Israel Attacked Palestine’s Press 300 Times in 2026

CrossFireArabia
May 4, 2026

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said Sunday it had recorded about 300 violations and attacks against Palestinian journalists since the start of 2026, amid escalating targeting of media workers.

The announcement came during a rally organized by the syndicate outside its headquarters in the city of al-Bireh in the occupied West Bank, marking World Press Freedom Day and protesting continued attacks on journalists.

Participants raised banners demanding an end to the killing of media workers and accountability for Israel.

“Activities organized on World Press Freedom Day aim to highlight the exceptional and unprecedented conditions under which the Palestinian journalist operates,” Omar Nazzal, the deputy head of the syndicate, addressed the crowd.

Journalists are facing “the fiercest Israeli war machine,” he added, noting that more than 4,000 violations have been recorded against them since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023.

“The number of journalists killed has reached 262 male and female journalists since that date, including 261 in the Gaza Strip, in addition to six journalists killed since the beginning of 2026,” said Mohammad al-Lahham, head of the syndicate’s freedoms committee.

He added that the current year has also seen 10 direct injuries, 22 arrests, 120 cases of detention or prevention from coverage, and 12 attacks carried out by Israeli occupiers.

Lahham said total violations since October 2023 reached 3,983, including 1,072 in 2023, 1,325 in 2024, 1,286 in 2025, and 300 in 2026.

These violations included 240 cases of direct gunfire at media crews and 352 cases involving tear gas and stun grenades, as well as beatings, confiscation of equipment, and travel bans, he added.

The syndicate said in a report read at the event that it had documented 188 arrests since October 2023, along with the destruction of 187 media institutions and offices and 140 homes belonging to journalists.

The syndicate reported the killing of 713 family members of journalists, indicating that the targeting extended beyond media workers to their social environment.

The syndicate said the targeting of journalists “is not individual behavior” but part of a “systematic policy” aimed at restricting journalism and silencing the Palestinian narrative, particularly amid field coverage of events.

It called on the UN and international organizations to provide urgent protection for Palestinian journalists, open independent investigations into violations, and ensure accountability.

The Israeli genocidal war on Gaza began on Oct. 8, 2023, and has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians and wounded over 172,000, according to Palestinian figures.

Despite a ceasefire in effect since October 2025, Israel continues daily strikes and a blockade that has killed hundreds more and worsened humanitarian conditions in the enclave, home to about 2.4 million Palestinians, including 1.5 million displaced.

News

Israeli Sniper Shoots Bride 10 Days Before Her Wedding

CrossFireArabia
May 4, 2026

Ten days before her wedding, Hala Salem Darwish was preparing for a celebration. Instead, she now lies in intensive care after a bullet from an Israeli sniper pierced her family home and struck her in the head, turning her wedding countdown into a fight for survival.

The 19-year-old was helping her family prepare food shortly before sunset when the bullet entered through a window, hitting the back left side of her head and causing her to collapse in front of her relatives.

A wedding interrupted

Her fiancé, Mohammed Shreihi, said the shooting came just days before the ceremony they had long awaited.

“There were only 10 days left until our wedding,” he told Anadolu. “In a single moment, everything changed.”

He said the bullet remains lodged in her head and has caused severe damage to brain tissue, leaving her condition critical and unstable.

Doctors have so far been unable to operate, waiting for her condition to stabilize.

“She was like any bride, full of joy and anticipation,” he said. “Now we are only hoping she survives.”

A father’s memory

Her father, Salim, said the moment of the shooting continues to haunt him.

“We were preparing food when suddenly an Israeli bullet came through the window and hit her,” he said. “She fell in front of us. I cannot forget that scene.”

He added that her wedding had been scheduled for early May, a day the family had been preparing for despite the hardships of war.

Health system on the brink

Hala’s case reflects the broader reality in Gaza, where the health system has been pushed to the brink.

Doctors say the treatment she needs is not available inside the enclave and requires urgent transfer abroad.

Palestinian estimates indicate that around 22,000 wounded and sick people in Gaza need to leave the territory for treatment amid severe shortages of medicines and medical equipment.

Her fiancé has appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross and humanitarian organizations to intervene, hoping she can be evacuated in time.

For now, the wedding dress remains unworn, and the future she had planned has been replaced by uncertainty according to Anadolu.

