatever food they can find under the difficult living conditions.

Government institutions in the Strip continue to perform their duties at the minimum level possible, given the available resources and the exceptional circumstances Gaza is experiencing, whilst Muhaysin denying an administrative vacuum in the enclave.

He affirmed that Gaza government institutions continue to function and maintain a minimum level of stability and essential services essential to the population.

The Media Office Advisor indicated different government bodies expressed their full readiness to hand over their administrative and executive responsibilities to the “technocratic committee” as soon as it arrives in the Strip to begin its work, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement signed in 10 October, 2025. He stressed however, there are real obstacles as procedure and conditions is imposed by the Israel occupation that prevent this.

A Complex Humanitarian Crisis…

Muhaysin warned the living conditions in Gaza are really a “complex humanitarian crisis” affecting all aspects of life.

“Hundreds of thousands of citizens are still living in tents amidst the spread of epidemics and diseases,” whilst pointing to the decline in the capabilities of the health system and municipal services in addition to the severe shortage of food and essential shelter supplies.

The health sector faces increasing risks due to the ongoing shortage of fuel and medical supplies. Muhaysin noted the administration of the Al-Aqsa Hospital were forced to shutdown about 50% of its power generators, and this threatens the lives of patients, especially kidney patients, premature infants, and those in operating rooms and intensive care units.

“What Gaza is witnessing today represents an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, caused by the decisions and measures imposed by the Israeli occupation, which has led to an unprecedented deterioration in living, health, and humanitarian conditions.”

He pointed out that the technocratic committee that is yet to enter the Gaza Strip needs to assuming its responsibilities across the entire enclave, and this needs to happen with the concurrent withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from the areas they reoccupied in Gaza and the commencement of international forces operations tasked with monitoring and security separation under the terms of the ceasefire.

Muhaysin accuses the Israeli occupation of attempting to impose new realities on the ground through excluding areas east of what is known as the “yellow line” from the committee’s administrative responsibility. He said these go against the principles agreed upon in the proposals put forward to end the ongoing crisis.

He concluded by saying the occupation continues to impose its own vision on the future of the Gaza Strip by repeatedly introducing new conditions and ideas, contradicting the fundamental understandings and initiatives discussed over the past months. This, he asserted, obstructs any genuine efforts to alleviate the suffering of the population and end the escalating humanitarian crisis.

The specter of famine is returning to haunt the Gaza Strip, and is coinciding with the tightening of military measures at the crossings controlled by the Israeli occupation. Such prevents the entry of humanitarian and relief aid, and allows militias affiliated with the occupation to steal the incoming aid.

At the end of May, the Palestinian Council of Ministers warned of the severity of UN reports that indicate that about 1.6 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, nearly 77% of the population, face the immediate threat of famine due to declining humanitarian funding and reduced aid flow.

In a previous statement to Sanad News Agency, Ali al-Hayek, head of the Palestinian Businessmen Association, warned of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. He emphasized that famine indicators are becoming increasingly apparent amid the continued decline in humanitarian aid and the curtailment of relief organizations’ operations. He noted the Gaza situation “threatens the onset of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”

This article is based on an extended interview by Advisor Taysir Muhaysin published in Arabic by the Sanad News Agency and republished crossfirearabia.com

Features

‘All I Want is to Bury My Family in Dignity’

CrossFireArabia
May 13, 2026

GAZA – Abdel Rahman Khalla no longer holds any dreams of a life; there is no home waiting for him, no family to return to, and no future he can envision as he once did. After losing 39 members of his family under the rubble of their home in northern Gaza, all hopes and aspirations dwindled to a single wish: To find the bodies of his loved ones and bury them with dignity.

Amidst the heavy stones, the dust, and the agonizing wait, he now asks for nothing more than a simple human right: A grave to embrace those who have passed away, and an end befitting the story of a family wiped out by war.

He has decided to dig and undertake this task himself.

Amid the rubble of a five-story building, Khalla stands as the sole witness to one of the most horrific massacres in northern Gaza. He lost about 39 members of his family in a single attack on their home in the Jabalia al-Nazla area on 21 December, 2023.

Abdul Rahman, the sole survivor of his family, recounts the details of the tragedy, which continues till this day. He says that 39 people, including women and children, were inside the house at the time of the bombing. All were killed under the rubble and no one else emerged alive.

He adds that only 18 bodies were recovered, while the rest, 20 to 21 others, are strill trapped under the debris – over 30 months later because there was no heavy machinery to remove the rubble and debris. Today, Israel continues to block such machinery from entering Gaza.

Abdul Rahman confirmed to the Sanad News Agency they exhausted all avenues, appealing to the Red Cross, Civil Defense, and the Jabalia al-Nazla Municipality, as well as the Qatari and Egyptian committees, requesting such heavy equipment to help in recovering the bodies but all of their appeals went unanswered.

“After 30 months of suffering, we decided to dig with our bare hands,” Abdul Rahman explained, adding the members of his surviving family had only begun manually removing the rubble four days prior, using simple and worn-out tools such as shovels, picks, and light rakes, despite the dangerous situation and the sheer size of their building that collapsed.