Israel has continued to commit daily violations of a ceasefire deal that was signed last October, killing 830 Palestinians and injuring 2,345, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ceasefire was meant to end a two-year Israeli onslaught on Gaza which left more than 72,000 dead and 172,000 wounded and destroyed 90% of civilian infrastructure.

The UN estimates reconstruction costs at around $70 billion.

Uncategorized

11 Israel Soldiers Commit Suicide in April

CrossFireArabia
April 27, 2026

Israeli soldiers continue to commit suicide in what is becoming a disturbing phenomenon that is becoming linked to Israel’s war on Gaza since October 2023, and now the war ongoing Lebanon.

The Israeli media have continued to report on what is becoming a rising trend of soldiers taking away their lives in Israeli society.

In its Sunday edition of 26 April the Israeli Haaretz newspaper highlighted the fact that eight Israeli soldiers and police officers committed suicide this month alone. The paper adds that three reservists who took part in the war on Gaza also ended their lives this month, making the total to 11 in less than one month.

The number of suicide rates have been increasing since 2023. Then 17 took away their lives, including seven after the 7 October, when the Israeli genocide on Gaza began. Thus, after that, 21 soldiers ended their lives in 2024 and increasing to 22 in 2025. In between the figures it is estimated that 279 soldiers attemoted suicide but didn’t succeed.

Statistics show in the previous decade the average suicides were 12 per year stabilizing from the 28 cases peak of 2010.

Data reports for 2026 shows that reserve soldiers formed the highest number of suicides, at least five cases as compared to three among conscripts and two cases in the ranks of those who take up soldiering as an occupation.

The Israeli military establishment is finding itself unable to control the suicide phenomenon with those in leadership roles realizing the fact that soldiers who are suffering from psychological distress are not seeking help. Haaretz quotes one officer in human resources as saying the army “thought at the beginning of the war it can control the situation but it later blew in its face”.

Psychological experts say the recent rising suicide rates is to do with the fact Israel has never experienced the present kinds of wars it is presently involved in like Gaza and/or Lebanon. The soldiers are under continuous pressure to fight and the fact that the reservists are being called up more than once magnifies the crisis that already exists.

Haaretz points out the army has decreased its support for soldiers who need psychological treatment and sends them back to the warfront before evaluating their psychological state. The soldiers are continually under pressure by their officers to go back to fight or else face arrest.

Also, the declared numbers don’t show the real picture, the newspaper argues, pointing out that there are soldiers who committed suicide after they left the military service with the Israeli army admitting that by the end of 2025, there were 15 cases of this kind. The paper said there were four such cases with three in the last month.

This article is based on a report in Arabic published in the Palestine Information Center and it is republished at crossfirearabia.com.

Opinion

US-Iran: Who Will Blink First!

Dr Khairi Janbek
April 24, 2026

One would say that our main inheritance from the Covid period is the term, new normal, which has been since used, conveniently, in any circumstance we found baffling to our senses.

So one wonders if the stand in Hormuz will not be our current new normal, which will mean putting up with the economic consequences of the blockage and trying at the same time to find different routes for trade. Here, one is talking economics and trade simply because the loss of life and destruction doesn’t more matter in comparison to budgets and the flow of goods.

In fact each time anyone finds an intelligent reason for this ongoing conflict, the rediculous actions of the protagonists proves the impossibility of saying an informed or otherwise opinion. For all intents and purposes, all what can be reasonably said, is that for now, the war is supposed to be inconclusive despite the threats flying around, because essentially no one wants a regime change in Iran because no one can predict the consequences.

Therefore, back to economics again, the strategy seems, who will blink first and accept the conditions of the other to return to Islamabad. Iran with its enormous financial and economic problems which fears a new uprising in the streets once the stalemate with the US becomes the norm, or the USA with the mid term elections looming, rising inflation and higher energy prices, as well as volatility in stocks and shares prices in Wall Street.

When it comes to the situation in Lebanon, clearly the link with Iran is in fact Hizbullah; which is by its own admission the Party of Veliyati -Fatih in Lebanon, under the current circumstances, with the Israeli invasion of the south of Lebanon, for the first time in the history of Lebanon, not a sect, religious community, or power group, but in fact the official state representatives are talking about direct negotiations with Israel for peace, and in fact negotiating directly with each other in Washington.