But during these arduous efforts, they only managed to recover two bodies; one belonging to his uncle, and the other who remains unidentified. About 19 bodies remain buried under the rubble, awaiting recovery and a proper burial.

Abdel Rahman appeals to the Egyptian Committee and the Reconstruction Committee for urgent intervention, requesting they send bulldozers and trucks to remove the rubble and debris. He emphasizes his family is not asking for the impossible, but simply for their right to reach their loved ones and bury them with dignity.

The tragedy of the Khalla family is not just another statistic in the war’s record, but a human story that speaks of all the suffering of Gaza, where entire families still live amidst the ruins of their homes, searching for their martyrs and awaiting for a long-delayed mercy.

Despite the ceasefire agreement in Gaza that came into effect on October 10, 2025, the Israeli occupation authorities continue to evade their obligations by preventing the entry of hundreds of heavy vehicles needed to remove the thousands of tons of rubble scattered throughout the Strip.

According to data from the Government Media Office, the occupation destroyed 90% of the civilian infrastructure in Gaza during the two years of its offensive, leaving behind more than 70 million tons of rubble, in one of the region’s largest humanitarian disasters in the world.

The Civil Defense Authority indicated in previous statements that dozens of families in Gaza continue to send appeals for help in recovering their relatives months after their martyrdom, but the Authority is unable to respond due to the lack of necessary equipment.

This article was in the Arabic Sanad Lil Anba website and reproduced in crossfirearabia.com.

News

Slaughtering The Truth: Israeli Kills Journalists

CrossFireArabia
May 11, 2026

The Palestinian Prisoners Club stated, Monday the Israeli occupation continues to detain 14 journalists in its prisons, while two others have simply disappeared and nobody knows were they are being held.

In a statement received by Sanad News Agency, coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, the Prisoners Club added that the occupation has killed more than 260 journalists in a systematic campaign of mass murder targeting witnesses to the crimes committed since the beginning of the genocidal war on Gaza.

The statement also stated that the Israeli occupation forces have arrested and detained more than 240 journalists, and that more than 40 of them are still in detention.

The statement further explained that at least 14 journalists from Gaza remain in detention. It also stated that two journalists Nidal al-Wahidi and Haitham Abdel Wahed have simply disappeared and Palestinians believe they are forcibly held by the Israeli authorities who are refusing to divulge where they are being held.

The Prisoners Club says their forced holding is a crime constitutes a grave violation of international law and reveals a deliberate policy of concealing their fate. It continued: “On this anniversary, we affirm that Palestine, like the prisoners and their families, has lost a professional and humanitarian voice that dedicated her life to unveilling the suffering of the Palestinians and their cause. The martyr Shireen Abu Akleh carried the cause of her people as a sacred trust, working tirelessly for years with all her might for it.”

The Club added: “Shireen remained a guardian of the truth until her last breath, like all the journalists who championed the cause of their homeland and the prisoners, and who were martyred in the pursuit of truth and exposing the crimes of the occupation.”

Shireen Abu Akleh was martyred on May 11, 2022. Investigations by Palestinian, Israeli, and international media and human rights organizations at the time concluded that she was shot by Israeli army fire while covering the raid on Jenin.

Culture

Top Nobel Laureate Coetzee Refuses Israel Prize

CrossFireArabia
May 8, 2026

Nobel laureate JM Coetzee has declined to attend an upcoming literature festival in Israel, citing the “genocidal campaign” in Gaza, stating: “It will take many years for Israel to clear its name”.

The Nobel laureate, who was born in apartheid South Africa and lives in Australia, addressed a letter to the Jerusalem International Writers Festival artistic director, Julia Fermentto-Tzaisler, in November, as seen by the Guardian, in which he outlined his reasons for not attending the May event.

“For the past two years the state of Israel has been conducting a genocidal campaign in Gaza.. this campaign, conducted by the [Israeli army], appears to have had the enthusiastic support of the vast majority of Israel’s population.”

“For this reason it is not possible for any considerable sector of Israeli society, including its intellectual and arts community, to claim that it should not share in the blame for the atrocities in Gaza.”

Coetzee, who won the Booker Prize twice and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003, visited Jerusalem in 1987 to receive the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society. At the event, he called for the end of apartheid in South Africa, according to the Quds News Network.

Coetzee revealed he had once been a supporter of Israel. “The campaign of annihilation in Gaza has changed all that,” he continued. “Long-time supporters of Israel have turned away in revulsion at the actions of the Israeli military. It will take many years for Israel to clear its name, assuming that it wishes to do so, and to re-establish itself in the international community.”

A UN special committee of inquiry found that Israel’s assault on Gaza, with mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions as well as statements by senior Israeli leaders, demonstrated “direct evidence of genocidal intent”.

Amnesty International has said Israel is still committing genocide in Gaza during the so-called ceasefire which took effect in October and backed by the US by continuing to strike Gaza’s now mostly destroyed civilian infrastructure, killing hundreds and restricting the entry of much-needed aid, including to medical supplies and humanitarian relief.

More than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza in October 2023.