For the Lebanese state, the situation now is legitimacy over the whole geography of the country, and limiting the possession of arms only in the hands of the Lebanese army and security. However, here also we face the scenario of whether the egg comes first, which is for Hizbullah Israeli withdrawal first, or the chicken, for the Lebanese government to negotiate the withdrawal of Israel.

Leaving the devil out of the details, would it mean ultimately, that a diplomatic agreement between Lebanon and Israel makes Hizbullah the enemy of both Israel and the Lebanese state together?, and what would the Lebanese state do as a next step, if Hizbullah decides to keep its weapons?

Then of course, there is the festering wound of Gaza and the West Bank which hardly warrant any news considering the scale of what is going on in the Gulf and in Lebanon. For Gaza, the vision fluctuates between lost peace, Israeli occupation withdrawn yellow lines, and Hamas with its show of force, amidst refugees, squalor, destruction and whether aid can go in or not, while on the other hand AI generated images of its rise beach resorts which no one is likely, from now on, be able to think about even if they can afford and realize them.

Future? What can one say save for bleak.

As for the West Bank, one has to apologise for saying that the Arabs, before anyone else, are reconciled with idea that the PNA is no longer there, apart from of course, moneymaking, here and there, and that what is termed as Palestinian territory will become a Bantustan in the sea of expanded Israel. Thus where do we go from here, well, there are people with paid salaries to think about!

Janbek is a Jordanian columnist based in Paris

News

Israel Sets Back Gaza 77 Years – UN Reports

CrossFireArabia
April 21, 2026

The UN and European Union issued a joint warning on Monday that human development across Gaza has been set back by a staggering 77 years, with $71.4 billion needed over the next decade for recovery and reconstruction.

That’s according to the final Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA), jointly conducted with the UN-partnered World Bank.

The assessment says $26.3 billion will be needed in the first 18 months to restore essential services, rebuild critical infrastructure and support economic recovery.

Since full-scale war erupted in Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel in October 2023, the physical damage in the Strip is estimated at $35.2 billion, with a further $22.7 billion in economic and social losses.

Entire sectors have been devastated, including housing, health, education, commerce, and agriculture.

Over 371,888 housing units have been destroyed or damaged, more than 50 per cent of hospitals are non-functional, and nearly all schools have been destroyed or damaged. The economy has contracted by 84 per cent.

Devastating human toll

The impact on the lives of Gazans is just as devastating: more than 60 per cent of the population having lost their homes and 1.9 million people displaced, often multiple times. Women, children, persons with disabilities, and those with pre-existing vulnerabilities bear the greatest burden.

Over two years of conflict has resulted in more than 71,000 Palestinian fatalities and over 171,000 injured, according to local authorities, with many still missing under the rubble.

Framework for reconstruction

The report provides the foundation for early recovery planning and reconstruction, stressing it must must run in parallel with humanitarian action to ensure an effective transition from emergency relief toward reconstruction at scale in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

The assessment is framed in line with Security Council adopted resolution 2803 (2025) of the US-backed Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict, which welcomed establishment of the Board of Peace led by President Trump as a transitional administration to set the framework for redevelopment and authorised the mechanism to set up a temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF).

The EU and UN emphasise that recovery and reconstruction should be Palestinian-led and should support the transition of governance to the Palestinian Authority, while advancing a durable political settlement based on the two-State solution.

Planning and implementation should be inclusive, transparent, and accountable, with particular attention to the needs of women, children, elderly, and persons with disabilities.

Conditions needed

The assessment recognises that a set of enabling conditions are essential for recovery, reconstruction, and implementation of the broader political framework:

A sustained ceasefire and adequate security
Unimpeded humanitarian access and immediate restoration of essential services
Free movement of people, goods, and reconstruction materials, within and between Gaza and the West Bank, and a functional, transparent financial system
Clear, accountable governance, including defined mandates and establishment of conditions for the transitional administrative bodies in coordination with the Palestinian Authority (PA)
A credible pathway for the PA’s future governance across the entire Occupied Palestinian territory, including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, is essential
Debris clearance, explosive ordnance management, and resolution of housing, land, and property rights are prerequisites for reconstruction.
The international community must mobilise resources in a targeted, sequenced, coordinated manner
All obstacles to the deployment of expertise and equipment must be removed rapidly

UN News